Pandora

by Alan Rodgers

There's a story that goes 'round about strange events outside Roswell, New Mexico, and how they led to a hangar in Ohio and the three dead aliens that lie stored inside it. Most everyone has heard the tale at one time or another. And because it goes 'round the way it does - metamorphosing ever so slightly with every retelling - some people say the tale is nothing but a scrap of modern folklore; a legend alive in every bar and coffee house across the land. Pandora knows better. Pandora knows all about the strange events outside Roswell - and she knows even more about the stranger ones that followed. She knows that there weren't three dead aliens in the wreckage of the doomed ship. Not three, but four. Three dead adults and a single living, breathing infant. That infant was Pandora. Years now the government has raised her in captivity, unknowable and secret inside a classified Air Force Facility in Ohio. This morning Pandora escaped in the dark dark hours before dawn. And through the miracle of modern satellite television, all the world has seen her. And the government wants her back.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Aliens

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

Alan Rodgers (1959 - 2014) was a science fiction and horror writer, editor, and poet.

Reviews

[Dollie · Rating 1 out of 5]

That’s it! I’m never reading another book jacket again. This one said, “A wild, rangy, roller-coaster ride of an apocalyptic thriller, the like hasn’t been seen since King’s The Stand and McCammon’s Swan Song…Rodgers’ second novel is a winner.” A winner, alright, but in the category of Worst Books I Ever Read. It’s right down there with Gravity’s Rainbow, only better because it was only half as long. I’ve read both The Stand and Swan Song numerous times as they are two of my favorite stories. There is no comparison, believe me. This book of a Space Alien/Human Girl who can shift time was painful to read. It was like something written by a seventh grader for other seventh graders. The story tried to cover all of our urban legends and make them all real. It was one of the most confusing pieces of crap I ever read. Just horrible.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The crash of an alien flying saucer at Roswell did result in the death of three aliens, but also the survival of one alien infant, whom the government names Pandora. She is hidden away in a secret bunker in Ohio. Even though Pandora is over 40 years old, she is still a child because time is distorted around her - she isn't moving through time the same way we do. Then an incident happens that causes Pandora to escape from her captors and the survival of the Earth may hang in the balance.

At the beginning of each chapter Rodger's mentions a modern myth or urban legend, for example: Roswell, the devil in a malls basement, zombies, UFOs, crop circles, haunted trains, and an alien invasion. The chapter then ties in the myth he mentions to the story of Pandora. This organization of the chapters has the capacity to be clever, but I'm sorry to say that once Pandora made her way to a shopping mall, started shopping, and kept calling herself a little space alien girl who is looking for her daddy, I could no longer take the story seriously. It became a comedy for me.

Despite my viewing the novel now as a comedy rather than sci fi/horror, it was intended to be, it certainly a compelling, entertaining story and kept my interest - and laughter. If you happen to find a copy, as I did in the clearance section of the local used book store, I'd recommend it as an entertaining book, but don't go out of your way to find it. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/