"Primordial Threat is a good combination of science and adventure fiction." - Larry Niven, New York Times bestselling author "... exciting sci-fi catastrophism ... call it The Day the Earth Certainly Didn't Stand Still. Rothman (Perimeter, 2018), an engineer, tackles the hard-science/apocalypse trope of a 'Very Bad Thing' threatening Earth in the tradition of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's epochal When World's Collide and Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer." - Kirkus Reviews
"With Primordial Threat, Michael Rothman puts the OMG back in Science Fiction! Fascinating characters, an Asimov-sized plot, and lots of intrigue. Michael Rothman delivers. Chilling Science Fiction from a new Arthur C. Clarke. Movie-ready SF from a new master!" - William C. Dietz, New York Times bestselling author "Written by one who really knows the science, PRIMORDIAL THREAT zips along--a hard sf treat." - Gregory Benford, New York Times bestselling author of TIMESCAPE. "Michael Rothman's PRIMORDIAL THREAT is a big disaster novel -- maybe the biggest, with the end of the solar system in play. There goes the neighborhood! Filled with innovative science and big-scale action, it shows humanity in crisis, and humanity at its best." - Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of BLOOD OF THE COSMOS "For nail-biting science fiction thrillers, look no further than one of Rothman's stories. Sit back and enjoy the ride." - Larry Correia, New York Times bestselling author. "Who says hard science fiction is dead? The field is safe and sound in the hands of Michael Rothman. Real science from a real scientist -- and a thrilling page-turner, to boot. What more could one ask?" - Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night "Michael A. Rothman's PRIMORDIAL THREAT is a beautifully-conceived hard science adventure, with totally believable characters and events, and a truly satisfying conclusion." - Mike Resnick, 4-time Hugo Award Winning author "Michael A. Rothman's PRIMORDIAL THREAT leverages real technical expertise to find the human drama in a plausible near-future extinction scenario. This is gripping reading, one part Larry Niven and one part Michael Crichton!" - D.J. Butler, author of WITCHY EYE and THE KIDNAP PLOT "The Primordial Threat is the Next Level in Extinction Event thrillers. Rothman deftly navigates actual science with a taut edge-of-your-seat tension that will scare you to death. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't already gaming Worst Case Scenarios for the White House." - Nick Cole, author of The Old Man and the Wasteland (Amazon #1 in SciFi) and Soda Pop Soldier (Publisher's Weekly Starred Review) "M.A. Rothman has combined the high-frontier space realism of Kim Stanley Robinson, with the big ideas and cosmic scope of Larry Niven, and paced it all like a Michael Crichton adventure. A terrific roller coaster ride, which hits the reader on several levels. Highly recommended." - Brad R. Torgersen, Multi-award winning Hard S.F. author
2018-09-12
Eccentric, brilliant, and disgraced scientist Dave Holmes may be humanity's only hope for survival when a black hole is detected on a collision course with Earth.
Rothman (Perimeter, 2018), an engineer, tackles the hard-science/apocalypse trope of a "Very Bad Thing" threatening Earth in the tradition of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer's epochal When World's Collide and Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer. Focusing rather tightly on a small group of characters—from tough U.S. President Margaret Hager to a NYC cop recalled to active military service—the epic takes place in the year 2066. Humans routinely mine asteroids and have a thriving lunar colony, but that matters naught when the ultimate natural-disaster threat looms: a black hole, preceded by a cloud of debris. A long-shot solution may reside with Dave Holmes, a scientist who's had a spectacular rise and fall in his discipline. He foresaw the oncoming doomsday and, working in obscurity, has secretly been researching an astounding, untested technology to save at least some of humanity. But other dangers abound—an end-times terrorist messianic cult called the Brotherhood of the Righteous. The Brotherhood make for rather pallid villains, and late in the narrative, a few colorful Vatican reps show up if only to underscore that not all religious folk are hellbent psycho death freaks. But a theme emerges that Earth's real savior is "Big Science"—and, particularly, science spearheaded by social outcasts, misunderstood misfits, and mavericks. (One surprise supporting-cast hero turns out to be the Supreme Leader of North Korea.) The thickening techno-jargon is somewhat daunting though not entirely beyond a lay reader's comprehension ("Detecting an acceleration of 20 meters per second squared...correction, the acceleration has increased to 40 meters...60 meters...holding at 60 meters per second squared"). In an afterword, Rothman fact-checks the realities behind his imaginative flights of physics and technology, though a cliffhanger ending points the survival narrative into an entirely different direction and feels a bit like a misalignment.
Fairly exciting sci-fi catastrophism with some quirks; call it The Day the Earth Certainly Didn't Stand Still.