Saucer
 Stephen Coonts
 (Sr. Staff Reviewer - D. H. BROWN)
 2002 St. Martin's Griffin
  ISBN: 0312283423


When a young engineering student discovers an alien object encased in a cliff in the Sahara Desert, our world is changed forever.

Rip Cantrell is a college student working his summer vacation on a surveying team in the barrens of the Sahara. The older men on the crew patronize him, although he is a good worker. Laboring in the desert where the litter of humanity is still rarely seen, laying seismic traps, Rip's eye catches the gleam of something metallic, something that shouldn't be there.

Senior Staff Reviewer D. H. BROWN writes:

I think pretty highly of this author. I like Stephen Coonts' simple style of writing, his characters & plot development. Well, this storyteller has taken the opportunity to go off the deep end, & step whole-hog into the realm of hard science fiction, with a present-day bent.

If Stephen Coonts ever reads this review, I know he will be able to paraphrase what Sally Fields said: "You like me! You really, really like me!" Mr. Coonts, indeed I do!

It seems all too seldom that I find a work of science fiction that comes to my hand, grabs my attention, makes my mind expand, & just simply thrills me with the reading! Saucer is one of those works!

When I finished this work, I was truly able to re-touch a feeling that I have felt all to seldom in my literary experience. I remember getting it when I was 12 reading Heinlein & Asimov for the first time.

Books that in their simplicity gave me the freedom to think truly big thoughts & contemplate places, things, & ideas that in a normal thinking world are so commonplace. Until an author has you peek around an invisible corner you didn't even see coming; makes you see everything in our natural world, differently. You begin to catch glimpses of that insignificant space that your consciousness resides in in the scope of time. & because we do reside in such an insignificant, tiny space in time, it makes this gift of consciousness that we have, as sentient creatures, all the more precious. & makes the crime of not using our minds for more than trips to the store or working on the car & raising babies, all the more serious. Don't get me wrong! Life is all of those things, but this marvelously wired organ we call our brain & the consciousness it allows us to have, is there for much, much more than what's for dinner tonight. It allows us to actually exceed the speed of light, the physics of which, in our current understanding, makes us chafe.

In Our Story, we evolved the curiosity & the need to look over the next hill, cross the nearest river & step into new environments. & we've done that to this puny insignificant itzy-bitzy space & place we call Earth, in a single galaxy with a hundred billion stars in a universe of galaxies unknown. That consciousness, when allowed to think Big Thoughts, takes away the insignifance of our very existence.

It gives us the ability to cease being ego-centric. Gives us the opportunity to see as if with the eye of God. Which is not, in my poor estimation, bothered by the fall of one sparrow, the collapse & nova of one star, or collisions between galaxies. I believe that we, as human beings, are on the verge of our next step in the evolutionary path of time, & that is the demand that our thoughts step beyond thinking of just the next hilltop, the next planet, & raise our eyes to wondering about the next universe.

Just like explorers of old, when casting their eyes on that next hillside, explored the ground to the next objective, so must we when looking forward, do the same, lest we just become another forgettable speck on the log of evolutionary time, like the dinosaurs.

The gift of consciousness that we have evolved is the key to unlocking the future of the human race. As our ancestors used the opposable thumb to manipulate their place in time, so must our minds be put to use in much the same way, for the future.

On page 309 of Saucer two paragraphs of dialogue provided me with just such a corner, & here I would like to quote:

“Charley said, "My father had a flip comment that comes to mind. He said the world is full of idiots, an indisputable scientific fact that proves that evolution is bunk."

Egg chuckled. "It isn't bunk, but it's an extremely complex subject, and it takes place over enormous stretches of time. The human mind just cannot fathom time in the quantities available to Mother Nature."”

Now that is what I call a Big Thought! One that takes a lot of brain processing power to get one's intellect around.

If you buy only one science fiction book this year -- spend your money on this simple, exhilarating read by a master storyteller. With all of my heartfelt thanks to the author, I confer RebeccasReads' highest rating -- Four Teapots -- on this his latest work: Saucer.

More from Stephen Coonts: America; Hong Kong; Cuba; Fortunes of War; Flight of The Intruder; Final Flight; The Minotaur; Under Siege; The Red Horseman; The Intruders. Nonfiction: The Cannibal Queen & War in the Air.
(08/11/02)

D. H. BROWN
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Staff Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
D. H. BROWN is the author of the critically acclaimed HONOR DUE and the Citizens Warrior Series. The son of missionary parents and with the help his Uncle Sam, he has touched base in more than 40 countries.  In 1986 he produced the independent children's film Lessie's Rainbow.  During the late 80s and early 90s, he wrote the book Common Sense and delivered the seminars of the same name for the Community Action Network of Seattle (CAN).  While doing his early Vietnam recovery work, he counseled Veterans and spoke widely to men's groups in Washington state, and was a founder of The Lodge of the Wolf.

D. H. BROWN has worked as a Logistics and Weapons Specialist in Viet Nam; day laborer; Director of Security; Armored Car Driver; Police Officer; Professional Hunting Guide; Trapper; Dog Sledder; Homesteader; Truck Driver; General Contractor; Minister; Editor; Writer; Speaker; Restaurateur; Movie Producer; Antique Restoration Specialist; Personal Care Worker; PC Repair Specialist; Computer Instructor; Webmaster and Web Designer. "I write about what I know."

He lives deep in the Pacific Northwest rainforest with his wife, author and editor Rebecca and Buddy Dog, working on his next book.
Visit him at: www.dhbrownbooks.com