Customer Reviews

Gray/Guardians

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kathy Porter weaves a tale (or should I say tales?) involving realistic, multi-dimensional persons - each with his/her own distinctive storyline - whose lives and events converge when all are faced with environmental catastrophe on a global scale. The commonality of their very existence surfaces as they discover their unknown and unwilling involvement with alien beings (not with one race, but two!), and experience some heartfelt self-revelation as a result. Her characters reach out to you, as Ms. Porter effectively portrays, for example: the anguish a mother feels when having to choose between her own children (in this case, both earthly and alien) the dilemma of leaving loved ones behind on earth and everything comforting and familiar, to the noble end of continuing the human race in a new and strange world to the resignation of having to stay behind, facing one's own mortality. Compelling, amusing and suspenseful at different turns in the story, Gray/Guardians contains enough technicality and vivid description to hold the attention of a seasoned science fiction aficionado, but is engaging enough to attract the mainstream and the "I-don't-like-sci-fi!" readers, and draw them in. Gray/Guardians is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I enthusiastically recommend it!

I am not a science fiction fan and UFOs aren't really my thing, but I recently read Kathy Porter's book, Gray/Guardians, and I have to say that I liked it. The characters are interesting and human (even the aliens!); as each chapter ended I was eager to find out what Ellen or Tony or Fruke would do next. The action moves well and the plot is compelling. Porter's story is told in a deceptively straight-forward manner. Without an enormous amount of visual imagery she creates worlds that are easy to imagine in a movie or a TV series.

The alien Grays are trying to save themselves from extinction just as it seems that Earth is about to self-destruct. Could this be a match made in the heavens? Who are the Guardians and why have they been so quiet? Why are everybody's ears ringing? For the answers to these questions and more, read Gray/Guardians.

Local references are a nice touch. How many books have you read that have action in Los Alamitos, California; Endicott, New York; Minot, North Dakota; and Buffalo Gap, Texas?

I have never read a book by Kathy Porter before. I found this book to be very engrossing and captured my attention so much, that I spent the good part of one single weekend reading the whole thing cover to cover.

The idea that a US President would be contacted by aliens who appear to be benovelent is quite common in science fiction. What was really interesting here is that we learn that the President is then contacted by yet another species of aliens. I have never seen this happen before in any other book. The idea that two separate groups of aliens who are in conflict with each other are then using contact with us as a strategy/tactic, and then having us figure out who is lying is very fascinating.

I don't want to provide too much info here about how this gets resolved, but let me simply say that it involves quite a few present day issues including global warming and a world-wide pandemic.

Gray/Guardians by first-time author Kathy Porter takes readers on an adventure through humanity's worst nightmare - a planet suddenly stricken by cataclysmic natural disasters; its inhabitants inexplicably falling ill by the thousands. Earth's crust shakes incessantly with seismic activity and the atmosphere's air currents reach hurricane-force. Humans are so weakened by energy depletion they are hospitalized and struggling to survive.

The greenhouse effect reaching full bloom, you say, and the long-predicted pandemic infecting people's immune systems.

Think again. Gray/Guardians introduces the ultimate variable - the existence of alien life forms from other solar systems. An extraterrestrial species called The Grays offer their ministrations to sick humans who are brought to "tent cities" where they are protected from the so-called Severe Environmental Allergy Syndrome. Under the pretext that planet Earth is doomed, The Grays offer to save humans by bringing them to their home planet. Chief among The Grays' relocation plan are women of child-bearing age. Given its circumstances, the human race seems to have little choice but to put their trust in the alien interlopers.

Enter The Guardians, yet another alien species with a different story to tell. Earth isn't doomed at all, they argue. Rather, that's The Grays' cover story for its real agenda, which is to use earthlings to create a dangerous new hybrid race.

An intergalactic struggle ensues. The embattled Guardians use guile to fight off the more technologically sophisticated Grays in their effort to save the human race.

Even as humans have chosen to align themselves with The Guardians, Porter leaves plenty of gray areas that keep readers wondering who the real human guardians are.

En route to getting the answer to that question Porter take readers from New York to California; the White House to a North Dakota military base; and Buffalo Gap, Texas to planet Nuur in the Sagittarian Galaxy.

Beam me up Scotty, along with my copy of Gray/Guardians!

I don't normally read science fiction, but a friend recommended this book to me, and I really enjoyed reading it. While it is science fiction, it has all of the mystery and action that I like to find in a good, suspenseful action-thriller. The author is extremely creative and has a great sense for keeping the book moving. It has the action pace of an episode of 24 for the entire length of the book. I also think she does a great job of exploring how we humans, and specifically Americans, would react under some extremely dire situations, and it isn't always pretty.

Hard to believe that this is her first book. It definitely has the characteristics of a very seasoned author.

In the near future, the inconvenient truth is the earth is dying as the environment has reached code red. Natural disasters have become epidemic and disease pandemic. Earthquakes and tsunamis at sea and in the air have become catastrophic as if the planet is in its final death throes. Humanity appears on the eve of extinction as the Doomsday Clock has reached the point of no turning back.

Hope arises when aliens arrive to treat ailing humans suffering from the Severe Environmental Allergy Syndrome. The Grays offer the governments a plan to save the species from the dying planet. They will bring selected humans to their home planet; predominantly women of child-bearing age.

Soon afterward, a second alien race appears. The Guardians insist earth can be saved if enlightened people make the concerted effort and that the Grays' secret agenda is a breeding program to establish super lethal hybrid to dominate the universe. Selling their belief to the embattled human leaders is near impossible as the Guardians are technologically inferior to the Grays so earthly leaders assume less knowledgeable; besides which they wonder what is the Guardians' agenda? On the other hand, the concept of not leaving home with most surviving is one generality humanity embraces. As the Grays and the Guardians battle over the future of mankind, humans feel somewhat helpless since their input seems to not matter, but both extraterrestrials underestimate the earthlings.

This cautionary science fiction thriller uses real people like Bush and agencies like SETI to establish a feel of plausibility that two alien races arrive at a time when earth is on life support. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action, but also provides intriguing metaphors on how western civilization looks at other cultures from a purely technological perspective; if you can't plug and play wireless you are backward. Readers will appreciate this deep science fiction thriller that is mindful of Frank Stockton's classic The Lady and the Tiger as humanity must choose but which of these aliens is the beast and which is the nurturing mother.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed the story but the grammar errors did get to me. Examples include switching same sounding words and using the one with the incorrect meaning - for example: "here" when it should have been "hear". Also, there are sudden changes in tense in the middle of a sentence. The book just needed more editing rather then just a spell check.

Kathy Porter is a fantastic writer. I met her at the book expo last year, and I recently had the opportunity to read her book. What a fascinating story, and boy, did it ever keep my interest. I highly recommend her book to those who are really looking for a book that you just cant put down. Thank you Kathy for your wonderful book.
Shanti Milan
Author of Get Ready Cause Here I come

I just finished the book and now can't wait for the next one. Is it done yet? Okay how about now?
This was one of the ones that I like to read - you just don't want to put it down. The characters are real and you make the reader care about them human or alien. You are right up there with Michel Crichton, Dale Brown, Tom Clancy, David Baldacci, James Patterson and Nora Roberts.

This one of the first science fiction books that I have ever read and, now I know I'm hooked. What I found most fascinating about Gray/Guardians was the realism of the characters and scenarios. I could identify with so many of the characters and relate to the thoughts going through their heads. I was transported into their world which, in a chilling way, was very akin to my own. Thanks for an outstanding read!