Review: Spectra by Joanne Elder

Format read: Trade Paperback provided by the author
Formats available: Trade Paperback, ebook
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Spectra #1
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Date Released: June 27, 2011
Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

Light years away from Earth a mining exploration crew makes an amazing discovery…intelligent life comprised entirely of energy. This living energy is so pure and unique, it could provide proof of the existence of the human soul. Those exposed to the entities gain unimaginable cognitive abilities but at a terrible cost.A rogue scientific group will do anything to maintain their mind-enhancing gifts, even if it leads to the destruction of the peaceful beings. Only two people stand in their way, and they will sacrifice everything to end the slaughter.Could the quest for the secrets of life lead to the creation of true evil; one so dark it threatens to tear down the walls of sanity and redefine our very existence?

On Star Trek, alien life almost always looked pretty much like us–bipedal, humanoid, and pretty generally human-shaped as well. There were occasional variations, like blue skin and antennae (remember the Andorians?) but the alien races were limited to the human actors.

One notable exception was the Next Gen episode “Home Soil“, where the aliens discovered by the terraformers turn out to be silicon-crystal based. They are tiny beings, but they are physical. And the proposed terraforming of their planet will kill them.

I raise this example because it bears some similarities to the story in Joanne Elder’s Spectra, but Elder has added multiple layers of complexity to her tale. On Spectra, the planet, a mining exploration group discovers a planet rich in minerals, and something extra–a life form that is pure energy.

It is also purely several other things: purely good, purely curious, and purely able to enhance the intellectual capabilities of the humans who come into contact with it. There’s only one problem. As the energy forms are absorbed by the humans, they die. Our enhancement comes at a great price to the tiny energy life forms. Hundreds, thousands of them die to enhance one human. And the process needs to be repeated or the human fades back to what they were. It’s somewhat addictive to go from being average to being DaVinci. Or Einstein.

Once their curiosity is sated about the physical beings who have invaded their world, they beg the humans to leave. Of the six people in the mining group, four agree to leave and declare the planet off-limits, two disagree but seemingly bow to the will of the group.

Then people start dying. Because those two who disagreed, well, one of them, Ivan, finally found himself smarter than everyone else for the first time in his life, and he just wasn’t willing to let that feeling go. So he went back to Spectra, and brought back some of those aliens. Just to augment himself and a few select friends. And get research grants. And get rich.

And kill anyone who might stand in his way. Including the four people who said no.

But as Ivan got smarter, his plans and plots got more convoluted. Back to Star Trek, as Scotty famously said, “the more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.” Especially since those entities are very, very unhappy about the whole situation, and even without bodies, have ways of making their displeasure felt.

Escape Rating B+: There’s a lot going on in Spectra, and all of it is fascinating. The discovery of the entities, and what they do to get themselves freed makes for one cool story. As part of the plot to keep the whole situation with the entities under wraps, Ivan’s machinations to get one of his colleagues from that mining expedition framed for murdering another, and how that all finally goes to smash makes for an exciting and harrowing prison break story.

There is, as is often the case in science fiction, an underlying ethical question. What would you do in the same situation? The scientific breakthroughs enabled by exposure to the entities appear to be astounding. But the entities die from the exposure. Is it worth it? This is not a question of whether the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, but whether the needs of this many over here outweigh the needs of that many over there?

When we meet our first aliens, how will we decide?

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 11-25-12

I feel a certain amount of nostalgia as I write this Sunday Post. This will be my last Sunday Post posted from Atlanta. Next Sunday I’ll be in Seattle. Our stuff will be somewhere in the middle, but I’ll be on the west coast again. I’m looking forward to it.

My cats, probably not so much. We’re flying them again. It’s about five hours on a plane vs. five days in a car. There just aren’t enough tranquilizers in the world for that trip, no matter who the tranqs get administered to.

But this past week has been anything but tranquil. It was Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. And speaking of thankfulness, there are a couple of thankful type-winners announcements!

Kelsey Summer won the Black Friday Blog Hop and Erin Fender won the copy of Ice Cold by Cherry Adair. Congratulations winners!

One specific Thanksgiving note. I spent Thanksgiving in Little Rock, Arkansas with Galen’s sister and her partner. Because we were in Little Rock, I was able to meet up with Jo Jones, the blogger behind the Mixed Book Bag. Jo was in Little Rock visiting her family. Us book bloggers sure do get around!

 

Reading Reality got around last week, too.  Here’s what happened:

A Labor of Love: Picking the Best Ebook Romances of 2012
B- Review: Promise Me by Tara Fox Hall
C+ Review: Broken Promise by Tara Fox Hall
Guest Post: Tara Fox Hall on the Love of Books
B+ Review: Whip Smart by Kit Brennan
Fall In Love Blog Hop
Black Friday Blog Hop
Stacking the Shelves (23)

 

 

 

 

The Fall in Love Blog Hop is still open! The giveaway here at Reading Reality is the winner’s choice of any one book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, under $10, print or ebook, to any country that Book Depository will ship. I love Harry Dresden, and I want everyone else to fall in love with the poor unlucky wizard too.

So what will be happening this week? I confess, I’m going to be spending a lot of this week moving. There will be pain, and anguish. And three cats locked in the spare bathroom.

On Tuesday, I’ll be reviewing Spectra by Joanne Elder. This book is very cool. It’s science fiction. Not science fiction romance, at least not so far, but science fiction. At the heart is an ethical dilemma. What if you discovered an alien race that were spirit only, no bodies? And what if exposure to them made you smarter, but killed them? And no one would know what you were doing, but you became really, really brilliant? But really evil. I’ve just gotten to the good bits.

And speaking of Harry Dresden…well, I was, just a few paragraphs ago. The latest book in the Dresden Files is coming out on Tuesday. Cold Days, just in time for winter. I’ve already pre-ordered my copy. As a treat to myself, in the midst of all this drama, I will read it, probably immediately, and review. I can’t wait.

What’s exciting in your world this week?