UFO Pulp Fiction for the Modern Mind
Archaeologist Anna Lewis has studied first contact in depth. Chiefly she wondered why we haven’t found aliens in radio signals from the stars. She has a theory that if the human race is a latecomer to intelligent civilization in our galaxy, then intelligent species might have visited Earth wayyy before humans developed.
Okay. Then what were those little green men doing? Her biologist friend Sally thinks they were infusing deep-buried microbes with their galactic DNA. Anna thinks they weren’t little and green at all, but looked a lot like us, so she decides to go looking for an alien mine shaft, on Earth.
That’s where things go sideways, because there’s an intelligent life form called a honey worm living there, and as a species the honey worms live inside wormholes and stabilize the fabric of the universe.
Naturally this results in Anna taking a ride to a planet on the other side of the galaxy, where she meets the Cuz Folk, humanity’s cousins. It takes her a while to understand that she and the other two million Earth women visiting there are part of a rescue project designed to save humanity.
The knowledge Anna finds is so overwhelming she must decide whether humanity will accept what she must tell them, or simply kill her out of fear of The Other.
SAVAGE GENESIS BOOK TWO will be available in 2020.
Assessment:
Plot: The plot of Baldwin’s novel zips along until Anna Lewis descends into the archeological dig pit in Colombia -- to this point the reader has inferred much about Anna and her world without spoon-fed explanations from the author. The pot slows considerably once Anna rides the wormhole to the realm of Thiele, where info-dumps await. Still, the book retains enough momentum to propel the reader to the end.
Prose: Baldwin’s prose is punchy and laced with wit, especially in the edgy banter between feisty Anna and antagonists Gonzalo Sandoval and Carl Mumford. Even when characters are discussing scientific and technological information at length, their language is streamlined enough to provide details without overwhelming the reader with jargon.
Originality: The idea of an ancient extraterrestrial race that over millions of years has seeded the stars with colonies that believe they are alone in the universe is not new in science fiction. But, Baldwin deploys interesting variations on the theme through Anna’s encounters with the Cuz of Thiele, and the aliens' ambition to improve Anna and the millions of others they have abducted so that they can return to Earth and rehabilitate it.
Character Development: The main characters in Baldwin’s novel are well developed and hit all of the right notes: Anna is appealingly feisty in her interactions with her male colleagues and appropriately wary of the professed beneficence of the Cuz of Thiele; Carl Mumford, Anna’s main antagonist, reveals schemes and motives for his behavior toward her; and Gonzalo Sandoval, who at first seems as sinister as Mumford, shows a refreshing capacity for change when he learns the true story about what behind the archeological dig.
Date Submitted: March 08, 2017
"Well-crafted and gripping. Excellent... absolutely hookedme...a brilliantly twisted mind which produced a true gem of a book." - K.Damas, Goodreads Reviewer
Sketches a far future for humanity, a post-biological era of cybernetic biology in a manner that is completely plausible." - Betty, Amazon Reviewer
The writing is delicious and fast-paced... women's fiction, because the plot turns on the values of two lifelong friends at the mercy of the patriarchy... the 'alien' species has defeated its own version of patriarchal rule, which is a sign of hope." - Sherri Z, Amazon Reviewer
