What do you think?
Rate this book
INDOMENEO
Mysterious Individuals Intent on a Mission...
Observed, probed, analyzed, and debated, their destiny was chosen. Yet a conflict arose among them. Judgment was rendered.
Man’s Quest for Wisdom...
Alan Roark, the Chief Technology Officer of American Technologies and Industries, is in a major rut. The innovation well has run dry, and he seems to have lost his grip on steering ATech to where it needs to go. What’s worse, he’s not sure whether the existential crisis he seems to be experiencing is his, or whether there's something else going on within ATech beyond his control. Too many strange things are happening that cannot be explained.
....and a Planet's Fate Hanging in the Balance!
Dying stars dancing in space, gravitational waves exploited, collisions warping the cosmos. And with judgment...comes consequences. Consequences of galactic proportions.
Observed, probed, analyzed, and debated, their destiny was chosen. Yet a conflict arose among them. Judgment was rendered.
Man’s Quest for Wisdom...
Alan Roark, the Chief Technology Officer of American Technologies and Industries, is in a major rut. The innovation well has run dry, and he seems to have lost his grip on steering ATech to where it needs to go. What’s worse, he’s not sure whether the existential crisis he seems to be experiencing is his, or whether there's something else going on within ATech beyond his control. Too many strange things are happening that cannot be explained.
....and a Planet's Fate Hanging in the Balance!
Dying stars dancing in space, gravitational waves exploited, collisions warping the cosmos. And with judgment...comes consequences. Consequences of galactic proportions.
382 pages, Paperback
Published April 29, 2022
6 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Paul J. Bartusiak
5 books50 followersPaul J. Bartusiak was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago, with jaunts in a few other places over the years. He holds BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering, as well as a Juris Doctor, and has worked at several Fortune 500 high-tech companies, first as an Electrical Engineer and now as a Intellectual Property Attorney.
His engineering career allowed him to work on many fascinating technologies, including the radar seeker for the Harpoon missile, energy bandgap manipulation for semiconductor hetero-junction transistors, and integrated circuits for satellite telephones and covert communication systems.
As an Intellectual Property attorney, his work focuses on licensing, transactions, and litigation, which has afforded him the opportunity to travel all over the world and sit across the table with many high tech companies.
Reading Preferences- Classics, espionage, mystery, and as of late, a sampling of modern literary fiction.
Interests- Gardening, biking, jogging (i.e. maintaining reasonable cholesterol levels), reading newspapers (paper versions), cinema, PC gaming, and raising a family...not necessarily in that order.
His engineering career allowed him to work on many fascinating technologies, including the radar seeker for the Harpoon missile, energy bandgap manipulation for semiconductor hetero-junction transistors, and integrated circuits for satellite telephones and covert communication systems.
As an Intellectual Property attorney, his work focuses on licensing, transactions, and litigation, which has afforded him the opportunity to travel all over the world and sit across the table with many high tech companies.
Reading Preferences- Classics, espionage, mystery, and as of late, a sampling of modern literary fiction.
Interests- Gardening, biking, jogging (i.e. maintaining reasonable cholesterol levels), reading newspapers (paper versions), cinema, PC gaming, and raising a family...not necessarily in that order.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 18, 2023
An ode to determinism
This is sort-of a science fiction novel with an ethical message. Sort of.
Pages after pages, dozens of pages after dozens of page of impenetrable technobabble. Or maybe it is not technobabble. Maybe it's my limited knowledge which makes it appear as particularly noxious technobabble. While I freely admit that it is possible that it is not endless boring technobabble, I am pretty sure that this is what it is. And the thing is, it is not useful in any way. It could have been cut to one twentieth of its overwhelming volume without any observable effect on the story. But it has not been cut. So that, unfortunately, half the words in the book are mind numbing technobabble.
The story itself is simple, and could have been engaging. Paraphrasing, as to not give away the thrill of discovery, four agents of a colonial power are sent into a prospective colony to prepare the landing of the invasion force. One of them succumbs to an attack of ethical consciousness, and resolves to sabotage the mission. Adventures ensue.
But oh the details. Leaving aside the surfeit of made-up jargon, there are these many puzzling details which promise so much and deliver so little, leaving the reader scratching their head.
Why are the title of the book and the name of a second-tier character so reminiscent of the title of a famous opera by W. A. Mozart, the opera itself being named after the Italian form of the name of a mythical king of Crete? Yes, king Idomeneus is said to have had to sacrifice his own son as a result of rather not very well thought oath; but then in the mythological story this act of impiety has dire consequences for Crete and for the king, so what gives?
Why do two of the main alien characters use eastern European or Slavic names? Why would Bogdan be "closest to what [one] would understand in the vernacular of [English]", instead of the actual English equivalent, Theodore? Why do the amoral aliens address each other with komrade with a k? OK, comrade with a c would be understandable, as a rather on-the-nose allusion to the Communists and their atheism. But why with a k?
Why do the aliens use Latin or Latin-ish names? Why would they call Earth Maledictis, which is the dative or ablative plural or maledictus, accursed? Why not Maledicta? Why use an inflected form? Why would they name a planet Ultima Thule, after the name given to a faraway inhospitable island by a Greek explorer in the 4th century before the common era?
Why does a main character who is supposed to be a well-educated scientist and engineer speak about Alexander the Great as extending the Roman (!) empire, struggling with the Senate, and treating his conquered subjects with ruthlessness? He was King of Macedon and Hegemon of Greece; in his days, Rome was but a middling powerful city state somewhere in the west, had no empire, and had definitely nothing to do with Alexander's eastern conquests. Alexander was an absolute king, with no meddling Senate to check his power. And he did not treat the conquered peoples any worse than their former kings did. So why does this well-educated scientist and engineer make this most astonishing confusion? What is the reader supposed to understand?
