The Field: A story about the future

by Lionel Goulet, Donni Richman (Cover Design)

Gary stepped out of the parking garage into the bright New England sun. He ambled along at his usual pace over to the General Surgery building. He wasn't in a hurry, but he wasn't going to be late either. He felt excited, giddy, and scared. He was going to be getting his Insert, something he had been looking forward to for years. This was a big deal. Gary's wife Jenny had gotten her Insert a year ago and the changes it had brought to her life, to their lives, were both subtle and significant. The subtle change was she no longer had to carry a cell phone. An Insert could do everything a cell phone could do and more. Jenny would be sitting at dinner when she would suddenly raise a finger to Gary, indicating that someone was calling. Last night their daughter Elizabeth called. Gary couldn't hear either side of the exchange between mother and daughter but he could see the look on Jenny's face go from hopeful, to neutral, to sad. She filled him in after the call. It was the same story every time. "Oh, Elizabeth," thought Gary. "My baby, my baby. What can we do to help you?" He pushed these thoughts away. He was not going to let a problem he could not solve spoil the excitement of this day. And maybe with an Insert he could spend more time doing research. There had to be something on the 'Net that might be helpful. That was a significant change an Insert brought to their lives; a real improvement. Jenny had instant access to the World Wide Web now, and she used it like a professor. The question had come up with friends some weeks ago, "How often does Halloween fall on a full moon night?" They were watching a horror movie and it was part of the plot. Jenny replied right away; "Once every 213 years. The next time will be in 2127. It drops to once every 70 years if you allow the day before and the day after full to be also considered 'full.'" It wasn't even surprising, this access to facts. And he was going to have it too! If it didn't...

276 pages, Paperback

First published September 28, 2009

Reviews

[Don Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a friend whom I greatly respect, yet I shall pull no punches and hope his maturity and perspective hold.

The first half of this book is excellent--it deserves a 5 star review. The characters are thoroughly developed with great empathy. Scenes are beautifully painted. And rational disbelief is successfully suspended to admit the sciFi idea because the writing uses a sufficient sense of imperfection and discovery. The first half is very human and, at times, wry. It's a joy.

The second half launches the action/detective part of the book. Like a lot of these, plot drowns out character and suspension of disbelief becomes harder as miraculous, omniscient, and omnipotent plot devices create a flawless hero very much like Dune. In addition, there's a strong reflection of the uber-man as in 2001: A Space Odyssey, complete with an outside actor. (Hopefully that's not too much of a spoiler.)

Nevertheless, the book is a good read--almost quintessentially a summer read.

Regarding the physical book itself, it's self-published and, like another I have, suffers from a cover which curls in the summer weather and pages which look like office paper cut and stitched. No great harm as this book is probably not a keepsake, but it feels cheap.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized what a unique book this is when I tried to pick a genre category to file this book under. The Field has elements of sci-fi, mystery/suspense, philosophy, evolution, and even religion. The setting is the future and mankind has solved all the major problems in the world and life seems perfect. Where does man go next? This book was an easy fun read filled with plot twists, funny dialog, and a message that makes you contemplate what lies ahead.

Nice job, Lionel!