Customer Reviews

The Future Happens Twice: The Perennial Project

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you judge this book by its cover, you'll be missing out on a great tome. the cover certainly doesn't do justice to what's inside...

This is a truly captivating and intellectually stimulating book. I was challenged when trying to categorize it -- Is this a sci-fi work? An action/adventure? A study of the human mind? An exploration of female heroism? Well, at the end, I realized this book defies a single categorization and encapsulates all these genres. "The Future Happens Twice" will appeal to sci-fi buffs, action/adventure readers and those fascinated by the study of the human mind and relationships.

At first, the premise of a supervolcano eruption resulting in total annihilation of all living things on earth ("extinction-level event") seemed like stuff of fiction. But as I kept reading, the more I understood how possible such an event could be. The project's mission to save humanity (or at least part of it) is thwarted by a number of things, not the least of which are the dark forces of human ego and duplicity.

I was impressed by the depth and breadth of the author's knowledge in the various science fields that are at the core of the book (e.g. bio-engineering, long-distance space traveling, geology). The author manages to make all this science stuff appealing to the lay reader and to build a chillingly realistic, action-packed and suspenseful plot around it. More impressively, the author's understanding of the human mind and his position on the future of humanity made me look to the future and at the same time be introspective about who we are and what we are here for.

All in all, I thought the science of this book was very thoroughly researched, the plot frighteningly real, and the story-telling gripping.

The synopsis on the back of the book does not touch about ninety percent of the story. My synopsis will give a much clearer idea to readers what is going on. Nothing over the half way point of this book will be told. I refuse to give spoilers. However, I do not believe the back of this book tells enough for readers to decide if this trilogy is for them or not. I, as the reader, would have liked to know what the project is actually about. Had I known, I would have picked up this book long before now.

Book One takes place in Reno, Nevada, 2064. Debrya Handsen is a thirty-three-year-old professor in computational linguistics. When offered a massive salary to join a top secret government project, Debrya leaves Minnesota and relocates to Nevada. She is eager to dive in immediately, even though she has no idea what the project is really about, only that it would challenge her skills in linguistic programming.

The project location is in a subterranean research facility. Alexander Johrd is over the computer science section of the project. The task of escorting Debrya around and explaining the project is delegated to him. Alexander notices that as he tells Debrya what is going on, she is attracted and repelled simultaneously. He knows that he must be careful as he explains the project. After all, most people would be appalled at first and no one wants to scare the new project member away. Debrya's role is vital.

The Pernennial Project's goal is to spread humanity across space. This way, should something happen to Earth and humanity be wiped out, the human race would have a chance for survival. The planet named Acantarius, located in the Omega Altaris System (over tens of thousands of billions of kilometers away), is the chosen destination. It will take a spacecraft around forty-two thousand years to reach it. To save most supplies (including oxygen, food, and the like), it is not human beings that are frozen on board, it is embryos. Four of the embryos are chosen to be the first born. The two androids on board will defrost the four when Acantarius is only twenty years away, watch over them as they mature in an artificial womb, and then raise the children as their own. The children will not learn that their parents are actually androids until their sixteenth birthday. The children will also believe they are quadruplets until then as well.

Of course, all of this must be tested. Using embryo-splitting technology, the project members have been making twins of each of the four embryos for many years. The current four believe they are actually in space, approaching Acantarius. They do not know that they are actually in a spacecraft, underneath a military complex on Earth. It is the next batch of twins that will actually be sent on the long interstellar trip. The four kids' entire lives, from birth and over sixteen years have been nothing but lies. Since the project leaders know the public would go ballistic when they find out, everything has been kept under wraps. Only the project members with blue badges know the full truth.

*** Be warned that this is a thick book, over seven hundred pages. It is the first of a trilogy. Book two is titled HUMAN DESTINY. Book three is titled THE ANDROMEDA ENCOUNTER. Due to the way the story is written, the plot is told many times. In my opinion, it is told too often. It is told to Debrya, then to the children, then slowly to a few public people... I cannot help but feel that this could have been written in a way that I, as the reader, could learn it as Debrya learned it. Then when others became involved or the kids learned the truth, I would not need to hear it retold and retold. Do not get me wrong; the way it is written works. It is just too repetitive for me.

