Rise of The Kek: A Review and Overview of A Madman's Science Fiction Novel

"Rise of The Kek" (as seen in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine), is a science fiction novel written by John Joseph Burhop.  It is the author's first novel.  It is available in eBook format from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and other distributors.  It is the first book in a planned trilogy.

"I thoroughly enjoyed Rise of The Kek. It's a ninety year ride through the 21st Century that takes you to the moon, Mars, Jupiter, even Venus. The book is full of cool stuff like moon bases and asteroid crushers and luxury liner spacecraft. I especially like John Burhops' writing style. It's straightforward and sufficiently descriptive without pandering to the flowery gag reflex descriptions found in a lot of Scfi. Also, I was never confused as to who was speaking the duologue, another aspect of Johns' style that I appreciated. There's also plenty of exploding spacecraft and nuked cities to go around. I like that John used near light speed spacecraft and time dilation. The concept is much more realistic than wormholes or warp drives. All in all, I give Rise of the Kek a 9 out of 10. Can't wait for the sequel." Rocky Leeper, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

A brief summary of the first 27 chapters is as follows:

This story takes place between the year 2018 and 2108.  It chronicles the life of Jeremy Ash, who becomes the most traveled man in the solar system, and heir to a multi-trillion dollar space agency.  This is actually the first book of a planned trilogy.  One of the primary elements of this story is the cost of using time dilation to travel between the stars.  If a man travels 43 light years at near-lightspeed, 43 years will have passed on Earth even though he has barely aged.

The story begins with the Kek invasion of Cideba.  A Cideban named Piren, who has been studying Earth for thousands of years, utilizing the time dilation effects of the Neutrino Drive engine to extend his life as he travels back and forth between Earth and his homeworld, resumes his mission to Earth to comply with the evacuation order.  He is given an unsecured Neutrino Drive engine to take with him to prevent the Kek from obtaining it and improving their own version of the engine.  A warning beacon had been sent by the Cideban High Council to a number of less advanced planets, one of which arrived at Earth in 2018.

When Piren arrives at Earth, he is faced with the dilemma of whether or not humans have matured enough to receive the neutrino engine technology.  He decides to recruit a young man, Alec Strickland, to deliver the unsecured Neutrino Drive engine into Earth's future utilizing the engine itself to accomplish the task.  When Piren lands to directly contact Alec, a Kek that had cocooned itself to Piren's ship back on Cideba, breaks loose and escapes.  It begins to multiply by cloning itself.  Reports of large, man-eating "Super Spiders" begin to surface and eventually trigger a One Day War with China that kills a quarter billion people.

Alec is able to retrofit a one-man solo submarine for the trip.  Just before Alec debarks, Jeremy steals the alien data crystal that accompanied the engine.  The crystal contains details of the engine's design and operation, as well as the complete genome of an organism that is used to transform Venus.  Alec's encounter becomes legend, even spawning The Book of Alec, a pseudo-religious text that chronicles Alec's departure and predicts the time of his return.  Jeremy inadvertently transmits one of the equations from the alien data crystal to Microcore Space Systems, Inc.  Microcore is the clear leader in space-based technologies, with hundreds of Asteroid Crushers munching away at as many asteroids, an orbital processing platform complete with solar furnace, a space station, and an underground moon base.  The federal government intercepts the transmission, and is now aware that Jeremy is in possession of technical data that is unknown to modern science. This begins Jeremy rise to power and his pursuit by the federal government.

Government officials from The National Security Agency arrive at Jeremy's apartment.  They request his presence at a briefing in Washington D.C. where he is shown images of a mining operation on the moon.  The NSA officials inform Jeremy that Microcore is conducting secret operations on the moon.  Jeremy is confused as to his role in these matters which are clearly way out of his league.  They inform Jeremy that they are aware of the remarkable equation he transmitted to Microcore and accuse him of being a risk to national security.  The very next day, Jeremy's railcar is remotely diverted to Microcore where it winds across the complex in a grand tour of the facility.  Jeremy is finally brought face to face with Cecil Millikan, President and CEO of Microcore.  Cecil assures Jeremy that he can protect him from the federal government and eventually purchases the data contained on the alien crystal for $30 million.

Cecil has his top scientist, Professor Klein, analyze the crystal.  Klein discovers the complete genome of a microbe encoded on the crystal.  They determine that the microbe could be utilized to terraform the Venusian atmosphere.  The super secret Venus Project is born.  The microbe is painstakingly created from fragments of DNA.  Trillions of them are bred and then launched to Venus where they are dispersed into the upper layers of the Venusian atmosphere.  Their waste produce is molecular carbon that fuses together under the extreme pressure of the atmosphere.  It builds up to form a dark orbital band around the planet.  All the while, the U.S. government is trying to figure out what Microcore is up to.  Some have grown suspicious that Cecil is attempting to terraform Venus to accommodate alien spacecraft that have been detected approaching Earth.

When Microcore launches a prototype Neutrino Drive engine toward the star where the signal of 2018 originated (Cideba), it is seen as an attempt to directly contact the aliens.  Military vehicles swarm into Microcore.  The complex is searched for evidence of the unknown technology, evidence of Cecil's relationship with the aliens, and any data pertaining to The Venus Project.  Nothing of significance is found.  The Chairman of The People's Republic of China confronts the U.S. President as to why they cannot secure evidence against Microcore for collaborating with these aliens while the Kek continue to multiply.  The President's answer is insufficient.  The Chairman launches a full scale nuclear strike against the U.S.  The U.S. retaliates.  Four nuclear weapons elude American defense systems and strike as many large cities.  Several nukes also strike China.  Thousands of conventional missiles also rain down on the U.S. and China.

John Joseph Burhop is also the author of "The Universe Can Never Be Complete," a collection of poetry from John's more colorful high school and college years.  It is also available in ebook format from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel and other distributors.