Read Time: 2 Minutes
The world teeters on the brink of cataclysmic change in “All Hope of Becoming Human” by Lonnie Busch. Amidst a series of seismic upheavals that rock the planet, ancient, huge and mysterious metal objects buried deep beneath the Earth’s surface are revealed. Beside them, thousands of skeletons, mostly human, all seemingly having died under strange circumstances. With a global pandemic reminiscent of COVID-19 going on, is humankind doomed?
An outbreak of horrific murders is being kept under wraps by the governments around the world. Weird creatures with razor-sharp blade-like appendages attack unpredictably, but how could something so far in the past have anything to do with what is happening?
Primarily we follow two people, FBI Special Agent Demzey who specialises in anomalous crimes. Like Mulder from the X-Files but with the crazy toned down. He’s been tasked with finding out what the hell is going on, and has a personal stake in the case.
The other is Rebecca Duccati, an assistant archaeologist who is working the dig in Arizona and trying to work out the ancient mystery. Her interest turns to obsession, and she will do anything to discover what it all means.
While I found it a little slow in the beginning, once things started to fall into place and the two paths of Demzey and Duccati began drawing closer together, I found it hard to stop listening. Indeed, often going later into the night than I should have at times.
Busch does an interesting job at winding in modern problems like issues with racism, violence and greed into a kind of parable, holding a mirror up to society and getting it to take a good long hard look at itself. Mixing this with an interesting take on the origins of the modern human made for an interesting undertone for the whole book.
The narration by Patricia Shade didn’t resonate with me as much as I would have hoped. It wasn’t difficult or hard to listen to, mostly I thought it was a little bit mechanical, lacking the warmth and nuance to give the story that extra push it needed.
Overall, this was an enjoyable story. Part science fiction, part thriller, part horror; all of it working together to take a look deeper under the surface to what makes us tick.