Customer Reviews

Event: A Novel

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

There are several reviewers here who want to tell us that this book is "right-wing".

I am here to tell you that it is NOT political in any sense. My feeling is that the reviewers in question take offense that the author is enamored with the US Military.

No surprise there since he was a member!

However, just because someone professes a "love of country" and puts forth a can do, do no wrong version of the military, that does not make it "right-wing", any more than bashing the military would make it "left-wing". You do not need a "balance" in everything people. There isn't a need for a character to be against the military, it's workings, ideas or people in this story.

So, if you are on the fence about purchasing this book, DO NOT make the mistake of basing it on any political viewpoint you think you might find in this book...

There isn't any.


Now, on to the book. I have read perhaps 1000 SciFi books in my life and this one rates right in the middle. I have read it before in many shapes and forms. The story is so familiar I cannot pinpoint exactly which story it reminds me of, but remind me.. it does.

If you read a lot of sci-fi, you'll feel the same.

The problems....
The clichés are abundant and by abundant I mean rampant.
The sugary "insta-love" between a lead male and a secondary female, the "uber" soldiers the MacGyver nemesis from another nations ex-military "elite", and most of all, the ridiculous nobility complex most of the characters seem to have...

My biggest beef about the book is not the story itself, but the lack of "minds-eye", meaning in many cases, you do not get a complete picture of the person, animal or thing the author is attempting to describe.
We know all too well how they "feel", we know little about how they look.
The entire reason a "good book" is a "good book" is it's ability to portray its characters, settings and situations in your mind. This book falls short.

Are the monsters supposed to be mini Godzilla's or what?

I found it so hard to pinpoint who was who, who looked like what, who was speaking that at the end of the book, the wraps ups were lost on me.

After the first 50 pages this book became my lunch break book and I finished it in 3 days. I liked it, I want to read the next one, but I won't be paying for overnight delivery.

"Event" hits the ground running from page one as it sets the stage explaining one of the great unsolved mysteries from the past century - the incident at Roswell, NM. Major Jack Collins is introduced early in the book as the new security boss of the Event Group, a covert military group that has the blessing of the White House to investigate unexplained myths and mysteries around the world. Collins is called in to head up the group that investigates a 2nd saucer crash within miles of the 1947 Roswell crash. The Event Group must act fast because they are up against another ultra-secret group who's after the inhabitants and secrets that lie within the downed saucer.

Author David Lynn Golemon, a former Special Ops himself, does a great job introducing the reader to many memorable characters. He takes his time developing the characters because "Event" is the first book in what will become a series about Collins and his cohorts. Golemon also displays his knowledge of tactics and weaponry throughout the book making the unimaginable almost believeable.

The plot drags a little during the middle of the book, but certainly picks up speed as the Event Group goes on site to investigate the craft and finds an unexpected survivor who threatens all of human life. The gore and body count pile up as the book rockets to its anticipated climax.

RECOMMENDED for all conspiracy buffs and those who enjoy alien invasion plots.

While I'm not a huge sci fi fan, this book was a great, fun, fast moving read. From the first chapter set outside Roswell in the 1940's till the final battle versus the nasty man eating aliens, I was hooked. If you like thrillers or sci fi, check it out. Lots of great imagination in the story and some not so imaginary weapons, make for an interesting read.
My only complaint (which kept me from giving this book five stars) was that I could pretty much pick out who the aliens WOULD NOT eat right away and since 90% of them made it, I thought that made that part of the story somewhat predictable.
I DO look forward to more novels from this great new writer!

Read the darned thing in 1.5 days - yes, I had to work - and just finished it a few moments ago. Really looking forward to the next one. As an Army Brat (Dad was a lifer) I really appreciated all the real hardware and the real depictions of our soldiers and battles. Good all-round story and realistic protagonists. Will recommend this to all who love great sci-fi!

This is quite a mixture of techno-thriller, suspense, monster/horror and science fiction. The Event Group is a secret government department which invesigates... strange things and events, sort of like the X-Files on steroids. They have a large underground complex in Nevada with vaults full of artifacts (like part of Noah's Ark which is not quite what one might think). The major component of the novel is the Roswell Event which was real but all the evidence was hijacked while on its way to the Event Group complex (and the Group members and guards were all killed). A similar Event to Roswell recurs and brings an animal called the "Destroyer of Worlds." to our planet. A desparate race begins to find the crash site, recover the debris and figure out what is going on. Mayhem and danger with the future of mankind hang in the balance. Lots of military tech, coupled with smart people (but a bit wooden and non-descript as characters) entails. Enjoyed the book from the beginning to the end; it kept my attention riveted to the very epilogue. Yes, the characterizations and some of the imagery leaves a lot to be desired but like a lot of science fiction, the emphasis is on the ideas and like techno-thillers on the
technology and action.

Very entertaining, at times exciting, reading experience. Kudos to the author for an excellent first-book effort... looking forward to the next one, too. ;-)

As far as first novels go, Event is pretty solid. I was skeptical when I picked this book up because I'm sooooo tired of the Roswell/gray alien deal, but I fought past that and ended up really enjoyed the book. What I found refreshing was the new take...or rather the non-boring take on the grays and their war with a slave-race. Of course, what I was really looking for in this book (and a lot of books I read...and write) were monsters/creatures/nasties/whatever you want to call them. And Event paid off in that category with a very original creation, the name of which escapes me. But they're very frightening, very cool and I'm sure we'll see them again in a future Event Group novel.

On to the complaints and the reason for a star deduction. The reason is 1. Characters. Now, I expect the character in these kinds of novels to be kind of thin. I don't mind that. But the cast of characters in Event is immense and even at the end of the book I had trouble knowing who was who in the Event Group crew. The few locals in the story stood out as the strongest, but the Event Group cast, the people that will be coming back again and again, got lost. I THINK the main character was Collins, but I'm not sure. 2. The pacing was a tad slow for me. The fast pace beginning hooked me enough to pull me through the slow middle and then end picked up to a nice, fever pitch pace.

But the book paid off in the end with a great, action-packed climax, so it's all forgivable. Overall, the book should do the trick for thriller fans and sci-fi fans alike. I liked it enough to pick up Goleman's second title, LEGEND, which I'm reading now. So far its got me hooked and I'm seeing the characters more clearly.

-- Jeremy Robinson, author of Pulse (A Chess Team Adventure) and Kronos

It has been said that there are only seven original plot lines in the literary world. I don't know who made the quote, or when it was made.

For all I know that quote in on itself is nothing but fiction.

I've recently finished reading `Event' by David Lynn Golemon. It only took me five days to finish the novel from cover to cover, and believe me it's not a thin book by any stretch of the imagination.

The thing about the novel is I've seen the plot in numerous places. Men in Black, X-files, Aliens, Tremors, numerous John Wayne movies, etc. etc.

The novel itself is a study of literary cliché's

However, and this is the big however - I really enjoyed it.

It doesn't matter to me that the novel is riddled with cliché's. Thus the reason I started the review with the line about plots.

The novel deals with conspiracies, going back as far as the Roswell incident in 1947. A mystery unfolds, a group of soldiers are killed by an unknown group of assailants, and the evidence of the UFO fades into the pages of history.

Jump ahead over sixty years with the encounter of two more UFO's, which are clearly at odds, as one is attacking the other, and another crash in Arizona.

However, this time, something deadly survived the crash.

It is up to an old Korean war veteran and his new found extraterrestrial friend to warn the military of the impending danger, the possible extinction of every living creature on Earth.

Enter the Event Group, an ultra top secret organization that deals with history and possibly life changing events that range from local encounters to global spanning conspiracies.

The leader of the Event group is an old man, Senator Garrison Lee, who was around during the time of the original Roswell incident sixty years previous.

The first portion of the novel gives the reader background on the major players, as well as an abbreviated history and background of the Event Group. Mr. Golemon also introduces several protagonists at this time, including the dangerous French mercenary, Colonel Henri Farbeaux, and a shadow group known as Centaurus Corporation.

The Centaurus Corporation has its origin in the wreckage of the original UFO crash sixty years previous, and are the funding force behind the Men In Black. Colonel Farbeaux is a major thorn in the side of the Event Group, and will probably show up in later novels as well.

The last hundred or so pages is, in my opinion, the whole reason to read the novel. It is, as the blurb on the cover states a Flat-out Adrenaline rush. I couldn't have said it better myself. Think of Aliens meets Tremors. The action is almost non stop and the body count is as horrific as it is incredible.

