Bookaday: Falling Star by Philip Chen

Falling Star - techno-thriller

A techno-thriller, Falling Star is about the discovery of mysterious objects buried deep in the ocean and what happens when they wake up and start sending signals to outer space. Mike, pulled back into a clandestine world to assist in deciphering these messages, is attacked by gangs of ordinary Americans who want to kill him. On top of all this, Mike learns that a revered friend has died. Will the death of this friend mean that the secret of these enigmatic objects will remain buried in the silt and muck of the ocean bottom forever?

Since its publication as an eBook in August 2010, Falling Star has received fourteen extremely positive reviews. Many readers of this realistically written novel finish wondering if the novel is, in fact, a true story. A charter member of the National Book Critics Circle recently reviewed Falling Star. This reviewer, Alan Caruba, does not ordinarily review self-published novels and did so reluctantly because a former New York Times reporter referred the author to him. Mr. Caruba had the following to say about Falling Star:


It is rare when a novelist makes his debut with as powerful a novel as Philip Chen’s Falling Star ($15.25, available from Amazon.com, softcover and on Kindle). It begins in 1967 and concludes in the Oval Office in 1993. In between Chen introduces you to an array of characters, all of whom have unique talents, some of whom are U.S. Navy officers, some with the FBI, all devoted to the protection of their nation. They are a handful of people who know about mysterious entities far beneath the surface of the waters surrounding the U.S. Others are members of a rogue KGB unit, moles who lived among us, but whose mission ended when the former Soviet Union collapsed. This novel stands out for the way you are introduced not just to the characters, but the physical reality in which they live, the sights and even the smells. Slowly and then with increasing intensity, the mysteries are unraveled, the enemies identified, as life and death often hangs in the balance. Drawing on his own life as an ocean research engineer, attorney and banker, Chen brings an authenticity to the novel that provides a heart-pounding reality that forces you to ask “What if?” What if Earth was under observation by those from another planet that is circling a dying sun? What if they intended to colonize it? What if the year for this was 2013? If you read just one novel in 2011, make it Falling Star.


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The author, Philip Chen, has had a career as an ocean research engineer, a trial attorney, and an investment banker. His biography has been included in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World for years. This is his first novel. Falling Star was first copyrighted in 1991.

It is available in the Kindle Store at:
http://www.amazon.com/Falling-Star-The-Watchers-ebook/dp/B003YCPK4C  
Smashwords at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/24267 
Print copies are available at: https://www.createspace.com/3493702