A good example of “hard” sci-fi (be ready to deal with a lot of terminology), and an intriguing plot/idea. A very slow start, but fascinating development in the middle of the story. A mix of Politics, NASA & Religion in one place. Overall- interesting but difficult read for the ‘soft’ girls like me. Also I’d add more humor and relationships in the story.

Fun-Filled Hollywood-Like Sci-Fi

I've been sitting on this book for a bit.  I honestly do not know why - I was excited about it when I first saw the synopsis - it probably just got lost in the shuffle.  Rothman was pretty unknown to me - but everything I saw about him and this book had me going into it with high hopes.

I didn't read any reviews before picking this up (or after finishing it) - so I'm unsure how it was received - but overall - I liked it.  It was an interesting and different story.  Sure, there are parts that felt like "well that could never happen" but it is a science fiction story - so who knows what we could come up with in the future.

I thought that Rothman did a good job of writing characters that were believable and likable. They were easy to root for and honestly, I didn't know how this story was going to end.  I was listening to the final chapters on a rainy drive home and I had to pull over to let the book finish because I was getting too into it!

The pacing was pretty good but could have used a kick-starter every once in a while.  It wasn't perfect by any means - but I've also read books that I've said aloud "come on, get to the point!" This was sort of in the middle.  At times I thought "why is this in here" but then later it was shown to be an important part.

I need to take a second here to applaud Tim Campbell's narration.  He did an absolutely stellar job with this book and I will be looking for more books from him soon.  He was able to give each character their own voice without over-acting or dramatizing the performance.

Overall, I enjoyed this science fiction story.  It had a sort of Hollywood apocalyptic/sci-fi vibe to it.  You know the one where Dwayne Johnson would be a main character in it. And there's nothing wrong with a fun-filled action book like that.

In Primordial Threat by MA Rothman it's 2066, and scientists are just starting to realize that Earth is in terrible danger. A tiny black hole is heading into the solar system, and even if it doesn't destroy the Earth straight up, it's going to change conditions so drastically that it might as well have.

Burt Radcliffe is in charge of DefenseNet, an early warning set of satellites. In his attempt to figure out what Earth can do, he discovers that Dave Holmes, a brilliant scientist whose ideas are dismissed by most of the establishment scientific community, actually had an idea of what was coming long before everyone else, and maybe he is brilliant enough to find a solution. But he disappeared completely several years earlier.

Step one: Find Dave Holmes. Step two: Figure out if his solution will work. Step three: Figure out if his solution can actually be implemented in time.

While I found aspects of the science to be beyond belief (namely the possible solution), I did enjoy the book greatly. The side plot about a doomsday cult had me scratching my head, because I was never quite sure how they knew about this so far in advance that they could plant people in space missions that would have uncovered the danger earlier. The fact that they were determined to make sure that no solution is implemented and every will die was a little easier to accept, since people are crazy.

I wouldn't call this book brilliant, but it was an enjoyable read, so much so that I have bought his medical SF thriller, Darwin's Cipher, and I look forward to reading it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this

Primordial Threat is an ambitious near-future view of the end of the world. Rothman has created a believable and suspenseful story that will keep you turning the pages late into the night. The book paints an all too believable picture of humanity at its worst in the face of annihilation, juxtaposed with brilliant and determined individuals representing humanity at its best. Hard science fiction, drama, intrigue and action all play out in this epic tale of potential apocalypse.

Interesting approach to the "End of the World" scenario in a very recognizable near-future.

The main characters are pretty predictable: the unbelievably smart guy and his girlfriend, along with the classic ex-military female president of the USA.

As far as the plot goes, it was interesting enough that I kept reading, but also predictable in hindsight. I think the story ended where it should have started. The potential follow-on book could be pretty good given all the established backstory.

All-in-all, a decent read. Not a science fiction classic by any stretch, but it kept me off the streets for a couple evenings.

Fast-flowing action and increasing tension make it hard to put this novel down, while well-timed reminders keep the reader in tune with various characters as the plot flits into and out of their lives. There’s a discredited scientist hiding out on the moon, a military man longing to spend more time with family, men and women on the brink of scientific discoveries and new relationships, and even touches of politics and terrorists. It’s a heady mix, but primarily it’s a “hard” science fiction tale, modeled on real science, and amply proving that science is both useful and fun.

In a world that’s about to be torn apart, how much do you tell the populace? How do you deal with a doomsday cult determined to make that destruction real? And how do you save a planet from a black hole!

The solution’s intriguing, the science is sufficiently convincing to have me checking Google over and again (and nicely supplemented by real facts in an afterword), and the settings are varied and well imagined, from the strangeness of a lunar base to almost normal scenes in Seattle and New York, to the jungles of Ecuador. Moderate future history (the story’s set not too far from today), believable inventions based on present day science, convincing political mis-alliances, and cool details of weapons, computer security, and space exploration, all provide the background for a tale that blends questions of why we care for each other with why we care for our planet. And care we must.

It’s a cool tale with multiple threats, clever science, neat future history and a fine cast of characters, highly recommended.

Disclosure: I was given an ecopy and I offer my honest review.

"Primordial Threat" eBook was published in 2018 and was written by M. A. Rothman (http://www.michaelarothman.com/). Mr. Rothman has published two novels. 

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set on Earth in 2066. While there are several characters followed, the primary character is the brilliant scientist Dave Holmes. 

Earth has advanced with commercial space efforts as well as scientific research throughout the Solar System. Burt Radcliffe has just been appointed as the new head of NASA's Near Earth Object program when an Earth-shattering discovery is made - a black hole is headed towards Earth. Earth has DefenseNet, a ring of satellites to repel killer asteroids, but they will provide little protection from the black hole. 

An urgent search is begun for options. Before he was ousted in disgrace as head of the International Science Foundation, Dave Holmes had instigated several programs, including DefenseNet. What was viewed as wasteful spending then, seems to the groundwork to save the Earth from a disaster like the approaching black hole. Can Holmes be found? Will he, can he, lead the way to save Earth?

While the scientific community around the world works on measures to save the Earth, there is a growing and powerful segment of the population that wants to stop them. Their view is that the black hole signals the foretold 'End of Days'. They see any effort to evade the black hole as sacrilege.  Only if humanity lets the end come, will they be saved. The group is willing to go to any length to stop the efforts to save the planet. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the 10 hours I spent reading this 461-page science fiction thriller. I like the overall plot. I also liked the characters created for the novel. However, both seemed a little weak. The cover art is OK, but I think a better image could have been chosen. I give this novel a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

I loved this book! I've always been drawn to space drama, and to the impending doom plot. This one involves an intriguing black hole as the culprit, and the pace of the story is intense. There's just enough good, hard science included to make the story line all the more realistic... and all the more horrific. Rothman did a marvelous job instilling fear. A terrific read!

Primordial Threat
M.A. Rothman

Rothman’s debut, Primordial Threat, is a powerful hard science fiction novel set in the near future of 2066 about a black hole hurtling towards earth that will mean the total annihilation of the planet unless someone can find a solution. It’s chock full of real scientific data yet easy for a layman to not only understand but also appreciate, a mix of hard sci-fi and thriller and both fascinating and because of Rothman’s knowledge as a research scientist improbably probable. The backdrops are vividly portrayed by a fluent dialogue, and the tight plot drives the story with enough tech speak for the nerd but not too much to leave the remaining readers scratching their heads. The characters are genuine and likeable and there are many who share the title of “star” that makes it hard to pick a favorite. There’s also a villainous organization determined to let “God’s will” of Earth’s destruction happen that hits the thriller bulls eye and a cryptic ending that cleverly leaves a sequel option open. All in all fans of both hard sci-fi and thrillers will enjoy this non-stop action filled page-turner.
Kudos to this debut author and I know I’ll be reading him again!
SUMMARY:
With less than a year before the Earth is swallowed by an enormous black hole Dr. Burt Radcliffe head of NASAs Near Earth Object Program and his second in command Dr. Neeta Patek are scrambling to find a way to save the planet. This threat isn’t exactly news to them, in fact a colleague of theirs tried to warn about it four years ago. But no one believed him and as a result he was shunned, humiliated and disgraced. After being called crazy he was forced into a psychiatric hospital where soon after he disappeared without a trace. If he could be found they just might have a fighting chance, without him they’re doomed because the earth has no defense for this kind of foe.
Meanwhile there are a group of religious zealots spreading propaganda about this threat being God’s will and they have no problem causing death and destruction to see that a solution isn’t found.

