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Xenogeneic: First Contact by Lance Erlick

Xenogeneic is a science fiction thriller about first contact with an alien race that lost their civil war and wants to take over Earth.

Dr. Elena Pyetrov’s father vanished in space 18 years ago while searching for extraterrestrial life. As an aerospace engineer, Elena travels into space to search for answers and continue his work. Her ship is pulled off course and crashes. She suspects extraterrestrial interference.

The alien Knoonk lost their civil war in a distant star system and fled to Earth’s neighborhood to hide and regroup. They seek a new home—Earth. Unable to live in Earth’s toxic environment, the aliens kidnap and use humans to genetically modify their species to adapt.

Surviving the crash, Elena and her shipmates are transported to a closed cave system where the Knoonk monitor and control everything. Elena tries to make a connection with her hosts and find ways to work together, but Knoonk leaders rebuff her and force the humans to submit as slaves. The aliens use illusions, distractions, and social experiments to learn from their hostages and keep them off balance. Resistance by captive humans brings swift punishment to break the human spirit.

​While Elena continues to look for ways to cooperate with the Knoonk, it becomes apparent that there can be no compromise. The Knoonk want to capture Earth for their species. It is winner take all. With time running out, Elena must dig deep to uncover the alien plan and find a way to stop them before the human race faces enslavement and extinction.

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Author’s Bio

Lance Erlick writes science fiction thrillers for young adult and adult readers. He is the author of The Rebel Within, The Rebel Trap, and Rebels Divided, three books in the Rebel series. In those stories, he explores the consequences of Annabelle Scott following her conscience. He authored the Regina Shen series–Resilience, Vigilance, Defiance, and Endurance. This series takes place after abrupt climate change leads to the Great Collapse and a new society under the World Federation. His latest novel is Xenogeneic: First Contactabout encounters with an alien race aiming to take over Earth.

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Guest Post

THE WORLD OF XENOGENEIC: FIRST CONTACT

In 1620 after many Puritans were pushed out of England by King James, some fled to America. They founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony where they were free to practice their beliefs. At first, they lived in peace with the native population, but in time they displaced the indigenous people.

In Xenogeneic: First Contact, the alien Knoonk lost their civil war and fashion themselves as persecuted pilgrims in need of a new home. The idea for this story came not only from early American history but also from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). This project monitors potential communications from space, but also promotes sending out welcoming messages. In fact, all of our wireless signals float into space, so it isn’t just the SETI project telling the universe we’re here. The hope is that we could learn if there are other intelligent species out there, opening up the opportunity to learn from each other.

However, the broadcasts are also available to intelligence species that do not bear humans goodwill. In the case of the Knoonk, they needed a place to regroup and start over, but found Earth’s atmosphere toxic. They need either to terraform an inhabited planet, which would take many decades, or adapt their genetics to Earth in a generation, which is what they choose to do.

To defend themselves against the victors of their civil war, the Knoonk decide to use their technologies to dominate Earth. Too bad humans are in the way. Genetically adapting their species to Earth is taking too long. Time is running out, which creates internal divisions among the Knoonk.

Elena Pyetrov is kidnapped into a closed cave system controlled by the aliens. She discovers her long lost father, now dying of old age, and other kidnapped humans. To keep the humans off balance and under control, the Knoonk ration food and water, use illusions and experiments, and reduce humans to subsistence by promoting clan warfare among the kidnapped population. While the Knoonk have advanced technologies and weapons, humans must deal with scarcity in barren caves. Elena becomes a pawn of the alien’s internal struggles and has to survive the cave challenges and sort out what the humans are up against, who she can trust, and what she can do to stop their plan.

My Review

4 stars

Elena Pyetrov’s father disappeared in space eighteen years ago. Everyone has figured him dead and Elena wants to complete his mission. But while in space something goes horribly wrong and her ship crashes. It seems that an alien race, the Knoonk fought a civil war and lost. They have decided to take Earth over as their own planet. The problem is that they are not able to survive in its atmosphere so they have been capturing humans for years and experimenting on them to they to adapt themselves. It’s up to Elena and the other human captives to stop the Knoonk.

I read Lance Erlick’s Regina Shen series and was excited to see what happened in this book. I was really pleased with the results. Elena is a strong woman and determined to finish her father’s work. But the Knoonk are doing messed up things to the humans they have captured. They have broken them to their base human needs. It’s up to Elena to get everyone gathered together and fight back.

This was a good story and had an original plot. My problem is that we get stuck in several continuous loops of the same thing over and over as they try to fight back. It gets the point across about how hopeless the humans have become. It’s going to be an uphill fight for Elena to get everyone gathered together but it got to be repetitive and frustrating.

I really enjoyed this book. If it is to be a series I would be happy to read the next book. Otherwise this is a great standalone book.

I received Xenogeneic: First Contact from iRead Book Tours for free. This has no influenced my opinion in any way.

Giveaway:​

Win a copy of Xenogeneic: First Contact. One person will also receive a $25 Amazon gift card (print open to USA and ebook for int’l) 2 winners total

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