GENESIS ECHO

Anderson’s galaxy-spanning YA SF novel rewrites the history of humankind.

Ancient humanity was a successful and glorious space empire, spanning the “Verse” in symbiotic partnership with another species—the gentle, sasquatchlike Rothen. Humanity and Rothen-kind complemented each other spiritually and intellectually; then an insidious alien species called the Greys (the spindly, bigheaded types of UFO lore) used a horrific zombie-creating virus and other weapons to overthrow humans, taint their “meta-mind” artificial intelligence tech, and exterminate most Rothen. For 70,000 years, the Greys have indoctrinated captive humans with fake history and sham science and warehoused them on an alien gulag-planet—Earth—where archaic myths about dragons, mages, and monsters draw on distorted memories of the truth. A small number of humans persist in the cosmos, resisting the Greys and their equally horrid allies. Rain is a bully-hating, Earth schoolgirl ignorant of her messiahlike status, even as her multiple superpowers emerge. Lor is another human orphan wonder-girl with interesting abilities, who’s hunted by Greys on a horrific clone-factory planet that has a small, rare population of Rothen. Tonjin is a legendary warrior from another world whose actions on the planet Rien—humanity’s true home world—are destined to turn tragic. Multiple cliffhanger action takes place on multiple stages in Anderson’s novel, and it's a puzzler how the timelines match up. The kind-of-cool narrative is part space-opera comic book, and part metaphysical conspiracy saga that recalls Philip K. Dick’s famous theory that humans are secretly trapped by evil forces in an illusory but soul-stifling and awful prison. However, Anderson’s version has Wookieelike beings; a tangible Star Wars influence comes through, as does a debt to The Hunger Games, although the author credits Orson Scott Card’s work as an influence. A lengthy afterword describes the long gestation of the manuscript and the decision to render it as YA-level reading. Sequels are planned.

A woolly and complicated space opera that combines several familiar elements.