The book has its monents but too few of them to break the overall dullness. Earth now has an unending source of power. It derives from gravity and is dubbed gravipower. The problem is that it’s reducing Earth’s distance from the Sun. The answer may be on Mars.
A three man mission to Mars found a device in the sand that absorbs gravipower. It’s the same type of device that’s been providing energy to the vastly overpopulated Earth. The problem is to find out how one got on Mars and how long it’s been there.
Louis Abubekar gets a vision while on Mars. He says a woman told him she was from the Magellanic Cloud and that Earth will one day in the far future rule the galaxies. She also warned that a hostile alien race that attacked her home planet is on its way to our galaxy.
Another member of the expedition goes to investigate the gravipower device and the energy of his weapons combine to blow him up. The mission returns to Earth and another involving three ships is set to go back. Tapped to go along is Jason Lombard. His University thesis may hold the answers.
Also along is Jimmy Adoo an expert in defusing bombs. On Mars he and Jason find the device and Jimmy nicknames it the sphinx because of the riddle of why it’s there. Now an alien ship arrives and the humans are trapped in a sticky web dropped from platforms above them.
Jason is chosen by the aliens as the one they’ll try and communicate with. He nicknames them the grays. In a short while it looks like the aliens are friendly. Then another alien ship arrives. They’re not so friendly and could be the threatening race the vision warned about.
The book starts like it’s going to be hard SF and then drifts into pulp territory. The combination doesn’t really work. It’s not terrible but it isn’t worth seeking out.
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