The novel “The SHIVA Syndrome” by Alan Joshua was published for the first time in 2015.
Beau Walker’s academic career is stranded when he’s called to be part of a team that, under military supervision, aims to investigate a mysterious accident near Moscow. A crater is what remains after everything around a Russian laboratory research was disintegrated. The investigation is carried out in an international collaboration that is also very secret.
Beau Walker risks his life in a situation that is becoming more and more complicated because everything suggests that it’s the result of experiments on paranormal powers went wrong. The SHIVA project is the American counterpart of the Russian project that caused the catastrophe, how to avoid repeating it when none of the scientists involved has a clear idea of what they’re doing and vital information is kept hidden from them?
I tagged this novel as science fiction but it’s one of those cases where the label is really reductive. Alan Joshua develops the story trying to give rational explanations to the phenomena encountered by the protagonists and includes elements linked to established sciences ranging from psychology to genetics. However, topics linked to paranormal and religion are crucial.
This broad mix of elements can be seen since the very beginning of “The SHIVA Syndrome”. Beau Walker has some paranormal abilities that are shown in the course of the novel and unwittingly finds himself included in a team together with scientists who have different specializations. When involved in the SHIVA project he and his colleagues are faced with phenomena described in the past in various religious traditions.
An investigation regarding phenomena that go far beyond orthodox science is difficult and besides the tension cause by the catastrophic event occurred in Russia there’s also that caused by the arguments within the team that investigates it. In some ways, it looks like the parable of the blind wise men and the elephant: each of them understands only a limited part of the events, or the elephant, but thinks that it constitutes all of it.
The relationships within the team are not always idyllic and not only because of differences of opinion. For example, immediately there’s hostility between Beau Walker and Burt Grimes because they’re ex friends with a previous working relationship gone bad so Walker no longer trusts him.
As if that weren’t enough, there are several complications that make the investigation even more intricate. The SHIVA project is directed by the military and this involves among other things the existence of various security levels. Different team members have different security levels and these levels may change over time. This means that different people have different access to information that may be important for the project, with all the consequences.
This leads to a very complex investigation in which the scientists must handle themselves among contingencies related to the experiments on paranormal powers, secrets and decisions by the military. Those kinds of research are dangerous in various ways and there are twists all the time.
The characters are crucial in “The SHIVA Syndrome” and Alan Joshua took care of the development of the major ones. In particular, Beau Walker’s story is slowly discovered allowing the reader to understand his desires, his motives and his complex relationship with his powers.
Character development is not only done through their stories and exposing their ideas and emotions. Even in the course of the novel, the extraordinary events they’re involved in change them in various ways, more or less deep, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly.
“The SHIVA Syndrome” is full of action and therefore a fast pace but sometimes there are arguments among various characters that can be long with the result that the pace slows down considerably. Some moments can be heavy because the topics discussed are sometimes really complex, on the other hand they’re used to explain them a bit and contribute to the characters’ development. In my opinion, overall Alan Joshua maintains a good balance between action and dialogue.
In the end, “The SHIVA Syndrome” is a sophisticated novel in which Alan Joshua creates a consistent mix of heterogeneous elements. For this reason, it doesn’s seem targeted to fans of a specific genre but in general to people seeking stories of some complexity that can be intriguing and mentally stimulating. You can find it on a number of online shops such as Amazon USA
