Dreams Defiled

First Contact Trilogy #2

by Ian J. Miller

Follows on from "A Face on Cydonia"

As the party that saw the first evidence of alien civilization leave Cydonia, they each had dreams of what their future would hold. All Nathan Gill wanted was to be left alone. Grigori Timoshenko wanted to build a defence force capable of deterring advanced aliens, Fiona Bolton wanted to make life fair for the independents, Sharon Galloway wanted to successfully manage the greatest engineering feat in human history, while Jonathon Munro wanted to be important. They should have taken more notice of the saying, be careful what you wish for: dreams rarely correspond to reality, and in this dystopian future, murder and sabotage make achieving dreams unusually difficult, while there is more to the alien hologram than meets the eye. The very worst aspects of a dysfunctional society ensured that nothing was to turn out as they dreamed.

Kindle Edition

First published May 25, 2013

About the author

I am a semi-retired chemist, PhD from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and during this PhD my results came out on the wrong side of a scientific debate that was going on at the time. This story is being told on my scientific blog http://my.rsc.org/blogs/84 from October, 2012 onwards. The net result of this was I became perhaps a little skeptical of how science proceeds, and later, when invited to write a scientific book, I began "Elements of Theory". I was somewhat too slow, and the fact the editor found out that I was not a professor did not help. The project was orphaned, but I continued, and four volumes are now available on Amazon as ebooks. The first shows how to form theory, and provides seventy problems to test theory-forming skill. The second involves an alternative theory of planetary formation and biogenesis. The third elaborates on my alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics, while the fourth surveys biofuel technology, an area in which I have spent much of my scientific career

I had also tried writing a novel as an undergraduate, which was rejected four times, after which I gave up, however some time later I revisited this, and later self-published. However, I was barred from publicity through a different commercial venture, and I found selling this novel without any advertising somewhat difficult. About 1990, with spare time, thanks to the financial crisis, I began writing a future history, which is now being self-published as ebooks. Two of these, Puppeteer, Troubles involve a future in which we do nothing to address declining oil supplies, and hence involve a dystopian future. Red Gold, and the "First Contact" trilogy involve a future with Martian settlement and a major Federation of countries, and is thus also involving an economic future in which resources become scarce. The last, Jonathon Munros, illustrates the problems of evil androids. The Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy is partly about military strategy, partly about what science is really about, and partly about how humans could live in an advanced alien society.

Reviews

[David Reiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are hints of very interesting world-building within this book. Sadly, tedious pacing and flawed delivery detracted from my ability to enjoy learning about the setting. The prose is dry, relying heavily upon telling rather than showing, and with massive info-dumps being the rule rather than the exception.

(Also, a minor stylistic quibble: once the author has chosen a descriptive word for a given scene, he has a tendency to re-use it in tight proximity; for example, in chapter two the word ‘blush’ shows up six times in only three or four pages. In chapter ten the word ‘prod’ is used about a dozen times, and ‘ambled’ shows up twice in the same sentence. Etc.)

The novel’s premise is relatively simple; after a first contact scenario, a handful of people are burdened with tremendous responsibility: in order to save the Earth and its colonies from utter destruction, they must a) hide all evidence that aliens exist, and b) convince the entirety of humanity ‘to move towards a more united and respectful society’. A daunting task, to be sure. Given their understanding of the consequences, the small group sets out with the intent to save humanity.

Spectacularly ineffectively, without spending even a moment trying to gain the skills necessary to improve their chances of success. Or trying anything differently if their first attempt fails. Or expressing any particular interest in humanity’s fate.

One character is relied upon to ‘persuade Martians to form a unified society, a model for Earth and humanity’. Spoiler alert: That character decides to put all of humanity at risk by revealing the existence of aliens to a pretty girl after their first date, and then disappears for three quarters of the book; despite the importance of his role in humanity’s future, no other character ever seems to wonder where he is, what he’s up to, or if he’s making progress.

Another character is charged with going into politics to ‘bring fairness and equality to all’. An enormous undertaking, and the majority of the novel focuses upon her complete and utter lack of progress.

One character takes on the responsibility to build a military defense against the alien threat, despite having no idea what form the threat will take and having not the slightest inkling as to what technologies the aliens have access to.

And another character decides to build a massive space station because…well, just because.
Basically, at the beginning of this novel the viewpoint characters are absolutely convinced that their actions are pivotal to the survival of their race. And then they just sort of hang out while bad things happen near them until the book ends.

If the protagonists had dedicated themselves to their cause and struggled against overwhelming odds, I would have forgiven the flawed prose. If they’d demonstrated a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good, to learn and grow and try different methods to accomplish their goals…I would have been intrigued even if their efforts had ended in failure.

But that’s not the way this book went.

Instead, the reader is treated to repetitive tellings of the Federation Council meetings and the unchanging political arguments between factions. Every setback that the primary villain faces are at the hands of other villains…the viewpoint protagonist never succeeds in inconveniencing him. There’s no progress towards a unified society. No fairness and equality to all. The station isn’t completed, and no successful military buildup is ever mentioned. I finished the book with the strange feeling that humanity’s chances of avoiding extinction would have been unchanged had the protagonists died in a shuttlecraft accident on page one.

