The Orion Protocol

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate White-Knuckle Thriller
Review: Gary Tigerman's debut science fiction novel, THE ORION PROTOCOL, is so good it should come with hot buttered popcorn.

THE ORION PROTOCOL is everything a science fiction novel should be and thensome. Tigerman's main characters, former Apollo astronauts Commander Jake Deaver and Colonel Augie Blake, nearly 30 years after NASA's final voyage to the Moon in 1973, have kept silent about their findings until journalist Angela Browning receives a mysterious computer disk from an anonymous source.

The disk reveals images of Mars believed to be taken from the Mars Observer, an actual spacecraft sent to explore the surface of the Red Planet in 1992. While NASA reported that the spacecraft, manned by scientists at Kennedy Space Center, was lost due to an explosion, Tigerman's book sheds new light on the possibility of a conspiracy by the U.S. government concerning the real story behind the lost orbital.

This fascinating novel isn't just about unrevealed findings on the Moon or top secret images taken from Mars; it is also the unveiling of Project Orion, a supposed space defense system posing as an innocuous satellite. The book speaks volumes to conspiracy theorists in terms of America's efforts from the start of NASA to do whatever it takes to shed from the public the possibility of extraterrestrial life forms inhabiting other planets, namely the Moon or Mars.

As far back as the Eisenhower administration in 1958, at the dawn of NASA, the Brookings Report, a blue-ribbon study approved by Congress and authored by Margaret Meade, stated that any type of extraterrestrial intelligence could impose chaos to the American public. At the end of the novel, Tigerman includes a note from the author about his subsequent factual findings during his research that keeps the conspiracy wheels churning.

Furthermore, THE ORION PROTOCOL touches on the subject of a free press in America and how the press has to fight like dogs to get the truth from the federal government as portrayed by Browning's character. The author, a screenwriter living in Los Angeles, also does a remarkable job with the dialogue --- particularly near the novel's gripping and powerful end --- making this tale the ultimate white-knuckle thriller.

--- Reviewed by David Exum

Rating:
Summary: Cool new conspiracy thriller --- politics meets SciFi
Review: Gary Tigerman's first novel zips along, pulling you right with it. His punchy style combines Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" with a little Ross MacDonald. It's loads of fun to watch as he expertly peels back the layers of this fascinating, topical onion of a story. More political than SciFi, but enough of each that those of us who enjoy both genres have plenty to keep us turning those pages. Great book. You'll have a blast.

Rating:
Summary: Will leave you wondering...
Review: Gary Tigerman's ORION PROTOCOL will leave you wondering what
is fact and what is fiction. Why did we stop going to
the moon? Is there evidence hidden from us? If you liked
The DaVinci Code, you will like this book. It is the first in
a planned trilogy and I am anxiously awaiting the next book.