CRADLE OF OBLIVION

In Helliesen’s SF novel, two death-defying activists come upon a mysterious object in the near-future Antarctic desert.

Thurgood Jane and his fiancee, Kii Brockheart, are professional daredevils. They’re willing to do just about anything—including strapping on experimental personal flight suits and rocketing through the stratosphere—as long as it helps them raise awareness for their various environmental causes. When Kii’s flight suit fails and she makes an emergency landing in Antarctica—which, in 2039, is a giant, sandstorm-swept desert—Thurgood immediately goes to rescue her. When he lands, he discovers a curious rectangle of metal embedded in a boulder in the middle of a meteorite field. Both are soon out of danger, but they make no mention of the object to anyone and sneak back to Antarctica a month later to investigate. They conclude it must be very old and potentially extraterrestrial. They recruit a pair of “ancient alien” researchers to help them make sense of the thing, and before long they find a metal door hidden in a nearby mountain. They succeed in getting the door open…only to discover that this might not have been the best course of action (especially given that they aren’t the only ones interested in whatever’s inside). The author’s prose is vivid, particularly when describing the book’s often arresting action sequences, as when Thurgood blasts through the atmosphere at 8,000 kph: “Even with the suit fabric stiffening and the exoskeleton joints locking to hold his extremities in place, and with shock absorbers between his body and the heat shield, it was still a wild ride. He felt like a rag doll in a tumble dryer as the shield first danced on top of, then bit deeply into the atmosphere.” Helliesen is less successful in developing hercharacters; the personalities are big but flat, and there is little interpersonal tension to sustain scenes. SF fans will enjoy the pulpy “mystery box” plot, but the emotional stakes may not be compelling enough to bring general readers back for the teased sequel.

A bold but mostly familiar SF yarn about an alien artifact.