The future of humanity rests in his hands - but is he still human? A mysterious accident leaves Matt Johnson with massive burns. When he recovers months later, he is no longer entirely human. His search to discover what happened to him and his struggle to survive in a hostile world, lead to discoveries which threaten the existence of human civilisation. He has a chance to avert disaster, but time is running out.. By the author of 'The Foresight War.'
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting plot, but not much else,
This review is from: Scales (Paperback)
Williams certainly had some fun putting his protagonist, Cade, in an unusual situation: that of a human horrifically scarred in an explosion and somehow transformed into something not-quite-human - (don't worry, an explanation comes later). Along with Cade's new reptilian looks and appetite, he also acquires some X-men style mutant powers such as superhuman strength, the ability to heal minor ailments, the ability to lock onto a specific person's mental signature, and the like. At first, Cade thinks to use his new powers for nothing but good, by visiting with hospital patients he feels he can help, or cure.
Soon enough, the government learns of Cade's special skills. With his mental powers and prowess, he's able to squash an attempted bombing and apprehend the terrorists. I was a little disturbed by William's depiction of any and all possible terrorists looking "of Middle Eastern appearance", but maybe those are just my prejudices showing through. In this episode, there is also an attempt made on Cade's life, which is never really explained. While under the protection of the government, Cade learns the secret of his transformation, and who was responsible for it. Beings, from a universe parallel to ours, caused the explosion that nearly killed Cade. They are responsible for his transformation, but even they are puzzled by his ever expanding mental powers. Thrilled to be contacted by aliens, Cade presents his new friends to the United Nations, as friends and allies. The aliens, who become known as "Saurians", decide it is their altruistic duty to share their technologies with humans. Through their studies of parallel universes, they have found humans on other Earths, all who destroyed themselves through overpopulation, starvation, raping of natural resources and ultimately nuclear holocaust. Saurian and human scientists team up to make Saurian technologies on earth a reality. Good thing humans speak Saurian, or vice versa, or something, because Williams glosses right over any difficulties in inter-species communication and understanding. In the next episode, a way is found for Cade to visit the Saurian planet, where he learns about their way of life, their government, and their society. He begins to realize he is too human to ever live comfortably with the Saurians, but has become too alien to ever live with humans again. It's amusing when he tries to explain things about human culture to the Saurians, who being such a perfect and utopic race in constant mental communication with each other, they can't understand the concepts of lying or corruption. Luckily Cade is with them, when they encounter another race of Saurians who seem to survive on lying. William's description of this second race sounds more like a treatise on everything that is wrong with current western culture than the creative creation of an alien race. Action and suspense follows, firefights, trans-parallel universe jumping, and not to wreck the ending, but the good guys do prevail, mostly. You'll notice I used the word "episode" in this article. Unusual way to phrase a plot perhaps? Not in this book. Any themes to bind it all together seem to come and go, as if Williams couldn't decide what he wanted to tell his reader. As Cade meets new people, previous friends and adventures seem to be instantly forgotten. He spends many months in hiding with a lover, Sophie. When she exits the story via violent death, within 10 or so pages, she is never mentioned again. Cade loved this woman. They were going to have a child. But he never mentions her again? That's a problem for me. When he leaves his hospital patients to work with the Saurians, he says he'll come back to them when he can. It is never mentioned again. Why have pages upon pages of something, if it isn't integral enough to the main plot to ever be mentioned again? Characterization, in general in this book, was a problem for me. We learn hardly anything about Cade. Who was he before the accident? Doesn't he have friends, neighbors, co-workers that he misses? Williams does a decent job of introducing characters for the first half the book (he may not develop them at all, but at least he introduces them), but in the second half when it's mostly Cade and the Saurians, Williams doesn't even respect characters enough to name them. We've got The Convener, The Primary, The Representative. To give some credit, the first Saurians that Cade meets, he gives them Earth-ish names, but the Saurians never say "stupid human, those not our names", they just answer to them. The idea that a human might not be able to pronounce an alien's names is no excuse for laziness on the part of the author. For how (not) deep these characters are, and how small of a range of emotions they go through, I have to wonder how much Williams cared about the characters and the world he was creating. The lack of emotion is not only uninspiring, it's disheartening. A painfully repetitive sentence and paragraph structure and awkwardly stilted dialogue rounds out the rest of my commentary on the technical aspects. Some additional editing and area rewrites could have made the difference between the book I read, and one that was a true pleasure to read. This could have been an interesting book. The plot is interesting and has some creative twists. I do wish Williams had spent more time focusing on what he wanted to tell his readers than on writing a 200 page meandering essay on everything that's wrong with modern culture and some vague ideas on how to fix it. I can give this book an honest review, or a nice review. If I'm not honest, I'm not a reviewer. 1 out of 5 spaceships. Reviewer: Andrea Johnson for Multiverse Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fast-paced sci-fi adventure!,
By K. Trout "Kaye" (Pagosa Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Scales (Paperback)
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: Very Good Scales is a fascinating story about a man, Cade, who survives a mysterious explosion with massive burns and heals into a reptilian mutant with unique mental abilities, superhuman strength, and healing powers. It's a story about aliens, parallel universes, terrorists, love and contemporary problems of planet Earth. It's a fast-paced read by a knowledgeable writer, and I enjoyed Williams's style of writing. If you like science fiction which deals with contemporary problems, you may also enjoy this book. Anthony Williams is a military technology historian and the author of Rapid Fire, Flying Guns, the Foresight War, and co-author of Assault Rifle. Reviewed by Kaye Trout - April 7, 2007
4.0 out of 5 stars
A peep into a future,
By Geoff Nelder "Geoff Nelder" (Chester, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Scales (Paperback)
A review of Scales by Anthony G. Williams
Genre: Science Fiction Publisher Authors OnLine ISBN-10: 075520266X ISBN-13: 978-0755202669 A major delight for me in science fiction is when one attribute of a common feature is changed and we explore the logical ramifications. A good example is in Death of Grass (1956) Samuel Youd, in which the title says it all. Any brain storming session would come up with what ifs such as gravity acting sideways; water won't freeze; or if you wake up with abnormal superpowers. The last kind of happens in Scales, and what an intriguing hook for a novel it is. After an explosion in Matthew Johnson's home, the result of which puts him into a six-month coma, the main character discovers that his skin has morphed into lizard-like scales with chameleon ability to change colour with changing emotions. Another new feature when he recovers is ESP ability. He finds he can tune into people's nervous system and even change them to heal many medical problems. He can also create pain and twist minds at a distance. This is enhanced when the truth behind his uniqueness is discovered. The revelation involves parallel universes in which other Earths exist. They followed different paths of development at key moments in history such as extinction events. Although we know little about his pre-accident life, Matthew Johnson feels he has changed too much to use his old name and now uses Cade, his middle name to help him and others cope with his changing identity. The first person narrative is strong because the protagonist, Cade, has a fully developed character in which he has definite opinions on the environment, social and political issues that beset our world today. He also has ideas on how to resolve those issues and is not slow to see how contact with the parallel, different multiverse Earth, with their superior technology and quasi-telepathic abilities could and must be used to rescue his home planet. His new `other dimension' friends are too naïve in their trust in communicating with other Earths but Cade is able to demonstrate how, sadly, it is necessary to use force to defend a way of life. Cade isn't the only character that is well-crafted in Scales. He has women friends, and secret service type contacts that come over well. A good touch is his brother, who initially is quite different in character to Cade, but as the novel unfolds the points of common interest intersect more. There is a lot of information imparted in this novel. This is to be expected as it like a manual of what to do to avoid an eco-disaster on this planet in the context of a very readable novel. Cade too felt that he'd become a kind of tool to rescue humans and a well-written passage has him saying that he had `become a package, a commodity.' This doesn't mean that he doesn't enjoy his function and the reader can feel engaged with his exuberance of his discoveries, even though some are desperately dangerous. For any reader thirsting for another take on what might have happened to our planet if the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs 65 million years ago, missed the Earth, then Scales will give them an enjoyable read and nourish geopolitical alternatives.
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