Title: Contact
Author: Susan Grant
Published October 2002 by Leisure/LoveSpell
Genre: Contemporary/Futuristic
IBSN: 0505-52499-6
Winner of the 2002 PEARL Award for the Beat Science Fiction
Flying at night has never been a problem. The blackness of space sprinkled with stars, a few wisps of cloud, a smooth sea and a clear sky make good weather for a fast flight home. Jordan Cady likes her job as a pilot for UAL. She has worked long and hard to get here, and is proud of her accomplishments. The one thing she would love? Easy....it would be the ability to stay with her daughter, Roberta, as a full-time mom. Building the ranch of their dreams on the land in Colorado is a sweet dream too, but dreams are for the future, and now she must deal with this crisis. The object that appeared on the horizion was not what it seemed to be on the radar. It is nothing that she is familiar with, nor has she heard of anything like this before. What is it?
The questions in her head are so numerous, and the situation is definitely uncertain. Is this a hijacking? Will they be ransomed? Where they are and why they are here, where ever here is, has not been explained, but it has a bad feeling about it. The radios and cell phones don't work and it appears they are being snatched from the sky! How? Who could do such a thing, and would they be rescued? Better question, could they be rescued? This is like a nightmare, but she is left in command. She can't afford to panic, not with the passengers and crew depending on her and her strength. She will do this and they will survive. She doesn't have a choice. She promised Roberta she would be back, and that is one promise she is not about to break......
Kao Vantaar-Moray feels truly lost. Solitary and alone, he just doesn't fit in. He can't seem to feel like a part of the crew of this ship. Kao is the son of a much decorated officer, and has been through what few others could survive. After two years in the hell of that Talagar prison as a POW, Kao found himself the sole survivor , and that fact has shadowed him ever since. The others, that had survived the Talagar's ambush and been captured, died during the torture....all of them dead....all but him! Their reliable source had been wrong and six ships were wiped out at a crucial time. His father, Commodore Ilya Moray, punished for Kao's actions. The grief and guilt weigh on him, as does the shame heaped on his head.
Stripped of his rank, and under a constant cloud of suspicion, he serves aboard his father's ship the Savior. It has been only four months since his release and he is still convalescing, but that is only a temporary reprieve. His father has plans for him, and nothing will stop them, or so it seems. He is determined to clear his son's name, but Kao is not sure that is possible. The great man that his father is cannot see, or refuses to acknowledge, failure in the son he raised. His social skills, always shaky at best, haven't improved. Prison only made things worse.....now this. A plane loaded with refugees that cannot go home has been put into his care. Can anything else go wrong?
Susan Grant has once again put things into her writing machine, most likely the cockpit of a boeing 747, and looks at them with a different and fresh perspective. Under her practiced eye, we go a tad into the future and although many things have changed since September 11, 2001, life does go on, and folks still behave in much the same way. They don't, however, expect to be scooped out of the sky airplane and all! That just doesn't happen...does it? If you are looking for a simple romance, this book will not fit the bill. It is an exciting and full bodied mystery/romance that pits a man and a woman against a conspiracy of slavers. The love story is there amid the mysteries, but this well blended book leaves Kao and Jordan wondering who's who in the line-up.
Issues of trust are not only things standing between them, and things are further compromised by their unexpected and growing feelings for each other. The fight for trust is hard won on many fronts, and the results are well worth the effort. But unless you read Contact, you won't get the answers! From an airliner over the Pacific, to the depths of space, Contact is a work that beautifully blends the "here and now" with the "what could be", and that is a dynamite combination. It shows that human beings make life, love, and love of life, something to be treasured, NO MATTER WHERE YOU CALL HOME. Susan's book needs to make Contact with your "Keeper Shelf", so watch for it in October from Dorchester Publishing.
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
Susan Grant Bio Review Buy Susan Grant Books
