REFUSAL

A security pro embarks on the adventure of a lifetime, defending imperiled Earth against an approaching alien fleet, with unearthly allies and traitors on all sides.

In Hill’s sci-fi debut, Earth in 2113 has shifted in orbit and is protected from the scorching rays of the sun by an elaborate shielding array courtesy of tycoon Howard Simpson. Muscular young security specialist Jerry McCallister lands his dream job with Simpson’s company and is soon hot on the trail of an apparent spy beaming intelligence from within the well-guarded organization into uncharted space. McCallister also encounters Simpson’s virgin sex-bomb daughter, Carla, whom he ecstatically deflowers on their fact-finding mission at the lunar-based, shield-controlling center (which also doubles as a sort of virtual-reality, adults-only playland). In a parallel narrative that carries weird echoes of the mythology behind L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology Scripture, high-ranking U.S. space pilots reveal themselves as partially alien, being descended from reconstituted extraterrestrial cremated remains long marooned on the moon. These friendly hybrids carry DNA memories of the Citons, nasty cosmic warlords who tend to talk like gangsters (calling women “whores” and “bimbos”) and who have an implacable doomsday invasion fleet en route to Earth. The Citons are formidable foes (McCallister tells Simpson that the Citons’ “minds and weapons are a million or so years beyond our comprehension”). How McCallister and his otherworldly allies pull together to confront the Citon threat is a tale full of action, intrigue, and pretty women. Hill’s energetic tale offers the kind of brawny characters, big explosions and spectacular crashes, questionable science, and heavenly bodies (the female kind) typified by men’s magazine fiction of the days when cigarette ads still walked the Earth (and goat-gland virility remedies were peddled in the classifieds). A cameo by counteragent Matt Helm or master spy Derek Flint would not have violated the suspension of disbelief all that much. The macho space heroics feel a bit like the louche reading material Capt. Kirk might hide in his underwear drawer so Gene Roddenberry wouldn’t find it.

A retro space opera that stars a robust hero, diabolical aliens, and powerful hybrids.