Jerry S

Two gunmen storm a hotel bar and seize several people as hostages. Sounds like a potential instance of the Stockholm Syndrome ready to be played out. It is, however, the beginning of a much more complicated story. The butterfly effect, a factor in chaos theory, may be a more accurate description of the story created by two very talented and creative thinkers and writers. But that simple description is getting far ahead of the actual story. The novel is actually several stories of individual and very personal activity with only the most seemingly tenuous of connections. But the separate individuals really are connected in a major way: the positive and negative outcomes of economic globalization. The stories are, however, much more than globalization as they touch on the hopes, dreams, desires, and ambitions of these very individuals. The first story is about the manager of a small industrial plant in rural China. The plant is in serious financial jeopardy. Its closure will harm the very livelihoods of the small populated community it is located in. Then follows the story of the American industrial genius who sets out to strengthen this Chinese plant by closing and relocating a similar American industrial plant to that Chinese location. The remaining stories add real complications to this first seemingly simple challenge of global industrial competition. The two authors are a married couple presently living in Israel. David Woo is an economist with a PhD degree from Columbia University. He has been an investment strategist and has been described as significantly influential in market, public policy, and global investment activities. Woo calls himself “a true product of globalization” having lived in the United States and Taiwan and with fluency in several languages. Shinar is an architect with degrees in art history and architecture. She has edited books on Israel and is also fluent in several languages. The novel begins in New York City, travels to China, the United States, Japan, England, Norway, Brazil, Cuba, and back to the United States with all the characters converging on the New York City hotel. It is tempting to act as a spoiler and give too much away. But that would deny the reader the opportunity to figure out in advance how all the intrigue will actually play out. At the book’s conclusion, the reader likely will marvel at how accurate the application of the idea of the butterfly effect really is to the novel. Some of the individual stories may resonate more with the reader than others. But the total effect of the intertwining nature of the individual stories is a truly intriguing matter. This was a novel that was hard to put down at any time. Highly recommended for the reader interested in global finance and economics. But also highly recommended for the reader who wants to see how a creative mystery plays out as we read.

First contact with extraterrestrial entities is a staple of science fiction literature and cinema. Among the best are Carl Sagan's novel, Contact, made later into a popular Jodie Foster movie. The author of this new first contact story has significant professional scientific and writing experience. This is a story with a decidedly Native American twist. The real focus may be the Spiro Mounds in east central Oklahoma. Spiro Mounds lies in a bend of the Arkansas River, a site dating from the 9th to 15th centuries, and is considered among the most important Native American archeological sites in the United States. One of the four protagonists in the novel is Jim Hardgray, a Cherokee Nation citizen striving to re-build a family relationship with an estranged daughter. The other three are government officials of real interest. The novel's story line revolves around the astronomical discovery of a large object which has passed near the two Voyager space probes in the Heliopause and appears to be heading toward Earth with an expected impact in Oklahoma. The impact does occur with some horrific effect. The novel, however, remains a story of Cherokee heritage mixed with a plausible scientific description of forthcoming first contact with the alien extraterrestrial object. This reviewer highly recommends this novel and expects to read more of the author's work.