Review of Passengers to Zeta Nine

Passengers to Zeta Nine by Peter Salisbury Available as a Kindle Book

 A good science fiction novel takes you on a journey to places where you can't possibly go; an incredible science fiction novel shows you how to get there.

Passengers to Zeta Nine by Peter Salisbury is of the latter sort.  In this story about future explorers to a distant planet called Zeta Nine, Salisbury uses his scientific background in describing the discovery of a presumably uninhabited planet.  His vehicle, aptly named "Explorer", has been sent on a journey of 120 years to explore the distant planet.  Interestingly, there are no humans (as we know them) on-board this high tech ship.  When Explorer achieves its orbit above Zeta Nine, its computers signal the creation of human pioneers using stored DNA records and mind patterns.

Salisbury uses precise language to describe the various technologies in his novel.  At first, the reader will say, "That is just fiction!"  But as she reads further, it dawns on her that she had read or heard on the news that the exact process described by Salisbury is currently being developed in some obscure laboratory at some university somewhere.  The technology may not be commercially viable or necessarily socially acceptable at this time, but that is a question best left to bioethicists or engineers to argue at some pedantic symposium as they sit on a stage behind a long table, draped with a white cloth.

Although I rave about the technical aspects of this story, the story itself is about two reconstituted adult pioneers' struggle to understand the new world into which they have been reborn.  The story has elements of intrigue and conflicting motives.  Our pioneers must deal with demands from afar while trying to absorb the tremendous mysteries that confront them on Zeta Nine.  What will be their undoing: the unknown but fascinating and dangerous new world, or the Machiavellian plots from the old?  This is a quick read and one that leaves the reader wanting to learn more about Raife and Nancy's future adventures on Zeta Nine.

Wise men have said that those who do not understand history are bound to repeat it.  In 2011, the State of California is on track to repeat history as a historic referendum declares that a majority of its citizens wish to break ties with the United States and form the Republic of California.  Fueled by the dissatisfaction of ordinary citizens, ruthless forces will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives.  Gordon Ryan draws upon a rich personal history to pen a riveting story about the second Civil War, where families and long-time friendships are torn asunder just had they were in the last Great Civil War.

Given recent political upheavals in the United States, the terrifying thing about Ryan's book, State of Rebellion, is that it is all too plausible.  Chillingly, all the real-life elements for secession are already in place and 2011 is dreadfully close as I read the book.  His characters are artfully drawn and convincing.  I have actually witnessed such people in my own life; people who would stop at nothing to achieve their Machiavellian objectives.  Ryan skillfully weaves elements of the Civil War of the 1860s with the forces at work in the present day to describe how it just might happen.

The action is compelling and his descriptions of how well-intentioned attempts to peacefully resolve the differences between the nascent Republic of California and the United States can go awry are realistic.  Even the flash point between reluctant opposing armies of brothers is graphically portrayed and could easily happen just as Ryan has described they would.  Amidst this gathering storm, the principal character finds a second chance at a life that he thought had been unfairly taken from him forever.  This is an absolute read if you follow real-life politics and are concerned for the future of our fragile democracy.