''Impact'' is a science fiction thriller novel by American writer
Douglas Preston
Douglas Jerome Preston (born May 31, 1956) is an American journalist and author. Although he is best known for his thrillers in collaboration with Lincoln Child (including the ''Agent Pendergast'' series and ''Gideon Crew'' series), he has also ...
, published on January 5, 2010 by
Forge Books
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
. The novel is the third book in the Wyman Ford series.
The book was reviewed on ''
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
'' in February 2010.
Plot summary
Ex-
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agent
Wyman Ford returns to
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
to investigate the source of radioactive gemstones and uncovers an unusual impact crater. A young woman on the other side of the world photographs a
meteoroid
A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space.
Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as micr ...
's passage in the atmosphere with her telescope and deduces that it must have struck on one of the islands just offshore from
Round Pond, Maine. A NASA scientist analyzing data from the Mars Mapping Orbiter (MMO) spots unusual spikes in
gamma ray
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...
activity. These threads intersect with discovery of an alien device that has apparently been on
Deimos Deimos, a Greek word for ''dread'', may refer to:
* Deimos (deity), one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology
* Deimos (moon), the smaller and outermost of Mars' two natural satellites
* Elecnor Deimos, a Spanish aerospace company
* ...
, one of the two moons of Mars, for at least 100 million years. Something has caused it to activate and fire a
strangelet
A strangelet (pronounced ) is a hypothetical particle consisting of a bound state of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks. An equivalent description is that a strangelet is a small fragment of strange matter, small enough to be c ...
at Earth, setting off the events in the novel.
Timeline
The events in this novel follow those of ''
The Codex'', ''
Tyrannosaur Canyon'', and ''
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...
''. As such, Wyman Ford is the protagonist once again (having appeared in ''Tyrannosaur Canyon'' and ''Blasphemy''), and the character of Stanton Lockwood III (who debuted in ''Blasphemy'') also returns.
See also
*
Exotic matter
There are several proposed types of exotic matter:
* Hypothetical particles and states of matter that have "exotic" physical properties that would violate known laws of physics, such as a particle having a negative mass.
* Hypothetical particl ...
*
Dark matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...
*
Quark star
A quark star is a hypothetical type of compact, exotic star, where extremely high core temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form quark matter, a continuous state of matter consisting of free quarks.
Background
Some massive ...
References
External links
Book profile on the publisher's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Impact (Novel)
American thriller novels
Techno-thriller novels
Novels by Douglas Preston
2010 American novels
2010 science fiction novels
Novels set on Mars
Novels set in Cambodia
Novels set in Maine
Forge Books books