Book Review: Anomaly, by Peter Cawdron

This is a first contact story that I found in the Amazon Prime Reading library.  The idea interested me immediately.  The description reminded me a bit of the novel Dragon's Egg - essentially, first contact between two species that are so vastly different, the main question is:  how would they communicate?  In Dragon's Egg, the Cheela are a race of beings the size of a sesame seed which inhabit the surface of a neutron star, and they develop a million times faster than human beings - essentially moving from agriculture to advanced technology within the span of a month on the human calendar.  More information about Dragon's Egg can be found on Wikipedia here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg


The story for Anomaly sounded somewhat similar, but in this scenario humanity is in the position of the Cheela.  An alien ship lands in Manhattan, and humans can't even recognize it as a ship initially.  The alien intelligence is described as being millions of years ahead of humanity.  Ok - sounds appealing.

The original cover of Anomaly (pictured right) contains a portion of the plaque that was attached to

the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft.  This plaque is mentioned in the story, and leads the primary character, David Teller, a grade school science teacher, to initiate communication with the alien ship.  I have also included a picture of the full Pioneer Plaque, which was attached to the Pioneer spacecraft, immediately below it.   David almost immediately gets paired up with Cathy Jones, a reporter who has been sent on site, and they both assist occasionally with the many scientists who are investigating the ship.

Additional information about the Pioneer Plaque can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque

I have to say that the ship is unlike anything I have seen before, and the process of establishing communication, while it mirrors what I've seen in other stories, is fairly unique in Anomaly.  I also liked the fact that the breakthroughs made in learning about the ship don't just come from genius scientists, showing that anyone can contribute an interesting idea that may progress the situation.

This story covers many subjects:

• Slow progression of communication with the anomaly - trying to communicate when the difference in evolution is measured in millions of years is not easy.
• A debate about the anomaly with religious figures from many faiths who see the anomaly as a threat (and some who don't).
• International implications of first contact, and the jealousy and suspicion of other nations who feel that they aren't getting a fair chance at participation, feeling that the United States is fully in control.
• An exploration of what can happen when dealing with the unknown (riots, etc), and how people in large groups can be motivate by fear to different ends.  I think I first witnessed this kind of thing in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original version from 1951).
• An examination of how peoples opinions of each other can change when they are thrown into a situation way out of their control.

I found Anomaly to be a very interesting and engaging story, although I found the ending to be somewhat underwhelming, in the vein of the film Contact (based on the book by Carl Sagan - while details of the story were interesting, the major buildup led to an incredibly small payoff involving faith).  Desite this, it did not rob me of the pleasure I had reading the story, but I was disappointed it didn't go further.  This isn't the first story that falls into that category, and it certainly won't be the last.  In Anomaly, the major payoff is in the journey to the final breakthrough in the attempts to communicate with the ship.

I would highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoyed Contact, or any number of other first contact stories (including the film Arrival, which I just saw this year).  I'd also like to say that if it wasn't for the Prime Reading program on Amazon, I probably never would have seen this book.  I'd be interested in hearing from others who have read this book, and hear what they thought of it - feel free to comment on this review.  I'd be happy to hear from you.