Vanished Earth: Book 4 in The Flying Crooked Series by Geoff Nelder (book review).

‘Vanished Earth’ is the fourth book in the ‘Flying Crooked’ series by Geoff Nelder. The author does a helpful recap of the first three in the opening pages here, but I recommend reading the books in order. Here’s the basics.

For the book, ‘Suppose We’, the ship Suppose We left Earth on Friday 20 May 2521 with a crew of four. At the same time, many similar small ships were sent out into the galaxy to find planets suitable for human colonisation. Suppose We arrived in the Kepler 20 system where the crew met an alien race they called the keps who were technologically advanced peaceful vegans, for their planet had evolved no predators above the level of insects. Can sweet sentients rise to the top of the evolutionary tree and become the dominant species? Good question. The human race didn’t get where it is today by being nice. See the news. But it’s a possibility and one that makes for interesting Science Fiction.

Later, the keps had problems with the Recs, a race of alien AI but eventually made peace with them. Meanwhile, CAN, the AI running Suppose We, had a secret mission to infest new worlds with DNA from Earth, which it did. The interaction of human and kep DNA resulted in the keeps, small organisms with a hive mind. It also led to the formation of a kep group called the Purists who don’t want kep DNA spoiled by humans and plan to exterminate our race which proves that some keps can turn savage in a crisis.

After many adventures in the first three books, the others being ‘Falling Up’ and ‘Kelpler’s Son’, Adah, a son of the original Suppose We crew, some friends of his and a few keps, keeps and Recs have now returned to the solar system in April 3664, long after the original ship left. But the Earth isn’t there! Hence the title. Adah and friends come under attack from the Purists and there’s a nifty space battle worthy of E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith. Adah is a mix of kep and human DNA and has some amazing abilities, highlighted in the last book, ‘Kepler’s Son’, which were not so useful here. In space, no one can hear you make your tongue longer, grow extra appendages or emit warmth and it doesn’t help much under fire.

The narrative switches points of view occasionally when there’s a cliffhanger ending to a chapter so you read on to find out what happens next. It’s always worth it. Adah is a nice young man, full of fun, but discovers that life is complicated and different species and individuals, even friends, have their own motives and secrets. I was relieved to find a scientific explanation for his imaginary pals made real, a mysterious phenomenon in ‘Kepler’s Son’ that made me jealous. My dream girls are gone when I wake up.

As usual with Mister Nelder, this is an entertaining, far-out SF story but with an underlying seriousness. It’s almost like ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’ or ‘Red Dwarf’ in terms of advanced technology, but not so whacky and the characters are playing for keeps. This was my favourite book in the series and I liked them all. Recommended.

Eamonn Murphy

October 2023

(pub: LL-Publications, 2023. 126 page paperback. Price: £ 7.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-99755-496-0)

check out website: http://www.ll-publications.com/