The plot has been done before; however, author Matt Browne has given it much more thought. (In fact, there were times I believed Browne's version bordered on genius!) It seems as though the author did a lot of research before putting pen to paper, so to speak. I could not, and still cannot, stop wondering if something like this is actually going on in a secret remote location. The very thought is disturbing to me.

If you enjoy realistic sci-fi, this book is for you. I enjoyed it immensely. I only wish the plot execution had been told differently. Recommended! ***

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

Debrya Handsen, Julara, Ronyo, Gilvan, Sabelle - these are names you won't soon forget when you read The Future Happens Twice. This imaginative and provocative science fiction tale spins these lives together through events that are astounding, absorbing, and also foreboding. Matt Browne has created a work of splendid science fiction that is embedded with an exceptional scientific realism not often realized in the genre. Moreover, as he weaves his tale of courage in the face of the unknown, Browne brings to the forefront a number of ethical and moral dilemmas, dilemmas that we often struggle with today, and will no doubt be struggling with in the future.

Let's step into Browne's world, one about as detailed as I have ever encountered in a sci-fi. We move forward several decades from today. Debrya Handsen, a linguistics professor at the University of Minnesota, has just accepted a new position with a secret project that has been going on for decades - the Perennial Project. As Debrya learns early in the story, the Perennial Project is ultimately trying to change the destiny of humanity. But little does Debrya realize, once she has become entrenched in the project, it will change her own destiny as well.

Sponsored by the government, the Perennial Project is attempting to send people to the stars to safeguard the future of humanity. The Earth is a volatile system, whether we wish to believe it or not. Many times in the long history of the Earth, life has taken catastrophic hits from stellar and terrestrial phenomena. One of those events, the Permian-Triassic extinction, wiped out nearly 90% of life on Earth. For those working on the Perennial Project, extinction events like those are not far from their thoughts. What if something like that happened today? Could we even prepare for it? Who of humanity would survive, if anyone? Is it possible such an event might push humanity back to the Stone Age? No one has the answers to those questions.

As you progress through the story, you begin to realize Browne has covered just about all the bases in his vision of how humans might take their first steps to the stars. Unlike Star Trek, where ships are zipping around the galaxy, Browne puts a more realistic slant on space travel. Engines have been developed to push a ship at amazing speeds, but far short of light-speed. Thus a trip to a star some 82 light-years from Earth, where a suitable planet, Acantarius, may have been found - is going to take an astounding 42,000 years! For me, just the thought of that distance in time (in itself) is astounding.

But since in Browne's world, cryonics (freezing humans for long periods of time) is not a reliable and tested technology, the only means to get people to the new world is to freeze embryos, then birth those embryos within a reasonable time before the encounter with the new world, letting androids care for the children until they are of age to take on adult responsibilities. Coming at us with the viewpoint of a scientist, Browne believes such a scenario is testable and reproducible - thus the reason for the long timeframe of the Perennial Project. As the goals of the project unfolded before me as I read, they often gave me chills. Not chills of horror, but chills of wonder. The scientists sending the ship to the stars have no idea whether their mission will be successful. It's like sending a ship and its passengers into a void - you will never know the end results, and those making the journey will never really know who sent them because they are not only separated by distance, they are separated by the passing of 42,000 years. Though this concept has been touched on before in other stories, Browne did it in a way that made me shudder in awe.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters the author "has worked his novel around." They are real people, with real emotions, and it doesn't take much to empathize with them in their situations. This novel evoked more raw emotions in me than any book I have read in the last five years. Julara is my personal favorite, but Debrya Handsen is a superbly crafted presence in the novel, and you will empathize with the struggle that is going on inside her as she delves deeper into the Perennial Project and begins to obsess with what she believes is a grave moral injustice.

Take a journey into the future - The Future that Happens Twice! You will not be disappointed.

