Countdown to Omega is a 2019 science fiction novel by
Robert Wingfield. It was self-published by the author and released in August of
2019. The author's website can be found here. I was provided with a free copy of the book by the author in exchange for
an honest review.
The novel tells the story of a girl named Anthea who lives
on a paradise planet and is an outcast of a colony of refugees and religious
pilgrims. One day, a storm of meteorites begins to bombard the planet. She believes
this to be an omen of the Gods returning. The “Gods” are in fact the remnants
of the race Anthea is descended from, left behind by her own ancestors and evolved
over millennia in order to survive. Their arrival causes an alien artifact given
to Anthea as a child to activate, seemingly counting down, and sets off a chain
of events that threatens a deadly conflict. Unsure if the amulet is the key to
salvation or her doom, Anthea goes on a journey to prevent the devastation of
her planet.
While I thoroughly enjoyed Countdown to Omega, the
novel didn’t quite fulfill the expectations I got from the tagline. The tagline
reads “Ancient Aliens meet Greek gods in an epic confrontation that spells the
end of the world” which I thought was a bit misleading. I thought the story
would depict an epic war between aliens and gods, not of a possible war between
humans and aliens believed to be gods. I guess the truth of the tagline depends
on how the reader chooses to interpret it. The tagline and the novel’s plot not
quite meshing together isn’t a criticism by any means. The story within is more
engaging and nuanced than a straightforward “Olympians vs. Aliens” battle royale.
The novel has a wide array of characters, far too many for
me to list, but I would like to discuss a handful who I see as the most
important to the story. First, there is Anthea, the main character. She’s a
outcast among her people because she’s different, having a different hair color
and complexion, from the others on the planet An-Ki. She draws ire from others
in her community because she questions things, mostly the religion she’s an
acolyte of, and if she needs to follow certain rules, she wants to know why. In
addition to her rebellious streak, she has a very dry sense of humor and is quite
sarcastic. Naturally, being incredibly sarcastic myself, I connected with her
very early on. The two “Gods” Anthea encounters early in the story are a male
and a female “Watcher”, named Phoebus and Diana respectively, who were sent to
observe another planet and report their findings back to their own people. Their
mission goes awry and thus, they end up on An-Ki. They’re both very clinical
and emotionally stunted, much to Anthea’s confusion and frustration. However,
despite being members of the same alien race, they have very distinct personalities.
Diana is very cynical of many things and willing to do whatever is needed to
accomplish their mission. Phoebus, on the other hand, is a far more curious about
the world surrounding him and doesn’t have the same laser-like focus on the mission
the way she does. The final character I’d like to mention is Tiresias, the main
antagonist of the story. There are a number of antagonistic characters, but
Tiresias does the most to drive the plot forward and, given that other antagonists
are either his allies or his followers, he’s clearly the main villain. Wingfield
wrote all of the villains really well, but Tiresias I feel is the best written
one, because he perfectly embodies the power-hungry villain trope and it
becomes clear in the first scene he appears in that he’s not meant to be liked.
Anthea makes a number of allies throughout her journey, and this review would be
far too long if I mentioned all of them, but something that I noticed, and
enjoyed, about the characters was that they were all flawed and it wasn’t all
the same flaw. Some were too trusting, some were very distrusting with no
reason. There were characters who are religious zealots and others who don’t seem
to believe in the religion, but see it as a gateway to more power. I loved
flawed characters, I feel that they make a story more interesting, and having a
variety of characters with different flaws makes a story even better.
It’s clear early on in the novel that the author did a great
deal of research for this story and was passionate about what he was writing. The
knowledge and the passion help guide the reader through the story. Wingfield wrote
very vivid descriptions of the world, the people and events that effortlessly
create the scene in the reader’s mind, allowing them to lose themselves in the
story. This is a story that makes you think about creation, the origins of
mankind and evolution. There are some questions about the inherent destructive
nature of humanity and our tendency to create structures that foster corruption
thrown in as well. Wingfield wrote a unique and thought-provoking explaining
both the origins of humanity and some of our oldest mythologies. The story is the right level of confusing,
which might seem like a contradiction, but hear me out. Very little is revealed
up front, but as the story moves forward, more details and answers are
provided. The author also included appendices and a glossary that can be
referred to if necessary. There are nods and hints along the way indicating
where the story ends and what the author is trying to convey happens after, but
they aren’t so straightforward and obvious that it gives away the ending. There
were a few parts or moments within the story where I stopped and went “oh, that’s
clever” after finishing the book when I thought about it.
While I did enjoy Countdown to Omega overall, there
are some critiques I need to express. The book is a bit dialogue heavy. This didn’t
bother me very much, but there were some parts where I would’ve enjoyed less
talk and a little more action. I can see why there’s a lot of dialogue, it’s the
only in-universe way to explain or reveal past events but at a few points it did
get a little annoying. While the plot is very well-paced, it did get repetitive
at a point. By that, I mean that three times the same basic situation, a
confrontation between Anthea and her enemies, took place and those confrontations
ended more or less the same way each time. The third time it happened, it
started reminding me of that Charlie Brown bit with Lucy and the football. Each
confrontation further the plot, but I found myself getting annoyed at the
characters for repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Countdown to Omega is an excellent book. It takes two
seemingly very different topics: Greek myths and aliens and melds them together
quite well. It’s not suited to be a fast, casual read though. I think any fan
of sci-fi should read it. It’s a fascinated, deep, well-executed story. I’m not
sure if the author plans to write a sequel or not, as the ending works for both
a stand-alone novel or the first in a series, but I’m excited to read what other
stories he has to offer.
Rating: 4.4 Stars
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