REVIEW: Defying Gravity: Mary Goss - Episode 1 (Earth's Secret Alliance), by Tony B Richard, with Lydia Payge

Available on Amazon

In 1947, there’s an alien invasion looming and humankind’s best hope is a brilliant nineteen-year-old woman.

When the A-bomb ended the war, with a power unlike anything humans had ever witnessed, Mary Goss was driven to gain the knowledge to prevent another war from ever beginning. Now the Army has come calling, looking for “a few good men” for a top-secret project. Instead, they find that the best and brightest is Mary.

Much to Mary’s horror, the project reveals an alien invasion. Yet at every turn, her efforts to intervene are thwarted by small-minded engineers who can’t look past her gender and age. She’d dealt with her fair share of discrimination in university, but with the fate of the world on the line, there isn’t time to waste on petty differences.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. You can't often tell what you're really going to get from a self-published title, and one only available digitally.

I like alien, first contact stories. I like very much the idea of a young woman with a PhD proving to the "big boys" that she more than knows her stuff. I liked that it was a quick approachable read, and would easily recommend it as a high interest, low lexile read.

The only thing the author could've done more of is more on the science. That's as important as the growth arc for both Mary and her colleagues. 

I think it's billed as being part of a series, but I don't think series is the right word. It's more of a "universe" as I feel like Mary Goss's story stands alone. I do, however, think having read the earlier "episodes" would improve my grasp of the "universe" the author has built.

What do you think??

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this ebook galley from Tony B Richard and BookSirens and author/reader connection program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.