Customer Reviews

Flight from Eden

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Taking a cue from Margaret Atwood's A Handmaids Tale, novice writer Kathryn Graham has crafted an entertaining yet cautionary sci-fi thriller in Flight from Eden. Graham's protagonist Dr Kris Garrick is a talented young pilot and noted astrophysicist who has gone into hiding after a Taliban style movement sweeps over the United States. Along with a few other top scientists Dr Garrick leads a resistance movement that plans on overthrowing the brutal totalitarian government by revealing the truth behind their barrage of anti-science dogma. Their mission is perilous and if it fails will lead to their execution as traitors, yet their reward would free their fellow citizens and push mankind toward a new age. Flight From Eden skillfully blends current events and science fact with a little science fiction, allowing the reader to view a society that we may see if we let our guard down. Graham's writing is well paced and her characters are developed very well, a great first novel and one I will enjoy reading again

Set in the near future, the United States is suffering in the grip of a fanatical and repressive theocracy. The people are blinded to the truth. Freedom is no longer part of the Constitution!

A computer expert, a mercenary with admitted sadistic tendencies, a cashiered U.S.A.F. officer, a doctor, and a world-famous astrophysicist have joined forces to create an underground movement. They would give their lives, if need be, to free the nation from the grip of tyranny. If they fail, millions will die. If they succeed, they will die millions of miles from their homes.

**** This is an incredible piece of work! The reader is not given all the information up front. However, the action and suspense keeps the reader glued as everything becomes apparent. I am unable to tell much about the story without giving away vital parts of the plot. Therefore, most of what is written in the synopsis above is from the back of the book. But never believe that there is not more going on than meets the eye in this dramatic sci-fi epic. Wonderful story! ****

For my money i dont know if i could have read a better book. This book is the best i have read this millenium. Outstanding story line, smooth flow of events and extremely understandable even though this is a technical sci-fi. I am used to reading three or four books at a time and the transition from one to another is a bit choppy, with this book you pick up right where you left off, that is, if you can even put the book down.

Set in the near future, the United States is suffering in the grip of a fanatical and repressive theocracy. The people are blinded to the truth. Freedom is no longer part of the Constitution!

A computer expert, a mercenary with admitted sadistic tendencies, a cashiered U.S.A.F. officer, a doctor, and a world-famous astrophysicist have joined forces to create an underground movement. They would give their lives, if need be, to free the nation from the grip of tyranny. If they fail, millions will die. If they succeed, they will die millions of miles from their homes.

**** This is an incredible piece of work! The reader is not given all the information up front. However, the action and suspense keeps the reader glued as everything becomes apparent. I am unable to tell much about the story without giving away vital parts of the plot. Therefore, most of what is written in the synopsis above is from the back of the book. But never believe that there is not more going on than meets the eye in this dramatic sci-fi epic. Wonderful story! ****

I confess, I managed to read less than twenty pages of this book before the upchuck factor kicked in, forcing me to stop. I haven't seen writing this bad since some of my own efforts when I was twelve or thirteen. No, I am not some "anti-freedom" ogre, and I count Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, John Ross' Unintended Consequences and L. Neil Smith's Pallas as some of my favorite books. And Victor Koman's incredible novel, Kings of the High Frontier. (Please, read that INSTEAD of this book!)

What we get from Ms. Graham is stilted, unreal dialogue with long adverbial modifiers on every single line of conversation, weighing down the narrative flow like an anchor. Not a trace of humor or irony lightens the writing, nor did I see anything I could count as intelligent observation or insight.

In the first chapter she introduces us to an America "in the near future" which has become such an extreme theocracy as to make Khomeni's Iran look like a paradise of tolerance. Science is not just uncool or unfashionable; scientists are declared to be criminals and are imprisoned just for being scientists. Just how much "willing suspension of disbelief" are you willing to give an author before you just decide, "Boy, is this dumb!"? Yet somehow this repressive society maintains a high tech civilization with airplanes, spaceflight and computers. Yeah, right.

In the second chapter (which is as far as I got), we have Uzi-toting scientists raiding some unidentified "compound" and cold-bloodedly murdering the security guards. How would a scientist get a Uzi, do you wonder? Wonder away; you won't be told. Our lady hero (world class astrophysicist, master pilot and martial arts expert at the ripe old age of 28!) kills a guard, goes into shock, then has a shot of whiskey and all of a sudden she's back on track, not just following, but *leading* the discussion of their planned operation ... maybe you can't wait to learn what happens next.

I can.