Now, despite the fact that I said the novel is riddled with Cliché's, don't let that stop you. It is worth reading and I will most definetly be picking up Mr. Golemon's second novel `Legend'.

One last quip about the book. Mr. Golemon really needs to cut down the size of many of his paragraphs. More than a few could have easily been cut into two or three separate paragraphs.

Four out of five.

I've read my fair share of high intensity "secret government alien agencies trying to save the world from an invasion" books, but this one is just flat out disappointing. Golemon's heart was in the right place. He had the basic formula of these type of books and had military knowledge (although some was inaccurate which makes me question his credentials) which should have promised to make a pretty good read. Too bad his writing was atrocious. It was so bad that I started getting cramps in my eyes and headaches from having to re-read it so many times. His sentences were usually WAY too long and drawn out plus I counted about 5 different writing styles....in one paragraph!

As I said, his heart was in the right place. His plot was actually very good, with the exception of the monsters being able to walk thru earth as humans do thru air due to their density. Wouldn't that mean that they would fall thru the earth to it's core like humans fall thru air until they hit something more dense? That was an annoying piece of info that was never explained....again bad writing. I just think he needs more practice, but maybe he'll get another chance pretty soon. The guy has the potential to be a great alien sci-fi writer if he can just pick a writing style and stick to it.

If you're trying to decide whether to pick this book up or not, I'd say go ahead and grab ONLY if you can stomach thru bad writing because the plot isn't that bad. I gave it 2 stars because I had the put the book down countless times because I was frustrated about having to re-read the chapters so many times due to his writing. Hard to grasp whats going on when a sentence doesn't make sense.

I'll admit I had some misgivings about a book with such an outrageous plot, but that was also what drew me to it. Done well, a far-fetched story often delivers a great read. This book did not disappoint.

Major Jack Collins has just joined the Event Group, a super-secret agency headquartered in the desert of New Mexico, when an emergency occurs. Two F-14 Tomcats have been knocked out of the sky over the Pacific, and the surviving pilot claims a flying saucer did it. The incident immediately grabs the attention of Event Group leader, Senator Lee, who had been involved with the recovery team that went after the saucer that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1948. He believes the first crash was an act of war, and thinks that a similar crash is no coincidence. He gathers Event Group teams and pours all their resources into finding the crash site.

Meanwhile, not one but two saucers have crashed in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. Three beings survive: a little green man, a malevolent gray one, and a hideous monster sent to Earth to destroy all life here. They crash not far from an old prospector, Gus, and Buck, his mule. The two alien men are smart enough to lay low when the monster gets loose. Gus is just lucky, and despite his fear, he follows the injured cries of little green Mahjtik whom he dubs Matchstick, then he takes him home to his cabin and gives him some soup. Mahjtik tells Gus of the dangers Earth now faces from the Destroyer and urges him to get help.

Meanwhile, a rival organization to the Event Group has turned on one of their agents who has gone rogue. They stole the UFO remains in 1948 and murdered the soldiers transporting it, and they will stop at nothing to get their hands on the newly-crashed saucers. They've got moles from the Event Group to the White House, but they don't count on the resourcefulness of Henri Farbeaux when their attempts to eliminate him fail. Farbeaux quickly assembles his own team and slips like an eel into the town of Chato's Crawl, Arizona, where the Event Group sets up headquarters near the crash site.

At this point, the action shifts into overdrive when the Destroyer births over 100 babies who grow quickly and share their mother's voracious appetite. Their nest is right beneath Chato's Crawl, and they wreak havoc on all the teams sent to kill them, as well as munching on a few reporters. Monster book lovers will thrill to the last third of the book as dozens of the otherworldy beasts ravenously chow their way through cops and soldiers while they fight back with amazing weapons. The action is unflinching and nonstop until the good guys prevail. Not all the bad guys are vanquished, however, leaving the door open for at least one sequel. Once the dust settles, the conclusion is almost too thorough about tying off loose ends, but after the wild adrenaline ride, at least it wasn't jarringly abrupt.

If I wanted to pick it apart, this book does have a few flaws, but mostly it was a gripping, imaginative read with several elements combining to create an intriguing plot. I like the way the author wove Roswell lore into a great monster book with not one, but over 100 hard-to-kill monsters that could easily devour a T-Rex or a megalodon without batting an eye. I'll knock people over to get at the next book by David Lynn Golemon.