Second Sight

THERE’S ANOTHER THEORY ABOUT
EVOLUTION, AND IT’S NOT WHAT YOU
WERE TAUGHT IN SCHOOL OR BIBLE CLASS.

Maybe we weren’t descended from apes or placed here by God at the end of a seven-day creating binge. Maybe we weren’t the only intelligent species on the planet when the Earth was much younger. Maybe this isn’t the first time we face the annihilation of the human race because of greed, world war, or global mismanagement. Perhaps the truth is much more different than what we’ve been led to believe; that we alone were the single most intelligent species to inhabit the Earth. That we were and still are lords of a planet with infinite resources at our service, with dominion over every living thing that shares this planet with us.

J.F. Althouse throws that all out the window with his sensational novel, Second Sight. He draws on an incredible wealth of archeological and geographical data to write a fictional account of man’s history that leaves you questioning everything you’ve ever believed about the dawn of man. He turns a fascinating thesis of global archeological study into a breath-taking page-turner in the same manner as Michael Crichton, Douglas Preston, and Lincoln Child. His story, told primarily through the voices of Jordan Wright, an ex-Navy Seal turned archeologist, and Levi, a Guardian soldier from the Second Age of Man, is mesmeric and plausible. These two men pose a juxtaposition of the two ages of Man coming together in a confluence of destiny, where both join forces to defend humanity against a tyrannical race of half-giants. Each race in the story is based on Althouse’s interpretation of true archeological evidence, which gives a new exposition of the Earth having been visited by an intelligent alien race in the past. He alludes that this race not only visited this world, but populated it and coexisted with man for ages, until a horrendous, cataclysmic global event nearly wiped out all intelligent life except for those few survivors left to rebuild from scratch. Althouse’s book serves as a wake-up call for everyone that this event is cyclical and we face our own end coming upon us.

Second Sight is a fresh voice in the realm of thrillers, with the golden threads of science fiction and history interwoven in an easily understood, yet vastly entertaining format. Although the message is critically potent, the delivery carries well over to everyone with narrative that is casual, flowing, and natural. Interspersed with humor, the fast-paced race to escape pursuing villains brings two divergent cultures and times together in a joint effort of saving the world based on universal ideals held in great regard throughout all of human history—those of attaining a peaceful existence.

Althouse has discovered a way of engaging readers with his innovative approach of using fiction as an educational tool. While this story is rife with the coming of war and global dominion, it is written at a level where young adults and the average reader can follow with breathless anticipation for the answer that plagues us all: are we fated to self-destruct from our own vices and ignorance.