Rick Wilber
ALIEN MORNING
Tor / A Tom Doherty Associates Book
Science Fiction
The year is 2030. Peter Holman was a minor league basketball player. He enjoyed modest success, and fame until a knee injury took him out of the game for good. Left with few options, he took the money he had and invested in an up and comping technology. Sweeping. Connected to the web, viewers tune in to watch live, and pre-recorded feeds as Holman interviews athletes, hits the clubs, and peeks into his personal life.
For unknown reasons, when aliens make contact on earth it Holman they want as their spokesman. His audience following is exactly what they admire. Likeable, they feel he can inform everyone of the plans the S'hudonni have for the planet, and put anxious minds at ease.
It comes down to family, basically. Holman's past is a constant pull on his thoughts. A stern father who never thought him good enough, a sister who spent her life making bad mistake after bad mistake, and a brother who was always father's favorite. Holman knows truths, though, that he has kept to himself since he was a teen. Revealing the information would destroy his brother. The sibling rivalry between Holman and his younger brother is at the center of the story.
The sibling rivalry doesn't stop there. Alien representatives Twoclick and Whistle are at odds as well. The agreement prior to arriving on earth was how to divide the planet. Twoclick, a jovial and happy being is nothing like his brother, Whistle. While Holman works hard at putting earthling minds at ease about the aliens, Whistle destroys the peace, the trust, with aggressive actions that leave countries protesting, and rioting in the streets, putting the world leaders on high-alert.
Exposed to secrets about the aliens, and thrust into compromising positions with his family, Holman is forced to pick through the jigsaw pieces and find out how best to make everything fit! With proven superiority the S'hudonni race can not just cripple, but destroy the world in a war. If Holman can't gain control of the situation, billions of lives are at risk.
Rick Wilber's ALIEN MORNING was not what I expected. It was better. It was more. His creation of Sweeping can't be far from happening. We're almost there with some of the shelf products, and apps available now. Wilber's narrative is engaging, and easy, descriptive, and tight. The characters are so precisely drawn, that all I wanted was more. More about Holman's past. More about his brother. More about his sister. I wanted more about the aliens. More. More. More. I cannot wait for the next installment in this series.
Phillip Tomasso
Author of The Severed Empire Series, and
The Vaccination Trilogy
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