A science-fiction - yes, science-fiction - novel from the master of
soap. And one with a MESSAGE, too, just like the sf of yore - the
cliches of which Sheldon shamelessly recycles as he ham-handedly
depicts an earth under threat of invasion by aliens ticked off at -
what else? - our destruction of the environment. US Navy Commander
Robert Bellamy - Sheldon's first male lead in many years - is
assigned by NSA to locate the 11 people on a Swiss bus who saw the
crash of a "weather balloon." It takes only a chat with the bus
driver for Bellamy to learn that the "weather balloon" was really a
downed UFO containing two alien bodies. It takes talks with all the
witnesses, however - Yank, Soviet, Hungarian, etc., each tracked
down in the novel's repetitive first two-thirds with minimal
sleuthing but maximal scenery-stuffing - for him to learn that each
is killed right after talking to him: "It was an international
conspiracy, and he was in the middle of it." And so are: the aliens
("a form of vegetable life" whose eyes "resembled Ping-Pong balls")
circling earth in their mother ship, waiting to see whether world
leaders will respond to their secret plea to halt pollution; the
missing third occupant of the UFO, dying for lack of pristine
water; and the international cabal, led by "Janus," that's killed
the witnesses with the intent of fighting the aliens and continuing
earth's exploitation. In the livelier last third, Bellamy,
resorting to clever spy-tricks and help from a winsome whore, runs
from Janus - whose identity you'll spot chapters away - while
plotting his downfall. The fitful action climaxes in an Alpine
showdown, with the celestial calvary soaring in for the rescue.
Inane as sf (and seemingly cribbed in part from sources ranging
from John Campbell's "Who's Out There?" to Whitley Strieber's
Communion); mediocre as a thriller, even Sheldon-style; but
fascinating as one top author's earnest if inept effort (backed by
a polemical postscript) to voice the kind of warning that H.G.
Wells did with so much more style. (Kirkus Reviews)
OPERATION DOOMSDAY… ACTIVATE…
Commander Robert Bellamy of US Naval Intelligence is dispatched on a top secret mission. A weather balloon carrying sensitive military information has crashed in Switzerland. Bellamy must locate the ten witnesses to the incident so that they can be sworn to secrecy.
But as he conducts his search Bellamy begins to suspect that he, too, is being hunted, by an unknown lethal force… that what he was told about the balloon was only one part of an almost unbelievable happening..
From Washington to Zurich, Rome and Paris, the story unfolds to reveal Bellamy's past – why the women he loves the most cannot return his love, why his friends become his deadly enemies, and why the world must never learn the incredible secret hidden on the Swiss Alps…
"Guaranteed to keep you turning pages… his tightest, most thought-provoking novel to date. He is a master storyteller"
DAILY MAIL
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