Hard sci fi that definitely kept my interest

I don't read a lot of hard science fiction. I'm more of a space opera enjoying gal but I loved this book. In many ways it brought back memories of the book that got me interested in sci fi, disaster tales, post apocalyptic books and that is THE HAB THEORY by Allan Eckert from back in the mid-1970s. I loved that book and it gained quite a cult following over the years. It is a worldwide disaster story too.

In PRIMORDIAL THREAT there's a double whammy of disasters heading Earth's way - thousands of asteroids of varying sizes are headed on a crash course with Earth AND following behind them is a black hole.

The best scientific minds from around the world (mainly in the U.S. though) have to try to figure out a way to save our planet.

I enjoyed the varied characters. I enjoyed the science, which was explained in an understandable manner. This was a story that kept my interest until the very end.

I received this book from the author through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

When reading M.A. Rothman's Primordial Threat, you might think, "Yeah, I've seen this movie before." A global disaster threatens earth, and a team of scientists, politicians, and regular people have to band together to figure out how to save all of humanity. . . . Rothman takes this familiar archetype and adds enough originality to make Primordial Threat fresh and entertaining.



A group on the lookout for near-earth objects--meteors that threaten to impact earth--finds that the increased activity they detect is due to a black hole that happens to be on a course to intercept earth's orbit and swallow it up. This, of course, would be a very bad deal for the future of the human race. Since there's no way to alter the course of the black hole, the obvious solution is to move earth out its path. Simple, right?



Thankfully reclusive supergenius Dave Holmes had an inkling of this and has been preparing for a decade. When he comes out of hiding, his scientific team goes into high gear, producing the materials and power sources needed to pull of his plan to move the earth to another solar system. In the meantime, a secretive global network of religious zealots believes that the black hole is God's deserved judgement, so they fight to thwart Dave's plans at every turn.



This is a big-budget, action-packed, special-effects-driven popcorn movie in a book. Just as with those movies, you have to sit back, suspend disbelief, and enjoy the ride. Do you have questions about the science involved in moving the entire planet into orbit around another distant star? Well, stop! Your place is not to question, but to enjoy the ride! And a fun, science-y ride it is.



If you like your sci-fi at a fast pace and on a grand scale, you get it in Primordial Threat. If the earth is ever truly in the path of a black hole, lets hope a real-life version of Dave Holmes steps up to bat.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

There's a lot of love out there for hard science-fiction stories, and it's not difficult to understand, especially in a modern era that so often seems to scorn and misunderstand science willfully. At its core, hard science-fiction - that is, science-fiction with an emphasis on the "science" part of that duality, with an effort to stay within the realm of what's scientifically plausible - is a love letter to science and what humankind can accomplish when it puts its mind to it. More than that, it's a reminder of what science is truly capable of, and how so much of our history is shaped as much by innovation and breakthrough as it is by historical inevitability.

All of which is to say, M.A. Rothman's Primordial Threat is a great piece of hard science-fiction. The setup is simple: a massive black hole is drifting into our area of the galaxy - a primordial, massive threat that will tear apart our planet (and most of the solar system). There's no stopping it; the only thing we can do as a species is to escape. But how does one get a planet out of the way? Enter the scientists that make up NASA's Near Earth Object program, as they try to put together a Hail Mary for the ages that will change our entire role - and our location - in the universe. 

