Aeon Rising: The Apocalypse Begins by Matthew Mather - This One Is A Hell Of A Page Turner

Aeon Rising: The Apocalypse Begins by Matthew Mather

I downloaded this book from Kindle Unlimited and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I became aware of Aeon Rising when it was being announced on my Facebook newsfeed. I've read Mather's work in the past and enjoyed it, but this seemed to be a special project from the author. There was a lot of content surrounding the release of this story.

Aeon Rising is the tale of a disaster from outer space that threatens to change life on the planet as we know it. I enjoyed the characters and was pleased to see them grow as the story progressed. There is plenty of engaging action taking place and I really didn't want to stop reading when I started. I hurried through my mundane obligations so I could get back to the book.

There is also a great deal of emotional content in this story, and the writing was so good, one could feel what the characters must have been feeling. The emotional spectrum in this tome is mostly on the dark side, but there are also brief glimmers of hope and even a small amount of humor thrown in for good measure.

Another thing I was stirred by was the varied settings and how they were presented in the prose. There were urban settings, the Amazon Jungle, and the frozen tundra of the South Pole. Mather's descriptions were vivid and colorful, complete with the discomforts that come with those environments, as well as a few the author made up to add to the terror, especially in the jungle.

Overall, I love this engaging story.

Opening at a scientific research station on the continent of Antartica, a scientist monitors her equipment to detect neutrino particles as they strike the detectors. During the project, the scientist feels lucky when there is a hit, but one fateful day, her detectors lit up with a brilliance as an astronomical number of neutrinos excites her equipment. The scientist knows what this discovery means, and it isn't good.

What follows is a nearby (a relative term in astronomy) super nova event that has the effect of placing a second sun to heat the already warmed Earth. Climate change is rapid and will prove catastrophic to all life, especially human life. 

A man is sent to the Amazon in South America to contact an eccentric billionaire and friend to learn what he is up to in pursuing scientific discovery he would not be allowed to work on in the U.S. The man's pregnant wife is left to fend for herself and finds difficulty, but also finds help from a mysterious source.

The people of the Earth seek relief by moving north as fast as they can while resources are stretched to the limits and services are nonexistent.

The characters in this story are all well written and come alive as the reader gets to know them. 

Max Carver is former military, currently a professional over-the-road trucker. He's been tapped to find and contact a friend from his past and learn what he is doing in the Amazon jungle. Max seems to be a gentle, nice guy on the surface, but he has a skill set and very good survival instincts. Mostly, he just wants to finish the job he was sent to do and get back home with his wife. She is seven months pregnant with their first child.

Talisha Carver, Max's wife, is also preoccupied with the idea of Max being home before their baby is born. She also has a special skill set and is trying to survive in the difficult situation brought about by the supernova that has trapped Max in the jungle. When she is accosted by several dangerous people, she has to go on the run to save herself and her unborn child, while trying to learn what happened to Max and getting some place safe. She also finds she has a mysterious companion who claims wanting to help her.

Dr. Xin Rhou is the first person to detect the neutrino burst heralding the coming of the supernova. She is stationed at the South Pole and is a Chinese national. There seems to be more to her than just a simple researcher. She also finds herself involved in a mystery involving murder and other mayhem.

My favorite point of plot for Aeon Rising is all the things hinted at in future installments of the series. There are several questions that come to mind:

1. How will governments deal with a mass migration of people moving north to get away from the effects of the Aeon supernova?

2. What part does Max's friend play in the changes in the Amazon jungle?

3. What is the nature of Talisha's mysterious friend who wants to help, and why has this entity appeared?

4. How is Max going to survive in an environment that is out to do him harm at every turn?

5. What will finally be the fate of Xin and what is her actual role in developing events?

The overarching theme and my takeaway from Aeon Rising is survival for everyone in a situation that happened without warning. There are no contingency plans in place to deal with the mass migration of humanity to the northern parts of the planet to escape a developing situation. On the surface, the people of the planet seem to face certain extinction from something no one understands and can't do anything about, except hold out in hopes the crisis will work itself out.

Mather has set up a seemingly impossible to survive story. It will be interesting to see what roads he will lead us down as the questions are answered. This segment of the series gives the reader an exposition of people, places, and things likely leading to some amazing plot twists. I think Aeon Rising is an uncommonly great example of telling a story to invoke compassion, apprehension, and extraordinary thrills. I give Aeon Rising: The Apocalypse Begins my highest recommendations as a book well worth reading.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The two novels following this one are: Aeon Burn - due to be released early December 2022 - and Aeon Fury - in April 2023.

You also might be interested in some of the promotional material that is available from the author. He talked about Aeon Rising with two other authors on videos available on YouTube. You can access those through the links below:

Talk with author Steve Konkoly

Talk with author Kyla Stone

In the meantime, be sure not to pass up Aeon Rising; apocalyptic sci-fi fans should really enjoy this one!

Amazon Charts Bestseller Matthew Mather's books have sold millions of copies, accumulated over 100,000 ratings on Goodreads, Audible and Amazon, been translated and published in over 24 countries across the globe, and optioned for multiple movie and television contracts. He began his career as a researcher at the McGill Center for Intelligent Machines before starting and working in high-tech ventures ranging from nanotechnology to cyber security. He now works as a full-time author of speculative and science fiction thrillers.

