Déjà Doomed
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
"Holy crap, this is a great book."—Sci Fi Saturday Night
"Solid sci-fi outing from Lerner"—Publishers Weekly
"Here's an author you definitely need to check out."—Asimov's Science Fiction
On the Moon's far side, shielded from Earth's radio cacophony, Americans are building a radio-astronomy observatory. Russians sift the dust of a lunar "sea" for helium-3 to run future fusion reactors. Commercial robots, remotely operated from Earth, roam the Moon's near side in a hunt for mineral wealth. Why chase distant asteroids for precious metals? Onetime asteroids must lie close beneath the much-bombarded lunar surface.
Then a prospecting robot encounters a desiccated, spacesuited figure. An alien figure ….
Americans from the lunar observatory investigate. Near the original find, underground, they discover an alien installation. Lunar Russians, realizing that the Americans are up to something clandestine, send their own small team. Each group distrusts the other … even before the fatal "accidents" begin. By the time anyone suspects what ancient evil they have awakened, it may be too late—
For everyone on Earth, too.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This solid sci-fi outing from Lerner (The Company Man) begins when Marcus Judson, the leader of the American team building an observatory on the far side of the moon, is assigned an unbelievable mission by an old CIA contact. Marcus is to divert his team to investigate the lunar site where alien remains were found. A Russian mining team also gets wind of the extraterrestrial artifacts, and though both sides work to maintain secrecy—almost to the point of hostility—mysterious deaths eventually force them to work together. What they find promises amazing new technology, but not all that they discover is benign as they butt up against an extraterrestrial intelligence that will protect itself at any cost—including planet-scale genocide. Despite an excruciatingly slow start, the archaeological mystery and first contact narrative, once underway, offer impressive character work and invigorating twists on the way to an action-packed, if familiar, finale. Hard SF fans who stick with this will find a buried lunar treasure.