EARTH SWAP
By Dale Cozort
Chisel & Stone Publishing
377 pages
Imagine parallel worlds. On ours, we have yet to travel to the planets in our Solar System. Thus is the case for Ward Parke, his siter Katrina and best friend Stan Baird. Then one night, while star gazing, they realize they are no longer in our universe by the difference they see in the heavens. In fact, our Earth and somehow been swamped with another Earth from another world. Thus, our Earth was no ensconced in a dimension where Mars and Venus had been colonized, where the moon was inhabited and all these various human factions were caught in the middle of a bloody interplanetary war.
Then, as if to add fuel to the fire, a mysterious, white skinned Venusian woman named Pandora crash-lands near Ward’s home. In her possession are black stones containing one of the oldest libraries of knowledge ever created. It is a prize all three factions are desperate to get their hands on. Baird believes the woman, who he christens Pandora, is somehow involved with the Earth switch, but before that can be explored, Ward’s ex-wife, Pat, steals the rock-library and disappears back to their country town. Whereas he is busy, being the President’s Science Advisor, Ward sends Stand and Katrina after her.
Cozort has, over the years, cemented his reputation as the writer of alternate world thrillers, and “Earth Swap” may be his most ambitious effort to date. Note, it is not an easy read, as there are several off-world subplots and soon get entangled with the human cast, and at times things get confusing. But for the reader willing to sign, the story soon becomes a non-stop adventure ending with an all-out space battle that would have done E.E. Smith proud.
