Review of SECOND CONTACT by Kenneth E. Ingle

CHRONICLE ON THE SEEDS OF ORION

BooksForABuck.com, November 2011

A generation ago, a small group of humans fled Earth to make a new home. Because of a freak laboratory accident, they possess a gene that slows aging, and the rest of Earth would have turned them into lab rats in order to control the inheritable factor. The stars were already occupied, and the settlers from the spaceship Orion fought the aliens to create their own home in the stars--New Earth. Old Earth, under Chinese leadership, is expanding. They attacked the aliens and continue their expanding ways. For the aging Chinese leadership, one treasure looms most important--the long life gene still held secret by the descendants of the original Orion crew.

Relations between the aliens and the humans of New Earth have been strained. Ultimately, however, New Earth forms a fragile alliance with its former alien enemies to combat an invasion by Old Earth. The Chinese/Old Earth fleet, outnumbers the combined forces of alien and New Earth and the leaders suspect that even victory may be temporary. They send a group of colonists to carry forward the science and genes of New Earth should the original colony be destroyed. Named New Hope, it carries the same will to do what humans have always done--survive.

Author Kenneth E. Ingle (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of science fiction by Ingle) continues the story began in FIRST CONTACT with an exciting space adventure. Engaged in war vast fleets of starships navigate for position while clever admirals and hardworking spies seek the opportunity for leverage. New Earth has a technology edge, but the billions of humans still on Old Earth, and now expanding into the galaxy, seem to create an unstoppable force. Ingle's story spans generations first as New Earth defends itself against the expansionary Chinese, then as New Earth's colony, New Hope attempts to stay alive in a universe filled with pirates, pirate states, and those desperate for the long life gene.

Four Stars

Reviewed 11/28/11

SECOND CONTACT is no longer in print.

Too generous? Too stingy. Or did I miss the whole point? Send your comments to publisher@booksforabuck.com. I'll publish the best letters I get so let me know if I can use your name.