"Light, fast, entertaining!"

Kerry Downing's first science fiction novel, THE COLLECTIVE, is a light and entertaining read. Downing explores the idea that the universe and beyond is littered with intelligent life species. And contact by a group known as The Collective is not so unlikely, and may already have happened.

Sam and Tess live in the middle of the Midwest. Sam has always enjoyed using his telescope and spending evenings gazing at the stars. He is certain, or at least once was certain, that as a boy an alien had contacted him. The alien had done so through an old radio his father had built.

But like all wild childhood memories, the validity of what may have happened looses shape, form, conviction. Like a slap back into reality, the past is confirmed when once again, Sam is contacted. It starts as Morse Code, lights flashing in the distant sky. The translation leads him back to the radio. And what he discovers is fantastic.

The Collective wants to make its presence known to all of Earth. They want to use Sam and Tess as their spokespersons. What they need to do is prove to the world that what Sam and Tess are telling them is truth. The one way to do so is by using the weather as a tool toward confirmation of the facts. Since The Collective can control Earth's weather, it seems like the most plausible way to make a statement.

Sam makes contact with Gilbert Goodfellow, KQTY's chief meteorologist, an icon in the business. Everyone has been watching the development of a major hurricane bound for certain impact on the gulf shores. Sam presents Goodfellow with the accurate truth about what will happen to the hurricane when it hits land. From that moment on the lives of Sam, Tess and Goodfellow are forever changed.

Humorous and fun, Kerry Downing leads his readers down a fantastic path in his debut novel, THE COLLECTIVE. The characters are well developed, the dialogue real sounding and with short chapters, the story moves along making for a brisk read. I look forward to more by Mr. Downing.

Reviewed by Phillip Tomasso
Posted September 6, 2003

Summary

What if the fabled first contact occurred, and you were the one to receive it? And, to further complicate matters, what if the alien race that made contact wanted you to be the one to spread the word of their existence to the rest of the population? This is the situation that Sam Masters finds himself in when the Collective, an alien civilization which has been engineering the climate on Earth for millions of years, decides it is time to establish contact with the human race.