When the Dust Fell

Ross (the Kalelah series) introduces several exciting concepts in this unorthodox take on an alien invasion but fails to bring any of them to a satisfying conclusion. After a deep sonar survey of the Pacific turns up an impossible find, oceanographer Sarah Long becomes the only Earth native aboard an alien ship full of humans from a distant planet called Origen. She learns that human life on Earth is the result of a seed population planted by the ship’s crew, who intended to guide humanity toward the correct understanding of God but failed to intervene at key points in societal evolution due to a programming glitch. While this setup raises some fascinating questions about religion, the ideas are never rounded out. When Sarah receives messages compelling her to leave the ship and search for her sister, she makes a deal with the Code—another enigma left dangling—to help her, embarking on a quest that takes her from the ruins of Moscow, around the authoritarian city-state of Manhattan, to Ohio—only to arrive at a conclusion that renders all prior plot events meaningless. Despite Ross’s clever subversion of the typical alien invasion scenario, the insufficient worldbuilding and underdeveloped themes will leave readers disappointed. (Aug)