Jim Erjavec
Author of The Caverns of Mare Cetus

This is the most original sci-fi book I have read since Dragon's Egg.

For such a long book, so many "secrets" are revealed so early on, that you quickly wonder what else the author can come up with. But the book is less about frequent plot twists, and more about the author's vision behind the technology and planning needed to sustain a starship for tens of thousands of years. Although it is told sequentially (with the obvious big jump in the middle), the parallel lives of the two groups of travellers are cleverly merged to cleanly flow the story.

The level of detail and the breadth of science covered is impressive. Many topics are presented in a straightforward manner, casually dropped into a story that equally focusses on character development.

The author has considered cryo-storage, bio engineering, genetics, android software and hardware technology, the effects of deep space on man-made machines, atmospheric requirements for life, redundancy, long-range planning and the effect of deviations to the plan, and the emotional and technical demands of raising life on a starship. For some of these topics he proposes a solution, which seems adequate, then later in the book he demonstrates the weakness and how the solution was improved upon -- thus making us feel like we are part of this lengthy project, learning as the team did.

The early part of the book is set on not-too-distant Earth, and some of the author's predictions are already reality (e.g. car radios that adjust volume to incoming phone calls), which possibly shows the length of time he spent researching and writing it, and is amusing more than distracting.

What keeps the book gripping is the interplay of the project team's devotion to success and secrecy, with the children's thirst for knowledge and the real truth. Since the reader identifies with all groups of characters, instead of a good-vs-evil plot, by the time we are thrust into the future we genuinely want to know how it turns out.

The Future Happens Twice should be required reading for any Lifeboat Foundation member, or anyone who seriously cares about safeguarding humanity. In Matt Browne's captivating saga, a realistic way of how our species could escape the statistical chance of extinction our planet gives us is beautifully spelled out. Through the eyes of children who find themselves thrust into the role of saving all of humanity, you follow their own trials and revelations as they discover themselves and what they are in fact capable of. Their humanity, inspires... and invigorates you as you read. As you empathize and ponder how you would react to the situations they are thrust into, a new understanding of yourself arises.

I only read books that have a depth of science-- the technology and psychology in 'The Future Happens Twice' made it through my own realism filters and as I'd go to sleep after reading a section, my brain would be popping with ideas from the story. Being a cryonicist I often think that as I may have a chance of seeing what humanity becomes in the future, I may be able to see the dawn of space colonization. What I took away from 'The Future Happens Twice' was courage, that if I am ever placed in the position of space travel I would be able to do it. For now I do what I can to safeguard humanity by not only supporting The Lifeboat Foundation but also many non-profits that help end inequality now to raise the standard of living for all humans so we can then better work on our species' future.

I enjoyed the suspense and the realism in 'The Future Happens Twice' and I recommend it for any teen or adult that loves science fiction. This is 'hard' fiction that isn't hard to read at all--in fact if you read while walking on a treadmill like I do--you'll find yourself going 8 miles all of a sudden when you got on only intending a quick 3 or 4. Embryos frozen and sent to be raised by androids, secret shockingly questionable experiments, ethical dilemmas that beg the question do the ends really justify the means? Extinction, the vastness of space, questions of why we exist and finally do we have it in us to save humanity? All of these issues and more will engross you in Matt's page turner... I for one can't wait for the second in his trilogy to be released.

Frozen embryos, Extinction Level Events (ELE), androids raising babies, spaceships traveling for thousands of years - it may sound like a B-Movie of the Ed Wood variety, but, in truth, the premise is more plausible than one may think, and Matt Browne proves just that.

The Future Happens Twice: The Perennial Project tracks the efforts of a species under siege - and the enemy is one that its members can't readily combat. The very real and growing threat of an ELE (a ruinous, catastrophic disaster) forces the global leadership of Earth to devise ways to preserve the existence of humanity, ensuring its propagation for posterity. The problem, though, is that if Earth's habitable environment is destroyed or severely damaged by the ELE, there will be no viable place for those remaining to survive.

Hope comes in the discovery of a distant Earth-like planet, but the only problem is that the planet is dozens of light years away. As science, per Albert Einstein, has proven, there is no possible way that life can survive a journey that long...or is there?

