Title: The Listeners
Author: Eric Valdespino
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 978-1665784948
Pages: 294
Genre: First Contact Science Fiction
Reviewer: Liz Konkel
Hollywood Book Reviews
Many are unaware that an alien race once roamed thousands of years ago and left behind something extraordinary. This mysterious cube possesses secrets to knowledge and ethics beyond comprehension, but it has remained dormant and buried ever since. When a construction crew unearths the cube, many believe it to be a normal artifact until Dr. Isabella Torres’ team discovers it possesses its own form of intelligence. A coalition, under the name APOX, forms to understand its secrets and its history, with several scientists teaming with historians to unlock the truth behind the beginning of humanity. They soon learn that the origins of mankind may not be what was believed and instead of an organic creation, it may have been something engineered.
The story begins with the discovery of the cube, taking you directly into the mission and allowing you to easily see the desire of the characters to comprehend the unknown. This is at the core of the mystery, as within it is a hidden message about humanity and a shocking revelation that the origins of humankind may have been engineered. This brings together unlikely allies in a coalition, which shifts the story from first contact into an archaeological thriller. Its presence serves as a warning of a rising threat, which creates suspense and raises the stakes for the story with a countdown. The genre blending of suspense and archaeological thriller with science fiction creates a unique sense of discovery, journey, and understanding. Readers experience the secrets and exploration with the characters, learning more only when they do. This allows readers to stay in the story as the events unfold and gives room for them to be surprised. The secrets in the cube give humanity’s origins a fun twist that grounds the story in a quest for learning about both aliens and mankind.
The primary theme is rooted in the cube’s warning, which is an exploration of how the truth can easily be twisted. This concept is used as a foundation that sets up a larger conversation, as the search for the truth is something each character is experiencing. From the beginning, readers see conflict over the site and the artifacts, which transitions into discourse over knowledge and the coalition’s choices regarding what they discovered. The truth haunts the story and the characters like a ghost through knowledge and discovery, which twists everything these experts had believed before the cube. One of these truths that the story explores is origins, from the artifact’s origins to the beginning of humanity, to one character seeking a “keeper of the old ways.” As with classic sci-fi, the points raised are thought-provoking and have a layer underneath that leaves you with deeper questions.
An ominous tone is threaded throughout thanks to author Eric Valdespino’s specific phrasing and word choices that instill a sense of fear and dread. The science fiction elements revolve around the cube, which was left by an alien, and requires scientific means to open. This is an interesting concept as it uses aliens as a lens to shine a light on humanity, which highlights wars, ambition, flaws, and perhaps even salvation. Every aspect of the story is rooted in this desire to understand why. You see various characters impacted by this and how the living nature of the cube affects them through changes in their thoughts, directing and warning them.
The Listeners is a unique first contact adventure rooted in discovery and understanding, with thought-provoking elements of science fiction and archaeological thriller.