Mankind is out of options, and time is running out.After America’s Hammerthrow fails, President Hutton launches Project Prometheus as a second mitigation effort, while the Chinese continue their relentless march to test and deploy their super-warhead. Even a partial success of either mitigation mission would leave the other unable to defend the earth. Political tension explodes as both sides race … sides race to challenge the relentless wheelwork of the Universe.
With its array of advanced technologies, Stormhaven’s lunar colony cannot avoid becoming part of a shooting war between the two superpowers, and its residents will face the ultimate responsibility of being the final peacekeepers.
Prometheus and the Dragon, is a wild ride across a changing and uncharted political landscape, as well as the unforgiving lunar wasteland … where all of humanity hangs on the precipice of doomsday.
This is an asteroid impact story backed up by real science. Prometheus and the Dragon is hard science fiction at its best.
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Prometheus and the Dragon is the second book in Eric Michael Craig’s Atlas and the Winds series. Picking up nearly a year after the end of Stormhaven Rising the citizens of the earth have put their hopes on two competing projects to stop the asteroid known as Antu before it strikes the earth. The effort is led by the Americans, at the lunar colony, who are building a massive particle weapon that will be used to deflect the asteroid. The Chinese, meanwhile, are building a next-generation nuclear weapon at their own lunar colony and they plan to launch it at the asteroid to destroy it in one massive explosion. While the Chinese and Americans work toward the same goal, but often at cross purposes, Stormhaven continues to expand their colony with the goal to save as many people of the earth as possible. Stormhaven isn’t alone as the other space agencies have unified to build their own massive domed colony, the Russians have partnered with the Arab nations to finance their own colony, and the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints is focused on building an ark on the moon to save genetic material of people, plants, and animals. The moon is getting very crowded, and as the two biggest players start stepping on each others toes the consequences could prove to be disastrous for the earth.
As with the first book in the series, Prometheus and the Dragon is a techno-thriller roller coaster ride. Eric knows his science, even when he’s pushing the envelope with new technologies, and this comes through as conflict spreads not only on the earth but between the lunar colonies as well. As a writer, he’s adept at adding stress and new challenges to his characters, always ratcheting up the tension. Whether it is the machinations of an apocalyptic preacher who’s gathering the people of the world for the last battle before Armageddon, to the secrecy and political infighting between nation states, Eric does a wonderful job of making things worse – and that’s a good thing. If everybody worked together, worked in harmony, they might be able to save the world, and while that might leave the reader with a fuzzy warm “feel good” feeling it’s not what drives a story. To do that you need conflict and Eric delivers, and in very plausible and realistic ways.
Prometheus and the Dragon is different from Stormhaven Rising in that a lot of the focus is on many characters who had more supporting roles in the first book. This was necessary because the story moved away from what was happening on earth to what was happening on the moon, and I liked to see these characters get more of the lime light. My one quibble was that I didn’t like the melancholic depression (funk) that Colton Taylor – genius and guru of Stormhaven – got into. I understood why Eric did this, but it felt a bit like a cheat to force the other characters to step up and think on their own. As such, Colton has very little page time, and since I really liked his character from book one, to have him set aside in this manner was a bit disappointing. I wanted him to continue to be the shining light of progress and reason, and he seemed to sit out, curled up in a proverbial fetal position. However, just because I wanted to see more of Taylor, doesn’t mean that the other characters do not shine on their own. Eric does a great job of developing these minor characters in their own right, and in the end the ensemble he has created makes the story come alive.
I highly recommend this second book in the Atlas and the Winds series. Prometheus and the Dragon is a high-tech science fiction adventure that not only gets the science right, but keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire ride.
When it comes to end-of-the-world stories, we are conditioned by Hollywood to expect certain tropes. A hero will save us, a villain will be revealed, and a fanatic will throw a wrench into the whole thing. Eric Michael Craig knows this, which is why he flipped the table on that script, ripped it in half, and set it ablaze.
Humans are fallible to the bone, no matter where they fall on the societal spectrum. Prometheus and the Dragon, book two of Craig’s Atlas and the Winds series, explores this reality in grisly and distressing detail. Imagine a world where the heroes are errant, the fanatics are adept, and the powers that be bicker like greedy children. Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because that’s the world we live in.
I have to applaud Craig for his deep dive into the discordant flaws of humanity that we often feel too proud to acknowledge. Without giving anything away, yes, there is hope. But, we have to claw ourselves out of a grim gutter to feel it.