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KEPLER'S SON
Kepler's Son is the third in the science fiction, space adventure series of Flying Crooked. A handful of humans crash land on a distant planet. Unfortunately, the locals are so far in advance of Earth civilizations that they ignore the hapless humans. Luckily, they have a payload on their crashed ship that the natives need.
This commissioned novella is Nelder's 12 fiction book, most of which are surreal or science fiction making a grab for the passion in space exploration, strange sights and aliens.
Warning: there is some adult scenes, although they are hilarious.
Not that it affects the enjoyment to others but the protagonist is vegan as is the planet they land on. ie no predators larger than insects.
This commissioned novella is Nelder's 12 fiction book, most of which are surreal or science fiction making a grab for the passion in space exploration, strange sights and aliens.
Warning: there is some adult scenes, although they are hilarious.
Not that it affects the enjoyment to others but the protagonist is vegan as is the planet they land on. ie no predators larger than insects.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2022
About the author
Geoff Nelder
54 books81 followersGeoff Nelder has a wife, two grown-up kids, an increasing number of grandkids, and lives in rural England within an easy cycle ride of the Welsh mountains. He taught Geography and Information Technology for years until writing took over his life. Geoff is a competition short-fiction judge, and a freelance editor.
Publications include several non-fiction books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
2005: Humorous thriller Escaping Reality. Republished 2012.
2008: Award-winning science fiction mystery with hot-blooded heroine, Alien Exit, on Kindle
2010: Another thriller received an Award d’Or from an Arts Academy in the Netherlands. Its third edition will be published in 2012, Hot Air.
2012: ARIA Trilogy starting with Left Luggage an apocalypse and survival series.
An urban and historical magic realism fantasy, Vengeance Island is available on Kindle.
Flying Crooked sf series starting with Suppose We.
Chaos of Mokii an experimental sf on Kindle
Incremental - short stories of mainly sf and Kafkaesque.
Amazon Author page https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/autho...
Publications include several non-fiction books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
2005: Humorous thriller Escaping Reality. Republished 2012.
2008: Award-winning science fiction mystery with hot-blooded heroine, Alien Exit, on Kindle
2010: Another thriller received an Award d’Or from an Arts Academy in the Netherlands. Its third edition will be published in 2012, Hot Air.
2012: ARIA Trilogy starting with Left Luggage an apocalypse and survival series.
An urban and historical magic realism fantasy, Vengeance Island is available on Kindle.
Flying Crooked sf series starting with Suppose We.
Chaos of Mokii an experimental sf on Kindle
Incremental - short stories of mainly sf and Kafkaesque.
Amazon Author page https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/autho...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 21, 2023
You don't need to read Geoff Nelder's bio to know that he is inherently a scientist and a teacher. His books are engaging and inventive to be sure, but they are underpinned by a deep understanding of and delight in the wonders of physics and biology. His worlds are full of anomalies that draw on real-life quantum quirks, cosmic paradoxes and biological anomalies, and his aliens are both delightfully bizarre and yet somehow plausible. He is a writer who knows his sci-fi tropes well enough to twist them into a Möbius strip and take them to new places while still providing plenty of easter eggs to keen readers of the genre.
Kepler’s Son, the third book in his Flying Crooked series, is no exception. In previous books in the series, humans have left the Earth and crash-landed on a planet called Kepler-20h where the aliens are so technologically advanced to humans, that they just ignore the visitors. Humans aren’t colonisers here, as is often the case in sci fi books, but minor vermin barely worthy of note. It is only the awkward human personality, human bacterial issues, and the ship-steering, all seeing, god-like artificial intelligence CAN that makes the humans noteworthy to the Keps - the ultra advanced aliens who live on Kepler-20. CAN shines in this work as a hilarious non-human character with its camp dairy style missives that play on its name (“Can Can”, “cannibalised”, “cantering”, “Wiccan” “the oilcan”, etc). CAN is a significant character, whose distinctive voice is somewhere between the existential musings of The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy’s Marvin (though happier) and the careful diction of a geeky science teacher:
Each orbiting object, missing its main gravitational attractive mass, has many variables acting upon it. Rather like a raindrop in the troposphere, which has 201 variables acting on and in it, such as: gravity, partial va-pour pressure, phase… mass, velocity, condensation nuclei… diameter, temperature, Van der Waal forces… microgravitational pulls from nearest neighbour droplets. Granted that the former satellites of Kepler-20h are not in an atmosphere, their motion is still influenced by more than the sun’s gravity, which while only 0.0006 of the planet’s pull, is now the most important factor.
The other protagonists of the series are Em and the charmingly French Gaston. In book two, Em falls pregnant to Gaston at the same time as she is impregnated by a Kep, thereby creating a hybrid child, Adeh. Adeh is 18 when Kepler’s Son, an obvious reference to Adeh, opens. His interesting mix of human and alien genes are on full display throughout the book as he develops while exploring the world he and his parents live on, and learning the limits of his capabilities and his relationship to other creatures, imaginary or real.
Nelder does a good job of keeping the story fast-paced and action-oriented as the humans and their collaborators are hunted down by ‘purist’ Keps who would like to exterminate them. While the story hints at human history and our many foibles including the wrecking of our planet through anthropogenic climate change, the way in which the narrative progresses is novel, involving a galactic chase that includes ‘pinching’ - a folding of space time that simulates a kind of wormhole. There are all sorts of dangers for the couple as they fly a variety of crafts, and also fun hiding spaces like the a base inside a sun’s corona or an impossible tower built of ‘non-Euclidean, non-Newtonian, non-Einstein geo-physics’. Nelder manages just the right blend of scientific description and imaginative ideation.The characterisation remains strong through the book as he moves in and out of different viewpoints, even giving voice to some of the stranger characters, like the genetically-engineered Keeps - part Kep, part human, but more collective than individual and only able to communicate in sing-song grunts:
Cold. No, worse. Cells solidifying.
Huddle to retain heat.
Cold.
We said that.
Need to find heat source.
Freezing.
We said that.
While Kepler’s Son does provide context and background to the previous books, both in the intro and at key points through the narrative, a better reading experience is to be had by reading all three books in the series (and ultimately the fourth when it comes out) in sequence as it does take a bit of catching up to understand Nelder’s extensive universe with its biological and mechanical creatures, particularly Gaston’s Papillon who feels quite important but doesn’t feature strongly in Kepler’s Son. That said, Kepler’s Son is self-contained enough to provide a a joyride that won’t disappoint readers who enjoy high quality sci-fi. This is a well-crafted book with a dynamic and engaging pace that has something for everyone, including multiple close calls, close and steamy encounters, clones, cold fusion, dreamlike landscapes and far flung star systems.
Kepler’s Son, the third book in his Flying Crooked series, is no exception. In previous books in the series, humans have left the Earth and crash-landed on a planet called Kepler-20h where the aliens are so technologically advanced to humans, that they just ignore the visitors. Humans aren’t colonisers here, as is often the case in sci fi books, but minor vermin barely worthy of note. It is only the awkward human personality, human bacterial issues, and the ship-steering, all seeing, god-like artificial intelligence CAN that makes the humans noteworthy to the Keps - the ultra advanced aliens who live on Kepler-20. CAN shines in this work as a hilarious non-human character with its camp dairy style missives that play on its name (“Can Can”, “cannibalised”, “cantering”, “Wiccan” “the oilcan”, etc). CAN is a significant character, whose distinctive voice is somewhere between the existential musings of The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy’s Marvin (though happier) and the careful diction of a geeky science teacher:
Each orbiting object, missing its main gravitational attractive mass, has many variables acting upon it. Rather like a raindrop in the troposphere, which has 201 variables acting on and in it, such as: gravity, partial va-pour pressure, phase… mass, velocity, condensation nuclei… diameter, temperature, Van der Waal forces… microgravitational pulls from nearest neighbour droplets. Granted that the former satellites of Kepler-20h are not in an atmosphere, their motion is still influenced by more than the sun’s gravity, which while only 0.0006 of the planet’s pull, is now the most important factor.
The other protagonists of the series are Em and the charmingly French Gaston. In book two, Em falls pregnant to Gaston at the same time as she is impregnated by a Kep, thereby creating a hybrid child, Adeh. Adeh is 18 when Kepler’s Son, an obvious reference to Adeh, opens. His interesting mix of human and alien genes are on full display throughout the book as he develops while exploring the world he and his parents live on, and learning the limits of his capabilities and his relationship to other creatures, imaginary or real.
Nelder does a good job of keeping the story fast-paced and action-oriented as the humans and their collaborators are hunted down by ‘purist’ Keps who would like to exterminate them. While the story hints at human history and our many foibles including the wrecking of our planet through anthropogenic climate change, the way in which the narrative progresses is novel, involving a galactic chase that includes ‘pinching’ - a folding of space time that simulates a kind of wormhole. There are all sorts of dangers for the couple as they fly a variety of crafts, and also fun hiding spaces like the a base inside a sun’s corona or an impossible tower built of ‘non-Euclidean, non-Newtonian, non-Einstein geo-physics’. Nelder manages just the right blend of scientific description and imaginative ideation.The characterisation remains strong through the book as he moves in and out of different viewpoints, even giving voice to some of the stranger characters, like the genetically-engineered Keeps - part Kep, part human, but more collective than individual and only able to communicate in sing-song grunts:
Cold. No, worse. Cells solidifying.
Huddle to retain heat.
Cold.
We said that.
Need to find heat source.
Freezing.
We said that.
While Kepler’s Son does provide context and background to the previous books, both in the intro and at key points through the narrative, a better reading experience is to be had by reading all three books in the series (and ultimately the fourth when it comes out) in sequence as it does take a bit of catching up to understand Nelder’s extensive universe with its biological and mechanical creatures, particularly Gaston’s Papillon who feels quite important but doesn’t feature strongly in Kepler’s Son. That said, Kepler’s Son is self-contained enough to provide a a joyride that won’t disappoint readers who enjoy high quality sci-fi. This is a well-crafted book with a dynamic and engaging pace that has something for everyone, including multiple close calls, close and steamy encounters, clones, cold fusion, dreamlike landscapes and far flung star systems.
January 20, 2023
A brilliant novel, Geoff's 'world' construction makes it even better with the hints subtle of worlds we may discover. The pace is constant. The difficulty of balancing the life of two planets is when you are born on one, and parental heritage is another. This is a must-read for all SCIFI lovers, and for those who are not, it will pique interest and educate which is the way of the best author.
February 5, 2023
‘Kepler’s Son’ is book 3 of the ‘Flying Crooked’ series but can be read independently as the author supplies a handy summary of the previous books, ‘Suppose We’ and ‘Falling Up’. However, it would be better to read them first. Much better, really.
Kepler’s son is Adah, born on Kepler 20h of a human mother and father but also with alien DNA because of some kep interaction during conception. Adah is a sort of sexy superman who can make his tongue longer, grow extra appendages, breathe through his skin, emit warmth or cold and has the power to make his imaginary friends real. In character, he reminded me somewhat of Heinlein’s Valentine Michael Smith from ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’, naive and powerful but growing wiser and adapting to his environment as the story develops. His father tells him, ‘I love you, Adah but you are more Kepler’s son than mine.’ Hence the title.
The keps are a highly advanced alien race inhabiting several planets in the Kepler 20 system. They can phase through solid objects, while their buildings and other artefacts employ a strange physics where down and up are uncertain and gravity does not restrict.
They’re so far above us that they completely ignored humans on first contact. Adah’s mother is Em Farrer and his father Gaston Poirier, only surviving members of the ship Suppose We which went to the Kepler system in search of planets for humans to colonise or infest, depending on what you think of humans. Author Geoff Nelder is generally positive about us and the tone of his books is decidedly cheerful. Em and Gaston are both highly intelligent, trained scientists inclined to non-violence, not the lunkheads of space opera shooting fests. Gaston tends to break out in French exclamations when excited, which is realistic, I think.
There are many other races involved in this drama. The keeps, a blend of human and kep DNA, are individually simple life forms but have a hive mind. The Recs are a powerful AI species who sent ships to the Kepler system, kidnapped Em Farrer and cloned her. Early in the book, Gaston and Em find the trogs, who live underground on Kepler 20h but are not wild things. Not completely, anyway.
They may be in league with the purists, a kep group who want to wipe out humans and extinguish all human DNA, despite the fact that it probably saved their planet from an ecological disaster. My favourite character is CAN, the AI that began as the shipboard computer on Suppose We but has since developed huge capacity and a sense of humour or at least ironic detachment.
The keps have mastered a ‘pinch effect’ that can move large masses from one place to another in the blink of an eye. This sudden scene shifting combined with the characters’ relaxed attitude to sex and joy in the wonder of science reminded me of Heinlein’s ‘The Number Of The Beast’ but without, I hasten to add, his politics. Poor old Robert is much vilified nowadays in some quarters but his books were entertaining and readable.
‘Kepler’s Son’ has a neat plot with several twists, some weird science, wild adventure, a tiny smidgen of fun sex and a generally uplifting tone. For a while, it will transport you far away from planet Earth to a better place on a trip that’s definitely worth the price of the ticket.
Kepler’s son is Adah, born on Kepler 20h of a human mother and father but also with alien DNA because of some kep interaction during conception. Adah is a sort of sexy superman who can make his tongue longer, grow extra appendages, breathe through his skin, emit warmth or cold and has the power to make his imaginary friends real. In character, he reminded me somewhat of Heinlein’s Valentine Michael Smith from ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’, naive and powerful but growing wiser and adapting to his environment as the story develops. His father tells him, ‘I love you, Adah but you are more Kepler’s son than mine.’ Hence the title.
The keps are a highly advanced alien race inhabiting several planets in the Kepler 20 system. They can phase through solid objects, while their buildings and other artefacts employ a strange physics where down and up are uncertain and gravity does not restrict.
They’re so far above us that they completely ignored humans on first contact. Adah’s mother is Em Farrer and his father Gaston Poirier, only surviving members of the ship Suppose We which went to the Kepler system in search of planets for humans to colonise or infest, depending on what you think of humans. Author Geoff Nelder is generally positive about us and the tone of his books is decidedly cheerful. Em and Gaston are both highly intelligent, trained scientists inclined to non-violence, not the lunkheads of space opera shooting fests. Gaston tends to break out in French exclamations when excited, which is realistic, I think.
There are many other races involved in this drama. The keeps, a blend of human and kep DNA, are individually simple life forms but have a hive mind. The Recs are a powerful AI species who sent ships to the Kepler system, kidnapped Em Farrer and cloned her. Early in the book, Gaston and Em find the trogs, who live underground on Kepler 20h but are not wild things. Not completely, anyway.
They may be in league with the purists, a kep group who want to wipe out humans and extinguish all human DNA, despite the fact that it probably saved their planet from an ecological disaster. My favourite character is CAN, the AI that began as the shipboard computer on Suppose We but has since developed huge capacity and a sense of humour or at least ironic detachment.
The keps have mastered a ‘pinch effect’ that can move large masses from one place to another in the blink of an eye. This sudden scene shifting combined with the characters’ relaxed attitude to sex and joy in the wonder of science reminded me of Heinlein’s ‘The Number Of The Beast’ but without, I hasten to add, his politics. Poor old Robert is much vilified nowadays in some quarters but his books were entertaining and readable.
‘Kepler’s Son’ has a neat plot with several twists, some weird science, wild adventure, a tiny smidgen of fun sex and a generally uplifting tone. For a while, it will transport you far away from planet Earth to a better place on a trip that’s definitely worth the price of the ticket.
December 20, 2022
This is the best book in the Flying Crooked series by Geoff Nelder. To recap what has happened in the previous books briefly the spaceship crash landed on a planet where the indigenous beings are super intelligent. The AI is called Can, which is highlighted at the beginning of the chapters, but you need to read it to understand. The original crew were Penn, Delta, Em (the navigator & communications officer) and Gaston. Penn and Delta are dead ( you need to read book 2, Flying Up to understand the circumstances.) Em was fertilized by Gaston but more importantly raped by a Kep which delivered more DNA than Gaston. Adah is the outcome. Enough of this, you need to read the book!
P.S What are pinches and keeps(not the hair replacement people.) What is the difference between nuclear fission and fusion. Papillon? All will be revealed. A great read.
P.S What are pinches and keeps(not the hair replacement people.) What is the difference between nuclear fission and fusion. Papillon? All will be revealed. A great read.
November 29, 2022
As always Nelder has taken me out of myself into a strange world. Kepler's Son is the third in a series on a theme of space adventure and exploration though mainly in the Keplerian system. Strange aliens that are REALLY alien - not English speaking weirds with the same apendages as us. Adah is the son of Em, Gaston and an alien who maybe accidentally impregnated Em during a naughty episode but the boy has interesting abilities: he has imaginary friends that become real - or are they? Do the other humans only see them when Adah is around messing with their heads.
Then there are the keeps - strange little creatures created from a mix of Kepler genes and human. Fascinating.
Don't stop writing.
Then there are the keeps - strange little creatures created from a mix of Kepler genes and human. Fascinating.
Don't stop writing.
November 30, 2022
If you’re looking to escape the craziness that is present-day Earth, then this could be just what you’re looking for – the perfect antidote. The story continues as we follow Adah’s upbringing, which is somewhat unconventional, as he is the product of a cross-species triumvirate, with two human parents and a kep, thus he is in more ways than one, Kepler’s son. If you like speculative science fiction with a future-focused vision of how humans might survive and procreate on another planet so very different than ours, then this is one for you.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews