The Hive

by Chris Berman

Suppose for a minute that the Aztecs or the Incas knew that Cortez or Pizzaro was on his way with the Conquistadors. They knew it weeks in advance and instead of welcoming them as gods, they met them with every weapon they had at their disposal. Don't you think history would have been different? The Hive poses this very question for mankind, for what if we were forewarned that a hostile alien race was about to exterminate us? An unmanned probe built by Russia and the United States on its way to the outer planets crosses paths with an alien device that's been spying on us since the year 1908. This leads to the discovery of a fleet of insectoid aliens on their way to Earth. With three years warning, could we defend ourselves from an invasion by a horrific alien race? The Hive is hard science fiction set in the near future of 2019. The effort to defend the Earth uses actual technology tested in the US and Russia up until the 1970s but never put into production and proposed weapons programs currently under development. There is Political intrigue involving a duplicitous People's Republic of China, a self serving reporter and a horrific unstoppable enemy whose only goal is extermination of the human beings that inhabit the third planet of the sun. The Hive is the story of humanity at last finding common ground and unification in our struggle to defeat a technologically superior enemy. It is also a story about the triumph of the human spirit as seen through the eyes of American aerospace engineer, Colin Hewette, who had lost his fiancee six years earlier and Russian/Ukrainian radio astronomer, Marina Asamova, who find love against a countdown to invasion.

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2008

About the author

I'm Chris Berman. I am a science fiction author, and military historian, writing hard SF with credible technology. I am well versed in astronomy as well as the US and Russian space programs. I live in Florida with my beautiful wife, and our two daughters. THE HIVE is my first book. My second novel, RED MOON is a science fiction techno-thriller. My newest book, Ace of Aces is now available everywhere.

Reviews

[Fadedown · Rating 2 out of 5]

while I liked the premise of the book it was heavily marred by bad grammar, missing punctuation, and missing words in the middle of sentences that made it difficult to read at times. the characters were so pale and one dimensional that I found it very hard to like any of them. there were a number of relationships that were started in the course of the book that all felt overly contrived and forced.

also, the author felt the need to constantly rehash information already given to the reader, such as how the drives on the ships worked, that I felt insulted, almost as if the author did not believe me smart enough to recall how his fighter engines worked, despite describing their action over and over...

poor editing, poor characters, and poor narrative voice mar what is an otherwise interesting read.

[Jose Manuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the part of the Hard SciFic, but I dislike the characters, they are very simple.

La parte de Ciencia Ficción Dura me encanta, pero la parte de los personajes es mala (muy simplona), propia de una tele comedia USA.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. First time for this author, not as polished as say Weber, but still a good read.