The Mor

by Steve Soderquist

When the benevolent race known as the Illuminous visited earth back in the 1950's, they weren't aware of the aliens who had attached themselves to the hull of their ship. The Mor, also known as 'Seeds', found Earth to be a poor choice for a new home, but a home, nonetheless. When three brilliant college students inadvertently stumbled on a formula that enhanced the Mors' ability to communicate and grow at an incredible rate, the race was on to reverse what had been done before all of life was destroyed. Joshua and his alien partner Angel are part of an elite task force known as Cleaners and Seekers put together to eradicate the threat before the Mor could devastate the earth and all life, turning the planet into a desolate wasteland where only the Seeds would grow as it was on their own planet, destroyed millions of years ago. Evolution gives each turn of the key one rotation; every stage set to have one chance. How far will the three students, one agent and the gentle female alien Angel go to play God in a playground created billions of years ago?

201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2014

Reviews

[Giselle Marks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creeping Chills

Fighting a desperate battle against a hidden invader? “Seeds” by Steve Soderquist sets the stage for the invasion of the Earth by a strange race which cares nothing for humanity, but only for their own survival. Humanity engaging to destroy the interlopers has established especially adapted and trained cleaners. They together with seekers have been trying to eradicate the invaders while keeping the world’s population from understanding the threat they were all living with.
Three students devise a strange chemical compound and unknowingly stumble on something that will speed the world’s doom. They race to find a cure for the damage they accidentally created. Fast paced, tightly written, “Seeds” is a horror delight for the aficionado of the genre. If you are looking for an excellently written sci-fi horror tale, then “Seeds” is your obvious choice.

[Heidi Van BookAddict · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, talk about Invasion of the Body Snatchers! A fast paced read that will keep you wondering until the end. Can Joshua and Angel save the planet or will the aliens win. Get yourself a copy and find out!! I'm not sure I will be able to look at kernels of corn the same way again, thanks Steve!
I gave it 4.5 stars instead of 5 because when I really like a book it's never long enough for me.
I look forward to checking out more of Steve's work.

[Katherine Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science Fiction meets horror in this genre crossing novel about what happens when two races, one benign, one malignant, arrive on earth together. The Illuminous, a race of telepathic humanoids thousands of years beyond us, decide our planet has evolved sufficiently for them to visit. However, on the way, unbeknownst to the Illuminous, the Mor, a plant-like species, attaches to the Illuminous ship. The Illuminous reveal themselves to humans, but the Mor conceal themselves, secretly inserting their seeds into people who touch them, then killing the host and infecting a blood relative while continuing to sprout and feed off the corpse of the first victim. Using this process, they spread across the world like a plague. Immune to most poisons, temperature extremes, and other means of extermination, they hide within the bodies and behind the faces of friends and loved ones. Although single-minded in their pursuit of continued existence and connected as sort of a hive mind, the Mor are not able to think logically, nor can they work together.
When the Illuminous realize they are responsible for bringing the Mor to this world, they agree to help. Paired with Cleaners (humans who are specially trained and equipped with one prosthetic hand that can destroy the Mor), each Illuminous works to destroy the threat.
Angel and Joshua, an Illuminous and her Cleaner, seek Mor and eliminate them. They have worked together a long time and are one of the closest and most successful units.
Clarice, Cody and Sam are college students working on degrees in botany. They develop a fertilizer that allows plants to thrive anywhere, even in hostile areas such as the desert. When they accidentally expose a Mor seed to their fertilizer, the seed becomes exponentially stronger and communicates the formula to the hive mind, changing them and making them all smarter and better able to plan.
Now the Mor work together, killing off Illuminous/Cleaner pairs and infecting people all over the world. Will Angel and Joshua, Clarice, Cody and Sam be able to save the world, or will the Mor slaughter all humans on the planet? Will the Illuminous continue to help mankind, or will they rescue their own and leave earth to the Mor? And what will be the cost?
Seeds is an action packed read that will pull you along from the first page to the chilling end. If you like sci fi or horror, you should read this book. If you like both genres, you’ll love Seeds.

[Reonie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seeds is a very televisual book. While reading it I kept thinking that it would make an excellent The Outer Limits episode. Or one of the newer too fast-paced Doctor Who’s (Without the Doctor). Other series that also kept popping into my head was The Twilight Zone, X-files and of course The Day of the Triffids. You get the idea.

I liked the two agent characters, Joshua and Angel, who goes around eliminating the alien threat. I found them and their relationship interesting and managed to get a little emotional at the end. Plus the way they communicate and Joshua’s weaponized hand is just very cool.

The way the Mor (the alien menace) works to grow and reproduce is fascinating and lends a lot to good old-fashioned body horror.

There were some good action and horror scenes with a nice level of tension. Some good moral dilemmas were raised, but could have been delved into deeper.

Unfortunately the book suffers from large chunks of repetitive info dumping and severe viewpoint shifts. The omnipotent viewpoint made it harder to engaged with the characters and difficult to care about the visceral horror. It felt that we are rushed past on the surface of the story in order to get a bigger picture. I’m also not fond of how, at one point, increased human violence gets blamed on an external source.

To sum up: Seeds has some interesting ideas and as a concept has room to grow, but might benefit if it was written outright as a screenplay.

[P.T.L. Perrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put the book down. The story starts strong, setting the tone of this science fiction action thriller, where two alien races have come to earth; one to cooperate while the other festers and waits. Nothing can stop the sequence set in motion by three unsuspecting young scientists. Tension escalates until it seems all hope is lost, culminating in a nail-biting climactic ending. I was enthralled and kept thinking what a great movie it would make. It’s well-worth reading.

[Emma Coombes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on the idea of alien invasion. The mechanism of ‘body snatching’ is given a scientific update. An enjoyable read.

[Loralie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very excellent story line. Needs a bit closer editing in last third.

[Karen Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. Normally I don't read too many books like this, but I thoroughly got into aliens and plant life being able to have a collective thought.