Two archeologists, Professor Karen Smith and Professor Michael Rise, become unwilling participants in an Alien prophecy, a government conspiracy, DNA experiments, and the twists and turns of government cover-ups and their secret societies. When Karen and Michael accidentally stumble upon bogus artifacts at an excavation site, they begin to question the reasons they were assigned to the project. They are then faced with the death of a close friend and discover another’s deception. In a short time, they find themselves captive on an Alien ship. Will they be killed or experimented on? Only the Aliens know their fate. Escape is possible, but unfortunately not without sacrifices. Did Michael save Karen in time or were the Aliens able to finish their plan? Just when they think it’s safe to go on with their lives, the Aliens seek out the couple. This time it’s not out in the open, but in the shadows.
Professional Reviews
By Brian Kaufman
Michael Rise and Karen Smith are asked by the local university to explore caves near Canterbury, New Hampshire. There are plenty for the professors and their interns to dig up, but there is no consistency in the finds. Primitive artifacts from different eras and different areas just don't add up. Karen begins to ask hard questions about the real purpose of the expedition. Are they being set up?
It doesn't help that Karen suffers from headaches and visions of a hooded man hiding in the caves. Is there a menace to fear? Or is her pregnancy causing the visions?
Author April May Rollins takes standard pulp sci-fi themes (alien abduction, alien mating, alien conquest) and races them through the pages at a breakneck pace. There isn't a single page of the tale that isn't in motion.
Karen and Michael are affable protagonists, and the aliens and their allies make fun villains. The tone of the story is a pleasant cross between good-natured fun and tongue-in-cheek satire.
Val Ford, Reviewer
With this young adult novel, April May Rollins has taken a standard in science fiction (aliens trying to take over the world) and added a couple of interesting twists. Despite the fact that this is a young adult novel, her aliens are trying to keep their race alive by interbreeding with captive human females, as the United States Government fights against itself to try and stop them. The tone of the book is fun, and it reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets The X-Files in many spots.
The heroes of the story, Professors Michael Rise and Karen Smith, are archeologists investigating a new series of caves in the vicinity of Canterbury, NH. This is the second time in three years that theyve been here the first, their funding was abruptly pulled and the site closed. Now, with a scant 6 months to prove that this is a site worth excavating, theyve come back to see what they can find.
These innocuous caves pull them into a conspiracy of intergalactic proportions, as they discover that those whom they consider friends may be aliens, and that those aliens are intent on killing Michael and kidnapping Karen to use in their experiments. On the run from the aliens and their own government, they discover friends in strange areas, and must use everything they can to save the world.
I was hoping for a lot more from this. It s a great basis for a story, but it s told at a breakneck pace, with never more than a paragraph s worth of time for the reader to catch their breath before it races off again. Rollins touches on many things, but the story is going so fast that she never seems to develop fully the concepts she introduces. I found myself saying, Yes, but WHY??? an awful lot as I read. Especially when she mentioned the Prophecy and then really said nothing more about it.. There were too many characters after a while, the cast seemed to blur together.
That being said, both Karen and Michael are engaging, and Secretary Chainwith s dialogue had me giggling every time he opened his mouth. I also liked the fact that Rollins based much of the action in Canterbury, New Hampshire. UFO buffs will appreciate the fact that Canterbury is only about an hour from Exeter, New Hampshire, where the famous Betty Hill UFO episode happened in 1965.That s where the similarities end, but it s an interesting bit of trivia nonetheless.
All in all, it s a good read, even if it goes fast.
Utterly Fantastic Occurrences is a collection of 20 science fiction short story novellas existing in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle and Nook e-book formats.
