While the middle section moved at a slower pace, it was a good intake of breath between the bookend sections which were more exciting. The first third was exciting and completely pulled me into Caine’s plight and the future history Gannon is mapping. Gannon parses out the novel in three section, each with a fairly distinctive flavor: thriller/mystery with Caine at its center political intrigue with Caine viewed more at a distance and the final third back to the SFnal theme of first contact. During this deliberation, Riordan and his fellow delegates are introduced to the other alien civilizations comprising the collective, as well as another civilization which received the same invitation for candidacy examination as humankind. Cover Art by Sam KennedyĮarth is given little time to put together a delegation to represent itself in the proceedings and even that time has constraints as described by the alien collective: Riordan must be part of the delegation as well as other proscribed individuals. During the discussions of the political ramifications of his discovery, humanity is contacted by yet another alien civilization and invited to join a multi-civilization interstellar collective. But just as soon as contact is made, Caine is brought back to Earth to discuss the ramifications.

Riordan comes across in the pursuit of a what appears to be a member of alien an species and subsequent communications exchange in a reasoned and plausible fashion. Despite those road-bumps, Caine takes his investigation to a point where he communicates with that sentient species.įirst contact is made and Gannon plays the scenario out between Riordan and the alien quite well.

In the process of his investigations, Riordan is given a somewhat autonomous level of authority which allows him to make his presence known and that, coupled with his innate ability to be something of a monkey-wrench in the plans of other people, makes him a target. The wrong-doings he is investigating involve a potential sentient species on the colony world, to determine if human industry is encroaching on them, and to determine if that civilization has regressed from an earlier space-faring civilization. Problem is, Caine cannot remember what he learned on the moon because he was put into cryo-sleep after the discovery and those memories have disappeared by the time he is woken a dozen years later. He is an intelligence analyst/political operative sent to a human colony world to investigate potential wrong-doings. All of what the novel is falls on the shoulders of the protagonist Caine Riordan.

Gannon’s debut novel Fire with Fire is many things: first contact novel, military/conspiracy thriller, and political thriller.

Set about 100 years in the future, Charles E.

Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon