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Ascendancy #1
Revelation
First Contact, told from the alien's perspective. Newly edited and released.
Michael Baker is a 35 year old, natural born, American citizen from Texas, a successful entrepreneur and amateur astronomer. The scientific community mocks him when he publishes the time and coordinates where a supernova will occur. When it occurs, people start wondering who Michael is. The day after his third supernova prediction stunningly comes true, Michael abruptly takes over every television and radio in the world and announces that he is the Ambassador to Earth from the Intergalactic Confederation of Planets.
Earth is facing multiple grave threats and must take immediate action, if there is any hope for humanity’s survival. The Confederation has come to help and is willing to intervene, IF world leaders will accept the help the Confederation offers.
Set initially on the Big Island of Hawaii, the story circles the globe in search of enough allies to allow the Confederation to work on humanity’s behalf. It is a riveting epic of alien first contact that features uplifting and sometimes humorous accounts of humanity’s first interactions with intelligent extraterrestrial life, and it reveals as much about the people of Earth as it does of those who have come to save it.
If you like Arthur C. Clarkes' Childhood’s End, or the movie Avatar, then you will love this book. It tells the story of the aliens walking among us, and their purpose here on Earth.
Rich characters, touching stories, advanced technologies… an intelligent, but relentlessly optimistic, book that appeals to Science Fiction fans and anyone that enjoys a good read. It is the first book in the Ascendancy series, which tells the story of humanity's ascent into intergalactic civilization.
Michael Baker is a 35 year old, natural born, American citizen from Texas, a successful entrepreneur and amateur astronomer. The scientific community mocks him when he publishes the time and coordinates where a supernova will occur. When it occurs, people start wondering who Michael is. The day after his third supernova prediction stunningly comes true, Michael abruptly takes over every television and radio in the world and announces that he is the Ambassador to Earth from the Intergalactic Confederation of Planets.
Earth is facing multiple grave threats and must take immediate action, if there is any hope for humanity’s survival. The Confederation has come to help and is willing to intervene, IF world leaders will accept the help the Confederation offers.
Set initially on the Big Island of Hawaii, the story circles the globe in search of enough allies to allow the Confederation to work on humanity’s behalf. It is a riveting epic of alien first contact that features uplifting and sometimes humorous accounts of humanity’s first interactions with intelligent extraterrestrial life, and it reveals as much about the people of Earth as it does of those who have come to save it.
If you like Arthur C. Clarkes' Childhood’s End, or the movie Avatar, then you will love this book. It tells the story of the aliens walking among us, and their purpose here on Earth.
Rich characters, touching stories, advanced technologies… an intelligent, but relentlessly optimistic, book that appeals to Science Fiction fans and anyone that enjoys a good read. It is the first book in the Ascendancy series, which tells the story of humanity's ascent into intergalactic civilization.
- GenresScience FictionAliens
462 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 18, 2019
804 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
D. Ward Cornell
23 books51 followersD. Ward Cornell lives on the Kohala Coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. His career as an engineer, consultant, and entrepreneur has taken him all over the world. Many of those places and elements of those cultures are featured in his writing.
Although still dabbling in those fields, his passion now is bring stories to life.
Although still dabbling in those fields, his passion now is bring stories to life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
June 9, 2024
An expansive, thrilling and optimistic view of a first contact story told from the alien's perspective that's not very well written, lacking character depth, but containing an excellently conceived plot that makes one really excited in continuing on with the rest of the series. Recommended.
2023 Read
2023 Read
January 23, 2022
Childishly Written
A simplistic story, with mind-numbing repetitions. No character depth, no nuance, no surprises. Heavy handed right wing political themes. Don’t bother!
A simplistic story, with mind-numbing repetitions. No character depth, no nuance, no surprises. Heavy handed right wing political themes. Don’t bother!
Read
October 2, 2023pI did not bother to finish. Rating: minus 5
I originally scribbled reviews to myself expecting no one to pick mine out of hundreds or thousands. Given how awful much of Amazon loans are, it was to be my road map for future selections. I was mistaken and reactions there were. Offended anti-socialist, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ and of course virulently racist snowflakes, who while never having written a review, wrote many comments. I am doing revisions now as if for an audience. I doubt that anyone will read them but hopefully they will be more readable and possibly useful. The original was disjointed and a mess. The ratings were too high until I added 0 to minus 5 to the scale. The world building is an afterthought as usual with low end science fiction. Fortunately for the writer, the ratings suggest he needs no improvement and I am sure that there will be none.
Before I continue, I must visit YouTube. This was brought to you by - SK Media, Andrewism, Zoe Bee, Jose, Bobbing Along, Biz Barclay, May, Venom Geek Media, ThePrimeChronus, Mia Mulder, Chris and Shell, Big Train, Resurrected Starships, Jessie Gender, Times Radio, Annie's Literary Empire, Physics Girl, Ukraine News TV, Jeans Thoughts, Verilybitchie, Some More News, UATV, It's Black Friday, Brittany Page, Philosophy Tube, OrangeRiver, Kaz Rowe, Anna from Ukraine, Ro Ramdin, The Bands of HM Royal Marines, JohnTheDuncan, Hello Future Me, Sarah Z, Discourse Minis, Steve Shives, Lizcapism, Karolina Zebrowska, Munecat, Whitney Avalon, Up and Atom, Geo Girl, Planarwalker, Gutsick Gibbon, Don't F@ck with Ukraine - Max Barskih, Shannon Makes, Ukraine News TV, Jill Bearup, Break N Make, Bovington Tank Museum, Second Thought, The Shades of Orange, Real Time History, Lore Reloaded, Deerstalker Pictures, Gemma Dyer, History with Kayleigh, The Amber Ruffin Show, Renegade Cut, Ship Happens, The Dadvocate, The Closet Historian, Bernadette Banner, Real Engineering, Jake Broe, The Kavernacle, Merphy Napier, Eckharts Ladder, The Juice Media, Kidology, A Cup of Nicole, Alice Cappelle.
The background world is worse than unimaginative, it is stifling. The background is the entire story, such as it is. The world is defined as a collection of independent polities without interdependence or dominance games of economic competition and predation. There are just world "leaders" who are qualified to lead because ..... they are leaders. They each exercise an apparently absolute authority in their respective domains. What an odd view of the world. It corresponds to nothing that I remember reading.
The problems are of course scarcity, not the terrible financial/economic structures. Capitalism is not just a label, it is a system of billions of decisions made yearly by the controllers of capital. A liberal democratic government are that structure which nurse and protect the economic flows and maintain the illusions that citizens voting for parties all of which tout identical policies, are perceived as freedom.
The crises of hunger, poor healthcare, educational and professional inequality and the rest are either natural aspects of the human condition or the result of evil government policies by incompetent short sighted "leaders". The writer can not envision a society as an economic reality which creates the parameters of all policy options. No thought but a definite politics. I was not surprised when the writer referenced Fox News as a preferred news source by the Galactic Council. Fox News is referenced in many of the worst books.
