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Alpha Rising
A failed space rescue mission lands astronaut Bach Turner in a beleaguered future world where history repeats itself, future events cast shadows, and abduction, deceit, seduction and hedonism fuel an allegorical battle of good and evil. With no way out short of blind faith and the ultimate weapon, his mind, Turner embarks on a final mission that fulfills prophecy.
283 pages, Trade paperback
First published April 15, 2007
27 people are currently reading
181 people want to read
About the author
G.L. Douglas
1 book3 followersAs teachers' comments on her early report cards reflect, G.L. Douglas has always been a daydreamer soaring through space. Over the years, while she quietly contemplated what might dwell beyond the bounds of Earth, her love of science fiction and astral discoveries grew like the expanding universe, and she knew one day all her notes and musings would form the foundation for an exciting, entertaining, and provocative space-travel novel.
Born in northern Ohio, Ms. Douglas has lived the majority of her life in Florida, growing up in Miami and now living on the "Space Coast" near Cape Canaveral, where shuttle launches visible from her front yard set the stage for Alpha Rising. When she's not contemplating space, involved in humanitarian activities, or writing, G.L. Douglas spends time learning from children and caring for animals. She enjoys nature, cooking, artistic pursuits and frivolous fun, and would love to go to Space Camp to experiment with zero gravity. Ms. Douglas holds great hope that in the near future many medical conditions will be successfully treated and cured in space station laboratories.
G.L. Douglas has one grown son and is a first-time grandmother. She has a strong faith and lives as a witness to God's miracles. Sixteen years ago, she was given two weeks to live during treatment of a softball-sized cancerous tumor on her pericardium (the protective sac around the heart). "The difficult year became a gift," she says.
Born in northern Ohio, Ms. Douglas has lived the majority of her life in Florida, growing up in Miami and now living on the "Space Coast" near Cape Canaveral, where shuttle launches visible from her front yard set the stage for Alpha Rising. When she's not contemplating space, involved in humanitarian activities, or writing, G.L. Douglas spends time learning from children and caring for animals. She enjoys nature, cooking, artistic pursuits and frivolous fun, and would love to go to Space Camp to experiment with zero gravity. Ms. Douglas holds great hope that in the near future many medical conditions will be successfully treated and cured in space station laboratories.
G.L. Douglas has one grown son and is a first-time grandmother. She has a strong faith and lives as a witness to God's miracles. Sixteen years ago, she was given two weeks to live during treatment of a softball-sized cancerous tumor on her pericardium (the protective sac around the heart). "The difficult year became a gift," she says.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 21, 2025
Noah and a rocket powered Ark!
ALPHA RISING opens with an exciting bang-up hard core sci-fi flourish in a world only a few years beyond our own. Four astronauts have been lost beyond our solar system and Commander Bach Turner has been sent by NASA on a perilous rescue mission. But that mission, in its own turn, falls prey to the vagaries of a dangerous and capricious universe. Lost in a cloud of plasma, whisked away by some mysterious means and forced to land on an entirely unknown planet, the remainder of Turner's crew is abducted. Evading capture by the merest stroke of luck, Turner finds himself under the wing of a kindly Altemus Rider whose genius is focused on the rescue of not only his own planet but the remainder of his solar system from the evil that seems intent on the destruction and the attainment of supremacy in their galaxy.
There are lots of great things to say about ALPHA RISING as a debut novel. Even though her scientific reach sometimes exceeds her grasp of the topics at hand, GL Douglas has definitely got the right stuff when it comes to evoking interest from the hard sci-fi geeks among her readers - real time thought driven computer input, instant DNA identification, particle beam accelerators, warp drive, surveillance technology with high resolution at galactic distances and mirrors that can reflect an image in three dimensions. She also seems to have a knack for turning a unique and interesting phrase. When asked where they ought to go next, Douglas had one of her characters replying with a crackerjack phrase that might have come straight from the lips of Dorothy of Oz, "Somewhere from never before"! When our stalwart crew landed on the planet Shushan, Douglas brilliantly characterized its permanent polar climate, "Even with the environmental suits and the head gear, it was plain that Shushan's thermostat was set at stun". Character development is strong - Bach Turner is a confident, even-handed, calm leader who positively thrives on music; Luke Lynch is well portrayed as a multi-talented supporting male figure; and Lavender Rose comes across as an exquisitely devious scheming siren entirely focused on Turner's seduction.
Sadly, despite all of this obvious enormous talent, ALPHA RISING fails utterly as it is ultimately a right wing fundamentalist Christian re-creation of virtually the entire biblical Old Testament - Noah's Ark, Moses and the Ten Commandments, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, archangels and angels, God vs Satan, Sodom and Gomorrah with only the righteous escaping the wrath of God, the Tower of Babylon and much, much more. In that Douglas's sole source for the underlying plot is the Bible, the story is completely derivative and the presentation is actually quite repetitive - trips to planet after planet after planet to seek out the righteous and to rescue the animals for their transportation to a an empty planet miraculously created by a divine being for their use. Douglas didn't even flinch when she had her pioneering colonists discussing the planet in terms of being a New Jerusalem. At the close of the novel, despite this new Garden of Eden planet having a population of only 26 adults, 13 possible pairs, Douglas has the temerity to insist on the inclusion of a rule "No marriages, no babies"!
Douglas's writing is good enough that I actually read to the end ... quite eagerly, if the truth be told! But, this is not science fiction. This is an author using a modern sci-fi setting to wear her beliefs on her sleeve, to wield them like a hammer and to attempt to brain an unsuspecting reader with them right between the eyes. I was not amused and, frankly, I felt cheated.
Paul Weiss
ALPHA RISING opens with an exciting bang-up hard core sci-fi flourish in a world only a few years beyond our own. Four astronauts have been lost beyond our solar system and Commander Bach Turner has been sent by NASA on a perilous rescue mission. But that mission, in its own turn, falls prey to the vagaries of a dangerous and capricious universe. Lost in a cloud of plasma, whisked away by some mysterious means and forced to land on an entirely unknown planet, the remainder of Turner's crew is abducted. Evading capture by the merest stroke of luck, Turner finds himself under the wing of a kindly Altemus Rider whose genius is focused on the rescue of not only his own planet but the remainder of his solar system from the evil that seems intent on the destruction and the attainment of supremacy in their galaxy.
There are lots of great things to say about ALPHA RISING as a debut novel. Even though her scientific reach sometimes exceeds her grasp of the topics at hand, GL Douglas has definitely got the right stuff when it comes to evoking interest from the hard sci-fi geeks among her readers - real time thought driven computer input, instant DNA identification, particle beam accelerators, warp drive, surveillance technology with high resolution at galactic distances and mirrors that can reflect an image in three dimensions. She also seems to have a knack for turning a unique and interesting phrase. When asked where they ought to go next, Douglas had one of her characters replying with a crackerjack phrase that might have come straight from the lips of Dorothy of Oz, "Somewhere from never before"! When our stalwart crew landed on the planet Shushan, Douglas brilliantly characterized its permanent polar climate, "Even with the environmental suits and the head gear, it was plain that Shushan's thermostat was set at stun". Character development is strong - Bach Turner is a confident, even-handed, calm leader who positively thrives on music; Luke Lynch is well portrayed as a multi-talented supporting male figure; and Lavender Rose comes across as an exquisitely devious scheming siren entirely focused on Turner's seduction.
Sadly, despite all of this obvious enormous talent, ALPHA RISING fails utterly as it is ultimately a right wing fundamentalist Christian re-creation of virtually the entire biblical Old Testament - Noah's Ark, Moses and the Ten Commandments, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, archangels and angels, God vs Satan, Sodom and Gomorrah with only the righteous escaping the wrath of God, the Tower of Babylon and much, much more. In that Douglas's sole source for the underlying plot is the Bible, the story is completely derivative and the presentation is actually quite repetitive - trips to planet after planet after planet to seek out the righteous and to rescue the animals for their transportation to a an empty planet miraculously created by a divine being for their use. Douglas didn't even flinch when she had her pioneering colonists discussing the planet in terms of being a New Jerusalem. At the close of the novel, despite this new Garden of Eden planet having a population of only 26 adults, 13 possible pairs, Douglas has the temerity to insist on the inclusion of a rule "No marriages, no babies"!
Douglas's writing is good enough that I actually read to the end ... quite eagerly, if the truth be told! But, this is not science fiction. This is an author using a modern sci-fi setting to wear her beliefs on her sleeve, to wield them like a hammer and to attempt to brain an unsuspecting reader with them right between the eyes. I was not amused and, frankly, I felt cheated.
