Title: The Kuiper Belt Deception
Author: Donald F. Averill
Publisher: Toplink Publishing
ISBN: 978-1946801975
Pages: 284
Genre: Science Fiction
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
Pacific Book Review
The best science fiction novels find a way to have just the right mix between science and fiction. Too much science and not enough fiction and you lose the humanity that is needed for emotional involvement. Too much fiction and not enough science and you lose the credibility needed to make the story intellectually involving. Fortunately, author Donald F. Averill does a good job of mixing his key ingredients in The Kuiper Belt Deception, a story of strange goings-on both on Earth and among the stars.
The narrative begins in the year 2080 when a group of young astronauts are being trained and evaluated on The Blue Planet for a multiple-year expedition designed to take them beyond our solar system. Arriving at their destination will take them in excess of twenty years. Therefore the males and females being evaluated are encouraged to mate and marry prior to their voyage. Averill introduces readers to a group of four couples who will make up the expeditionary team. Each of the eight is highly intelligent and particularly proficient in different fields of study that will be needed for success. One of the more interesting fictional elements of their scientific makeup is that their minds have been enhanced with adjunct brainpower. The pilot and team leader, Sunul, has received the “last fraction of Stephen Hawkins’s brain,” and the group’s doctor’s knowledge organ was surgically enhanced with brain matter from noted pediatric brain surgeon, Dr. Ben Carson.
As in all good science fiction tales, the most interesting elements of the plot begin to unfold when things start not to go as planned. In this particular novel the interest really begins to mount when midway through their voyage the crew realizes they are being deceived. Various computers and other equipment on their craft begin feeding them information which is proven to be blatantly false. Someone is trying to make them believe they are continuing their mission when they are actually trapped on an ice moon in the Kuiper Belt. Whoever is responsible for this trickery, however, did not factor in the incredible pluck, initiative, and intelligence of these particular crewmembers. Before you know it, they’ve uncovered the deception, figured out how to mask their discovery and begin their return to their home solar system. Additional challenges arise as the female members of the crew become pregnant and a couple of children are born who have powers beyond any of the earthling’s imaginations.
Averill fills his narrative with impressive descriptions of space flight which include intricately detailed maneuvers and procedures necessary for the group’s survival. His meticulously chronicled technological feats walk a fine line between the possible and the impossible—and at times, are hard to ascertain which are fact and which are fiction. While the personalities and behaviors of his characters are very well drawn and delineated, his dialogue is less dramatic as the situations which surround his cast. Overall, Aficionados of the genre will still find much to like and admire in The Kuiper Belt Deception.