‘Freefall’, a novel by author Felix R. Savage is a first contact with aliens story that has a strong dash of a Tom Clancy techno-thriller in it. Just a word of warning however before we start, Freefall is the first in a series of novels, the ‘Earth’s Last Gambit’ series so don’t expect the entire story. In fact ‘Freefall’ only covers the discovery of an alien ship which has entered our solar system and the preparations for an Earth expedition to travel to rendezvous with the aliens.
Now whenever a science fiction author starts a novel they have to make a decision as to the time period in which the story will be set, present day, near future, far future or even the past (few SF novels are deliberately set in the past).
Felix Savage decided to set ‘Freefall’ in the present day and personally I think that’s a dangerous thing to do because as the years go by your novel can quickly become simply wrong! For example in H. G. Wells’ classic ‘The War of the Worlds’ Martians invaded the Earth around the year 1900! Well of course that didn’t actually happen and the fact that every radio broadcast or movie version of the story since it was first published has had to perform a considerable updating illustrates the problem of a story becoming out of date.
Setting your novel in the near future at least gives you some breathing space. When Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey he at least knew that he’d have more than thirty years before the story becomes historically inaccurate. To be completely safe from this problem many novels are set in a distant future, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation stories are an excellent example.
Now don’t get me wrong, I still love both ‘War of the Worlds’ and 2001, but nevertheless I wouldn’t write a story that suffered from this problem before it evens gets published! This is exactly what happens in ‘Freefall’.
‘Freefall’ begins with the final mission of the space shuttle Atlantis in 2011. During the mission Atlantis suffers a collision with apiece of space debris and is so badly damaged that it is unable to land back on Earth. Thanks to the heroism of the pilot however, the shuttle succeeds in reaching the International Space Station so that the crew can be rescued. The shuttle itself however plunges uncontrolled back into Earth’s atmosphere and is destroyed.
Well of course that didn’t happen, the shuttle Atlantis is now a museum exhibit sitting safely at the Kennedy Space Center. But in a sense does historical inaccuracy really matter in a SF novel? Well, I guess you’ll have to decide that for yourself. Once again however, I wouldn’t write a story that I knew would be obsolete before anyone had read it!
One more little criticism. Since ‘Freefall’ is set in today’s world author Felix Savage decided that allowed him to do a lot of what I call ‘Product Placement’. It seems that every page has one or two references to modern culture, everything from Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups to Jimi Hendrix to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Of course it is true that such details can often help an author make their story seem more real but too many can make it feel campy, make it feel as if the author is trying too hard, which can be as bad as not giving enough detail.
All of which is a shame because ‘Freefall’ is an exciting story. It definitely has a bit of the ‘Can’t put it down’ quality to it. Seriously I am looking forward to reading the second installment ‘Lifeboat’ in order to learn something about the aliens. By the way ‘Lifeboat’ is followed by ‘Shiplord’ and the series ends with ‘Killshot’.
I’ll be sure to tell you all about it when I do!