Jump Start [Paperback]

In Ayers Rock Australia, archaeologist Marsha Kimbrough hopes to salvage her dying career by proving that ancient astronauts came to earth. Her daughter Tricia accompanies her on the trek, but instead of studying cave paintings, they uncover the top of an Egyptian pyramid buried for centuries under the Australian sand.

In Mount Palomar, California, senior astronomer Papalov Darringer announces that millions of meteors are on a trajectory towards earth and will hit within a year. Pappy also states that these "rocks" all appear to be the identical size.

These three events seem to have nothing in common yet they do for what is coming to the earth has not existed on this orb in almost two millennium. The planet, in spite of technical advances, has no defenses unless Jacob, Marsha, and Pappy can find a way to save their species from extinction.

JUMP START grips the reader from the very moment that a depressed Jacob finds that first rib, remains at that pace through the next two discoveries, and then accelerates into a faster than light alien invasion tale. The action-packed story line contains solid key characters as Jacob and Marsha know failure in relationships and at work while Pappy feels every minute of his sixty-eight years. Gary Carter deserves accolades for this Von Daniken meets HG Wells in a modern retelling of George and the Dragon.

Harriet Klausner

Nothing is at it seems. Able to put together the connection from ancient traces, like a puzzle, pieces slowly fall into place linking the complex calendar of Stonehenge and puzzling ruins. When the meteors reach Earth - they turn out to be a calamity of dragons! Unforeseen, the populace soon learns humans are on the menu. The situation instantly grows from bad to worse. On the brink of global extinction, Earth fights back. Everything has a beginning and an end. But one question plagues these tortured souls: Will there be survival for the human race?

Jump Start is well written, and captivating. Readers will easily identify with the characters determination, as well as flaws. Author Gary Carter has written a challenging tale, which includes UFO's, Dragons and extraterrestrials. His explicative comparisons of similar but disparate mythologies provide a fuller understanding of the world. Including a theory revealing cataclysmic events, and man's intellect in planetary history.

Maybe if we take the time to study ancient environments we may yet learn lessons that will wake us up in time to avert the great extinction of species going on around us at this very minute. One for which we ourselves are responsible because of our often selfish, uncaring, greedy or unthinking actions.

Whether you are worried about the environment or not Jump Start has something for everyone, and fans of phenomena and the unexplained will surely enjoy this novel.

Reviewed by Betsie

Scientists Jacob Malfusco and Marsha Kimbrough were on downward career spirals before their discoveries. At first it is difficult to believe that a nine-thousand year-old dragon skeleton and mankind's sudden advance in intelligence could be connected, but something happened about nine thousand years ago. Humans that had lived together in villages and hunted with crudely chipped stones suddenly discovered agriculture, advanced to the new stone age, built pyramids and stonehenge-style monuments. Marsha suspects that there is a connection--and the connection comes from space. It isn't a popular theory, even when the dragons land and prove the theory to be fact.

Author Gary Carter writes a page-turning adventure. The dragon hypothesis explains mankind's intelligence explosion, but also mass die-offs that have happened throughout planetary history. Jacob and Marsha make intriguing and flawed characters. The dragon attack drags them from their bad habits and makes them rethink their lives. Of course, rethinking their lives will only pay off if they survive long enough to enjoy them. And the dragon attack is so overwhelming that they sometimes wonder whether humanity is finished. The example of the last invasion, and St. George's elimination of the last dragon in that attack provides some hope--but only some.

Fans of alien explanations of the pyramids, dragons, and end-of-the-world fiction will definitely want to get their hands on Gary Carter's JUMP START.