Generation of Vipers

First Contact

By: Peter Cawdron

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Two years have passed since comet Anduru skimmed the clouds of Saturn on its way to Earth.

Kath and Nolan are looking for answers, trying to find ways to protect Earth from the possibility of an invasive alien species overrunning the planet.

The US Presidential Election changes the political landscape. With new, hostile leadership, Kath and Nolan find themselves out of favor. Lies continue to dominate social media. Perhaps the greatest threat doesn't come from the stars. Perhaps there's already a generation of vipers here on Earth.

First Contact is a series of standalone novels that explore humanity's first interactions with extraterrestrial life. Although Generation of Vipers is a sequel to Wherever Seeds May Fall, it can be listened to as a standalone novel.

©2022 Peter Cawdron (P)2022 Podium Audio

Significant drop off from the first book

I read this after reading the author's "Wherever Seeds May Fall." I know most of the books in his 'First Contact' 'series' are standalone, but this book is, IMHO, clearly a sequel and if you didn't read that other book first you'd be essentially lost.

From that, I found this book a huge drop off. I'd felt the ending in the first book was disappointing to me, this one was poor. It was just sort of... well, as if the author decided actually writing the ending was too much work, so... just jump to an epilogue that wraps it up.

But even before that, I've tried to think of how to express my disappointment. All I can come up with is "too much Cath."

The first book was multiple POVs, as is this one. But, this one put more focus on Cath McKenzie and, well, she wore on me quickly. In part, she's clearly the voice of the author's claimed scientific rationality. But in the text she came across as grating, annoying and I disagree with another character's statement, "drunk Cath is the best Cath." No, no it isn't. As from the first book, her actual physical description never seemed to be settled. Nolan Landis was less prominent here, a disadvantage, although some other new characters were interesting and decently drawn.

This is also a change in tone away from the first book's focus on the tension between methodical science and the twenty-four hour online news and outrage cycles demanding instant answers. None of that here, this is an alien invasion action thriller. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but I think the author's strength is more on the former, not this.

The narrator was again excellent.

Military sequel to the better Wherever the seeds may fall

There’s is really no new SF ideas in this book, it just builds on the previous book’s panspermia premise. The action is well written and alert, like a slow motion blockbuster scenario, while the story centers more on fighting the conspiracy theories epidemics than developing on science ideas. The opposition humanity’s vipers versus alien ones is a good point but not made compelling enough.

Great follow up to Where Seeds May Fall

I am a fan of Peter Cawdron's works, and I actually liked that this novel felt different. After Where Seeds May Fall, I wanted a bit more, but I assumed that like most of his work, there wouldn't be a sequel, but so I was happy to find this.

The performance is great. I think my first exposure to this reader was from the first novel, but he does a really good job bringing the story to life.