That is the set-up for the introduction of the arrival of the benevolent aliens. The world building, including the Confederation structure, their reach, history, tech and the nature/origin of the enemy are not close to fully explored/explained. The timeline for the background is more than shaky. The main character's history has holes too big to ignore. The plot(?) is a recitation of the main character's lack of preparedness for the many consequences of their big reveal. This is the process for which they were trained and for which they carefully prepared. 🙂
I need another YouTube break. This next was made possible by the channels - Leeja Miller, Leadhead, Alizee, Jessica Kellgren Fozard, Cruising Crafts, Crow Caller, Trae Crowder, Bella Ciao -Nikolay Kutuzov, Female Warriors -Teresatessa, Andrewism, Julie Nolke, Not the Andrew Marr Show, Maggie May Fish, Agro Squirrel Narrates, Olly Richards, Installation 00, Some More News, Celtic Woman, Tulia, Mrs Betty Bowers, Honest Ads, The Juice Media, Up and Atom, Smack the Pony, Chris and Shell, Kris Atomic, Acollierastro, JuLingo, Abby Cox, Military History Visualized, Lily Simpson, Owen Jones, KernowDamo, Bovington Tank Museum, Squire, Extinction Rebellion UK, Philosophy Tube, Lily Alexandre, Viva La Dirt League, Widebeam and Wellingtons, Boat Time, Alt Shift X, Friendly Space Ninja, Trae Crowder, The Good Place, Between the Wars, Dominic Noble, Narrowboat Pirate, The British Museum, Big Train, Knowing Better, Red Plateaus, Malinda, The Onion, Venom Geek Media, Michael Lambert, The Leftist Cooks, Second Thought, Meidas Touch.
The characters are bland enough that I lost track of who does what, why or where during most of the book. The dialogue has problems with repetition, mutual admiration segments, clunkiness and a horrible overuse of the word "family". The pace of the book is frenetic. The editing issue seems to reflect an indie writer with no one to do his edits. I have seen the fast pace tactic used before with flat characters and they were never great books. Usually the fast pace covers the absence of character development or gaping holes in the plot. The dialogue matches the pace, the characters and the action. There is no time allowed for the characters to grow, nor enough room for development.
The book seems to consider a more representative view of a global response to a global development than almost every low quality fiction in the Amazon selection. Israel is a priority contact, as is the Vatican above the G20 nations? An odd imagining. The president of Mexico does not know who the ambassador of the InterGalactic Federation is, when the entire population of the planet is aware of who they are because he is .....Mexican. A leader of the Zionist segment of Israel has a change of heart because of a near death experience. He suddenly discovers that his racism and racial superiority beliefs may be bad. He now feels that perhaps genocide may be bad and that Arabs are human beings. North Korean prison guards are not just ejected into the sun's corona.
The writer encourages the reader to entertain the notion that alien technology will not be immediately handed to manufacturing and other corporations, by every "leader" on the planet. All these technological goodies will instead, be made freely available to every human on the planet.
It reminds me of a British University creating a vaccine against a pandemic of unknown lethality. After announcing that they were going to give the rights to produce the vaccine freely to Third World producers, a kindly American billionaire visited that school and successfully coerced or threatened them to reverse course and instead give it freely to a European pharmaceutical corporation. Corporations are known to destroy food, clothing, household goods rather than donate their surplus production. The thickest of Goodreads members must balk at the assumption that corporations give away anything that they can sell profitably.
The aliens have a "Being nice to your citizens" standard, which only two countries meet. They are the USA and Saudi Arabia. Even if this were parody, it would not be funny. That the aliens enjoy Fox News does explain their lack of a moral or ethical viewpoint. The worst writers always insert Fox as a popular and credible News source in their terrible attempts at writing. Capitalism and the profit motive which create artificial scarcity are not in need of change. Their picture of uplift is frightening. 🙂
The Saudi standard includes beheading a woman who drives a car, searching for the creator of a scandalous video of a man and a woman having breakfast and conversation, hanging or beheading petty offenders (not upper class men and women who mutilate, torture and murder their foreign domestic help), not providing for the widow begging on the streets which is a fixture not an oddity, and more.
The USA standard includes an almost non-existent social safety net, the weakest worker protections in the industrialized world, the worst healthcare delivery and availability in the industrialized world, the most expensive and least useful educational system in the industrialized world, environmental degradation deeper and more extensive even than Britain's, a level of police brutality and murder which must make Russian security forces envious, a legal structure so corrupt that no working class citizen, no person of colour and no woman not of certain classes can pretend to fairness, equality or professional treatment from the system and more.
These Low Effort, Minimal Effort and No Effort political rants are typical of the low end of quality science fiction in the Amazon selection. For the first time in my life, after close to five years of Amazon loans, occasional scans of Goodreads reviews and comments directed to myself and others I watch my fiction, especially science fiction. The streaming services deliver a more finished and more satisfying entertainment. YouTube also host Short film channels, such as DUST and Omeleto which deliver very good science fiction stories.
Admitting that I would likely find nothing useful in Goodreads reviews, I began searching YouTube for science commentary. Finding those channels led me to the hobbyist, lifestyle, educational, essayist and finally the book channels. The book channels 😍 host awesome communities of thoughtful readers with varied tastes united in their love of all things bookish. I feel that any reader will find a visit to several a joy. From sponsor spots on essayist and educational channels, I was introduced to the many dedicated educational video sites all of which I felt were worth a look.
About Goodreads discourse. About eighteen months ago, I wrote a short mildly negative review of Powers of the Earth, a juvenile salute to the sociopathic January 6, 2021 hero by Travis Corcoran. He is a self-described libertarian and vocal supporter of the return of chattel slavery, US veteran, supporter of Putin's Russia and an employee of an unnamed US agency. There followed a year long stream of nasty comments from one of my favourite comment clouds. Eventually Claes Rees Jr/cgr710 an arrogant, poorly educated buffoon who from his first comment on another book reminded me of Philomena Cunk minus her charm, wrote a last comment.
He declared that They had "won" (?). I discovered that They had launched a flood of sick sexual and racist comments against channels which I mentioned. The early teen boater and her mother, the particle physicist, the astrophysicist, the engineer and the many other female creators were not impressed but the world's store of ugliness was successfully and unnecessarily increased. A splendid self-portrait of the emotionally stunted, twisted American man-child with a middle class background was also delivered to a multinational audience. I imagine in their little minds, if They in fact possess such, considered that victory enough. USA! Yay ??
My YouTube picks of the moment.
Grungeon Master, Templin Institute, Riley J Dennis, The Trans Atheist, Trae Crowder, Abney Park, Matilda Hogberg, Rachel MacDonald, Kazachka, Friendly Space Ninja, Bobbing Along, Terrible Writing Advice, Linguoer Mechanic.
About Goodreads/Kindle/Amazon. Please consider treating this as a potentially hostile site. 😕
Ominous music begins. 😊 I have seen other reviewers experience the same comment clouds which I have from my fourth month or so on the site. Goodreads have acknowledged not a single query. They have responded though. Kindle interruptions lasting days periodically until I wrote about them and my limited message history shared with third parties, which was meant to have placed me in physical danger. They have recently begun erasing all comments from my reviews, the few good and the many, many nasty, threatening or juvenile. Goodreads have blocked my view of other readers' reactions, blocked the transition from end-of-book to the Review and Rating page. They had masked all my commenter names and blocked uploads for days at a time and again lifting them once I reported the incidents in reviews. They prevented me removing my last several lurkers, who now all have disappeared since I began writing about the situation. Still no notification, no account history report, no acknowledgment of request for explanation of any element of the interesting Amazon customer service protocols.
