Cry From a Silent Planet

by John Rowland

The Orion spacecraft is said by NASA to mark a critical step on humanity's journey to Mars. But this endeavor could pale into insignificance when overtaken by events over which we have no control.In this gripping and remarkable book - well and truly in the hard sf genre - Rowland questions an assumption that man has taken for granted since the dawn of civilization. Do we really own the Earth or are we tenants with a fixed term lease? The year is 2024. That question is about to be answered.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

John was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Before training as a teacher, he set up his own taxi company in West London, spent some time as a European coach driver, and also drove on expeditions across the Sahara. John has always been fascinated by astronomy and space travel and was an avid total solar eclipse chaser. As a physics and astronomy teacher and lecturer, he worked in the UK and later in the Middle East. He then moved into IT and ran his own company specialising in Management Information software and training. Currently he heads a project at a college in York to design a smartPhone app that can converse intelligently using natural English language. John is married, has two sons and two grandchildren, and lives in a village near York.

Reviews

[Louise Moorhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well i wouldnt usually write a review but John Rowland and his wife are my dads neighbours and he was keen to find out what i thought about his book so here it goes!
The premise of the story is that alien life forms have been forced to leave their planet and earth is chosen for their new home.
Humans are carrying on regardless, the year is 2024 and Matt Slater (the main character) is trying to save his marriage when he and his family become unintentioanally involved in the Alien discovery and then the following mission to save humankind!
Despite science fiction not being something ive been greatly inTerested in, there is lots to enjoy about this book- complex human and alien relationships ,the human condition,environmental issues astronomy, space sex and much much more! I definately think that if you are a person who is worried about where the world is headed in the next 20 /30 years there is alot of things written in this book that you will agree with.
In the last section of the book Matt makes alot of asummptions about the alien's solution, firstly that it will save humankind and secondly that his family will not be affected; i wasnt so sure that would be the case and it made the ending feel slightly rushed. I freely admit that physics and maths are not my best subjects and as a result i found some sections hard to understand, which at times was a little frustating but these are minor quibbles
Overall the charachters including the aliens are all believable, the story
is a rollercoster ride with plenty of unexpected twists and turns which made it both a fun and thought provoking read!

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing! It had such potential to be a great piece of science fiction, but fell very short in plot development. Worse, it seemed to be more focused on ecological politically correct dogma, delivered and enforce by the "aliens", than on just telling a good story. I found myself very irritated by the whole thing by the time I came to the end. Too heavy handed. Fanatical tree-huggers will love it!