Spears of God
by Howard V. Hendrix
Published by Del Rey Books
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Reviewed by Mark M. Owen, Ph.D.
For Science Fiction fans looking for a novel that tackles the possible origin of multi-cellular life on earth with a hard emphasis on scientific details, Howard Hendrix's Spears of God should provide an enjoyable adventure.
Hendrix pushes the technological boundaries of biological processing and human warfare in logical ways, and does a solid job of describing how such things might advance in the not too distant future. His knowledge of advanced military assets is impressive, as is his background on complex biological processes.
The novel takes the interesting position that multi-cellular life on the planet earth might have come from fungus attached to interstellar meteorites. Hendrix develops several parallel plots, each starting in a different country. The stones are fought over by competing factions, stolen and then analyzed to uncover the special powers passed on to people coming in contact with chemical derivatives of materials on the meteorites.
The intertwined plots each lead to independent discovery of the secrets of the alien stones that long ago impacted the earth. All the plots converge in an action-packed ending in the Middle East, an area that is not only tumultuous but also timely.
The first chapters are sure to grab most readers and pull them forward. I especially enjoyed the plot line involving the orphaned children with special powers. The ending pulls everything together and does a satisfactory job wrapping up the threads. But the middle of the book seems to be devoted to lengthy technological expositions with a healthy dose of acronyms.
If you put the book down and come back to it a day or two later, you might find yourself forgetting what the acronyms mean. At least that's what happened to me, and maybe it means I'm getting old. A page up front devoted to a list of acronyms would have helped.
Armchair Interviews says: Action-packed story but maybe too much technology for the casual reader.