Review by Booklist Review
Is an asteroid about to hit the earth? That's what NASA scientist Sarah Pooley thinks when she discovers an anomaly from the Sky Survey observatory. The military doesn't seem concerned, and when the object enters the atmosphere, it appears to mostly disintegrate. A portion of the rock does not melt, however, so an operation to retrieve what made landfall begins. What those involved don't realize is that it wasn't an asteroid at all but rather a probe from another star system. A homeless man discovers the remains, and is injected with a nano-device that forces him to act erratically. Soon others are infected. Is this the start of an invasion? Alpert effectively juggles the diverse cast of characters while also escalating the tension. The science frame plays perfectly into Alpert's expertise (he is a contributing editor at Scientific American), and while the story itself may strike some as a bit over the top, the basis for the probe and the subsequent events feels realistic. Readers of Michael Crichton and James Rollins should enjoy this one.--Ayers, Jeff Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Astronomer Sarah Pooley, the heroine of this so-so near-future story of alien invasion from Alpert (Extinction), has gradually rebuilt her career with NASA after prematurely proclaiming that life has been found on Mars, a misjudgment that ended her engagement to her fiancé and sent her to a psychiatric facility. Meanwhile, Sarah spots what appears to an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, but it's in fact an alien probe. When it lands in upper Manhattan, it drains electricity on a massive scale from the city's power grid and injects nanodevices into those who come into contact with it, starting with a gangbanger, an alcoholic homeless man, and a woman ravaged by cancer. The split focus on these three characters, at the expense of Sarah, doesn't pay off, but a bigger negative is the absence of any real scares or a feeling of genuine menace. Fans can hope that next time Alpert regains the form of his previous, more imaginative work. Agent: Dan Lazar, Writers House. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In Alpert's latest nanotech thriller, a space probe from a solar system 200 light-years away lands with an explosive bang in a marginal area of Manhattan, infecting several park regulars with malevolent alien technology. Inwood Hill Park, a historic piece of old New York near the Hudson River, is the site of the crash, where black metallic tentacles snake out from the bowling ball-like probe, hook into the city's power grid, and shock the unsuspecting humans. The first of its targets is Joe, a one-time doctor who has fallen on such drunken hard times after his wife kicked him out that he sleeps in the park in a cardboard box. Injected with a brain implant, he is issued commands from a voice inside his head. Dorothy, a former minister suffering from cancer, is spiked in the foot by a tentacle when she goes to help Joe and is introduced to an even worse kind of suffering. After Emilio, a former gang member, comes into contact with the alien metal, he finds himself gunning down Special Tactics soldiers called to the scene. The fate of the world is largely left in the hands of NASA Sky Survey expert Sarah Pooley. When she first detected the object crashing to Earth, she suspected it was a Russian probe. Now, she only wishes it were. Alpert (The Six, 2015, etc.) does a masterful job of establishing this grave threat to humankind; the book is full of unsettling moments. But as fresh and convincing as his vision is, it runs aground in the home stretch. The ending, including tepid explanations of the probe's origins, feels rushed. And in indicting mankind's violent and destructive ways, the AI voice of the aliens, Emissary, comes across as a pale imitation of Klaatu, the humanoid in The Day the Earth Stood Still. Alpert, one of the best writers after Michael Crichton at transforming futuristic science into believable fiction, devises such a scary scenario here, it's a shame he doesn't develop it further. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
