THE ALAMOGORDO CONNECTION

College students investigate the links between possible extraterrestrial signals, psi phenomena, and twins in this SF novel.

A prequel to Johnston’s first novel, The Dar Lumbre Chronicles (2018), this outing takes place 90 years earlier, in 2045. America—NatGov—now has only one major party, and the “Republic of California” has seceded from the union. NatGov’s new president is Rex Horn, a billionaire who’s already up for impeachment for several reasons, including wild plans such as mounting a search for Planet X, supposedly the solar system’s 10th planet. Darien Segura, 22, an astronomy undergraduate at New Mexico State University Alamogordo, also believes that Planet X exists, something he hopes to research. He gets his chance through a Horn-backed government project to investigate whether radio waves emanating from a star cluster represent extraterrestrial contact. Also joining the project is Carly Hansen, new to NMSU as a graduate student in psychology, specializing in parapsychology. Their work indicates that extrasensory perception, especially between twins, could decode a message possibly buried in the radio waves. Startling findings take the team deep into Panama’s jungle, where Darien, an adoptee who has some ESP ability, was born. There, he might find a twin—and answers. First contact is an intriguing hook, made more effective through believable details of carrying out scientific research and rainforest trekking, bolstered by Johnston’s background in biology, chemistry, and jungle survival. Satiric political elements add entertainment as well. Less successful, though, is a subplot concerning a tepid romantic triangle between Darien, Carly, and her longtime boyfriend. The novel also falters in pacing and structure: Inessential details slow things down (including minutiae about an Orange Bowl college football game), and the ending doesn’t deliver on the premise, instead only hinting at a real payoff.

A plausible story of extraterrestrial contact with a disappointing lack of resolution.