Review of JUMP START by Gary Carter (see his website)

Publish America, 2003

A failed scientist discovers bones in Death Valley--bones that look like nothing on earth, nothing, that is, but a dragon. An archeologist discovers a huge pyramid buried under the sands of Australia. An astronomer sees a huge number of small meteors approaching Earth. They seem unconnected, but when the meteors arrive, they become something more terrible than anyone had guessed--a plague of dragons intent on eating and growing. And anything, any biomass, even people, are their natural prey. Earth's government and her military fight back, but how do you fight a huge fast-moving and virtually invisible opponent?

Scientists Jacob Malfusco and Marsha Kimbrough were on downward career spirals before their discoveries. At first it is difficult to believe that a nine-thousand year-old dragon skeleton and mankind's sudden advance in intelligence could be connected, but something happened about nine thousand years ago. Humans that had lived together in villages and hunted with crudely chipped stones suddenly discovered agriculture, advanced to the new stone age, built pyramids and stonehenge-style monuments. Marsha suspects that there is a connection--and the connection comes from space. It isn't a popular theory, even when the dragons land and prove the theory to be fact.

Author Gary Carter writes a page-turning adventure. The dragon hypothesis explains mankind's intelligence explosion, but also mass die-offs that have happened throughout planetary history. Jacob and Marsha make intriguing and flawed characters. The dragon attack drags them from their bad habits and makes them rethink their lives. Of course, rethinking their lives will only pay off if they survive long enough to enjoy them. And the dragon attack is so overwhelming that they sometimes wonder whether humanity is finished. The example of the last invasion, and St. George's elimination of the last dragon in that attack provides some hope--but only some.

Fans of alien explanations of the pyramids, dragons, and end-of-the-world fiction will definitely want to get their hands on Gary Carter's JUMP START.

Three Stars

Reviewed 3/12/04

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