If you needed a setup to explore the power of science, you couldn't do much better, and Rothman dives into the science here with aplomb and glee, from space elevators to warp theory, even down to putting together an appendix to explain the basis for his ideas. And any time the book is focused on this aspect of things, Primordial Threat is a fun read - it's the story of intelligent people combing through difficult problems and figuring out solutions using their brains and the available supplies. (It's what made The Martian such a fun read.) Now, Rothman undeniably has a tendency to get lost in his science, sometimes going overboard with it in exposition dumps that slow the book down, but given the complexity of his ideas, that's understandable; it just definitely needs some smoothing to make the book as rocket-paced as it could be.

The problem is, there's more to Primordial Threat than just the science, and while none of the other parts are outright bad, they never quite click together in a smooth way. There's a religious doomsday cult designed to throw roadblocks in the way of our heroes, for instance, but they feel grafted into the book, and never feel explored or interesting in the way that they seem like they're going to be; what's more, there's never much sense of why they're there beyond complicating the story. (Whereas something like Carl Sagan's Contact handled similar ideas but incorporated them into the themes and ideas of the book.) There's a subplot about a police officer dealing with the unrest around the world in the wake of the black hole discovery, which in theory should help flesh out the world of the book, but ultimately just feels like filler; it's not complex or rich enough to make the plotline engaging on its own, and doesn't have enough connection to our main story to feel relevant. Even the character work we get is fine enough, but never really does much beyond sketching in some broad archetypes.

For all of those flaws, Primordial Threat is never bad, and always engaging. Yes, a lot of the book has some bumpy issues, and it could all use some fine-tuning to give it some throughlines, some richer internal connections, and a bit more character work. Yes, the science could use a little paring down. But the plot is great, and the solutions are genuinely satisfying to watch unfold throughout, and even if Rothman does lose his way in explanations sometimes, it never prevents the execution of the science from being anything less than engaging. Rothman feels like a writer who will only improve from here, but who's starting on the right foot: ambitious, intelligent, and with great ideas, and now he just has to fine-tune the craft. I think he's got a great future ahead of him, if Primordial Threat is any indication, and hard science-fiction fans will be treated to great books to come.

It's the year 2066 and scientists have just discovered that Earth, and the whole solar system really, is about to be wiped out by an incoming black hole. There have been lots of books (and movies) about Earth being hit by comets or asteroids, but shooting missiles against a black hole is pointless. Unknown to those in charge, a young genius named Dave Holmes learned about the threat nine years earlier, and he might just have a plan to save at least some of humanity - if he can be located. But there's also a religious cult, with rather incredible assets, that is set on thwarting any attempt to deny "God's will".

One can't accuse author M.A. Rothman of thinking small. Not only is the threat bigger than most anything written about before, the rescue plan is similarly outsized. Yet most everything described has some basis in known science, and Rothman helpfully includes an appendix with pointers to help readers learn more. The story itself is almost more contemporary thriller than science fiction, and Rothman does a very good job blending the two. The story has numerous twists and turns, and not once was I thrown out of the story with a "Oh, come on!" The dialogue felt a bit stiff to me in places, but that's something authors learn over time. I've read quite a few new-author novels and this was definitely one of the best-written I had come across.

It puzzles me that Rothman couldn't get a regular publisher to take on Primordial Threat - it really is quite good and I found it hard to put down. If I had to pick known authors to compare the style to, I'd probably pick the Niven/Pournelle joint efforts (indeed, I was reminded somewhat of Lucifer's Hammer, not just for the subject matter but also the general approach.)

We've all read stories with surprise endings. There's nothing new there. It's not like O. Henry was born last week. As a matter of fact, there are few things less surprising than a big plot twist at the end of a book or movie. It happens a lot. If it's done well it works, but it's been done to death.

What's a little more surprising is reading a book (I suppose it could apply to consuming any type of story, actually) and being surprised by your reaction to it. I mean, M.A. Rothman's <i>Primordial Threat</i> is a great story. It's well named. Things are constantly happening. Just when you think you've got a handle on the situation, things get worse. The primary threat has the potential to be world-ending. It's a miniature black hole that comes cruising right through the middle of the Solar System. It's going to end all human life and there is nothing we can do to stop it from going where it is going. The secondary threat is a group of religious fanatics that want to keep humanity from surviving the menace. It's a romping good time and oh my god is it intense.