These are not the rage reactions of a single Kindle tech against a socialist reader. As near as I can determine, these are seen as normal and/or acceptable to American readers. There have been no reactions from members to abusive comments to female reviewers, to these vicious comment swarms, no backlash to the toxic atmosphere from the cud chewers. Whatever Goodreads had been, they are now nothing more than a consensus creation engine and Kindle is not a book directory but a portal for shampoo and vacuum cleaner sales. I am certain that some members have noticed the interface pointers. As a point of sales for some ebooks (many have no ebook version, which surprised me) it may be useful, though with prices usually higher than paper. Kindle employees with some management support, feel comfortable using customer information for their own purposes. 🤔
Using my limited Goodreads message history, it seems that a favour requested by an American secret clearance holder through Pine Gap Centre was honoured by Australian Intelligence services. My friend was frightened for my safety after an attempted interrogation regarding my personal history. As I added parts of this madness to my reviews and other sites, it seems the great fear has descended on the corporation. Had they at any point up to the outrageous Australian intervention, responded with an apology email and the assurance that two or three individuals responsible were dismissed, I would have been a satisfied if cautious customer, Instead operating from the "No shame, no change" principle they moved to corporate cover-up. These same fascist idiots are now free to victimise other customers. Imagine what could happen to the data of a corporation involved in environmental damage mitigation efforts, when these nutcases are transferred to AWS maintenance. They will of course not believe in climate change, be outraged, then .....? That Amazon might be that careless with what might be their most profitable operation is a mystery. I can not claim that I was unaware that Amazon have quite a well deserved reputation for unsavoury behaviours but still It was surprising.
You may not be targeted and I hope that you are not but I suggest several basic precautions for a safer experience. They are to remove the lurkers (those friends who monitor but never post), be wary of the site messaging, avoid personal information, such as calendars or emails on Kindle, leave only the minimum information on the member profile and screenshot the odd and the ugly. It cost nothing to implement these but to not might well do. Both site employees and a number of members have neither social conscience nor morality but far more concerning is their being vicious American man-children. Ominous music ends. 😊
Be well my friend and may we all find Good Reading! 🤗
I do not truly understand any of the terms which I see on YouTube but these are some of my favourite channels.
Ben and Emily, Jackie Rabbit, Philosophy Tube, Sarah Z, Mrs Betty Bowers, Tara Mooknee, Owen Jones, The Juice Media, May, Narrowboat Pirate, Tibees, A Day of Small Things, Munecat, Tom Nicholas, May Moon Narrowboat, Real Time History, Cruising Crafts, Military Aviation History, Prime of Midlife, Kris Atomic, The Nomadic Crobot, Cambrian Chronicles, PonySmasher, Make Better Media, Lizcapism Mia Mulder, Venom Geek Media, J Draper, Princess Weekes, Engineering with Rosie, Malinda, Karolina Zebrowska, Jill Bearup, Lives and Histories, Break N Remake, Lilly's Expat Life, Roomies Digest, Books and Lala, Autumn's Boutique, Shannon Makes, Spacedock, It's Black Friday, Space 1889, Acollierastro, Sophie from Mars, Whitney Avalon, The Good Place, Hoots, Zero's Legion, What Vivi did next, Manu Manzo, Sabine Hossenfelder, The Dadvocate, Kristine Vike, Dungeons and Discourse, New Economic Thinking, Ukraine News TV, North02, DUST, BlondiHacks, Daisy Bow, Discourse Minis, Adult Wednesday Addams - 2 seasons, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Jessie Gender, Chris Animations, Ula and Josh, The Trans Atheist, Acollierastro, Steve Shives, TIKHistory, Jay Exci, The Clockwork Reader, Sideprojects, Linguoer Mechanic, No Justice MTG, AllShorts, The Welsh Viking, Red Plateaus, History with Kayleigh, Geo Girl, Second Thought, Violet Orlandi, Renegade Cut, A Life of Lit, Extinction Rebellion UK, ConeofArc, Lady Knight The Brave, Knowing Better, Then & Now, The Octopus Lady, The Library Lady, The Closet Historian, Geo Girl, Planarwalker, Ben G Thomas, The Gutsick Gibbon, Ren Rants, The Council of Geeks, Certifiably Ingame, Perun. Natasha's Adventures, Hildegard von Blingin. The Closet Historian. Brandon F, How to ADHD, Answer in Progress, Bookslike Whoa, Omeleto, France 24, Big Joel, Beau of the Fifth Column, ATP Geopolitics, Amanda the Jedi, Library Ladder, Alina Gingertail, AllShorts, Tom Nicholas, Filaxim Historia, The How and Why of Mathematics, Answer in Progress, Templin Institute, Elina Charatsidou, Books with Brittany, Smack the Pony, Zoe Bee, Atun Shei, Cold Fusion.
I wish you a grand morning, a pleasant afternoon, a cosy evening, a wonderful night and may we all continue learning.
If a person allows Another to speak in their name unchallenged, they adopt Another's sins.
My Grandmother
I originally scribbled reviews to myself expecting no one to pick mine out of hundreds or thousands. Given how awful much of Amazon loans are, it was to be my road map for future selections. I was mistaken and reactions there were. Offended anti-socialist, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ and of course virulently racist snowflakes, who while never having written a review, wrote many comments. I am doing revisions now as if for an audience. I doubt that anyone will read them but hopefully they will be more readable and possibly useful. The original was disjointed and a mess. The ratings were too high until I added 0 to minus 5 to the scale. The world building is an afterthought as usual with low end science fiction. Fortunately for the writer, the ratings suggest he needs no improvement and I am sure that there will be none.
Before I continue, I must visit YouTube. This was brought to you by - SK Media, Andrewism, Zoe Bee, Jose, Bobbing Along, Biz Barclay, May, Venom Geek Media, ThePrimeChronus, Mia Mulder, Chris and Shell, Big Train, Resurrected Starships, Jessie Gender, Times Radio, Annie's Literary Empire, Physics Girl, Ukraine News TV, Jeans Thoughts, Verilybitchie, Some More News, UATV, It's Black Friday, Brittany Page, Philosophy Tube, OrangeRiver, Kaz Rowe, Anna from Ukraine, Ro Ramdin, The Bands of HM Royal Marines, JohnTheDuncan, Hello Future Me, Sarah Z, Discourse Minis, Steve Shives, Lizcapism, Karolina Zebrowska, Munecat, Whitney Avalon, Up and Atom, Geo Girl, Planarwalker, Gutsick Gibbon, Don't F@ck with Ukraine - Max Barskih, Shannon Makes, Ukraine News TV, Jill Bearup, Break N Make, Bovington Tank Museum, Second Thought, The Shades of Orange, Real Time History, Lore Reloaded, Deerstalker Pictures, Gemma Dyer, History with Kayleigh, The Amber Ruffin Show, Renegade Cut, Ship Happens, The Dadvocate, The Closet Historian, Bernadette Banner, Real Engineering, Jake Broe, The Kavernacle, Merphy Napier, Eckharts Ladder, The Juice Media, Kidology, A Cup of Nicole, Alice Cappelle.
The background world is worse than unimaginative, it is stifling. The background is the entire story, such as it is. The world is defined as a collection of independent polities without interdependence or dominance games of economic competition and predation. There are just world "leaders" who are qualified to lead because ..... they are leaders. They each exercise an apparently absolute authority in their respective domains. What an odd view of the world. It corresponds to nothing that I remember reading.
The problems are of course scarcity, not the terrible financial/economic structures. Capitalism is not just a label, it is a system of billions of decisions made yearly by the controllers of capital. A liberal democratic government are that structure which nurse and protect the economic flows and maintain the illusions that citizens voting for parties all of which tout identical policies, are perceived as freedom.
