Book overview
"Unbelievable," Painter said. "Is this place for real?"
Reinhold replied, "Totally believable. You haven't been here long enough to understand the local thought process."
Something strange has landed in an isolated region of Alberta. Hovering east of the Rockies is a massive black spaceship. Its only apparent interest? Eating coal. It leaves everything and everyone else alone, with no attempts to communicate. It just sends drones to grind away at thin seams of coal in the side of a deep river valley. But it does give the locals an attraction to boast about and boost their tourism rates.
Where did it come from, why is it here, and why does it like coal so much? It's the Canadian government's job to take control and find out. They'll hire a team of top professionals to figure out what is happening so that the politicians can get back to their real work: squabbling over provincial and federal jurisdictions.
It comes as a total surprise to Franklin Hattori, a Canadian cultural anthropologist on the edge of a mental breakdown, when he's called to join the investigation team. The reason for his inclusion seems as transparent as that ebony ink blot in the sky, but he's not one to turn down an opportunity of a lifetime.
Soon, Hattori finds himself working side by side with a chemist from a nearby university, an astrophysicist-astronaut who's recently returned from space, an aggressive military liaison officer from National Defence staff, a perplexed local farmer, a political troubleshooter still coping with trauma suffered in Lisac's earlier novel Where the Bodies Lie, and an Ottawa lawyer whom Hattori knows well.
Will this hodgepodge team learn more about the mysterious visitors, about the strange province where they are working, or about themselves?
Reinhold replied, "Totally believable. You haven't been here long enough to understand the local thought process."
Something strange has landed in an isolated region of Alberta. Hovering east of the Rockies is a massive black spaceship. Its only apparent interest? Eating coal. It leaves everything and everyone else alone, with no attempts to communicate. It just sends drones to grind away at thin seams of coal in the side of a deep river valley. But it does give the locals an attraction to boast about and boost their tourism rates.
Where did it come from, why is it here, and why does it like coal so much? It's the Canadian government's job to take control and find out. They'll hire a team of top professionals to figure out what is happening so that the politicians can get back to their real work: squabbling over provincial and federal jurisdictions.
It comes as a total surprise to Franklin Hattori, a Canadian cultural anthropologist on the edge of a mental breakdown, when he's called to join the investigation team. The reason for his inclusion seems as transparent as that ebony ink blot in the sky, but he's not one to turn down an opportunity of a lifetime.
Soon, Hattori finds himself working side by side with a chemist from a nearby university, an astrophysicist-astronaut who's recently returned from space, an aggressive military liaison officer from National Defence staff, a perplexed local farmer, a political troubleshooter still coping with trauma suffered in Lisac's earlier novel Where the Bodies Lie, and an Ottawa lawyer whom Hattori knows well.
Will this hodgepodge team learn more about the mysterious visitors, about the strange province where they are working, or about themselves?