Well, there it is...

Qapla!

Nomad: A Thriller (The New Earth Series Book 1) by Matthew Mather - Thrills And Disturbing Science

Nomad: A Thriller (The New Earth Series Book 1) by Matthew Mather

I learned about this title on Facebook and decided to give it a look because of the description on Amazon.com.

Ben Rollins is an astrophysicist who learns of a massive gravitational anomaly in space headed for our solar system. The anomaly called Nomad will, at best, lay waste to the surface of the Earth. Nomad will cause tidal forces on the planet that will result in massive tsunami, major seismic disturbances, as well as rampant volcanic activity. At worse, Nomad will tear the solar system apart sending the sun and the planets careening off into space in different directions. What’s more, Nomad is just weeks away from passing through the heart of our solar system and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Meanwhile, several hundred miles to the south in Italy, Ben’s daughter, Jennifer and her mother are vacationing when they become caught up in the middle of a feud between two families that only want to be sure they come out on top, even knowing that the world is about to come to an end.

All over the world, there are wars starting, or escalating, there is looting and violence breaking out across the globe and, of course, the religious fanatics are fueling the fire by preaching that their “god” is bringing this about because of the evil that has gripped humanity.

Matthew Mather has penned an awesome picture of a possible apocalypse in this first of four novels. This book is awesome in how scary it is as well as the feel of realism and plausibility of the events that take place in the narrative. I honestly found myself reading every spare minute I had to digest this story from the very first page. There is a lot in this book; it is very fast paced and engaging.

Nomad is touted to be a thriller which veils the Science Fiction aspects of the book. It is very much a work of Sci-Fi that reflects some of what we have learned scientifically over the past few decades.

The author has taken great pains to be sure that his work is scientifically accurate. Mather consulted with astrophysicists and astronomers to make sure his creation would work scientifically. In Mather’s scenario, Nomad is a binary primordial black hole system. That is, two black holes orbiting each other as they move in a straight line through interstellar space. Each of the black holes has a mass that is forty times that of our own sun, which means that Nomad’s gravitational effect on objects that it comes near is huge. Mather crafted his story so that Nomad would pass the Earth and the Sun at very near the same distance, which means that Earth’s orbit around our star isn’t affected as much as some of the other objects in our solar system. As far as the inner planets are concerned, two of the four are thrown completely out of their orbital plane. Saturn, is pulled into a new orbit that has the probability of a very close encounter with the Earth some time after Nomad has passed through the solar system. In the meantime, the Earth will stay within the “Goldilocks Zone” in relation to the Sun, which has also been sent on a new path through the galaxy. The end result is that, in Mather’s scenario, the Earth experiences cataclysmic destruction but remains intact allowing for future stories. I found a video of the author demonstrating the science behind the story...

The question in my mind is whether something like this is

actually possible. We often refer to the universe as a cosmos, which can be defined as a complete, orderly, and harmonious system. The reality of space is hardly cosmic in nature. Even within the confines of our own planet there are forces at work that cause disasters all the time. They are recorded as part of recent history in the forms of earthquakes, volcanoes, massive fires, and weather events that we read about or see in the news. On the scale of the galaxy, or let alone the universe, the distances are so vast that encounters between objects happen on equally astronomical time scales.

As to the story, there are actually two main plots that run through the book. That of the approaching Nomad anomaly itself, and that of Jennifer and her family. There isn’t a lot to say about the Nomad part of the plot because it is headed into the heart of the solar system and there is nothing that is going to stop it. For its part, There are small vignettes of stories that are in the form of reports of events that are, or have taken place before and during Nomad’s encounter with our planet. They are just little snippets that are ominous themselves, to remind us that something big is about to happen.

Jennifer’s story is not what I would consider a sci-fi theme as she and her mother are trapped in Italy while on vacation and they become caught up in a feud between Italian families. Jennifer herself is an interesting character in that she is a veteran, a rock climber, and an amputee, having lost a part of a leg in an IED attack during a war. She is a dynamic character and in this story, we find that she is a survivor. She knows how to stay calm in seemingly impossible situations and cope with surprises. Not only that, she seems to be a well educated young woman that knows what the implications of Nomad’s approach to Earth will be, and thanks to that, she will survive to carry on in future novels. Many have said that she is not a very likable character, to which I can somewhat agree. Along with her strengths, she seems to have a number of emotional issues that are more of an impairment than her physical challenge.

The major theme of the book is how the human race decides to cope with the approach of Nomad. Will everyone just accept what is about to happen, and quietly succumb to extinction? According to the author, that may be the case for some, but others are going to be sure they get their last shots in at their enemies. All over the globe there is rioting, and looting. There are numerous skirmishes that would seem to be carried out by government entities, and nuclear weapons are exchanged. After all is said and done, the end result of the wars will not matter, most of the population will perish. No one will be able to enjoy what they have looted, it won’t be of use after Nomad passes. It is really sad that I share Mather’s vision of our behavior in the true last days; I fear he may be

all too right.

I recommend this book and intend to read the rest of the New Earth Series that is in four volumes.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

Edited by Benjamin Arrowood