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The Gemini Divergence
What if you were to find out that WWII didn't end quite the way we were taught, and that our government's UFO cover up was actually hiding something far more frightening than extraterrestrials? A most scintillating and entrancing Cold War epic thriller. The best book about Nazi UFOs ever. It is so believable, it's frightening. The most Google-able book of facts you will ever read in a fiction. You will catch yourself wondering how anyone could have possibly missed something so obvious. You may never look at the sky or the moon in quite the same way as you did before you read this book. A thrill a minute, outlined with historical fact and laced with witty comical relief.
- GenresFictionScience Fiction
567 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2011
4 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
About the author
Eric Birk
1 book71 followersEric Birk is an electronic technician who got his start in the Air Force, then worked ten years in IT and now works on automated production systems for a major world car producer. He writes in his spare time, (late at night), and since finishing his first novel has several more in the works, including two continuations of his first novel as well as a Civil War thriller. He has spent most of his life around the metro St. Louis area and has lived in several parts of the country while serving in the Air Force, including, Sacramento, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Denver.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 16, 2012
The Author Eric Birk weaves a tale intertwined with actual historical characters and real life events to create an extremely believable alternative fictional history. I have to admit there were parts of the book that made so much sense of mysterious events of the past that it made even me question what was real and what was fiction.
The Characters were realistic and even humorous at times. The book spans the time period from the final weeks of World War II up until 1973. The amount of actual historical information presented in the book just barely begins the reveal the extreme amount of research the author had to do in order to write such a book.
As a newly published action adventure author myself, I felt numerous times that I wish I had written such an enlightened book myself as I have read enough history and researched many of the topics the author elaborates on throughout the novel. That being said the authors imagination may actually rival my own creativeness with the breadth of the tale he so cleverly weaves with actual history.
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys World War II stories, history of the race for space between the United States and the Soviet Union, UFO's, conspiracy theories shrouded in conspiracy theories and much more than you could possibly imagine.
This was one of the most enjoyable books I have read in quite some time.
The Characters were realistic and even humorous at times. The book spans the time period from the final weeks of World War II up until 1973. The amount of actual historical information presented in the book just barely begins the reveal the extreme amount of research the author had to do in order to write such a book.
As a newly published action adventure author myself, I felt numerous times that I wish I had written such an enlightened book myself as I have read enough history and researched many of the topics the author elaborates on throughout the novel. That being said the authors imagination may actually rival my own creativeness with the breadth of the tale he so cleverly weaves with actual history.
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys World War II stories, history of the race for space between the United States and the Soviet Union, UFO's, conspiracy theories shrouded in conspiracy theories and much more than you could possibly imagine.
This was one of the most enjoyable books I have read in quite some time.
September 30, 2012
I read an article about this book in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and thought I would take a look, so I went down to one of the local Indie stores and picked one up and JEEZ!!
This is one of the most cranial books that I have EVER read. Good thing that the author included a Glossary. I usually don’t like books with too many information dumps in them but this one, for some reason, kept me reading.
I know that the premise of Nazi UFOs seems so zany, but other reviews that I read were right, in that you start thinking, how is this guy going to pull this one off, but the book builds the story gradually enough and with enough real history and facts that in a few chapters you find it extremely believable.
I don’t think that there was a single moment in the book where I thought ‘well, this is just stupid.’ It actually keeps you craving more. At first I gleaned over some of the info dumps but found myself back tracking to explain things and it really freaks you out when everything you check out or Google, really happened. Sure makes you wonder.
To me that’s the sign of a good book; when you actually catch yourself wondering if a fiction book could be real.
If I had to criticize anything, I was a little confused who the main character should be because the author spends more paragraphs on the bad guy. The good guy doesn’t show up until the 3rd or 4th chapter and the book starts and ends with the bad guy.
However, the characters are great. I love the bumbling scientist, Volmer. The book uses General Lemay as a supporting character but brace yourself… he steals the show. I couldn’t stop laughing at his idioms. He also had an instant and concise solution for everything. The man was in control.
My favorite character was a Russian Cosmonaut named Svetlana that was a femme fatal from Hell. She ended up with some action scenes that would make Jason Bourne or James Bond blush. I loved her character. She needed to have a bigger part. I think the author should figure out a way to bring her back in another book; Hint, Hint.
It’s a long book but I loved every minute of it. It had so many tangents that the author could write spin off books for the rest of his career if he wanted. Who knows… maybe it’s the start of another smash series.
If you don’t like books that make you think too hard, stay away from this one. If you like to learn history while you read and tease your brain till it hurts, then you would love this book.
I loved it. I can’t wait for Birk to write another.
This is one of the most cranial books that I have EVER read. Good thing that the author included a Glossary. I usually don’t like books with too many information dumps in them but this one, for some reason, kept me reading.
I know that the premise of Nazi UFOs seems so zany, but other reviews that I read were right, in that you start thinking, how is this guy going to pull this one off, but the book builds the story gradually enough and with enough real history and facts that in a few chapters you find it extremely believable.
I don’t think that there was a single moment in the book where I thought ‘well, this is just stupid.’ It actually keeps you craving more. At first I gleaned over some of the info dumps but found myself back tracking to explain things and it really freaks you out when everything you check out or Google, really happened. Sure makes you wonder.
To me that’s the sign of a good book; when you actually catch yourself wondering if a fiction book could be real.
If I had to criticize anything, I was a little confused who the main character should be because the author spends more paragraphs on the bad guy. The good guy doesn’t show up until the 3rd or 4th chapter and the book starts and ends with the bad guy.
However, the characters are great. I love the bumbling scientist, Volmer. The book uses General Lemay as a supporting character but brace yourself… he steals the show. I couldn’t stop laughing at his idioms. He also had an instant and concise solution for everything. The man was in control.
My favorite character was a Russian Cosmonaut named Svetlana that was a femme fatal from Hell. She ended up with some action scenes that would make Jason Bourne or James Bond blush. I loved her character. She needed to have a bigger part. I think the author should figure out a way to bring her back in another book; Hint, Hint.
It’s a long book but I loved every minute of it. It had so many tangents that the author could write spin off books for the rest of his career if he wanted. Who knows… maybe it’s the start of another smash series.
If you don’t like books that make you think too hard, stay away from this one. If you like to learn history while you read and tease your brain till it hurts, then you would love this book.
I loved it. I can’t wait for Birk to write another.
August 13, 2016
The premise is crazy, but it's a good story. Then again, I like a good bit of crazy. That said, this would've gotten a higher rating if it weren't for the copious (for a published, not-just-a-reader's-copy-book) errors throughout. It took me forever to get through because the poor grammar was so distracting. If you can handle that, you'll enjoy the story, but I can't recommend it to anyone who is bothered by that sort of thing; the book really needs more work/polish than it has in this form.
**I received this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. It did not affect my review of this book.**
**I received this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. It did not affect my review of this book.**
January 19, 2013
My utmost thanks to the Author, their Publisher, and Goodreads for this 'free' novel to Read and Review.
Done.
I imagine a fair bit of research went into this novel in making it follow the various tales of UFO sightings through the decades. I especially liked how the Men in Black was worked into the storyline.
Sadly, I would had given this a much higher rating if it wasn't for the spelling errors and either too much punctuation or lack of it in some cases. For a Second Printing, it should had been better edited.
Otherwise, it was a decent Novel and I'm glad to have read.
Done.
I imagine a fair bit of research went into this novel in making it follow the various tales of UFO sightings through the decades. I especially liked how the Men in Black was worked into the storyline.
Sadly, I would had given this a much higher rating if it wasn't for the spelling errors and either too much punctuation or lack of it in some cases. For a Second Printing, it should had been better edited.
Otherwise, it was a decent Novel and I'm glad to have read.
