“Asteroids,” a science fiction novel, is entrepreneur Mike McCoy’s first published work due out in April 2019.  The novel has been pre-released to a small audience on Jan. 23 for review and is available on Amazon for pre-order.

Rick Munday, the main character, is an assistant professor of astrophysics at Caltech in Pasadena, California. The book follows Rick Munday on his journey back home to his family. Rick’s family takes refuge from the asteroid storm in a secret cave. Munday is selected by  Colonel Cruikshank(a high-ranking U.S. government official who has control over New Arcadia)to present his thoughts on the coming asteroid storm.

Little does Munday know this is the start of his escape from New Arcadia. New Acadia is one of many secret underground cities built for the few and the fortunate to live in while the rest of the world is destroyed by asteroids. Colonel Cruikshank and other government officials try to cover up the asteroid attacks so no one can prepare for them.

Although Munday is the main focus of the story, the book follows several other characters on the same timeline. At first, the different point of views seems confusing and irrelevant, but as you read on everything eventually begins to make sense. The different storylines intertwine and weave together as the different characters interact. This gives the reader much more perspective and makes up for the confusion at the beginning of the book.

This book is a solid 4/5 stars. Like all good science fiction books, Asteroids has the perfect amount of action and futuristic science. The technology in McCoy’s book is fascinating yet extremely realistic.  The concept of asteroids falling from the sky is an easy thing to grasp and makes you wonder if it could actually happen.

Although Asteroids is a great story, few of the characters develop and change leaving them somewhat shallow. This makes the book lack a certain emotional connection to the characters. The action and storyline continue to pull the reader along the epic disaster that the entire world has found itself drudging through though.

 When the characters are in danger or struggling McCoy is unable to make the reader feel sympathetic towards them. For example, one of the characters dies, but as the reader I am unfazed. For some, this may be frustrating as a character has just died, but the reader feels no emotion.