But the major, and I really mean major, headscratcher is the setting of the book in an almost purely deterministic billiard-ball universe. The aliens are able to predict the evolution of modern humans hundreds of millions of years in advance, and this is accepted without even the slightest comment by the well-educated scientist and engineer main character, although such a predictive ability contradicts everything we know about the world we live in. The universe does not work like this, or, at least, if the universe actually allows such precise predictions about the distant future, then we must humbly admit that we know next to nothing about how it works. But then, if the human understanding of physics is so pathetic, why are the aliens concerned about our abilities? It would be like the USA being concerned about an attack by a fleet of dugout canoes of the uncontacted tribes of the North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Archipelago, armed with bows and arrows.
Overall, the book is coherent and mildy entertaining. Just ignore the deluge of technobabble and gloss over the occasional half-baked religious musings. And don't fall into the trap of trying to find meaning in the little puzzling details; unless, of course, that you like scratching your head in search of their meanings.
(Scale: * - unreadable, couldn't finish; ** - bad or very bad, but readable; *** - good work, well worth its price; **** - very good in its genre; ***** - timeless masterpiece.)
This is sort-of a science fiction novel with an ethical message. Sort of.
Pages after pages, dozens of pages after dozens of page of impenetrable technobabble. Or maybe it is not technobabble. Maybe it's my limited knowledge which makes it appear as particularly noxious technobabble. While I freely admit that it is possible that it is not endless boring technobabble, I am pretty sure that this is what it is. And the thing is, it is not useful in any way. It could have been cut to one twentieth of its overwhelming volume without any observable effect on the story. But it has not been cut. So that, unfortunately, half the words in the book are mind numbing technobabble.
The story itself is simple, and could have been engaging. Paraphrasing, as to not give away the thrill of discovery, four agents of a colonial power are sent into a prospective colony to prepare the landing of the invasion force. One of them succumbs to an attack of ethical consciousness, and resolves to sabotage the mission. Adventures ensue.
But oh the details. Leaving aside the surfeit of made-up jargon, there are these many puzzling details which promise so much and deliver so little, leaving the reader scratching their head.
Why are the title of the book and the name of a second-tier character so reminiscent of the title of a famous opera by W. A. Mozart, the opera itself being named after the Italian form of the name of a mythical king of Crete? Yes, king Idomeneus is said to have had to sacrifice his own son as a result of rather not very well thought oath; but then in the mythological story this act of impiety has dire consequences for Crete and for the king, so what gives?
Why do two of the main alien characters use eastern European or Slavic names? Why would Bogdan be "closest to what [one] would understand in the vernacular of [English]", instead of the actual English equivalent, Theodore? Why do the amoral aliens address each other with komrade with a k? OK, comrade with a c would be understandable, as a rather on-the-nose allusion to the Communists and their atheism. But why with a k?
Why do the aliens use Latin or Latin-ish names? Why would they call Earth Maledictis, which is the dative or ablative plural or maledictus, accursed? Why not Maledicta? Why use an inflected form? Why would they name a planet Ultima Thule, after the name given to a faraway inhospitable island by a Greek explorer in the 4th century before the common era?
Why does a main character who is supposed to be a well-educated scientist and engineer speak about Alexander the Great as extending the Roman (!) empire, struggling with the Senate, and treating his conquered subjects with ruthlessness? He was King of Macedon and Hegemon of Greece; in his days, Rome was but a middling powerful city state somewhere in the west, had no empire, and had definitely nothing to do with Alexander's eastern conquests. Alexander was an absolute king, with no meddling Senate to check his power. And he did not treat the conquered peoples any worse than their former kings did. So why does this well-educated scientist and engineer make this most astonishing confusion? What is the reader supposed to understand?
But the major, and I really mean major, headscratcher is the setting of the book in an almost purely deterministic billiard-ball universe. The aliens are able to predict the evolution of modern humans hundreds of millions of years in advance, and this is accepted without even the slightest comment by the well-educated scientist and engineer main character, although such a predictive ability contradicts everything we know about the world we live in. The universe does not work like this, or, at least, if the universe actually allows such precise predictions about the distant future, then we must humbly admit that we know next to nothing about how it works. But then, if the human understanding of physics is so pathetic, why are the aliens concerned about our abilities? It would be like the USA being concerned about an attack by a fleet of dugout canoes of the uncontacted tribes of the North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Archipelago, armed with bows and arrows.
Overall, the book is coherent and mildy entertaining. Just ignore the deluge of technobabble and gloss over the occasional half-baked religious musings. And don't fall into the trap of trying to find meaning in the little puzzling details; unless, of course, that you like scratching your head in search of their meanings.
(Scale: * - unreadable, couldn't finish; ** - bad or very bad, but readable; *** - good work, well worth its price; **** - very good in its genre; ***** - timeless masterpiece.)
April 23, 2023
Interesting tale
Intriguing story with parallel subparts taking place on earth and on an alien planet, concerning a mission that would affect earth's future. Slow in spots due to long monologs, but overall an exciting adventure that makes you think.
Intriguing story with parallel subparts taking place on earth and on an alien planet, concerning a mission that would affect earth's future. Slow in spots due to long monologs, but overall an exciting adventure that makes you think.
January 19, 2024
Well-written science fiction novel that explores creative, thought-provoking, and deep concepts. Cool to read about science fiction happening in a very real setting (Chicagoland).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews