The Enigma Cube (Alien Artifact Book 1)

I just finished reading the Enigma Cube by Douglas E. Richards, a New York Times and the USA Today bestselling author of WIRED and more than a dozen other novels. and I can state it is a very pleasant way to pass the time while thinking about time and what happens when you go messing with it or thinking about what could not happen (more on that later) if you do not mess with it. I know time travel gets complicated and messy fast, but Richards does a great job of keeping the timeline straight; both for the characters and us.To secure a dazzling future they must travel to a perilous past. A riveting science-fiction thriller from the million-copy NY Times bestselling author. Available on Amazon Kindle. To secure a dazzling future they must travel to a perilous past. A riveting science-fiction thriller from the million-copy NY Times bestselling author. Available on Amazon Kindle.This guy Richards writes a darn good science fiction yarn. His books have been translated into eight languages and published by major publishers in numerous foreign countries, and have garnered over 27,000 Amazon reviews (60% five-star and 24% four-star). Well, you can add my five-star rating to the metric. I enjoyed The Enigma Cube very much.The story moves fast from locations in near future modern-day Spokane, Washington, and takes us back to Nazi Germany. They get there using the Enigma Cube to go back to a time to meet a German scientist, Otto Von Richter, who is so smart that he would hold the higher card in a game of poker with another German scientist you may have heard of, Einstein. Got it, Einstein?The idea is, well, I can’t really remember why they had to go back and find Otto Von Richter but it has something to do with Connoly being his great-granddaughter who was given the task in the present day to protect the Enigma Cube, the secrets of which she fumbled at some point to the Chinese. Wait, the Chinese might have an Enigma Cube of their own, and they want Dr. Connolly to open it for them. Sorry. No, she will not do.Dr. Kelly Connolly is part of a top-secret team studying the most important find in human history, the Enigma Cube, an alien artifact of incomprehensible power. A cube whose technology can catapult civilization to dizzying heights—or destroy it entirely.After years of failed attempts to unlock the cube's secrets, all hell suddenly breaks loose. Kelly and a black-ops commando, Justin Boyd, are soon fighting against all odds to stay alive and to keep the cube out of enemy hands. Of course, they are going to fall in love too. How could they not?I was half afraid that the book is another attempt to make the Chinese the new evil empire for political reasons rather than for fictional. It didn’t really turn out that way and I like it when you can leave politics out of science fiction. Although, you do need a bad guy, an evil empire, and the Nazis are still fair game in that regard. This story shoehorns them in with plenty of Nazi occult to boot.One of the more interesting chapters is when Justin Boyd, a super-soldier from the near future has a chance to assassinate Adolf Hitler, who we interestingly learn mostly spoke in public in only his screaming voice, and therefore made it rare indeed when a recording of Hitler speaking like a normal calm homicidal maniac that killed millions of people took place, quite rare. Justin Boyd comes to the conclusion that maybe we shouldn’t kill Hitler back then because in the future we know that the Nazis lost World War II. What if we killed Hitler and Russia went on unchecked? He has a point. Or, rather he has a cube.I do think the main characters explained a little too much to each other in their fictional downtime be it waiting on an airplane or imprisoned by the Nazis or on a Chinese island.The AI computer that Justin Boyd used to communicate “subvocally” to Connely got a little literally tiring on the reading mind’s eyes, “He said to her, subvocally.” Subvocally this, and subvocally that. Not sure how better else to explain AI technology talking to your mind, but I won’t be too vocal about this objection. It is a minor irritant in an otherwise fascinating and enthralling plot.At the heart of the book is this alien cube named the Enigma Cube, which can do all sorts of otherworldly things and contains the power of the stars and such. It can destroy entire forests, counteract gravity, and it is a time machine too. This cube was left by the aliens, which we never get to meet, for us to use somehow use against each other, and for Connolly to protect. Hitler wanted one for sure and thank God, or the aliens, it never came to that.A former biotech executive, Richards earned a BS in microbiology from the Ohio State University, a master's degree in genetic engineering from the University of Wisconsin--where he engineered mutant viruses now named after him--and an MBA from the University of Chicago, and this attention to scientific detail is evident in The Enigma Cube. He spends a lot of attention on developing Justin Boyd’s enhanced soldiering capabilities. There is a ton of technology in The Enigma Cube and it is well done. This guy knows his stuff.An enjoyable read from the beginning to the end and the end is only the beginning as there is a book two to read, which I will be adding to my Kindle soon, and so should you. If I could go back and change one thing about the past I would have read this book much earlier. Wait, I did do that? Hmm.

I got the book on a discount, I'm sure it was a loss leader sale - and I may or may not buy the follow up book. It is a good read and he sticks to the rules he creates so that helps.(*I will try not to give anything away in my review, sorry if I give too many hints*)First up the writer has OCD, he has to - my wife has it and reading the book was like listening to her. We start off talking about going to the store the next thing I know it is what color her undies are and why she had to choose those, then suddenly we are back at walmart again; your brain does a whiplash thing where you back up a page and make sure you didn't skip one suddenly. (No I'm not saying its really OCD, I'm saying the story jumps around some and goes down some irrelevant paths of minutia details).I did read the follow-up stuff at the end of the book, yes I found it interesting at least. The author admits he knew (knows) very little about history, and sadly that shows through when he starts in with the Nazi's. He does have the insight, or learned it, that things turned out like they did from random fortunes of timing in the war (I won't give away more than that), in any case that is a rare insight IMHO (I'm a history buff). The portrayal of the Nazi's were plastic, predictable, and the terms used were incorrect politically - which is a major speed bump to reading that part. As a point of order, generally accepted by historians, nazi's came to power through fascism but were a dictatorial police state (fascism is a modernized trigger word improperly used by far too many today - no history book, or dictionary on this planet can describe the form of a fascist government, because it is a action coming to power, not a form of government at all. While you can easily find dictator, police state, and totalitarian in well defined forms). -- moving on, I know...The struggles, battles and escapes remind me of a batman comic, or maybe superman - no real risk or thrill to them; no turn of fortune and death defying escape, no real injury or loss and seem to be peppered through to try and hold your attention.Now the 'sex' scenes; they seem over abundant in modern Science Fiction /shrug. There is no real characture development between them. They go from you rub me wrong to rub me faster, and remind me more of the odd diaper commercial at prime time than any real attempt to involve the reader or engage them. I'm actually not sure why it was thrown in at all; it could have saved a few pages to just ignore it and let the reader assume whatever they wanted about it.All that sounds bad, yeah I know - and it is thin for a long time reader, you expect more as you read more; but the science and concept are engaging and held my attention (but yes, I did skip read a lot of the above stuff /shrug). The author set some rules, they are not a totally new concept, but had a few twists, and he stuck to them. I think if he would have stuck more to these issues, dealing with the cube and exploring what he could have done with the rules he set for that, it would have gotten that 1 more star - from me at least.All that said it is still a good book, and a good read; as I said I may pickup the follow up book to see if he can improve on what he started. Lastly, if the author reads this - please accept what I said as a positive review to push you to do better, not to tear down your work as I said I did enjoy reading it - to other readers I think you will enjoy it too.

Really good book. It kept me up and turning pages loooonnnng after bed time for the three nights it took to read it. At first it was hard to get around the whole “enhanced” soldier thing but because the author is so skilled I quickly got my brain out of the way and ENJOYED the story and that was very easy to do. Good story. Well thought out. I really liked the depth of all the characters. Dialog is believable and a lot of the science is real. All in all I think that anyone liking action, time travel, and science fiction will enjoy this book. I certainly did. And I have only RARELY handed out a 5 rating for anything I’ve read.

Highly imaginative time travel romp with amusing philosophical discussions. Enjoyed it a lot. Interesting to see Chinese as modern baddies.

What a plot! Very creative, easy reading. Excellent book. A page-turner for sure. Douglas’s style is all over the place: true history and information mixed with fictional ones and an interesting dilemma (could humankind be better off if A.Hitler was dead right after the beginning of WWII?). Eager to read the second volume...Congratulations. Highly recommended.

I have never read any of D.E. Richards books before this one, part way thru I had to look and see if there was a sequel. Finding that there wasn’t one, I had to slow down my reading so I could make one of the most fascinating spellbinding and riveting books I have ever read last! Damn, it ended way to soon...

The author has again managed to bring together scientific facts, possible developments in the near future into a turbulent and exciting story. I read through the book in no time and almost couldn't let it out of my hands. It was great how the author also researched the history of the Second World War and incorporated details of it into the book.

Nice, easy to read story that mixes history and near future. The (US) writer learned a lot on ww2, but these facts are quite comon in Europe, so it does not surprise.