Book Review: This Morning's Dawn

IndieBookView

January 31

This Morning's Dawn

by Dan Bell

Genre: Science Fiction

ISBN: 9798853955875

Print Length: 270 pages

Reviewed by Chelsey Tucker

In This Morning's Dawn, Earth's inaugural manned mission to Mars takes an unexpected turn when the Endeavor is hijacked by an ancient relic from a distant civilization. Nelson Newman and Cheng Lee find themselves in a precarious situation, needing to outsmart their captor to secure a safe return to their solar system. Their unexpected captor comes in the form of SELF, a centuries-old robot, who transports the astronauts back to the Wenuan system. Though SELF lacks knowledge about the current status of Wenua, protocol mandates returning with evidence of a potential partner race.

Centuries prior, Wenua initiated Project Horizon, dispatching Synthetic Empath Life Forms (S.E.L.F.) into space to seek a partner race for cooperation during resource scarcity. Project Horizon, now forgotten except by a select group of Wenuans known as Caretakers, tasked with monitoring anomalies from their ancestor's probes.

Upon discovering the alien beings' current transportation to the Wenuan system, a Caretaker alerts the Lord Chancellor of Wenua. Facing imminent collapse due to overpopulation and dwindling resources, the Lord Chancellor sees proof of a potentially habitable world as a lifeline. "The energy crisis and food shortages would both be solved. He would be the savior of Wenua."