Customer Reviews

Signals: The Exploration Chronicles, Book 1

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

 

 

While the plot is a solid one, dealing with subjects and issues that I found interesting, the delivery is bad. The characters are stereotypes, the setting - in the middle of the 21 century, seems no different from now. The author just adds a few things, like colonies on Mars and a few space stations.
As you read the book you might notice things are missing. Like names. What is the name of the university where some of the main characters work? What state is State Senator from? What is the name of the space station turned starship? What party does the President belong to? These tiny details are the spice of any story that helps develop it, give it background. Without them a story can be good, but not great. And this story needed them, because it was not good. Like a steak on the grill, sometimes you need something to go with it.
If you want something easy, get this book. If you want a great, detailed, book with a great ending, look someplace else.

Kevin D. Randle is well-known as a leading figure in ufology, spearheading the search for answers at Roswell, organizing and disseminating data on other reported UFO crashes, giving voice to a sometimes unpopular viewpoint on the subject of alien abduction, and generally examining UFO evidence in its larger context. Drawing upon his knowledge of the UFO phenomenon and his military background, he has now launched a science fiction series dealing with man's first encounter with an alien race. He is not going to be winning any awards for his fiction any time soon, as it demonstrates a number of noticeable weaknesses, yet I found Signals a rather exhilarating read despite all of its internal problems.

The whole plot of the novel is surprisingly far-fetched and, at times, bordering on the ridiculous. It all starts with an announcement that a seemingly artificial signal has been detected from space. Without verification, such word should never have even gotten out, but a collection of unscrupulous characters makes Mt. Everest out of an ant hill and seemingly engineers a self-fulfilling prophecy of unlikely proportions. A state senator who wants to be a US senator takes the story, flimsy as it is, and builds a campaign on the dire threat posed by this alien ship. An unscrupulous TV reporter puts together some misleading news reports in an attempt to get national attention, and a rather loathsome doctoral candidate lends the voice of authority to some extraordinarily unscientific claims. The next thing you know there is rioting in the streets over nothing more than a possible anomaly some fifty light years away from Earth. That gets the military and eventually the President involved, rushing to "act." They don't even care what the action is, just that the people see them taking charge. Before you can say Roger Dodger, some rockets have been slapped on an old space station and a laughably incompetent set of astronauts are heading out to meet the alien ship. I mentioned the self-fulfilling prophecy, as it turns out that there is an alien spaceship, it is traveling faster than light speed, and it is heading toward our solar system.

It's a good thing this book is identified as the first of a series because the ending is, to put it lightly, anticlimactic. The words much ado about nothing come to mind here. The biggest problem with the novel, though, is the characterization. First of all, it's ridiculous that the ambitious state senator (we don't know what state) could run with this story so effectively; then you have the equally ambitious reporter who finds herself included in the mission to intercept the ship despite the fact that she does not know the difference between a galaxy and the solar system. The one honorable and knowledgeable scientist has little influence, her assistants on the space flight include one guy who only minored in astronomy, and the military outlook on all this is flighty at best. Randle struggles most with the physical descriptions of his characters, though, each of which is painfully bland and embarrassingly wooden.

Given Randle's strong background in both ufology and the military, I was actually quite surprised at the sense of implausibility pervading the entire novel. A lot of important science is just ignored - thus, you have people "running" through a weightless space pod, no mention of navigating a ship through the asteroid belt, and a slapped-together spacecraft that seems to journey from Earth out to the Oort Cloud as if it were just a hop, skip, and a jump away. Yet, as I said, I found Signals entertaining, and it held my interest throughout. Randle is not a gifted writer of fiction, but the ideas of space flight and alien encounter that define this story may keep the reader interested despite all of the book's major flaws.

Yow!! What a stinker! Did I make a mistake buying these pages full of appalling mush. Must have read the only two good pages in the shop but having tried to read the whole thing could not find those pages again. Everthing about this book sucks. Plot is moronic. The science makes no sense. They travel a light year from the solar system and then return as though popping down to the corner store with NO explanation of the propulsion system. Every character is a bland stereotype. Nothing in the plot is interesting. All over stupid.

Signals is the first novel in the Exploration Chronicles. SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has been going on since the mid 1960s and has found many electromagnetic signals coming from space. However, these signals have always fallen into one of the following three categories: 1) produced by man-made devices, either on the ground or in space; 2) produced by natural objects; or 3) nonrepeated phenomena. Future SETI research is likely to extend the range of monitored frequencies, the angular degree of coverage, and the number of samples taken per day. Eventually, the whole sky could be monitored continuously on every frequency.

In this novel, a signal is detected in a part of the sky far from any star. Moreover, the signal seems to be moving. A preliminary press release is issued. A local television station decides to investigate and the reporter, Rachel Davies, interviews the project director, Sarah Bakker. However, she only uses portions of the interview to add credence to an alien abduction story. The TV story is picked up by the Army and an engineer officer, Captain Thomas Hackett, is sent to check out the matter; Hackett also develops a personal interest in Sarah Bakker. The TV story soon comes to the attention of a state senator, Jason Parker, who is running for the US Senate; he convenes a press conference with various parties, including a puzzled Sarah Bakker, which leads to an announcement that the signal is coming from an alien ship headed towards Earth.

With this pronouncement, the government goes into high gear. The President creates a special agency to handle the crisis, headed by George C. Greenstein, who is also nominated for Lieutenant General. Since Hackett works for the General, he brings in Sarah Bakker. Two other participants at the infamous press conference, Jonathan Travis, an UFO investigator, and Steven Weiss, a maverick PhD candidate, are included within the team, as is Rachel Davies. While the principal aim of the agency is to alleviate public fear by simulating constructive action, the agency does start preparing a vehicle for first contact with the alien and Naval Captain Ray Lewis is brought into the agency as the ship commander.

This novel draws upon the author's experiences within the UFO community as well as his military career. The scenes are vivid and immediate, as if we are watching a movie. If this story has any one flaw, it is the contemporary look and feel of the settings and dialogue; one would anticipate that some changes in every day affairs should occur in a few decades! Will Coke still be produced in 2050? An assumption of the current ambiance with minor changes is almost inevitable in a movie, for the settings might otherwise get in the way of the story (with the exception of series like Star Trek or Star Wars). However, SF writers soon learn to introduce changes in unobtrusive ways. The author does this much better in his other SF works, which are set in the far future.

The author also makes a good case for objective investigation of UFO phenomena. Project Blue Book started out as an attempt to bury the whole idea under scientific and technical obfuscation and later efforts have been tarred with the brush of "crackpot ideas". Virtually all serious investigators admit that the great bulk of sightings are mistakes or frauds, but every investigation has been left with a residue of unexplained cases. If nothing else comes of more extensive investigation, finding good explanations for these residual cases should increase our knowledge of the immediate environment and the universe itself.

The sequels to this novel are going to expand our technological capabilities and take us further into the universe, presumably to actually meet the aliens. It should be an interesting series. The author's previous SF series -- e.g., Jefferson's War, Galactic MI -- were enjoyable, at least to me, but his writing skills, as demonstrated in this volume, have greatly improved over his prior SF efforts.

Recommended to Randle fans and anyone else who enjoys SF tales of alien contact.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Post doctorate physicist Sarah Bakker detects the signals that act radically different than anything observed before. Though remaining skeptical, as SETI has had false alarms before, Sarah believes the signal is emanating in an area of space where no star is near enough to cause a natural phenomenon leading to the possibility that intelligent life has been detected.

TV journalist Rachel Davies links Sarah's story to a UFO nut case that State Senator Jason Parker sees as an opportunity to add United in the front of his job résumé. He is in a partnership to further the needs of himself, Davies, graduate student Steven Weiss and UFOlogist Jonathan Travis at the cost of the truth. His actions lead to the Army establishing the Galaxy Expedition Team led by Captain Thomas Hackett. As Thomas and Sarah become acquainted and attracted to one another, they seek the truth, which is out there on the edge of the solar system.

