Algorithm

In 1979, young Adam Dove finds a golden medallion with cryptic symbols in a lump of coal; at the same time, a spacecraft light years away adjusts its course. Twenty years later, Adam, now a biochemist, gets a letter from his childhood doctor that compels him to investigate the nature and origin of the artifact. Soon he's contending with mysterious explosions, Nazis, and a murderous, shapeshifting alien. Doweyko, also a scientist, integrates historical events both tragic and fortean, such as a 1959 coal-mining disaster and anachronistic discoveries of modern objects in million-year-old formations; this makes the first half interesting despite a preponderance of "as you know" infodumping, tone-deaf dialogue, and constant iteration of the attractiveness of Linda Garcia, Adam's molecular biologist colleague. The story falls apart in the second half, when Adam and Linda take to the stars to find the origin of humankind, encountering a series of implausibilities that prose and plot are not able to overcome. Agents: Frances Black and Jennifer Mishler, Literary Counsel. (Oct.)