Anomaly v1.5 [Book Review x2]

Nearly a year ago author Peter Cawdron took and dropped a gem on the indie book scene with Anomaly.  The story of an under-achieving teacher who goes from field trip spectator in downtown NYC to over-achieving armchair scientist in the blink of an eye and thrusting himself into the biggest moment in human history, first contact.

WARNING!  SPOILERS BELOW.

In January of this year I read and reviewed this story [LINK] and gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5 or an A- overall.  Last week the author shot me an email that he had updated and expanded the ending and asked me to take a look at how it had changed.  Mr. Cawdron stated,

“There were two reasons behind the rewrite. Firstly, the [UN] invasion didn’t come off as plausible, and understandably so, but the second reason was more important. Like a lot of writers dabbling in science fiction, I made the plot bigger than the characters. In rewriting the ending, I tried to focus on building some depth of character, wanting to ground the story and give the reader someone to relate to.

The chance to revise and improve a story is not something many authors consider, whether it was feedback from comments and reviews on Amazon and Good Reads or just plain not 100% happy with their own work.

Would We Abduct Aliens? And Would We Give Them The Kardashian’s in Return.

So there are movies, books and tales of aliens coming to our world, taking people from their beds or lonely dark back roads and bringing them aboard ship in the sky for probes, experimentation and implantation.

This is typically the tale of horror and terror in their recounts; usually with a sub-question of “Why?”  

Fall Wish List (as in wish it’s good list!)

HIGHEST ANTICIPATION AWARD
Revolution
September 17th on NBC

I always hope J.J. Abrams will give us another LOST. Person of Interest is good, but it is no epic. Revolution has that taste. The concept of the tropical island life never seemed so bad to me on LOST, aside for the loonies they were stuck with and the Smoke Monster. The concept of cell phones and internet going down isn’t so bad either, but who would we talk to without email, text and twitter?

Hoping You Are Giving Us Something New Award
Person of Interest
September 27th on CBS

I really enjoyed the first half of the season of POI. New concept, interesting take on a special forces vigilante t.v. series. Then halfway through the series I realized I was watching the same exact episode every week. Finch finds a charge, they observe. One makes contact. Reese protects the mark. The reason to protect

How Sand Can Make Even the Brightest Bulb in Columbia University How to Shine a bit Brighter

From Scientific American http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/2012/02/09/how-a-book-about-the-future-inspired-me-to-look-into-the-neural-underpinnings-of-the-past/?print=true

I’m about to make an embarrassing (to science fiction fans) confession: until last week, I had never read Dune. I wasn’t even aware that I was supposed to have readDune. Nor did I know I should be embarrassed at the failure. Consider me properly chastised. Fifteen or so years too late, I have finally finished the book that calls itself