Paul Weiss
May 18, 2013
Alpha Rising:
I am an avid science fiction fan and enjoy all the various sub-genres, however this retelling of the Noah’s Arc story did not do it for me. It is a noble effort by a first time author, but ultimately it falls short. If this story was targeted at middle school readers, except for a few words above their vocabulary level, this story would work. If it is targeted at adults, it is not enough.
Bach, the main character, comes off as stodgy and wooden. The pun on his name and the band Bachman Turner Overdrive never pays. The pun would have been better based on Grand Funk’s song Captain, My Captain. None of the other characters, with the possible exception of Star are developed beyond cardboard cutouts.
The story’s action is simplistic. There is a lot of it, but, like the characters, it lacks depth. Sometimes I felt like I was reading an evangelical tract. The pacing was erratic and even the parts that should have been exciting weren’t. Properly told, with adequate description, this story should have been triple its current length.
I have an issue with the gratuitous killing off of a potentially major character so early in the work. Other than to deliver her Bible, why was she even there? Given the military nature of much of the other writing in this genre, there is surprisingly little bloodshed so when a character dies, it stands out more.
As an environmentalist who includes environmental themes in my own fiction writings, I am sensitive to how this issue is handled. The gratuitous repetition of the word “toxic” was heavy handed and off-putting. The descriptions of each of the “worlds” visited was all “tell” and no “show”.
As other reviewers have commented, the text was free of the errors that so often plague self published works. The grammar was correct and the punctuation was perfect. There were no typos that I noticed.
I do not wish to discourage this writer from future works, however, before undertaking another such project, at least one work by each of the following authors should be read: Ann McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Elizabeth Moon, Ellen Rouiz, Holly Lilse, K. D. Wentworth, Linda Evans and Mercedes Lackey.
I am an avid science fiction fan and enjoy all the various sub-genres, however this retelling of the Noah’s Arc story did not do it for me. It is a noble effort by a first time author, but ultimately it falls short. If this story was targeted at middle school readers, except for a few words above their vocabulary level, this story would work. If it is targeted at adults, it is not enough.
Bach, the main character, comes off as stodgy and wooden. The pun on his name and the band Bachman Turner Overdrive never pays. The pun would have been better based on Grand Funk’s song Captain, My Captain. None of the other characters, with the possible exception of Star are developed beyond cardboard cutouts.
The story’s action is simplistic. There is a lot of it, but, like the characters, it lacks depth. Sometimes I felt like I was reading an evangelical tract. The pacing was erratic and even the parts that should have been exciting weren’t. Properly told, with adequate description, this story should have been triple its current length.
I have an issue with the gratuitous killing off of a potentially major character so early in the work. Other than to deliver her Bible, why was she even there? Given the military nature of much of the other writing in this genre, there is surprisingly little bloodshed so when a character dies, it stands out more.
As an environmentalist who includes environmental themes in my own fiction writings, I am sensitive to how this issue is handled. The gratuitous repetition of the word “toxic” was heavy handed and off-putting. The descriptions of each of the “worlds” visited was all “tell” and no “show”.
As other reviewers have commented, the text was free of the errors that so often plague self published works. The grammar was correct and the punctuation was perfect. There were no typos that I noticed.
I do not wish to discourage this writer from future works, however, before undertaking another such project, at least one work by each of the following authors should be read: Ann McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Elizabeth Moon, Ellen Rouiz, Holly Lilse, K. D. Wentworth, Linda Evans and Mercedes Lackey.
August 7, 2008
An Impressive First Work
Douglas is, without a doubt, a talented writer. Her prose is consistently high-quality, with more than a few excursions into the inspired. "Deni was first to exchange despair for resolve", for example. Sweet.
And it should be noted that a novel of this scope is a huge undertaking - especially the first time out. The fact that Douglas was able to maintain a consistent style and feel from beginning to end is greatly to her credit. Not to mention keeping all those facts straight!
I think it's also fair to say that the goal stated just inside the cover - "a light-hearted and playful romp through the world of science fiction [that] might uncover interesting viewpoints to difficult questions" - was satisfactorily accomplished.
So why just four stars? To leave room for Asimov and Clarke, C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams!
Great action/adventure for young (and young-at-heart) readers of "soft" sci-fi.
Douglas is, without a doubt, a talented writer. Her prose is consistently high-quality, with more than a few excursions into the inspired. "Deni was first to exchange despair for resolve", for example. Sweet.
