Fear Of An Obsession
By Penelope Lynn
In Lynn’s SF novel, a young woman who’s suffering blackouts unwittingly holds the key to a secret alien attack.
Grant Mackowski was once the lead scientist on a top-secret project based in Nevada. In the midst of reverse-engineering
a downed spacecraft recovered from an infamous 1947 crash site in Roswell, New Mexico, he hid the blueprint detailing
his work in the core of his own daughter’s brain—and then he disappeared. Elle grew up unable to shake the feeling that
she was being watched, and she ultimately covered her bedroom walls with drawings of hundreds of dark, almond-shaped
eyes. Grant’s twisted tinkering also messed with Elle’s memory; now, as an adult, she has trouble remembering her own
past and is plagued by insomnia. Also, unbeknownst to her, a shadowy entity known as the “Dark Man,” along with his
cohort of extraterrestrials, wants to obtain Grant’s blueprint for their own ends. Grant knew that hiding the blueprint in his
child’s head would put her life in jeopardy, so he made sure to also create a special protector whose sole purpose is to
safeguard Elle’s well-being. That protector, Heath, is a trained assassin with an unearthly metal plate in his head; he will
stop at nothing to keep Elle alive. Lynn sets up this SF tale in classic cat-and-mouse fashion as Elle tries to shake the
feeling of being surveilled—a recurring story element, along with discussions of memory and identity—as the Dark Man
closes in and threatens everyone around her. At this stage in Lynn’s otherworldly adventure, the story is as much about
blood-and-guts action as it is about extraterrestrial activities: The sentence “Black blood dripped out of Raleigh’s chest
where its claws had been embedded” illustrates this tone nicely. Aficionados of classic SF will find it refreshing to read a
new story about good old-fashioned otherworldly villains, bent on eradicating humankind.
Rollicking alien-invasion fun, rooted in classic conspiracy lore.