A top-secret project launched at the behest of the American government has devised a way for just such a journey to transpire - but it involves some of the gravest ethical breaches ever known to man, and its highly experimental nature leaves too many questions unanswered. With time quickly working against the human race, the project's handlers must scramble if the species is to avoid joining the dinosaur in the annals of history.

Matt Browne has crafted a smart, engaging tale that highlights the proverbial Doomsday Scenario in stunningly personal detail. Given the technological bent of his chosen subject matter, one may think that his writing would be stilted or difficult to understand, but his storytelling is both straightforward and informative, leaving the reader with a greater appreciation of just how important a role science plays in our everyday lives - as well as our (possible) future.

Though it comes in at just over 700 pages, Browne's narrative reads fast and easy and whets your appetite just enough to crave the second and third parts of this exciting trilogy. Like Tolkien, Crichton, and Octavia Butler before him, Browne's compelling prose will convert you into a Sci-Fi fan without your even realizing it. The best is yet to come from this impressive new literary talent.

The Future Happens Twice is one of the better science-fiction novels I have read. Its originality and Matt's uncomplicated writing style made it a delight to read. Matt's extensive research for the novel also shines through as I never found myself thinking an element within the novel was implausible.

It is a hard science-fiction novel. By hard I don't mean it's hard to read, far from it. Matt Browne writes in a simple style that doesn't intrude on the story. His style is reminiscent of the uncomplicated writing of Dean Koontz, Margaret Atwood and Peter Carey. You won't be re-reading jargon laden and unnecessarily complicated sentences in The Future Happens Twice.

By hard science-fiction I mean that Matt Browne has created a universe true to today's science and what scientists think will be possible in the future. Some of the hard science-fiction elements in the novel include: cloning, nanotechnology matter-compilers, artificial wombs, believable androids, realistic alien life-forms, and intergenerational space travel.

The best thing about the novel is its originality. I've read and watched a lot of science-fiction and I never found myself thinking that Matt's novel sounded familiar. It is part-thriller and very much an adventure story as Matt explores one possible future for humanity.

It is a story where a group of scientists set out to ensure that the human race survives an end-of-civilization event. To help ensure our future, scientists conduct a series of ethically questionable experiments on the unsuspecting crew of a spaceship and their relatives on earth. Some of their test subjects become aware of the experiment, jeopardizing its continuation and humanity's future.

His characters are full of human desires and flaws. There are no one-dimensional, chiseled-from-stone characters in this novel.

I would recommend the Future Happens Twice to anyone who likes to read plausible, simple to read, exciting, adventure/thriller novels set in the not too distant future.

Never judge a book by its cover! The first installment of Matt Browne's sci-fi trilogy about colonization of an extra solar planet 43,000 years in the distant future is a surprisingly good read for a first time author, and potential readers should not be put off by the romance-inspired cover art.

The Perennial Project (the first in The Future Happens Twice trilogy), is a character-driven 700+ page novel that follows the exploits of scientists and their subjects in a super-secret government project that will send cryopreserved embryos into space to colonize an earth-like planet in order to perpetuate the human race after earth suffers a devastating catastrophe eliminating all biological life on the planet.

Browne does not fall into the traps many first time authors do. There is no info dump to give the reader back-story. Instead, the scenes show, rather than tell, the plot. Browne's scientific background and extensive research on the subjects in the book does not prohibit the layperson from understanding the complex subject matter. Browne explains complicated ideas without talking down to or pandering to the reader. This isn't a beach novel, but the reader does not need a master's in science to follow the ideas.

Browne does an excellent job of creating interesting, round characters. One of the absent-minded professors, Bruce, is described as wearing two different colored shoelaces. Equally telling is the description of the somewhat nefarious Rick Kanchana, "Kanchana pounded a fist on his heavy desk, barely missing a plate. He pushed away the plate on which lay an unfinished sandwich. There was bit off cheese protruding between two slices of dark bread. The indentations in the cheese looked almost like the cast of a cogwheel--the work of Kanchana's uneven teeth" (pg 449). Kanchana's teeth, of course, are a reflection of his twisted morals and ugly personality.

