SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

I first read this on the 10th June 2011 and most recently on the 6th December 2011

A classified hard disk is missing from the National Propulsion Labs. It contains surprising data from the Mars mission Ryman Ford is called up by the CIA to explore a meteor impact in Cambodia. Harry Burr is a professional assassin and he's after Ford.

I don't think I've ever read an alien first contact novel with so little about aliens. I assume that the author hadn't been able to sell this as a spy thriller, so tacked aliens on to replace whichever third world country was originally intended. But that's probably not the case, as Douglas Preston appears to be a successful author. In that case perhaps I should thank him for expanding SF Readership. But it was a waste: there was a potentially-cool SF plot in this novel but it was largely ignored.

Easy reading and gripping at times, but not SF.