Anomaly (First Contact)

Firstly, i'm not from a scientific background at all so I have no idea if the "science" part of the story is correct or not; I just enjoyed reading it, particularly as the main character presents it to us in a highly diluted format, making it accessible for everyone to understand.I also enjoyed the political and religious debates raised by the arrival of the Anomaly, and Teller's gradual realisation of how poorly his government handled the socio-political dimension around its research into the alien entity.The author's motivation behind the story is "brainy, non-violent sci-fi" and I feel that the book achieves that. Whilst there is violence in the story, it's not in the form of Big Nasty Alien vs Heroic Humans: it's the opposite of War of the Worlds and much closer to Sagan's "Contact".If in doubt, I would definitely give it a go. It's very reasonably priced and an enjoyable read.

For an independent writer the book is very fun and easy to read.It is not overly technical like an Ian M. Banks book (who I highly recommend) nor is it moronic man verses aliens action adventure like so many Sci-fi books and movies seem to be these days. The science in the book is sound and explained well for all ages of readers but may seem patronising for anyone with an education in science. There is little to no subtext among the characters which leaves the relationships between them feeling forced but none of them are unlikable or annoying.Usually if I enjoy a book like this I would give it 5 stars but unlike the classic Sci-fi's I like, such as those by Philip K. Dick, it doesn't ask any hard questions or make you think outside the box to an issue which I believe is the core purposes of any Sci-fi. Hence only 4 stars.Fun book for all ages. Good to read on long train journeys.

Well written and thought provoking. Loved the ending! Would highly recommend to anyone interested in science fiction and what the future holds!

Overall I endoyed it, well thought out.I found most of the characters to be pretty one dimensional and the female character really has no purpose other to tell the main guy how smart he is and to distract him from the project every now and then so that he can have insights.The idea that a high school teacher would end up that deep in a project like that also seems pretty unlikely.All that being said I enjoyed it, as the author talks about in the afterword, it was sci fi without the superflous smash smash bang bang. It was well paced and never left me waiting for something enjoyable to happen.I will be giving some more of his books a go for sure.

The author has unpicked the first contact assumptions we have today and taken not only a completely new slant on them, but also the story has a very real feel to it. I don't know what I expected but this was a total surprise. His writing is innovative and exciting AND his concepts are really novel.I'm just buying and reading the rest of this series - his take on this subject is really very new.Finally - Give it a whirl - you won't be sorry - especially if like me, you've had enough of ray guns & drooling monster, militaristic soap operas in space.Well done Mr Cawdron Sir I hope they make these into films for you !

David Teller is an elementary school teacher but when an alien anomaly appears outside the United Nations in New York he unexpectedly finds himself recruited into the team investigating it. This is a good, solid first contact story with all the hard science being softened by presenting it through the scientifically naïve eyes of David Teller. And that almost justifies the utterly implausible inclusion of such an unqualified person in the investigation team of mainly NASA scientists. The reality is that it just never would have happened in real life but it does make presenting the science without going too deep into obscure details and terminally boring anyone without a degree in at least physics much easier and makes this short little book much more palatable.Anomaly is self-published and I have to say it is one of the few self-published books that I have found both enjoyable and remarkably free of editing errors; there are a few but these days even the best traditionally published authors rarely get their books out without a few typos still floating around. His prose could have used a bit of additional gentle editing, however, it frequently felt clumsy and in places drifted off into inconsequential detail whilst in others omitted important detail. But this does appear to be one of Cawdron’s earliest works so I have hopes that this will improve as he gains experience.The anomaly itself, the science of the investigation and communication attempts are all well-handled and maybe Cawdron should have confined the story to just these aspects but he also chooses to look at the religious, social and political aspects of first contact and here the book is altogether weaker; he raises these issues as a background to the main story but I found the events associated with them to be both unlikely and given so much less coverage than I felt they warranted. Ultimately the questions they raised were neither addressed nor concluded, feeling more like a rather scruffy wrapping around the main events of the story.For the most part that story worked well and had a satisfyingly conclusion. The writing, though mediocre, has promise and is better than most of the other self-published writing I have so far read. The core ideas and science are generally well presented despite some of the peripheral aspects getting rather less attention than they deserved. All in all a good book, though, and I will be reading more of Cawdron’s work in the future.