June 26, 2013
Within the first few chapters... Major grammatical and usage errors. I'm going to try to continue, but it frustrating me to reread so often because of poor grammar. I finally decided that while the story was intriguing, I just could not get past all the errors. I will not finish this book.
May 7, 2014
Now this was a special experience. This author certainly has a gift for suspense. Great read.
February 26, 2013
I have finally finished this book and am ready to update the earlier review:
The good: The author tells a very good story with good, well-developed characters. He obviously has good knowledge of the US Air Force and UFO history and makes good use of actual UFO sightings and other historical information throughout the book. Based on the story alone I would rate this book at least 4.5 stars.
The bad: The spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and all other technical skills of the writer are completely missing. The vast majority of the spelling errors are homonyms which makes it feel as if the book was dictated to a voice recognition program and then never checked. There are misplaced capitals, quote marks, semi-colons and many other basic writing errors that should never be in a published book. It is quite obvious that this book was never proofread before being published. If the author ever decides to get serious and learn how to write properly he could be a prodigious force in the alternate history genre, but if he keeps publishing works like this it will be very hard for him to be taken seriously.
Overall, this is an excellent story destroyed and made almost unreadable by poor writing skills.
I am currently about 10% done with this book and it is the Smashwords Kindle version. The concept of the book and the story are good, unfortunately it is absolutely brutal to read. This is a self-published book and, like every other self-published book I have read, it is incredibly obvious that the author did not have the book edited or proofread by anyone.
The book is completely full of spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization errors. One of the worst examples is where the author is talking about a medieval castle and spells it "mid evil". Other examples are stair where "stare" was meant, every instance of personnel being spelled "personal" and wondering where "wandering" was appropriate.
As all of the spelling errors are homonyms and pass spell check it feels like the author used Dragon Naturally Speaking or some other speech to text program and dictated his work. I cannot think of any other way that medieval could be written as mid evil.
It is impossible to take an author seriously when he does not take his own work seriously enough to hire an editor and proofreader.
The good: The author tells a very good story with good, well-developed characters. He obviously has good knowledge of the US Air Force and UFO history and makes good use of actual UFO sightings and other historical information throughout the book. Based on the story alone I would rate this book at least 4.5 stars.
The bad: The spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and all other technical skills of the writer are completely missing. The vast majority of the spelling errors are homonyms which makes it feel as if the book was dictated to a voice recognition program and then never checked. There are misplaced capitals, quote marks, semi-colons and many other basic writing errors that should never be in a published book. It is quite obvious that this book was never proofread before being published. If the author ever decides to get serious and learn how to write properly he could be a prodigious force in the alternate history genre, but if he keeps publishing works like this it will be very hard for him to be taken seriously.
Overall, this is an excellent story destroyed and made almost unreadable by poor writing skills.
I am currently about 10% done with this book and it is the Smashwords Kindle version. The concept of the book and the story are good, unfortunately it is absolutely brutal to read. This is a self-published book and, like every other self-published book I have read, it is incredibly obvious that the author did not have the book edited or proofread by anyone.
The book is completely full of spelling, grammar, punctuation and capitalization errors. One of the worst examples is where the author is talking about a medieval castle and spells it "mid evil". Other examples are stair where "stare" was meant, every instance of personnel being spelled "personal" and wondering where "wandering" was appropriate.
As all of the spelling errors are homonyms and pass spell check it feels like the author used Dragon Naturally Speaking or some other speech to text program and dictated his work. I cannot think of any other way that medieval could be written as mid evil.
It is impossible to take an author seriously when he does not take his own work seriously enough to hire an editor and proofreader.
November 22, 2012
First off, many thanks to Goodreads and Eric Birk for my free copy of this novel. I won it here through Firstreads, if you aren't entering for free books you are missing out!
As usual you will not find in depth analysis or spoilers in my review. Reading is about pleasure and I refuse to sit and nitpick or tear a novel apart chapter by chapter. If I like it you'll know, if I don't I will tell everyone so.
