NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS
Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258
Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com
February 18, 2010
Shubian's Rift: The Book
A review of
Joe Dwyer & James Cambas Shubian's Rift (Sharpsburg, GA: Flybook Films Productions, 2010)
342 pp $17.95 ISBN: 9781456342555
Reviewer: Forrest W. Schultz
Joe Dwyer loves to fly, which is why he became a pilot with Delta Airlines. He also loves to imagine piloting a spaceship around the Galaxy, which is why he created the science fiction film Shubian's Rift. During the past several years has has been working, together with James Cambas, to turn the movie into a book.
The work under review here is the first book in a series, and more films are planned also. Set in the year 2126, the story involves man's first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, which becomes a rather dramatic experience because an interplanetary war has just erupted there. Sid Shubian is the Captain of the Earth Exploratory vessel Journeyman, and the "Rift" is the "wormhole" in Space through which it travels to meet the ETs and to rapidly become embroiled in their conflict.
Although the front cover of the book depicts a hand-held weapon, almost all of the military actions in Shubian's Rift are fought among spaceships, and these battles are a major part of the story.
The dialogues and narrative contain a lot of technical terms but little discussion of the science behind them. So, this is clearly not "hard" SF, but it is believable SF. Not much is said of the nature of the aliens, which is not surprising: their DNA is almost identical to ours and they behave exactly like humans.
Some commentators have compared Shubian's Rift with Star Trek. Since I am an avid Trekker, the question of this comparison is in the back of my mind. I believe that it is premature to attempt to answer it based on only the first book in the Shubian's Rift series. I know Star Trek intimately because I have seen all the TV episodes and the films. Anyone who has only seen one episode could not claim to know Star Trek. I think the same is true of Shubian's Rift -- I feel like I have been introduced to it but do not really know it well enough to make any comparisons. After I have read all of the books, I then will make the attempt at a comparison.
The book ends with a shocking revelation about the solar system. Apparently the succeeding books in the series will deal with how man responds to it. I am looking forward to reading about this and to getting to know the characters better, esp. Shubian and his crew. It would really be great to get to know them as well as I know Kirk and Spock and McCoy and Scotty and Uhuru!
Both Joe Dwyer and the co-aothor James Cambas live in Coweta County. Cambas will soon be publishing his own science fiction book Among Us. As of right now, although Coweta authors in the 21st century have had 107 books published, only two of these are science fiction. With Cambas's new book and the next book in the Shubian series this total will climb to four.
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