The crises of hunger, poor healthcare, educational and professional inequality and the rest are either natural aspects of the human condition or the result of evil government policies by incompetent short sighted "leaders". The writer can not envision a society as an economic reality which creates the parameters of all policy options. No thought but a definite politics. I was not surprised when the writer referenced Fox News as a preferred news source by the Galactic Council. Fox News is referenced in many of the worst books.
That is the set-up for the introduction of the arrival of the benevolent aliens. The world building, including the Confederation structure, their reach, history, tech and the nature/origin of the enemy are not close to fully explored/explained. The timeline for the background is more than shaky. The main character's history has holes too big to ignore. The plot(?) is a recitation of the main character's lack of preparedness for the many consequences of their big reveal. This is the process for which they were trained and for which they carefully prepared. 🙂
I need another YouTube break. This next was made possible by the channels - Leeja Miller, Leadhead, Alizee, Jessica Kellgren Fozard, Cruising Crafts, Crow Caller, Trae Crowder, Bella Ciao -Nikolay Kutuzov, Female Warriors -Teresatessa, Andrewism, Julie Nolke, Not the Andrew Marr Show, Maggie May Fish, Agro Squirrel Narrates, Olly Richards, Installation 00, Some More News, Celtic Woman, Tulia, Mrs Betty Bowers, Honest Ads, The Juice Media, Up and Atom, Smack the Pony, Chris and Shell, Kris Atomic, Acollierastro, JuLingo, Abby Cox, Military History Visualized, Lily Simpson, Owen Jones, KernowDamo, Bovington Tank Museum, Squire, Extinction Rebellion UK, Philosophy Tube, Lily Alexandre, Viva La Dirt League, Widebeam and Wellingtons, Boat Time, Alt Shift X, Friendly Space Ninja, Trae Crowder, The Good Place, Between the Wars, Dominic Noble, Narrowboat Pirate, The British Museum, Big Train, Knowing Better, Red Plateaus, Malinda, The Onion, Venom Geek Media, Michael Lambert, The Leftist Cooks, Second Thought, Meidas Touch.
The characters are bland enough that I lost track of who does what, why or where during most of the book. The dialogue has problems with repetition, mutual admiration segments, clunkiness and a horrible overuse of the word "family". The pace of the book is frenetic. The editing issue seems to reflect an indie writer with no one to do his edits. I have seen the fast pace tactic used before with flat characters and they were never great books. Usually the fast pace covers the absence of character development or gaping holes in the plot. The dialogue matches the pace, the characters and the action. There is no time allowed for the characters to grow, nor enough room for development.
The book seems to consider a more representative view of a global response to a global development than almost every low quality fiction in the Amazon selection. Israel is a priority contact, as is the Vatican above the G20 nations? An odd imagining. The president of Mexico does not know who the ambassador of the InterGalactic Federation is, when the entire population of the planet is aware of who they are because he is .....Mexican. A leader of the Zionist segment of Israel has a change of heart because of a near death experience. He suddenly discovers that his racism and racial superiority beliefs may be bad. He now feels that perhaps genocide may be bad and that Arabs are human beings. North Korean prison guards are not just ejected into the sun's corona.
The writer encourages the reader to entertain the notion that alien technology will not be immediately handed to manufacturing and other corporations, by every "leader" on the planet. All these technological goodies will instead, be made freely available to every human on the planet.
It reminds me of a British University creating a vaccine against a pandemic of unknown lethality. After announcing that they were going to give the rights to produce the vaccine freely to Third World producers, a kindly American billionaire visited that school and successfully coerced or threatened them to reverse course and instead give it freely to a European pharmaceutical corporation. Corporations are known to destroy food, clothing, household goods rather than donate their surplus production. The thickest of Goodreads members must balk at the assumption that corporations give away anything that they can sell profitably.
The aliens have a "Being nice to your citizens" standard, which only two countries meet. They are the USA and Saudi Arabia. Even if this were parody, it would not be funny. That the aliens enjoy Fox News does explain their lack of a moral or ethical viewpoint. The worst writers always insert Fox as a popular and credible News source in their terrible attempts at writing. Capitalism and the profit motive which create artificial scarcity are not in need of change. Their picture of uplift is frightening. 🙂
The Saudi standard includes beheading a woman who drives a car, searching for the creator of a scandalous video of a man and a woman having breakfast and conversation, hanging or beheading petty offenders (not upper class men and women who mutilate, torture and murder their foreign domestic help), not providing for the widow begging on the streets which is a fixture not an oddity, and more.
The USA standard includes an almost non-existent social safety net, the weakest worker protections in the industrialized world, the worst healthcare delivery and availability in the industrialized world, the most expensive and least useful educational system in the industrialized world, environmental degradation deeper and more extensive even than Britain's, a level of police brutality and murder which must make Russian security forces envious, a legal structure so corrupt that no working class citizen, no person of colour and no woman not of certain classes can pretend to fairness, equality or professional treatment from the system and more.
These Low Effort, Minimal Effort and No Effort political rants are typical of the low end of quality science fiction in the Amazon selection. For the first time in my life, after close to five years of Amazon loans, occasional scans of Goodreads reviews and comments directed to myself and others I watch my fiction, especially science fiction. The streaming services deliver a more finished and more satisfying entertainment. YouTube also host Short film channels, such as DUST and Omeleto which deliver very good science fiction stories.
Admitting that I would likely find nothing useful in Goodreads reviews, I began searching YouTube for science commentary. Finding those channels led me to the hobbyist, lifestyle, educational, essayist and finally the book channels. The book channels 😍 host awesome communities of thoughtful readers with varied tastes united in their love of all things bookish. I feel that any reader will find a visit to several a joy. From sponsor spots on essayist and educational channels, I was introduced to the many dedicated educational video sites all of which I felt were worth a look.
About Goodreads discourse. About eighteen months ago, I wrote a short mildly negative review of Powers of the Earth, a juvenile salute to the sociopathic January 6, 2021 hero by Travis Corcoran. He is a self-described libertarian and vocal supporter of the return of chattel slavery, US veteran, supporter of Putin's Russia and an employee of an unnamed US agency. There followed a year long stream of nasty comments from one of my favourite comment clouds. Eventually Claes Rees Jr/cgr710 an arrogant, poorly educated buffoon who from his first comment on another book reminded me of Philomena Cunk minus her charm, wrote a last comment.
He declared that They had "won" (?). I discovered that They had launched a flood of sick sexual and racist comments against channels which I mentioned. The early teen boater and her mother, the particle physicist, the astrophysicist, the engineer and the many other female creators were not impressed but the world's store of ugliness was successfully and unnecessarily increased. A splendid self-portrait of the emotionally stunted, twisted American man-child with a middle class background was also delivered to a multinational audience. I imagine in their little minds, if They in fact possess such, considered that victory enough. USA! Yay ??
My YouTube picks of the moment.
Grungeon Master, Templin Institute, Riley J Dennis, The Trans Atheist, Trae Crowder, Abney Park, Matilda Hogberg, Rachel MacDonald, Kazachka, Friendly Space Ninja, Bobbing Along, Terrible Writing Advice, Linguoer Mechanic.