And it should be noted that a novel of this scope is a huge undertaking - especially the first time out. The fact that Douglas was able to maintain a consistent style and feel from beginning to end is greatly to her credit. Not to mention keeping all those facts straight!
I think it's also fair to say that the goal stated just inside the cover - "a light-hearted and playful romp through the world of science fiction [that] might uncover interesting viewpoints to difficult questions" - was satisfactorily accomplished.
So why just four stars? To leave room for Asimov and Clarke, C. S. Lewis and Charles Williams!
Great action/adventure for young (and young-at-heart) readers of "soft" sci-fi.
May 14, 2012
While this is definitely a Christian book, I did not find it pretentious or over-handed in its approach. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The only problem I had was that the characters didn't seem to react normally to their circumstances. They tended to adjust very quickly to things that would normally take much more time to adjust to. For example, being separated from everyone you know and being stranded in an alien civilization that nobody knew existed and then simply having dinner with them as if nothing happened is a little unrealistic.
Still, overall it was a great story and I loved the style in which it was written.
The only problem I had was that the characters didn't seem to react normally to their circumstances. They tended to adjust very quickly to things that would normally take much more time to adjust to. For example, being separated from everyone you know and being stranded in an alien civilization that nobody knew existed and then simply having dinner with them as if nothing happened is a little unrealistic.
Still, overall it was a great story and I loved the style in which it was written.
June 15, 2008
This unique and fascinating tale could very well set the stage for copycat novels in the future. The blend of philosophical, scriptural and esoteric events play out perfectly in the hands of entertaining, well-written, engaging characters that endure the impossible and conquer the foe with their only weapon, the mind, as they deliver the story to a fantastic, fulfilling conclusion. G.L. Douglas made me think, feel and believe what she'd written might just happen some time in the future. Alpha Rising delivers a message of hope, faith and the rewards of perseverance against all odds.
April 1, 2012
I'm not personally big on fiction -- especially science fiction. However, this one came highly recommended to me by a close friend. Simply put, I was pleasantly surprised. G.L. Douglas tells a vivid, futuristic story filled with fascinating and compelling characters which hooked me from the beginning. Her attention to detail made me feel as if I were actually onboard the Astro-Lab, headed for Urusa! An entertaining read from start to finish.
November 17, 2012
I really wanted to give this 4 stars. There is an incredible mix of fantastical adventure and hard SF with a tinge of faith, but somehow it doesn't quite gel for me. I had fun reading it.
August 7, 2014
The behavior of the main characters are too implausible at times. After barely landing safely in a blinding snowstorm they leave their spaceship and cannot see more than a few feet. The tension of the situation is shattered when they have a snowball fight. At another tense moment they stop to... have a picnic. If the characters don't take it seriously when they are in life threatening situations how can the reader?
July 8, 2010
I read this book on a whim, and I am glad I did so. A blend of science fiction and fantasy takes the reader on one of those perennial trips to save life forms from extinction. In this case, our hero (Bach Turner)has his faith in a higher power as well as some scientic tools at his disposal.
I'd rate this at 3.5 stars: escapism, adventure and hope.
I'd rate this at 3.5 stars: escapism, adventure and hope.
August 13, 2011
I came across this book just simply because I was bored & goofing around on my Kindle DX. I am very glad that I did too. I truly enjoyed this book. Everything about it had my brain turning with ideas. The best one I liked was the scent infused DNA...very cool. Hey, I'll give my body to science for that experiment.
March 25, 2013
This did not fulfill my expectations and to be honest I stopped reading it. I stopped reading it because I realized how similar this was to the Bible's Noah's Ark story and just don't want my science fiction mixed with religion.It was told in third person which is common.It was not as good as other books in the genre.
January 17, 2012
loved this book - never thought I'd find a Christian Science Fiction book as well written as this. Bach and Faith are on a mission to save 4 astronauts stranded in space. during the rescue mission they end up on a planet that is divided into good and evil. The story gets interesting as Bach ends up on a Noah type mission.
March 30, 2012
This book was not very well written. It should have been spread out over a series perhaps, but as it was it seemed contrived and repetitive though some of the ideas were good. A mixtures of straight sci-fi and theological commentary on man ruining things with God having a bigger plan. Recreated the Ark to save animals and mankind.
January 20, 2013
Very thought provoking.
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March 6, 2019For an independent writer, G.L. Douglas has done a very fine job putting together a fun sci-fi narrative.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews