THE RETURN OF TAU

This series opener finds a businessman trying to save his family during a war between two extraterrestrial races that threatens Earth.

In Dwyer’s SF fantasy, business executive Jonathan Prescott wins instant fame by being the lone survivor of a terrorist attack. The reason: He has a real guardian angel, the beautiful Angelina, who is at least 50% human, switching between divine and mortal forms. Her Capra-esque mission requires her to undergo various trials before becoming a full angel in heaven. Now, the challenge of Islamic terrorism is quickly dwarfed by a larger menace. Jonathan is in the middle of a conflict between alien armies. Kronogons are advanced, immortal, shape-changing reptiles who look like turtles until they go into fearsome “anaconda” warrior mode. Jonathan has an alliance with TAU, a Kronogon military overlord who has tried to manipulate a succession of American presidents in a fight against enemy ETs called Nardomons. Nardomons are actually the bulbous-headed “Greys” who abduct and mutate inhabitants of Earth and other worlds. In short order, Jonathan has faced many attempts to kill him—by the terrorists, rogue forces in the American government, even some of TAU’s ruthless Kronogon comrades. Finally, TAU, Angelina, and some prominent humans have gotten past mutual distrust to team up. But Jonathan’s wife, Janet, and their children are slain. TAU’s cohorts bring the ensemble to their “Star City” to resurrect Jonathan’s loved ones (Kronogon science can do that), but a Grey raid kidnaps the comatose Prescotts. It seems the terminal cancer afflicting Jonathan’s son appeals to the Greys in their cruel conquest strategies. 

The author is adept at keeping things moving and throwing cinematic-level twists into the Robert Ludlum–sized narrative to maintain reader interest. Most miraculously of all, for a story co-starring an angel (with a supporting role by the pope), the inescapable religious elements are kept at a fairly low volume. Some devout fishermen compare Jonathan to Old Testament figures like Jonah and David, and Angelina sometimes mentions the heavenly hosts ranking above her. But there is little of the lengthy sermonizing that is the hallmark of such spiritual fantasies as The Shack. Jonathan does question why a benevolent God would allow a universe to host evil entities like the Greys, but he broods just as much over the secular pitfall of being a workaholic dad who made business meetings a priority over his wife and kids. Angelina registers less as a channel for holy thoughts or Scripture quotes than as a superhero type, restricted in her powers by her half-human side as well as the rule that she is forbidden from using her supernatural powers to smite or kill a foe. (Plus her dialogue, full of mild wisecracks and spunky patter, would be right at home in a comic book.) The two alien races may scheme like Cold War antagonists, but they have enough imaginative touches and exotic cultural details to merit genre respect, say on a Star Trek series level. While it’s the first installment of a series, this volume wraps up its story threads more neatly than other SF sagas, not leaving readers stranded in a ninth circle of cliffhanger hell.

Aliens, angels, and an action-hero dad star in a rousing genre mishmash.