Here's my only technical criticism: This book could have used a serious grammar, spelling, word use review. It was riddled with minor errors that at times were frustrating as I would have to re-read the lines to make sure I was reading them correctly ( I can be a bit of a spelling fanatic, sorry). I understand that many people use automated spell/grammar checkers but they are not infallible and mistakes will sometimes make it through the editing process.
Now, on to the good stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I admit to being a bit of a sucker for the alternate history genre, and have always enjoyed sci-fi and military thrillers. This wonderful story offers a little bit of everything. The novel is well written with memorable characters (loved Gus & Jack as well as General Lemay) and covers a significant period of time (about 30 years). At times this story was so seamlessly tied to real events that I had a hard time figuring out what was fiction and what was not. It was incredibly well researched regarding the space programs of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, the end of WWII and the UFO phenomena. Anytime I checked out an event from the novel I found references all over the internet and links to very credible sources. This made the book all that much more enjoyable for me. "Space Nazis"? Not very believable at first. Very much believable after reading the book. I guess it comes down to a simple question: What if?
Over all I did truly enjoy this book and regretted having to put it down (much as I tease about getting paid to read, I do occasionally have to do some real work while "at work"). I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes alternate history/sci-fi/military thriller or WWII types of books and will definitely be talking about it with several of my friends that I know will enjoy it as much as I did.
As usual you will not find in depth analysis or spoilers in my review. Reading is about pleasure and I refuse to sit and nitpick or tear a novel apart chapter by chapter. If I like it you'll know, if I don't I will tell everyone so.
Here's my only technical criticism: This book could have used a serious grammar, spelling, word use review. It was riddled with minor errors that at times were frustrating as I would have to re-read the lines to make sure I was reading them correctly ( I can be a bit of a spelling fanatic, sorry). I understand that many people use automated spell/grammar checkers but they are not infallible and mistakes will sometimes make it through the editing process.
Now, on to the good stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I admit to being a bit of a sucker for the alternate history genre, and have always enjoyed sci-fi and military thrillers. This wonderful story offers a little bit of everything. The novel is well written with memorable characters (loved Gus & Jack as well as General Lemay) and covers a significant period of time (about 30 years). At times this story was so seamlessly tied to real events that I had a hard time figuring out what was fiction and what was not. It was incredibly well researched regarding the space programs of the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, the end of WWII and the UFO phenomena. Anytime I checked out an event from the novel I found references all over the internet and links to very credible sources. This made the book all that much more enjoyable for me. "Space Nazis"? Not very believable at first. Very much believable after reading the book. I guess it comes down to a simple question: What if?
Over all I did truly enjoy this book and regretted having to put it down (much as I tease about getting paid to read, I do occasionally have to do some real work while "at work"). I would highly recommend it to anyone that likes alternate history/sci-fi/military thriller or WWII types of books and will definitely be talking about it with several of my friends that I know will enjoy it as much as I did.
July 23, 2012
I was very impressed with this book. After I read the first few chapters in one sitting I got up to do other things, but my thoughts drew me back to it and I found that I couldn’t put it down. It reminded me of reading Alistair MacLean books because I only put the book down to look up words in the dictionary or to Google people or events mentioned.
It’s a fiction, but it’s woven into a timeline of real events and you actually catch yourself wondering if this is what actually happened. Weird huh?, but very entertaining. I woke up the next day and started getting ready for work and caught myself picking it back up… and damn if I didn’t call in sick so I could finish the darn thing. (Hope my boss doesn’t read this.)
I know it’s usually a no no, but I picked this book up - purely for the shelf appeal of it. I had never heard of the author before, but the cover and the prologue hooked me into buying it. I couldn’t be happier that I took such a leap of faith. I can’t wait until this guy writes another book. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s not a cliff hanger and it still is left wide open for many spin off books if he chooses. The main bad guy is believable, but absolutely terrifying. The good guys are a cross between John Wayne, Forest Gump, and MacGyver. Even though it deals with such a far out wacky thing like Nazi UFOs, it is told in a way that is absolutely believable and mesmerizing. I learned a lot of history I didn’t know before.
I would recommend this book to anyone… even women. It is so hard to categorize. Its sort of science fiction, but more of an alternate history… but it leads you to believe this is the factual hidden history. Or is it a spy thriller, or a war story? It fits into many genres but doesn’t fit nicely into preset categories.
It leaves you thinking about some scary things, even though it is laced with some very funny parts. It’s not a comedy, but one part I was laughing so hard… I woke up my wife. I can’t look at the moon any more without thinking about if they are really there. Remember back in the 70s when Jaws came out… and nobody swam until the 80’s?
It’s a fiction, but it’s woven into a timeline of real events and you actually catch yourself wondering if this is what actually happened. Weird huh?, but very entertaining. I woke up the next day and started getting ready for work and caught myself picking it back up… and damn if I didn’t call in sick so I could finish the darn thing. (Hope my boss doesn’t read this.)
I know it’s usually a no no, but I picked this book up - purely for the shelf appeal of it. I had never heard of the author before, but the cover and the prologue hooked me into buying it. I couldn’t be happier that I took such a leap of faith. I can’t wait until this guy writes another book. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s not a cliff hanger and it still is left wide open for many spin off books if he chooses. The main bad guy is believable, but absolutely terrifying. The good guys are a cross between John Wayne, Forest Gump, and MacGyver. Even though it deals with such a far out wacky thing like Nazi UFOs, it is told in a way that is absolutely believable and mesmerizing. I learned a lot of history I didn’t know before.
I would recommend this book to anyone… even women. It is so hard to categorize. Its sort of science fiction, but more of an alternate history… but it leads you to believe this is the factual hidden history. Or is it a spy thriller, or a war story? It fits into many genres but doesn’t fit nicely into preset categories.
It leaves you thinking about some scary things, even though it is laced with some very funny parts. It’s not a comedy, but one part I was laughing so hard… I woke up my wife. I can’t look at the moon any more without thinking about if they are really there. Remember back in the 70s when Jaws came out… and nobody swam until the 80’s?
July 21, 2012
As World War II winds down, the Germany military attempt to destroy the records and personnel involed in their secret research. The allow America and Russia to capture just enough to sttart the competition called the Cold War. But many of the researchers and their materials are moved first to Antartica and then space where the Nazis engage in in conflict with the US and Russia claiming all of space. The story contains enoough actual history and UFO reports to give the story believablity. My copy was a review copy from the author and was a very readable book.
September 24, 2013
I want to thank the author for sending this story to me for a review. I'm happy to support writers who publish their work!
Gemini Divergence is an intriguing story, which includes historical references intertwined with a new twist. The many references to military behavior shows the amount of knowledge Eric is capable of sharing in his writing.
The story contains a lot of great writing that draws to a fantastic conclusion. Though, a little tighter sentences would speed this read up and move it even faster.
Great read. Thanks again for letting me read this great book.
Gemini Divergence is an intriguing story, which includes historical references intertwined with a new twist. The many references to military behavior shows the amount of knowledge Eric is capable of sharing in his writing.
The story contains a lot of great writing that draws to a fantastic conclusion. Though, a little tighter sentences would speed this read up and move it even faster.
Great read. Thanks again for letting me read this great book.
April 13, 2013
I could not get into this. Historical fiction is always hard for me and the fact that I didn't know what was true and what wasn't here made it extremely difficult for me to enjoy. Also, jumping years and years is not my favorite thing in a book. Considering all of the solid reviews, this is actually a pretty good book for most people, just not up my alley at this time.
September 11, 2012
i found this book very thought provoking. once i started reading i could not put it down. if you are a fan of ww2 you will delight in this read. i will definatly recomend this book to my reading community.
i am so glad i won this book on good reads as it introduced me to a new writer.
i am so glad i won this book on good reads as it introduced me to a new writer.
September 5, 2012
Gives you a ton to think about. Thanks for sharing your book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews