Impact starts as suspense, a thriller with two strands. Ex-CIA Wyman Ford travels to Cambodia to find the source of some new, beautiful and highly radioactive amber colored gem stones. Resourceful Wyman manages to reach the mine site in the back hills of Cambodia, braving murderous ex-Pol Pot Brother #6, gem dealers, corrupt local officials. He finds the mine is far too large for the CIA to have missed in aerial reconnaissance and it is run by sadists who force peasants to labor in the radioactive pit.
Wyman figures out the pit is actually the exit point from a meteor and decides to find where it entered.
Meanwhile Abbey Straw sees a meteorite strike in the islands off the coast of Maine. She drags her best friend off to find the meteorite, fights off a would-be rapist, sinks her father’s lobster boat but finds only a smooth hole, no meteorite. Wyman connects with Abbey and they start looking for the source of the meteor that stuck Maine, passed through the earth and exited in Cambodia.
The science fiction aspect adds drama and existential threat to the story.
Preston gives us interesting people that we come to care about. Abby is young, impetuous, brave, foolish and very smart. She loves her father although she has the usual push/pull to get away from home. She loves her friend Jackie despite knowing Jackie is a bit dim and never going to make anything of herself. Wyman Ford is complex, smart, brave, patriotic and not at all intimidated by power.
Overall Impact is good, with well-done people interacting within a complex plot. True, some of the events resolve themselves a little too neatly, but that’s the nature of thrillers and space opera.
4 Stars
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