In the Realm of Eden by Robert Emery 

Reviewed by Don Bacue

International Features Syndicate

"John Sutton's feet hit the pavement with military precision.  In his mind he envisioned a metronome that allowed him to keep perfect pace as he jogged his daily three miles.  TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK--each imaginary tick synchronized with a foot slamming into the dew-covered asphalt…"

So begins an extraordinary tale told of quite ordinary language.  Upon closer inspection, however, you see that these simple sentences are ingeniously divined.  Wrapped tightly together to keep the reader from dozing, they are understandably and devilishly pointed.

Imagination.  That's what author Robert Emery brings to this book.  Imagination through a deviously twisting story line comprised of one-quarter political intrigue, one-quarter suspense, and all-quarters creative alternative Sci-Fi.  It is Robert Heinlein on speed..

Check out this bit of dialogue, after an innocent jog through a field leads to a revelation that will change life as protagonist Rubin Cruz knows it forever: "I am not suggesting there isn't a tempting parallel to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve, Mr. Cruz.  But you would be taking quite a big leap to come to that conclusion.  No, I believe a better way to summarize this is to assume that what we found on Flores and Foja, and what is in that vault down the hall, share a common connection, and all the rest of what we think we know of our origins is coincidence and in many cases fabrication…" Imagination.

This book more than many others I have read does that so remarkably well, with an ease and economy of words more writers could emulate.  A concept around every corner, an event around every page--it all leaves us wondering just how much this story mirrors the human condition…and just how likely our discovery of extraterrestrial life may be.

A barn-burner.  A page-turner.  The author's use of imagery is real and effective, and the dialogue is crisp and believable.  Add a storyline that only an award-winning film producer (which Emery is) could devise in that fertile and unfettered mind of his, and you begin to get the picture:

This is not a book to read.  This is a book to savor.  Slurp.

Five stars…and-a-half.