The part that surprised me though, at least about myself, is that I love a good villain. I like to root against someone I can hate. Think about it. Have any of you read <i>Dragons of Spring Dawning</i>? (Spoilers, I guess. I mean, the book came out in 1985, so it's not like you haven't had the chance to read it yet.) Takhisis (queen of evil/Satan analogue) is about to arrive on the world of Krynn to commit genocide on the elves and enslave everyone else. Life sucks. We've spent three books leading up to this moment and our heroes are going to lose and let this evil bitch take over the world. Except it doesn't work out that way. The world is saved and the psycho hose beast is dispatched back to the Abyss where she belongs. Partly, I was happy that the good guys won. But I was freaking ecstatic to see that wench get hers. And that's the thing that surprised me about <i>Primordial Threat</i>.

The primary “villain” isn't a villain. It's a black hole. I'm not usually a fan of books with a mindless threat. There's a reason I don't talk much about the <i>Dragonriders of Pern</i> series. That reason is simple: It sucked. The threat from thread falling mindlessly from the sky was just not enough to keep me interested. I mean, the main characters are cool and it's fun watching old and new interact but UGH! Get a real villain.

Somehow, Rothman manages to make his black hole work though. I mean, you can't really hate the thing. It's a force of nature just doing what it does. On the other hand, you find yourself rooting for those plucky little humans anyway. Somehow, some way, a black hole is not a dud for a villain the way thread was. The threat is real. It's immediate and it's nasty. It just works.

Of course, a cast of heroes is necessary to any successful story and this book has just enough of them to work. I really feel like <i>Primordial Threat could have turned into some world spanning, nine hundred and seventy three thousand character book with a Dramatis Personae at the end but it didn't. Listen, I'm as big a fan of David Weber's <i> Safehold</i> series and I love just about everything that Harry Turtledove has ever published. The fact remains that not every story works like that and I don't think this one would have. Rothman gave us just the right amount of people to move things along and avoided using too many and bogging things down.

These characters all not all the perfect type either. We've got one legitimate nutcase, the guy who helped her escaped from the psych ward, a president that doesn't tell the public the whole truth because it's in their best interests to not be informed and all kinds of weird problems. It provides me with an interesting conundrum: I wonder if all of these people could work together if the literal extinction in the human species wasn't in the offing. If this were an attempt at doing everyday research and possibly winning a Nobel Prize could they all hold it together? I'm not sure and honestly, it's probably a more entertaining story this way anyway.
I don't have the background is science or engineering to really make an evaluation of the tech in this book. It sounds pretty well grounded in the hard sciences, but I'm the guy who only completed one year as a chemistry major and this is all tech that would be better evaluated by a physicist anyway. Suffice it to say that it seems to work and it feels right. There are a couple of major scientific advances featured, but it all seems to work the way it should from a layman's point of view. Part of it is even based on work by a scientist that I'm somewhat familiar with. I don't want to reveal more than that.

I do have one complaint about <i>Primordial Threat</i>. There is a real deus ex machina moment that I find a bit annoying. I mean, here we are with this all star team of scientists and engineers and that's what it takes to get the job done? It adds a lot of tension to the story, but I still find it annoying, especially since it kind of comes out of left field. Parts of it are foreshadowed, but parts of it are not. I found myself shaking my head for a minute at one point. As a plot device, it kind of works and it does get things to where they need to be but, yeah. It's taking things a bit far in my opinion. Honestly though, <i>Primordial Threat</i> does work up to that point and it's nowhere near being a story ruiner.

Great book! Thoroughly enjoyed the tale. The plot was excellent and original. The characters were believable and well developed. I did not want to put the book down. Storyline was fast paced. It's always a pleasure when sci fi blends science with a "what if". This book does a superb job of that. I am hoping for a sequel....