Readers may be worried that it will be difficult to follow the different storylines of the twins since three of the four sets have the same names. However, Browne integrates the various storylines and moves easily between them. It is neither difficult to follow nor is it confusing.

Though the theories presented about how our universe will end are pessimistic, the scenario presented is plausible; Browne balances the pessimism with the hope our scientific developments can save the human race.

While much of the 720 pages is new information, the basic plot of the story is repeated a few too many times. Mid-novel, when three sets of the twins are brought together, a recap of the previous 400 pages is given. Another 150 pages later, there is a similar recap for the fourth generation twins. It was prudent for Shakespeare to recap the plot for his audience because the crowd was rowdy and often didn't pay attention, but there is no need for Browne to do the same in the first novel.

The third and fourth generation twins are both born and live on a spaceship (unbeknownst to the third generation, it was a hoax), but Browne seems to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince his reader that personality is both genetic and environmentally determined, while real-life identical twins, even raised in the same environment and conditions can have very different personalities and reactions to stimuli. Each third and fourth generation twin also refers to their mate as "girlfriend" and "boyfriend" which makes it seem like Browne is reminding the reader the set of quadruplets are not related to each other so no incest is taking place.

Ironically, though the book is framed around Debrya Handsen, a linguist, most of the characters speak in the same voice. Diction isn't varied, and all of the characters, while all being brilliant, speak with similar patterns. This is a common problem with first time authors, and will hopefully be rectified in Browne's future novels.

There is very little of the book devoted to the colonists when they arrive on the planet, and it would be exciting to learn more about the interesting feather trees, the ranaphibo (the six-legged, blue, misshapen hamster-like creature), the light-shy flying insects, and other phenomenon of planet Acantarius. Browne whets the reader's appetite with a wonderful scene of the Festivals of the Moons in the epilogue of the book, showing the human need for pomp and ceremony and creates an expectation of what will happen in the second volume (Human Destiny). This leaves the reader wanting more and eagerly anticipating the second volume.

Overall, the novel was a wonderful read for anyone high school age and above who is interested in planet exploration and plausible future scientific advances. Any reader of this novel will look forward to Browne's next installment.

The time is NOW to read "The Future Happens Twice", a provocative masterpiece that explores, explains, and integrates the social, physical, technological, and environmental sciences that will collectively carry current society into a future far beyond what most people imagine. We cannot plan for the future based on the historic condition, and this message is sublimely transmitted in this novel. This book is brilliant! You need not be a science fiction aficionado to appreciate the vast amount of thought, insight, and work that Matt Browne dedicated to create this future classic. What really captivated and intrigued me is the research and knowledge that support the book's scenarios and plot. Browne's ability to articulate technical information is thorough, intellectually stimulating, and presented in a sophisticated context that is informative and exciting, yet understandable by a broad audience, while not compromising detailed description and validation. As a professional ecologist, I approach science fiction with an inherent skepticism and this book stood up to that scrutiny. The lively suspenseful plot includes perspectives on social mores, emerging technologies and their implications, and engaging, stimulating environmental consideration. Notably, the human condition is not lost in the cold reality that the book proposes. There is a tremendous amount to be learned from the "The Future Happens Twice", leading to an enhanced understanding of the potential of modern and future societies, and the restraints that must be considered, understood, and hopefully overcome. I could not stop reading and am now eagerly awaiting publication of the second book in this intriguing trilogy.

Although I don't often read science fiction, I was drawn by the jacket on Matt Browne's book, and the first chapter grabbed me. The science part of it was fascinating and clearly explained so that a non-scientist could understand it without struggle. But most impressive were the unexpected twists and turns of the plot. After a while I began to expect the unexpected and was never disappointed. The delayed disclosure of critical information by Browne shows the skill of an accomplished writer and makes the story not only entertaining, but riveting. And like all good science fiction, it leaves you wondering if this could really happen. If you want to be entertained, I highly recommend it.