And yet…the worldbuilding was moderately interesting, and the reader is left with the impression that the inhabited universe is more complicated and dangerous than had previously been hinted. There is enough of a hook present that the reader is left wanted to know what happens next. In that, at least, the author was successful.

[Winifred Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read A Face on Cydonia, but even though this book is the sequel, it has little to do with the Face. It does start with it though. It begins with Nathan Gill returning from the expedition to the Face having been contacted by some aliens there but committed to keeping this from everybody else. So of course I thought this book would be about Nathan Gill and the secret, but Gill and any issues regarding the Face or the aliens is dropped after Chapter 2 and doesn’t resurface until almost the end of the book, and then it’s dropped again. So to me this isn’t exactly a novel in that it doesn’t have what you’d usually call a cohesive plot.

It’s more of an exploration of a possible future in which a few huge corporations control almost all economic activity. There is also a government that appears to have quite a bit of power, but it uses that power primarily to ration the planet’s limited resources. Other than that, it rarely interferes with the corporations, whose consolidation is supposed to remove the inefficiencies of competition, I think. So it’s sort of the world run by corporates, scientists, and technocrats that some people believe would be better than the rather hit and miss system we have now.

But this doesn’t create anything close to a utopia. The people are still people, some hard-working and idealistic but not necessarily having the skills to do what they want to do and others who are completely focused on their own power and/or financial gain. And, as I have observed myself, generally the ones focused on power are the ones who get to wield it. The book also portrays the “independents,” who in an earlier time might have been called plebs, as easily manipulated into supporting the bad guys and policies that don’t really benefit themselves. Speaking of the government, one of the characters observes, “The system was designed to have the minimum useful achievements and the maximum opportunities to talk.” Another observation I liked: “The problem was, for logic and reason to resolve a dispute it must be used by both sides.”

So I liked the exploration of ideas. I also liked the scientific detail. Loved the description of Mars when one of the characters is flying over it. I connected with Fiona Bolton, one of the hard-working, idealistic, yet flawed characters. Her difficulties with her constituents and fellow politicians were interesting and seemed realistic. Jonathan Munro’s flailing about in an effort to gain power is well done, and the machinations of the corporations were intriguing. The sadism and the training of thugs by their upper management lost me though. I thought the government was unrealistically untainted by the corruption of the corporations. And an awful lot of the book is told as an overview giving only generalities. There are scenes and dialogue. Sometimes there is captivating action. Starting about three quarters of the way through, the action really picks up. The characters are well-drawn. But between the dramatized parts, there are huge chunks that read more like an essay as they summarize months and years of political activity. During these parts I would sometimes get impatient for something more like a story.

Dreams Defiled is very well written. I felt it deserved four stars. But it’s an ambitious undertaking that didn’t always keep my attention.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreams Defiled focuses on a cast of characters that witnessed evidence of alien life and now must try to accumulate to their “normal” lives, each with their own trials and hurdles to overcome. The novel is heavy on political intrigue and subterfuge to keep things under wraps, or to advance one's position, which should be a draw for those interested in such genres.

The novel starts out slow and takes a while to get going, with the narration leaning heavily on the “Tell” approach to story telling. In my opinion, the novel suffer from slow narrative pacing, along with a lot of conversations and events that don't really hold much relevance to the plot and are not terribly engaging. The foundation is there, but there is a lot of fluff in the story, and quite a bit could have been excised and condensed down from the book's 363 page length. I was disappointed that the novel had elements that were essentially window dressing, with the story instead focusing on the comparably mundane things the characters were doing in lieu of the more interesting elements that were teased at.

Munro's journey for the most part was serviceable with some blemishes here and there. His torment was jarring and over the top at first, but upon the conclusion the reasoning for such was apparent and made me think about the more subtle meanings and lessons behind his suffering, and had the makings of a well rounded character. Fiona Bolton's need to play ball in order to get ahead, and what impact her words would have was also interesting--but as stated above, there is a lot of fluff to contend with, making what she was having to contend with more boring than intriguing. Due to a lack of focus the events of Fiona, and various other characters becomes hard to follow, and some characters had me wondering why they were even in the novel (due to lack of relevance and time spent in the novel).

The author has a fixation on technical details and word building that I found terribly distracting at times, and makes the story a chore to read when he focuses on things that are irrelevant to the story. I counted several scenes that in the end had no relevance to the overall story that stretched on for up to eight pages in length, causing a desire to skip ahead in order to find something relevant. Several events in the story seemed rather convenient, contrived or would come out of nowhere, leaving me confused. My frustration with the novel grew as it drew into the final stretch, where the aforementioned issues became a major problem, and culminated in a disappointing ending.

Overall I give Dreams Defiled a Two out of Five Stars. Good concept, but marred by poor execution

[L.J. Scar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dreams Defiled is a novel set in the future where society has almost depleted their resources. There is a struggle to control them between corporations, government and Independents. The characters are fraught with political agendas, greed and ambition, some of whom will cheat, lie, steal and murder. Therein lies the storyline.

I thought Ian J Miller wrote well. Not having read book one of the First Contact Trilogy, I could have used a glossary for the first four chapters listing political groups, factions, and corporations to better understand their place in the novel. Some scenes I found less pertinent to the story line than others. However, the author's impressive bio and experiences authenticated the plot. I found myself contemplating what may have been real versus fiction and captivated from beginning to end.