- Series: The Mylean Chronicles
- Paperback: 538 pages
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (August 6, 2015)
- Language: English
On a twentieth Century Earth much like what we have now, one man is faced with protecting the planet from a group of wealthy businessmen who have decided to take over the world. John Scott, a half-alien half-human hybrid has the benefits of control of two massive artificial intelligence computers, as well as the use of a massive interstellar alien ship complete with technology that will not be seen on Earth for decades or possibly centuries. Scott is made aware, due to the main computer’s monitoring of Earth’s activities, of a group of individuals who want to take over the world and are spending literally billions of dollars to make that happen. This group, The Krakow Klub, named for the site of their first meeting in Krakow, Poland, plans to take over the US government, first by buying their way through several elections, and finally by blackmail and coercion of key players at the top of the electorate food chain. In addition, they have gained control, by these same means, of key positions in the US military, so as to have a hammer to back up their plans.
Scott, with the aid of his computers, mines the asteroid belt for enough gold to match the Krakow Klub’s financial power and begins working to upset their plans. As the Klub puts plans in action to kill the current pre4sident of the US, Scott, with the help of his computers and alien technology, snatches the man from a fiery death. Then he manages to snatch up all the members of the KLUB and stop all the military actions which will destabilize the country for takeover. While there is some bloodshed during the process, Scott and his alien team manage to keep things to a minimum and save most of the members of Congress and the Senate, who were all targeted for assassination.
While the story is told well. Elrod suffers from the standard problem of many self-published authors: the lack of a good editor. Aside from the standard occasional typos (To be fair, these crop in even for major publishers), Elrod has a habit of shifting his point of view, sometimes within the same paragraph and occasionally multiple times on a page, without notice. In addition, he puts himself inside the head of some of the animals in the story in a way that detracts from the storyline. He also has a habit of telling rather than showing in his scenes, with long stretches of text and little dialogue.
Aside from those considerations, the story has promise, but just doesn’t quite meet the final goal. His superman has no kryptonite and this detracts from the story. But for a first fiction novel, not a bad try.