The opening novel of a quartet is an engaging tale that sets the stage for the remaining books. Manipulators for personal gain battle with those who face the reality that they are coming, but for what purpose and will they stay? Sarah is a delightful idealist who wants to do the right thing. Thomas is a charming career soldier who will follow orders, but do his best to insure the right thing occurs. Jason and his cohorts are a cynical foursome though in some ways Jonathan does not quite fit into the group. Fans of first encounter tales will relish Kevin Randle's book that leaves SIGNALS, the first book in The Exploration Chronicles a Sci Fi junkie's triumph and will have fan eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.

Harriet Klausner

As other reviewers have pointed out there are lots of things missing here. Science and engineering are missing, in so many ways. Plot continuity is battered at best as is character development. Yet somehow its imperfections are surely akin to the imperfections of any reaction we'd have in a situation like that. The improbable reactions in the plot become believable as we watch the real news and see real politicians willing to cripple America to make a political point. So I'd encourage anyone to not start this book, but if you do you may get some pleasure as you waste your time reading it.

After seeing in the author bio that he was some sort of UFOoligist, I was dubious about this book but tried it anyway. Maybe that preconception colored my experience but I really didn't get much out of this book. Some his science and technology is weak or wrong, I felt that the characters were 2-dimensional, and the plot plodded and was quite predictable in places. Overall, I won't bother with Randle again.

Set in near future Earth, a signal has been received from space whose origin can't be explained. The initial thought is that it comes from one of the planets or moons in this system, or that it's some previously unknown pulsar or other interstellar noise maker. All that is known about the source of the signal is that it is 50 light years away, and that it is heading in Earth's general direction. For a few weeks, the signal is lost; when it is regained, "it" is only 30 light years away, and still heading generally toward Earth. All known attempts to decipher the signal fail; the possibility is that the signal is internal, from ship to ship, and not meant as a message to another species.

Meantime, an ambitious American state senator latches on to the issue as a way to propel himself to Washington. Using some very questionable science, and some huge jumping to conclusions, he does a fine job of changing the public's focus from Unexplained Signal From Space to ALIEN INVASION! Panic and rioting spreads all over the world. (If this really is an invasion, how is stealing anything not already nailed down going to help?) The initial government and military response is to look like they are doing something (it's probably nothing, or this will quickly blow over). By this time, "it" is less than ten light years away, and still heading toward Earth.

An obsolete space station, already in orbit, is retrofitted with appropriate engines and sent to the edge of the solar system. All they can do is to make themselves as noticeable as possible, and hope the aliens stop and have a look. They do stop, but First Contact ends up being rather anticlimactic.

This one is really good. The first of a four-part series, it focuses more on the people involved than on the science or the Contact part. It's a strong, well-done piece of writing.

This is the first book of The Exploration Chronicles. It deals with a simple premise; a signal of most-likely intelligent origin has been detected from space. How will the world react?

In Signals, Kevin D. Randle takes a look at the scientific, military, academic, political, and journalistic communities and how they react to the discovery of a signal that is probably intelligent in origin. Members of each of these communities is highlighted as they try to better their careers with the news or get roped in by it. Randle does an excellent job of predicting how some people would react. From the first hours that the signal is detected all the way to a massive grandstand the story moves through believable paces.

At first this seems like a hard-science SF novel, but it really deals very little with the science and pays most of its attention to human nature and reaction. I hope that the other books in this series are as good because it certainly started out on the right foot.

This is one of my favorite books about first contact and I've read plenty of them. What I liked most was the real sense that the author gives you that this is really happening. The fact that there aren't names of some places or that the descriptions aren't Dickensian didn't bother me. I have all those classics by Conrad and Faulkner and Hardy and when I want description dripping off the page I can read them. When I want a fast paced novel that makes me think and that entertains I read this book. I've read it twice and enjoyed it even more the second time. And I don't even believe in UFOs. But this book is entertaining and very well written. The way the author breaks chapters down into sub-chapters is really great and keeps you reading. The many different characters are handled well. Overall, I like this book as much as many books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip K. Dick and I probably will read it a third time. Every author has something to offer and Randle being a UFO expert has a real sense of the fascinating aspect of UFOs to offer in this book. Five stars!