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UNITED WE FALL by Joseph A Mourgos

UNITED WE FALL

by Joseph A Mourgos

Pub Date: July 2nd, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482321975
Publisher: Jammo Publishing

 

The opening volume of Mourgos’ Galactic Community sci-fi series in which a future Earth is contested by rival alien races. It’s A.D. 2060, and Marine Capt. Derrick Folsom has spent the last few years jumping from one of Earth’s political hot spots—Africa, Cuba, Iran, China—to another as the trouble-shooting spearhead of the planet’s drive toward greater unification. The plan is to replace the petty warring of hundreds of nation-states with larger, hopefully more peaceful conglomerates dedicated to progress. Unbeknownst to this much-changed Earth, its fate is being debated by two great galactic forces, the Vorelisian Empire and the Thimmi Empire, sparring civilizations sharing a common border thousands of light years across. With the consent of the Galactic Council (similar to a United Nations of space), each empire has sent an emissary to Earth to competitively use every method at their disposal to bring about the unifying geopolitics necessary for Earth’s becoming a suitable colony; the Vorelisians and the Thimmi want Earth not necessarily for themselves but rather to break a voting tie in the Council. The Vorelisian representative, Dr. Charles Lightner, goes about his task by being a technological “gift-giver,” providing mankind with advanced technologies to wipe out famine and disease. The Thimmi candidate, Capt. Arno Pilas, chooses the diplomatic route instead, using his hard-won leverage with Earth’s various leaders to bring about the kind of unifying nation-building enforced by Capt. Folsom. Mourgos sets these various elements in play with a respectable degree of skill and humor, with dramatic momentum—the whole book is told in the present tense—that will keep readers absorbed, especially when all characters, alien and human, face a catastrophe involving Earth’s magnetic field. The characters are well-rounded, and rather than a more predictable good alien/bad alien dichotomy, their many competing agendas are given refreshing complexity. Similarly, the social commentary is intelligently handled; this future Earth is more advanced but less free, and readers will have no trouble spotting the present-day inspiration for those shackles.

An insightful, exciting new sci-fi saga about Earth’s entrance into a galactic society.