Penilaian: 5 dari 5 bintang
5/5
Memuat
FD![]()
author
Frank Van Dongen
As a child I wrote fantastic stories and I never stopped with that. The origins and future of humans have always fascinated me. That's why I started studying paleontology and writing science fictio...lihat lebih banyakAs a child I wrote fantastic stories and I never stopped with that. The origins and future of humans have always fascinated me. That's why I started studying paleontology and writing science fiction stories. During my study evolution biology and paleontology I was a race rower and I developed the first ideas for my SF novel The Blueprint, an exploration of a distant, dark future. It took me 25 years to finalize this life’s work.After my military service as infantry platoon commander, I started working in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, in commercial and strategic positions where my creativity and leadership skills come in handy. In my career I have launched more than twenty new therapies and products, from product manager in the Netherlands to global vice president marketing & sales. I have three daughters (18, 23 and 27 years old) and live with my Mexican wife Diana in the woods of a nice area in the Netherlands.Besides my work, I am always writing. Between 2009 and 2015 I worked on unpublished fiction and non-fiction pieces about the original form of society of man, the tribe. It was during this period that my idea arose to write a novel about the near future of man: Alfaman. I have been working on the novel every day since 2016. In Alfaman I sketch how the world could develop from now until the end of the century, seen through the eyes of my alter ego Jack Newman, who will be born in 2036. The changes in society that I have seen happening in my life are nothing compared to the dramatic developments that Jack is a part of in the latter half of this century.The Blueprint was first published in Dutch as ‘Het Bouwplan’ in 2009 (Publishing house Verschijnsel, ISBN 978-90-78720-16-4). I would like two of the first reader reviews. ‘Dizzying road trip through consciousness and cosmos of Ralen, the main character. In the false world in search of truthfulness, freedom and happiness. A world in which Huxley's Soma world fades into a cozy tea party. Hallucinogenic, without mescaline or alcohol, like Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. But with a kind of orgasmic mysticism and a penchant for brutal violence. An intelligent contemporary Easy Rider. A must read for anyone fed up with the psychobabble and micro-stuff of most novels.’‘An intriguing, addictive, fascinating, philosophical, ambitious and innovative science fiction debut that certainly doesn't belong to the 13 in a dozen category! It has been a long time since I was so impressed by a debut book. When I started, I had my doubts, because it turned out to be a book written in the "I" form and that is generally not my favorite writing style. But the fluent writing style and the oppressively realistic world in which the story takes place quickly removed this objection. The book gets a hold of you and you want to know if Ralen is achieving his goal: understanding The Blueprint.’lihat lebih sedikit