Kate says… This story has lots of aliens, plus a centuries-old mystery that sends the characters on a deadly scavenger hunt across the world. Regrets over unresolved family issues tug at the main characters, but they have humanity to save.
There’s weird alien technology at the heart of the story, scientists struggling to understand, and a military dedicated to helping them succeed. As their search continues, they visit a few fascinating locations. Some of the clues that lead them onward get a bit fantastic, but by then, I was into the story and happy to follow along. It’s a fun read, with plenty of battles, and a revelation that changes both humanity’s history and its future.
In science fiction, Bad Aliens often want something on Earth they could easily obtain from hundreds of uninhabited planets closer to their home. If you’re going to read Alien Invasion stories, you generally must be ready to shrug off that inconvenient fact. The Fifth Kind actually comes up with an excellent reason the Bad Aliens want humans on Earth. It stretches beyond science (of course – this is scifi,) but I found it a satisfying change from the usual.
As a scifi author, I know it’s hard to find a spot that’s close to home – on Earth for Prescott – that hasn’t been discovered, explored, and explained on its own Wikipedia page. Reality, especially reality readers know well, can be so constraining.
Writers in the pulp era had it easier. Edgar Rice Burroughs put Tarzan in Darkest Africa, which worked for European readers of his time. Jules Verne sent Captain Nemo into the deep ocean (hey – the deep ocean isn’t well explored, so it’s still a good setting.) Otherwise, we need wormholes and time machines to deliver characters into many of our stories. Prescott went underground. Nicely done!
Find The Fifth Kind on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3sNHths (10SEP2023)
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Tags: Techno Thriller, Hard Science Fiction, Alien Invasion, First Contact
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