About Goodreads/Kindle/Amazon. Please consider treating this as a potentially hostile site. 😕
Ominous music begins. 😊 I have seen other reviewers experience the same comment clouds which I have from my fourth month or so on the site. Goodreads have acknowledged not a single query. They have responded though. Kindle interruptions lasting days periodically until I wrote about them and my limited message history shared with third parties, which was meant to have placed me in physical danger. They have recently begun erasing all comments from my reviews, the few good and the many, many nasty, threatening or juvenile. Goodreads have blocked my view of other readers' reactions, blocked the transition from end-of-book to the Review and Rating page. They had masked all my commenter names and blocked uploads for days at a time and again lifting them once I reported the incidents in reviews. They prevented me removing my last several lurkers, who now all have disappeared since I began writing about the situation. Still no notification, no account history report, no acknowledgment of request for explanation of any element of the interesting Amazon customer service protocols.
These are not the rage reactions of a single Kindle tech against a socialist reader. As near as I can determine, these are seen as normal and/or acceptable to American readers. There have been no reactions from members to abusive comments to female reviewers, to these vicious comment swarms, no backlash to the toxic atmosphere from the cud chewers. Whatever Goodreads had been, they are now nothing more than a consensus creation engine and Kindle is not a book directory but a portal for shampoo and vacuum cleaner sales. I am certain that some members have noticed the interface pointers. As a point of sales for some ebooks (many have no ebook version, which surprised me) it may be useful, though with prices usually higher than paper. Kindle employees with some management support, feel comfortable using customer information for their own purposes. 🤔
Using my limited Goodreads message history, it seems that a favour requested by an American secret clearance holder through Pine Gap Centre was honoured by Australian Intelligence services. My friend was frightened for my safety after an attempted interrogation regarding my personal history. As I added parts of this madness to my reviews and other sites, it seems the great fear has descended on the corporation. Had they at any point up to the outrageous Australian intervention, responded with an apology email and the assurance that two or three individuals responsible were dismissed, I would have been a satisfied if cautious customer, Instead operating from the "No shame, no change" principle they moved to corporate cover-up. These same fascist idiots are now free to victimise other customers. Imagine what could happen to the data of a corporation involved in environmental damage mitigation efforts, when these nutcases are transferred to AWS maintenance. They will of course not believe in climate change, be outraged, then .....? That Amazon might be that careless with what might be their most profitable operation is a mystery. I can not claim that I was unaware that Amazon have quite a well deserved reputation for unsavoury behaviours but still It was surprising.
You may not be targeted and I hope that you are not but I suggest several basic precautions for a safer experience. They are to remove the lurkers (those friends who monitor but never post), be wary of the site messaging, avoid personal information, such as calendars or emails on Kindle, leave only the minimum information on the member profile and screenshot the odd and the ugly. It cost nothing to implement these but to not might well do. Both site employees and a number of members have neither social conscience nor morality but far more concerning is their being vicious American man-children. Ominous music ends. 😊
Be well my friend and may we all find Good Reading! 🤗
I do not truly understand any of the terms which I see on YouTube but these are some of my favourite channels.
Ben and Emily, Jackie Rabbit, Philosophy Tube, Sarah Z, Mrs Betty Bowers, Tara Mooknee, Owen Jones, The Juice Media, May, Narrowboat Pirate, Tibees, A Day of Small Things, Munecat, Tom Nicholas, May Moon Narrowboat, Real Time History, Cruising Crafts, Military Aviation History, Prime of Midlife, Kris Atomic, The Nomadic Crobot, Cambrian Chronicles, PonySmasher, Make Better Media, Lizcapism Mia Mulder, Venom Geek Media, J Draper, Princess Weekes, Engineering with Rosie, Malinda, Karolina Zebrowska, Jill Bearup, Lives and Histories, Break N Remake, Lilly's Expat Life, Roomies Digest, Books and Lala, Autumn's Boutique, Shannon Makes, Spacedock, It's Black Friday, Space 1889, Acollierastro, Sophie from Mars, Whitney Avalon, The Good Place, Hoots, Zero's Legion, What Vivi did next, Manu Manzo, Sabine Hossenfelder, The Dadvocate, Kristine Vike, Dungeons and Discourse, New Economic Thinking, Ukraine News TV, North02, DUST, BlondiHacks, Daisy Bow, Discourse Minis, Adult Wednesday Addams - 2 seasons, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Jessie Gender, Chris Animations, Ula and Josh, The Trans Atheist, Acollierastro, Steve Shives, TIKHistory, Jay Exci, The Clockwork Reader, Sideprojects, Linguoer Mechanic, No Justice MTG, AllShorts, The Welsh Viking, Red Plateaus, History with Kayleigh, Geo Girl, Second Thought, Violet Orlandi, Renegade Cut, A Life of Lit, Extinction Rebellion UK, ConeofArc, Lady Knight The Brave, Knowing Better, Then & Now, The Octopus Lady, The Library Lady, The Closet Historian, Geo Girl, Planarwalker, Ben G Thomas, The Gutsick Gibbon, Ren Rants, The Council of Geeks, Certifiably Ingame, Perun. Natasha's Adventures, Hildegard von Blingin. The Closet Historian. Brandon F, How to ADHD, Answer in Progress, Bookslike Whoa, Omeleto, France 24, Big Joel, Beau of the Fifth Column, ATP Geopolitics, Amanda the Jedi, Library Ladder, Alina Gingertail, AllShorts, Tom Nicholas, Filaxim Historia, The How and Why of Mathematics, Answer in Progress, Templin Institute, Elina Charatsidou, Books with Brittany, Smack the Pony, Zoe Bee, Atun Shei, Cold Fusion.
I wish you a grand morning, a pleasant afternoon, a cosy evening, a wonderful night and may we all continue learning.
If a person allows Another to speak in their name unchallenged, they adopt Another's sins.
My Grandmother
March 28, 2023
Oh My Gosh! What a load of dribble, simplistically simple, an abundance of conveniences. It was like reading a Spot the Dog book for 5 year olds, or Where is Spot. Spot had pooped on the mat, the alien said to his many minions, “get this mat cleaned up as soon as you can”, The minion replied “You’ve got it boss” the alien said to Spot “Please don’t do that again, it's not very nice”, Spot said, “I’m sorry, I think it was something I ate, probably that kebab I had last night”.
Spot pissed on the man's leg, the alien said to his minion,”Get those trousers dry cleaned immediately”, the minion said, “You've got it boss”. The alien admonished Spot, “Please don’t do that again, it's not very nice”. Spot said “I’m so sorry, it must have been the ten pints of Guinness I drank last night. It won’t happen again, I promise”.
Everyone was so polite, so accommodating, kind, pleasant, and so nauseatingly grateful. The only two people that were not very nice were an arrogant FBI special agent and some Mexican. I should clarify. I only got through 42%, and that was a miracle. For that 42% all I got was, an alien avatar flew around the world, beaming down here, there and everywhere, convincing countries to join the galactic confederation, by healing and curing their heads of state from terminal illness, or some sort of life threatening, or life altering disabilities. It was also really handy that most of these countries that he visited had heads of states and prime ministers, presidents and kings who needed a cure for these types of illnesses. And of course after being cured they were more than happy to join the confederation, in fact they were falling over each other to join, they even formed a queue. How very civilized of them. There was Canada, Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, I’m not sure how many counties there are in the world, around 160 odd, I don’t know how many more joined in the other 58%, perhaps that’s for book 2 and 3.
Spot pissed on the man's leg, the alien said to his minion,”Get those trousers dry cleaned immediately”, the minion said, “You've got it boss”. The alien admonished Spot, “Please don’t do that again, it's not very nice”. Spot said “I’m so sorry, it must have been the ten pints of Guinness I drank last night. It won’t happen again, I promise”.
Everyone was so polite, so accommodating, kind, pleasant, and so nauseatingly grateful. The only two people that were not very nice were an arrogant FBI special agent and some Mexican. I should clarify. I only got through 42%, and that was a miracle. For that 42% all I got was, an alien avatar flew around the world, beaming down here, there and everywhere, convincing countries to join the galactic confederation, by healing and curing their heads of state from terminal illness, or some sort of life threatening, or life altering disabilities. It was also really handy that most of these countries that he visited had heads of states and prime ministers, presidents and kings who needed a cure for these types of illnesses. And of course after being cured they were more than happy to join the confederation, in fact they were falling over each other to join, they even formed a queue. How very civilized of them. There was Canada, Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, I’m not sure how many counties there are in the world, around 160 odd, I don’t know how many more joined in the other 58%, perhaps that’s for book 2 and 3.
September 20, 2020
Excellent and enertaining read.
I prefer books and series that are about building, not destroying, something that is hard to find in sci-fi.Great character and storyline. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
I prefer books and series that are about building, not destroying, something that is hard to find in sci-fi.Great character and storyline. I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
September 7, 2021
View from the other side
A romping yarn of a book that carried me into the world view of the other side of first contact. This is epic stuff.
A romping yarn of a book that carried me into the world view of the other side of first contact. This is epic stuff.
December 19, 2022
Rather good!
August 10, 2021
Great try with some major flaws
There were several things that kept me from enjoying this story.
1. The alien protagonist and all of his crew are simply too good to be true. They are completely altruistic and are polite to a fault. They are understanding, compassionate, slow to anger, quick to forgive and friend to all who are not irredeemably evil. (Humans who are only moderately evil quickly see the error of their ways once the aliens explain why they ought to be nice. Apparently they were just misguided.)
2. Every problem, great or small, has a readily available technological solution. Each time a problem is identified (apart from the inter-dimensional "Enemy" who lingers throughout) it is overcome almost immediately with some fantastic technological gizmo.
3. The same scenario, where Michael (the hyper-friendly alien) meets some skeptical head of state and quickly converts him or her with some dazzling display of advanced technology, is played out over and over in the first two thirds of the book. It's exceedingly repetitive and becomes frustrating after about the fifth time.
4. There are some self contradictory plot elements. For example, one alien identifies a problem with not having enough trained people to operate all the shields that are necessary - he states the only two who can do so could handle at most five apiece. Within a few pages Michael announces plans to employ hundreds of shields across the planet. Who is going to operate them isn't explained.
5. Solutions to virtually all the world's problems are treated with the sophistication of a junior high student. ("Gosh, if we could all just be friends, then everything would be just peachy.")
This has the makings of a good sci-fi series but needs a LOT of work. Good idea, poor execution.
There were several things that kept me from enjoying this story.
1. The alien protagonist and all of his crew are simply too good to be true. They are completely altruistic and are polite to a fault. They are understanding, compassionate, slow to anger, quick to forgive and friend to all who are not irredeemably evil. (Humans who are only moderately evil quickly see the error of their ways once the aliens explain why they ought to be nice. Apparently they were just misguided.)
2. Every problem, great or small, has a readily available technological solution. Each time a problem is identified (apart from the inter-dimensional "Enemy" who lingers throughout) it is overcome almost immediately with some fantastic technological gizmo.
3. The same scenario, where Michael (the hyper-friendly alien) meets some skeptical head of state and quickly converts him or her with some dazzling display of advanced technology, is played out over and over in the first two thirds of the book. It's exceedingly repetitive and becomes frustrating after about the fifth time.
4. There are some self contradictory plot elements. For example, one alien identifies a problem with not having enough trained people to operate all the shields that are necessary - he states the only two who can do so could handle at most five apiece. Within a few pages Michael announces plans to employ hundreds of shields across the planet. Who is going to operate them isn't explained.
5. Solutions to virtually all the world's problems are treated with the sophistication of a junior high student. ("Gosh, if we could all just be friends, then everything would be just peachy.")
This has the makings of a good sci-fi series but needs a LOT of work. Good idea, poor execution.
July 13, 2023
A very unusual story told from the alien's point of view. Michael, an astronomer, successfully predicts when three supernovas will happen. this brings him a degree of fame and he goes on television.
He reveals he's actually an alien and an ambassador from them to Earth with the purpose of helping the people on Earth. He's part of the Confederation of Planets (think the Federation from Star Trek.)
He notes threats that the Earth has at the present moment such as the climate crisis. Despite trying to help the Earth the FBI raids his office in an attempt to arrest him.
(No good deed goes unpunished.)
Michael visits Israel and while there saves them from destruction by missles launched from Iraq. He's visiting countries to try to get them to sign on to a treaty of cooperation.
Some people like him. Some countries and people want him dead.
Michael is able to heal people and bring dead people back to life.
The question is will he ever be able to unite countries in order to help save the Earth from a threat it will face in the future or will the hatred between countries skuttle all his efforts?
Neat premise, good characters.
He reveals he's actually an alien and an ambassador from them to Earth with the purpose of helping the people on Earth. He's part of the Confederation of Planets (think the Federation from Star Trek.)
He notes threats that the Earth has at the present moment such as the climate crisis. Despite trying to help the Earth the FBI raids his office in an attempt to arrest him.
(No good deed goes unpunished.)
Michael visits Israel and while there saves them from destruction by missles launched from Iraq. He's visiting countries to try to get them to sign on to a treaty of cooperation.
Some people like him. Some countries and people want him dead.
Michael is able to heal people and bring dead people back to life.
The question is will he ever be able to unite countries in order to help save the Earth from a threat it will face in the future or will the hatred between countries skuttle all his efforts?
Neat premise, good characters.
June 23, 2021
I really liked this book and was about to give it a 5 rating. But after several chapters of Michael holding meeting after meeting with world leaders and doing almost the same with each I found the dialogue a bit repetitive. The book is very fast paced and intense with things happening all over the world one right after the other; i.e. Michael's meetings with heads of state. The book has great science fiction with things we have seen in Star Trek programs a and movies. Things like replicators, beam me up or down, warp speed travel, mind reading, and also mental telepathy. BUT the book would better be in a genre, political science/fiction. I was just a bit disappointed that the book did not have a good concise description of the aliens in one place. And I would have though that there would be a better description of the "Enemy" species and why they wanted to take over the Earth.
I look forward to reading the other 4 books in this series.
I look forward to reading the other 4 books in this series.
September 2, 2022
I've read dozens of first contact novels and this is one of my favorites. Among all set on earth before humans are space-faring, definitely my favorite.
In fact, I thought years ago that if I were to write a first contact novels, it would go very much like this one: emissary come in the form of a human avatar, takes certain actions to show humanity that his claims of being from an advanced civilization are true, helps humanity stabilize socially and politically, then shepherds them into interstellar community.
I found it a stretch that humans could innovate so much so fast, but ok, there was a rough rationale.
Most importantly though, the series just got progressively better. Mid novel 3 to the end was just completely immersive. I consumed the series in just a few weeks.
Tried the Daan series after this. But meh. Need more great first contact sci-fi!
In fact, I thought years ago that if I were to write a first contact novels, it would go very much like this one: emissary come in the form of a human avatar, takes certain actions to show humanity that his claims of being from an advanced civilization are true, helps humanity stabilize socially and politically, then shepherds them into interstellar community.
I found it a stretch that humans could innovate so much so fast, but ok, there was a rough rationale.
Most importantly though, the series just got progressively better. Mid novel 3 to the end was just completely immersive. I consumed the series in just a few weeks.
Tried the Daan series after this. But meh. Need more great first contact sci-fi!
June 5, 2023
I really enjoyed this book primarily because the benevolent aliens are so kind. Many scenes got me a little teared up as Michael, the alien leader constantly committed acts of kindness toward all humans. You would think a book that focuses entirely on benevolent aliens might be a little shallow, but this is far from it. The characters are deep and interesting and their ethical principles are very reminiscent of Star Trek.
While I really enjoyed the book it became rather tedious to read because it got bogged down in a lot of repetitive sociopolitical detail which was not really necessary. The author could seriously use a good editor to help him focus on what's important in the storyline. But I stuck with it, and look forward to reading the second book.
While I really enjoyed the book it became rather tedious to read because it got bogged down in a lot of repetitive sociopolitical detail which was not really necessary. The author could seriously use a good editor to help him focus on what's important in the storyline. But I stuck with it, and look forward to reading the second book.
November 15, 2021
Incredible look into an imaginary future
While it is very far out from reality this book provides many possibilities for the future. Michael's evaluation of the world leaders is spot on. Unfortunately we have no way to deal with the most virulent of the evil ones and they are here, today, in our world. I hope and pray we can develop technology to deal with these problems before it is too late. If even some of the potential benefits come to reality it will be wonderful. I suspect much of it will remain my wishful thinking.
While it is very far out from reality this book provides many possibilities for the future. Michael's evaluation of the world leaders is spot on. Unfortunately we have no way to deal with the most virulent of the evil ones and they are here, today, in our world. I hope and pray we can develop technology to deal with these problems before it is too late. If even some of the potential benefits come to reality it will be wonderful. I suspect much of it will remain my wishful thinking.
December 31, 2020
Good, but not great.
I love the concept of this book and the ideas brought forth in it. However, for me the pacing was a little off and there was a lot of mundane repetition throughout the majority of it. To be more specific, reading about the meetings with the press and the leaders of all the various nations was difficult to get through and I found myself having to just skim over much of it. Not sure I would have finished the book otherwise.
I love the concept of this book and the ideas brought forth in it. However, for me the pacing was a little off and there was a lot of mundane repetition throughout the majority of it. To be more specific, reading about the meetings with the press and the leaders of all the various nations was difficult to get through and I found myself having to just skim over much of it. Not sure I would have finished the book otherwise.
June 6, 2021
A Different Take on First Contact
I liked that the first contact was friendly and well meaning in its purpose rather than the all too familiar alien invasion. Some of the technologies were pretty far-fetched such as replicators making food and goods out of thin air. The main problem with the writing was repetitiveness of all the contacts with different countries that had very little differences.
I liked that the first contact was friendly and well meaning in its purpose rather than the all too familiar alien invasion. Some of the technologies were pretty far-fetched such as replicators making food and goods out of thin air. The main problem with the writing was repetitiveness of all the contacts with different countries that had very little differences.
April 25, 2021
First contact story
Great firat contact story !
Great character development . Good mix of scene mix of local and regional levels of action sequences and introspective moments. Plot lines move along several lines of action , a responsiveness to character development reveals multiple possibilities in future novels. Great job.
Great firat contact story !
Great character development . Good mix of scene mix of local and regional levels of action sequences and introspective moments. Plot lines move along several lines of action , a responsiveness to character development reveals multiple possibilities in future novels. Great job.
July 14, 2021
Get ready to be up all night
What a crazy ride, this story will keep you on the edge. I enjoyed the story and the writing. The author is very talented and writes smooth. Easy to read and moves along quickly. Wish I had written this book. This was a fun read for sure, I plan reading the next in the series. I think you will to.
What a crazy ride, this story will keep you on the edge. I enjoyed the story and the writing. The author is very talented and writes smooth. Easy to read and moves along quickly. Wish I had written this book. This was a fun read for sure, I plan reading the next in the series. I think you will to.
February 8, 2022
DNF. How many countries can this guy go to and say the same thing over and over….And print it. It’s wild.
No editor here.
Insane that he keeps taking you to the next chapter only to repeat the story in a different language.
Spoiler alert: much better out there. This is like an 8th graders comic out into a binding.
No editor here.
Insane that he keeps taking you to the next chapter only to repeat the story in a different language.
Spoiler alert: much better out there. This is like an 8th graders comic out into a binding.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2023
This book started with a very good idea--tell the story of first contact from the alien perspective. However, it is not well executed. First, the story is quite repetitive. Read three or four chapters about the benign, polite alien ambassador, the surprise among natives of X country that he speaks their language, demonstrations of alien tech, questions from politicians, agreement to join galactic alliance. Repeat. It's sort of like what a novel written by Steve Reich would be--keep repeating the same basic pattern endlessly with minor alterations. It becomes quite tedious to read.
Another problem is that the author describes human cultures through simplistic stereotypes and often basic inaccuracies that would not have happened with even minimal Internet searching. One of the best (worst) moments is when the President of Japan enters to meet the ambassador, followed by the Emperor. Well, Japan has no president--it has a prime minister. Then the Emperor claps his hands twice to tell everyone to leave the room. That is so off from the way the Japanese Emperor behaves that it's laughable. Later the PM seems to be in the room, too. The author didn't do the homework necessary to make this a convincing read. At times the stereotypes are so naive and simplistic that they border on offensive. Perhaps because I've spent many years in Japan, I was more attuned to how poor the portrayal of Japanese behavior is, but this leads me to think that the stereotypes run throughout.
There are plenty of other issues: the evil alien enemy that suddenly appears 1/2 way through the book and is clearly intended to be the explanation as to why we have rouge states (N. Korea, Iran, Russia all of which are also portrayed with stereotypes). The characters are poorly developed and are largely uninteresting. Did I mention the plot line is very repetitive?
Another problem is that the author describes human cultures through simplistic stereotypes and often basic inaccuracies that would not have happened with even minimal Internet searching. One of the best (worst) moments is when the President of Japan enters to meet the ambassador, followed by the Emperor. Well, Japan has no president--it has a prime minister. Then the Emperor claps his hands twice to tell everyone to leave the room. That is so off from the way the Japanese Emperor behaves that it's laughable. Later the PM seems to be in the room, too. The author didn't do the homework necessary to make this a convincing read. At times the stereotypes are so naive and simplistic that they border on offensive. Perhaps because I've spent many years in Japan, I was more attuned to how poor the portrayal of Japanese behavior is, but this leads me to think that the stereotypes run throughout.
There are plenty of other issues: the evil alien enemy that suddenly appears 1/2 way through the book and is clearly intended to be the explanation as to why we have rouge states (N. Korea, Iran, Russia all of which are also portrayed with stereotypes). The characters are poorly developed and are largely uninteresting. Did I mention the plot line is very repetitive?
November 21, 2023
Quite possibly one of the worst books I've read in recent years. At times, it felt like reading a child's school homework. And not a particularly gifted child at that. The fact that the book's blurb compares it to Childhood's End is laughable. The fact that it is rated at 4.2 on Goodreads calls into question either the site's ranking system or the collective intelligence of the reading audience. I'm not sure which is worse but I suspect it's the latter.
The plot is that benevolent highly advanced aliens are here to save the planet and us from ourselves. Not a novel idea but I can live with that. The execution of the plot is where the book fails to get on the rails. I would have said "where the book got derailed" but lets be honest - this turd of a novel never got on any rail to begin with. The chatter between characters feels stilted and artificial. Clarke's "any sufficiently advanced technology is magic" line is interpreted too literally by this author as he makes up unreasonable technological solutions and hand-waves it away with "nanotechnology" and "AI" whereas anyone with even a slight scientific attitude would find it laughable. Hey at least the author didn't use quantum physics anywhere. Plus points for that. I guess in retrospect Clarke was a genius because he never tried to explain all the Overseer technology in Childhood's End with the flimsy tropes that existed when that book was written.
TLDR: if you have a scientific bent of mind or value your time, give this book a wide berth.
The plot is that benevolent highly advanced aliens are here to save the planet and us from ourselves. Not a novel idea but I can live with that. The execution of the plot is where the book fails to get on the rails. I would have said "where the book got derailed" but lets be honest - this turd of a novel never got on any rail to begin with. The chatter between characters feels stilted and artificial. Clarke's "any sufficiently advanced technology is magic" line is interpreted too literally by this author as he makes up unreasonable technological solutions and hand-waves it away with "nanotechnology" and "AI" whereas anyone with even a slight scientific attitude would find it laughable. Hey at least the author didn't use quantum physics anywhere. Plus points for that. I guess in retrospect Clarke was a genius because he never tried to explain all the Overseer technology in Childhood's End with the flimsy tropes that existed when that book was written.
TLDR: if you have a scientific bent of mind or value your time, give this book a wide berth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2025
No one seems to know D. Ward Cornell, but he has become one of my favorite authors. In fact, of the 89 books I was able to complete last year, I chose his Echoes of Extinction series as my favorite. This book is also very good. I expect the Revelation series to continue this way. This story falls under the first contact genre of sci-fi. It is fast paced and well thought out.
Full transparency, I find it both a con and pro, but his stories seem overly or unrealistically optimistic. I might be so bold as to say it is a cosy-sci-fi. Not very demanding of the reader. In a good way.
If you like first contact stories and sci-fi, I recommend both series mentioned
451 pages on Kindle accompanied by audible
Full transparency, I find it both a con and pro, but his stories seem overly or unrealistically optimistic. I might be so bold as to say it is a cosy-sci-fi. Not very demanding of the reader. In a good way.
If you like first contact stories and sci-fi, I recommend both series mentioned
451 pages on Kindle accompanied by audible
July 19, 2020
Needs Editing
A great idea to present first encounter from the aliens' perspective. The story is interesting and the writing is excellent. My only issue is that by about half way through I realized that the book was being bogged down with repetitive formulaic alien encounter as well as filler material that added very little if anything to the read. I think a decent editor could cut a third of the material without affecting the story.
A great idea to present first encounter from the aliens' perspective. The story is interesting and the writing is excellent. My only issue is that by about half way through I realized that the book was being bogged down with repetitive formulaic alien encounter as well as filler material that added very little if anything to the read. I think a decent editor could cut a third of the material without affecting the story.
June 22, 2022
The premise of the book was very appealing. The execution was redundant and became boring. For each country the central figure interacted with, almost the exact dialog was used. The writer was filling pages with redundancy not progressing, but spinning, stuck in the same dialog. Could have been a great story but got stuck in intergalactic mud so often I just lost interest. No way this could be rated above a 2.
September 15, 2022
Do your research!
Most if the political views and most of the information of the problems is the foreign countries most of the book talks about seem to be "alternate throughts" plucked straight from fox news and other such hopeless propaganda sources. Don't be a lazy author and DO YOUR RESEARCH! It completely ruins the book to present the world through such a narrow minded filter, especially since so much of it is about international culture and politics.
Most if the political views and most of the information of the problems is the foreign countries most of the book talks about seem to be "alternate throughts" plucked straight from fox news and other such hopeless propaganda sources. Don't be a lazy author and DO YOUR RESEARCH! It completely ruins the book to present the world through such a narrow minded filter, especially since so much of it is about international culture and politics.
November 11, 2022
Wonderful Start (Inspired Imagining)
I do really enjoy when an author goes deep and seeks to imagine and write scenarios that would answer all the questions we have about our existence and the existence of the universe and tie it all together with a beautiful plot.
As I read this first installment I find myself putting this author in the category of a Sci Fi counterpart of C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien. To Mr. Cornell please continue to be inspired and to imagine beautifully
I do really enjoy when an author goes deep and seeks to imagine and write scenarios that would answer all the questions we have about our existence and the existence of the universe and tie it all together with a beautiful plot.
As I read this first installment I find myself putting this author in the category of a Sci Fi counterpart of C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien. To Mr. Cornell please continue to be inspired and to imagine beautifully
December 2, 2023
One of the best stories I have read in the last year! This is an amazing and interesting book.
I'm thinking that this author knows more about what is coming to our planet, than he admits to. Much of his writings describe what our alien friends are capable of bringing to our table! We need to remember that they are millions of years more advanced than we are. Their items are like magic to us. We are in for a great surprise! I for one can hardly wait!
I'm thinking that this author knows more about what is coming to our planet, than he admits to. Much of his writings describe what our alien friends are capable of bringing to our table! We need to remember that they are millions of years more advanced than we are. Their items are like magic to us. We are in for a great surprise! I for one can hardly wait!
May 13, 2024
Reverse, to me, first contact.
What an interesting take on alien, to us, contact. Quite honestly, I’ve never thought of it in this manner. Most books, the alien saves the day, but the structure isn’t there as we become alienized. Probably not a word, but I’m sticking to it. With the enemy on the way, we’ll see in which direction the next book goes.
Thanks for the great read! It was very hard to put down once I started!
What an interesting take on alien, to us, contact. Quite honestly, I’ve never thought of it in this manner. Most books, the alien saves the day, but the structure isn’t there as we become alienized. Probably not a word, but I’m sticking to it. With the enemy on the way, we’ll see in which direction the next book goes.
Thanks for the great read! It was very hard to put down once I started!
February 2, 2021
Unusually Different
A mostly positive storyline with some rather unusual and startling technology coupled with an odd assortment of characters and cast members. This is basically a “feel good” book with tech so advanced it appears as magic. Ends on a mellow note, with a strong hook leading to the next book.
A mostly positive storyline with some rather unusual and startling technology coupled with an odd assortment of characters and cast members. This is basically a “feel good” book with tech so advanced it appears as magic. Ends on a mellow note, with a strong hook leading to the next book.
February 15, 2021
I was not prepared
I was expecting a typical first contact novel. I read something entirely different. A unique look at the contact WE make with contact with an Universal civilization. I did love all the references to Sci-Fi. I think my favorite is changing Transport to Beam Me. But better not bean android named Scotty.
I was expecting a typical first contact novel. I read something entirely different. A unique look at the contact WE make with contact with an Universal civilization. I did love all the references to Sci-Fi. I think my favorite is changing Transport to Beam Me. But better not bean android named Scotty.
September 14, 2021
clockwork
This book was a little to predictable. The events where inorganic. The writing was formulaic. The universe that is being created ran like clockwork. All in all I found the book a little hard to read. I’ll continue reading this series in the hope that the writing gets better.
This book was a little to predictable. The events where inorganic. The writing was formulaic. The universe that is being created ran like clockwork. All in all I found the book a little hard to read. I’ll continue reading this series in the hope that the writing gets better.
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