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mlynes_author's review
4.0
ARIA: Left Luggage by Geoff Nelder is an interesting read. Very reminiscent in some ways of the classic Andromeda Strain by Sir Michael Crichton. In this 'near future' sci-fi thriller Mr. Nelder places us at ground zero of an incredibly momentous event, the first interaction of an alien civilization with the people of Earth. A mysterious case is discovered, somehow lodged in the superstructure of the International Space Station and the multi-national crew are tasked with its recovery and subsequent delivery to NASA for investigation.
All does not go well however, and thru a regrettable breach in protocol the contents of the case are released and a technician is exposed. The story picks up from there, as the consequences of the exposure threaten to destroy civilization and humanity in an irresistible wave.
I am a very big fan of the Sci-Fi genre and I enjoyed Mr. Nelders story craft in this large and well written tale. I gave it a rating of four stars mostly on the strength of the writing and the originality of the premise. The story suffers a bit from the point of view of colloquial speech discontinuities, much of the 'slang' and speech affectation is written from a UK point of view however this is jarring when the supposedly US born or Spanish born characters employ these figures of speech. Additionally though there was an obvious effort to research the technical details there were many inconsistencies that any fan of 'hard science' sci-fi would easily detect and could/should have been caught so as to remain true to the fans of this genre. That said it is an engaging tale and well worthy of a follow on to resolve the rather large loose ends left hanging at the end of the narrative.
All does not go well however, and thru a regrettable breach in protocol the contents of the case are released and a technician is exposed. The story picks up from there, as the consequences of the exposure threaten to destroy civilization and humanity in an irresistible wave.
I am a very big fan of the Sci-Fi genre and I enjoyed Mr. Nelders story craft in this large and well written tale. I gave it a rating of four stars mostly on the strength of the writing and the originality of the premise. The story suffers a bit from the point of view of colloquial speech discontinuities, much of the 'slang' and speech affectation is written from a UK point of view however this is jarring when the supposedly US born or Spanish born characters employ these figures of speech. Additionally though there was an obvious effort to research the technical details there were many inconsistencies that any fan of 'hard science' sci-fi would easily detect and could/should have been caught so as to remain true to the fans of this genre. That said it is an engaging tale and well worthy of a follow on to resolve the rather large loose ends left hanging at the end of the narrative.
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