Book Review For Kepler’s Son by Geoff Nelder!
Book 3: The Flying Crooked Series.
5-Stars: Adah is different in most respects from human boys.
‘Kepler’s Son’ in ‘The Flying Crooked’ series by
Geoff Nelder is finally here. Let’s recap.
In ‘Suppose We’ (book one) a spaceship crash-lands on a
faraway planet, but the natives are so far ahead of Earth they ignore the human
crew.
In ‘Falling Up’ (book two) Em is captured by an alien
artificial intelligence that had attacked the Kepler-20h system.
Now in‘Kepler’s Son’ (book three) our heroes’ ace trick of
splicing human genes with nasty bacteria to help the natives has backfired
leaving the planet in danger of being overrun by squidgy, rapidly-evolving
mind-hive creatures.
The Artificial Intelligence CAN reports after arranging with
Kep flitters to reprogram all the ‘essential’ communication and science
satellites that danced in whirls and lurches after being deserted by their home
Kepler-20h planet. Problem: none of the 125 satellites have sufficient fuel to
travel far. Solution: We’ve cannibalised some to create a huge solar cell array
to supplement slow but steady ion drives to make their way. Where to? We didn’t
know for days, but perturbations in the inner-planet orbits revealed the
probable location and I found a weak signal from a beacon. Streaming now to
update and sync. Bad news: intense radiation needs guarding against. Date:
Earth February 19th 3664 Kepler New 6976 days.
A census is conducted by me because none counts better than
I. All data refer to beings on this planet Kepler-20h. All beings possess a
biometric signature whether they know it or not.
- Indigenous
population known to humans as keps: 137, 328 (data from their archives
indicate a mass migration to other planets 21 years ago).
- Indigenous
population known to humans as trogs: 2,675,177 (NB very few live on the
surface).
- Humans
from Earth: 2 (Science Officer Gaston Poirier, Navigator Em Farrer).
- Human-forms
with tripartite genetic code: 1 (Adah with DNA from two humans and one
kep).
- Human-forms
with pure human DNA via cloning engineering using original crew members
plus genetic material brought from Earth: 217.
- Keeps
– engineered human plus indigenous bacteria: 2,538,824.
In Chapter Twenty-Seven: Em was always the one who put
herself out, travelling for days over unknown landscapes with only Kep1 and a
trio of flitters for company just to hug her son. Gaston wasn’t Adah’s father,
at least not in the traditional sense. The kep biologists had sampled his DNA
and explained how most of it was human and some from the kep rapist and it’s
the latter that had made him so different in most respects from human boys. His
translucent skin: telepathic abilities the limitations of which he’d yet to
discover except that it only worked with keps and keeps; and his ability to
solidify his imaginary friends. Very scary and completely mysterious. At least
his mother and father—the Gaston fraction—were now safe on the kep’s secret
corona station. Hiding it inside a sun.
I enjoyed reading ‘Kepler’s Son’ and I invite you to read
‘The Flying Crooked’ series. Author Geoff Nelder takes his readers on a
spectacular 5-Star Science Fiction (Action and Adventure). You will want to
catch up before ‘Vanished Earth’ (book four) arrives. What’s happened to the
humans’ home planet? Assuming Earth is our home planet. In book 4 of the Flying
Crooked series of hard science fiction novellas, we find Earth, or so we think,
but like the butterfly it’s changed.
Geoff Nelder lives in rural England within an easy cycle
ride of the Welsh mountains. Publications include several non-fiction books on
climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological
Society; over 90 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies;
thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
Editorial Review by Book Marketing Global Network: https://bookmarketingglobalnetwork.com/book-marketing-global-network/geoff-nelder
