Day 373: The Forge of God First Impressions

After reading 'Blood Music' I needed to get my hands on another Greg Bear novel. I'm happy to say that the first few chapters of his later novel 'The Forge of God,' do not disappoint. Once again, he was able to capture me with nothing but straightforward prose about a family spending time at their lake house. It's so normal, but so vivid I can't help but be pulled in. Then he dropped the bombshell that defines the rest of the book and blew me away.

As far as I can tell, this is a classic alien invasion trope, but I can't help but think it'll be different than the usual pulp fiction alien invasion. Arthur and his wife Francine are both scientists, astronomers involved in the search for extra terrestrial life. After the program was axed by the current president they moved on with their lives, raised their kids, involved themselves in other research ... that is, until some shocking news drags them back into the fold. Europa, Jupiter's sixth moon, has vanished from the night sky. Nobody knows how or why but the fact remains that an entire moon is simply gone. The administration is bringing back the old team to reestablish extraterrestrial intelligence research and they want Arthur in charge. It's an offer he really can't refuse.

Meanwhile, a small team of three geologists stumble across a geologic formation in Death Valley that absolutely should not exist. It's not on any map, survey, or publication they can find. It only gets weirder when they find a hole leading deep into the strangely symmetrical formation. A hole that something has already come out of.

That's about as far as I've gotten. This is another one that I really just cannot put down. His pacing is just perfect and I really wish I could get a feel for how he does it. I guess my only recourse is to read a bunch of his work and figure it out along the way. Or else just hope something brushes off. I'm sure if I could figure it out my writing would get ten times more interesting.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley