Prometheus Comes

by Shawn Grimsley

The year is 2142 and the world is divided economically, socially, and politically between the Northern Confederation, which is a loose union of the nation states of the Northern Hemisphere, and the South, which consists of poor, disorganized states that have unsuccessfully struggled to obtain economic and political equality with the Northern Confederation. By 2142, Earth’s resources are nearing depletion and the climate change wrought by the advancement of technological progress will soon create shortages of the most basic of resources, including food and water. However, Confederation scientists have discovered a planet that could save the Confederation and its people from a new dark age. There’s only one it’s already inhabited.


Captain Jonathan Marcus and his crew embark to Nede to establish first contact. While tensions between the Confederation and the South erupt into violent war and acts of terror, Captain Marcus meets the Velathra, a pre-industrial, yet socially sophisticated society. The fate of the Velathra is also in the hands of Lathra Xantria, the chancellor of the city-state of Lexthra. She must ultimately decide whether to cooperate with the humans or risk a conflict that could destroy her civilization.

ebook

First published June 29, 2012

About the author

Shawn Grimsley is a recovering lawyer who now happily fills his days writing, teaching and spending time with his wife, kids, and dog. He is the author of Prometheus Comes and the founder of Quantum Realities: A Journal of Speculative Fiction. He resides in Rochester, Minnesota.

Reviews

[Christopher Kellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: I read Prometheus Comes in ePub format. I was given a Smashwords coupon code by the author to obtain a free review copy. It was read primarily using the Firefox ePub reader plugin.

Prometheus Comes is a sci-fi novel which (no pun intended) reaches for the stars. This is a very ambitious book which has a lot of promise and a lot of very high aspirations.

At its core, Prometheus Comes is a novel about two things: the desperate lengths to which human beings will go to obtain and hang on to power, and the morality of exploiting others out of necessity.

With its large cast and plot which spans a significant amount of both time and space, Prometheus Comes gives us an Earth which is falling apart under the recklessly corporatist state (which is not too difficult to envision, given the state of the world now) and Nede, an alien world inhabited by peaceful aliens who don’t seem to understand mistrust or hostility.

If I have a core complaint with this novel, it’s that both the politics and the Eden-like nature of Nede (right down to the anagram) are both heavy-handed and transparent. While it reaches for something more, it ends up being only a retelling of the ‘noble savage’ story — the parts on Nede could easily have been set entirely on Earth in the 19th century with missionaries discovering the noble savage in Africa. The Velathra just aren’t alien enough; it’s too easy to establish communication with them, their food can be shared with humans, and their biology is so similar (despite their outward appearance) that it doesn’t seem to be any trouble to understand them at all. I understand that this is intended to be a parable, and not necessarily hard sci-fi, but I felt like the author missed an opportunity to explore the true alien-ness of the other.

The plot on Earth really shines. As the political structure which has been held firmly in place for so long begins to disintegrate, we see the lengths that the corporate overlords are willing to go to, and the drastic measures that the rebels are willing to take to further their cause. Honestly, I think the entire Earth-centric plot could have been expanded into its own novel. The characters in this section were compelling, frustrating (in a good way) and believable. I would have read an expanded version of this part on its own and quite enjoyed it, I think. Mr. Grimsley did a fine job envisioning a dark future on the verge of collapse and giving us a clear picture of just what that means for the inhabitants of such a world.

From a technical standpoint, the storytelling is solid. The somewhat rambling 3rd-person omniscient narrator is a tried-and-true staple of this sort of science fiction, which hearkens to Asimov and Niven without quite reaching to their level. I felt that the editing could have used another pass prior to publication as well – I noticed some minor typos and homonym confusions scattered throughout.

Overall, I felt that Prometheus Comes was a fun read which truly reached for something great — and even if it did not quite live up to its ambition, as the proverb goes: when you shoot for the moon (or in this case, an alien world), even if you miss, you still land among the stars.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the `Prometheus Saga', a series which begins by setting the stage for a future Earth where resources are almost gone and the world is on the brink of civil unrest. The book covers two main arcs: the people on Earth, sharply divided by North and South, and the crew of the Prometheus on their way to a new world.

The story is an interesting positioning of humans being the bad guys, as opposed to being a food source, fighting for survival against invading aliens. The characters are nicely depicted, alien and human alike, clearly defined and each with their own voice.

There were some minor editing flaws, but nothing to take you our of the story.

At the end I was left in eager anticipation of the next book (due in December 2012). I'm not generally a fan of cliff-hanger endings, but I felt that this was a whole story in its own right and the ending was wholly appropriate. The sequel has had a high bar set, and I'm looking forward to it.

(I read the Kindle Edition provided by the author for review.)