Final Warning: Return of the Neanderthals

by David Drum

Overview

A ZANY, EPIC, HIGH STAKES ADVENTURE

Final Warning is a zany, inventive, sexy, thought-provoking fable for our times, highlighting the dangers of a powerful new cell phone technology gone hog wild. May appeal to fans of Kurt Vonnegut or Tom Robbins.

A powerful new cell phone signal promises to make a giant corporation fabulously wealthy, but the signal has the potential to kill millions of people. Corporate scientist Dr. Patricia Maypole discovers the danger. When she is fired, she wages a lonely, uphill battle to expose the truth until a strange, down-on-his-luck Afro-American man from Detroit appears and offers to help her.

When a flying saucer from the planet Excellon approaches Earth, strange things begin to occur. An entomology grad student's secret experiment goes terribly awry. Insects transform. The corporate president is abducted, and a Victoria's Secret model pulls out all the stops to save herself. Neanderthals, wiccans, and a ditzy New York Times reporter add to the wild mix of characters as the flying saucer lands and this zany, fast-moving novel speeds to its surprising climax.

 

Kirkus Reviews says, "The impish author, with his outsized depictions of human foibles (mainly greed, ego, and irresponsibility), may remind some readers of Leonard Wibberly, of The Mouse That Roared (1955) fame, though the book's ribald sex scenes and more surreal elements (including an alarmed cameo by the writer himself) are closer to the work of Tom Robbins."

Product Details

BN ID:	2940179671398
Publisher:	David Drum
Publication date:	02/11/2024
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	439,058
File size:	431 KB

About the Author

David Drum is an award-winning journalist and writer. He is the author or co-author of eight nonfiction books in the health area as well as the well-reviewed new historical novel Heathcliff: The Lost Years, and the comic novel, Introducing the Richest Family in America. His health books are known for their practical, well-researched content and have also been well reviewed.

David has worked as a newspaper reporter, a sports editor, an advertising copywriter, a ranch foreman, an encyclopedia salesman, a short order cook, and an inner-city schoolteacher. He has been an independent writer since 1978.

He is a member of the Authors Guild, the Independent Writers of Southern California, and the American Medical Writers Association.

A native of Wichita, Kansas, he is a graduate of Brevard College, the University of California at Riverside and the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop.

He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Editorial Reviews

2023-12-07
The unethical commercial rollout of a life-threatening cellular communications technology affects a wide spectrum of characters in Drum’s SF novel.

Percival “Piggy” McGuffin, a corpulent and seven-times married “corporate titan” head of cellphone company Universal Cellular (“Piggy sprang from a long line of ruthless, obsessivelycompetitive men”) is about to launch his latest venture, an upgrade to microwave frequencies that promises more profits. Dr. Trish Maypole, one of the company’s research scientists, finds the unleashed radiation is deadly to test animals and, by extension, to all life. Instead of her warning being heeded, she and the rest of her division are fired. Her attempts to alert the (generally idiotic) media lead her to teaming up with a disgruntled obituary writer from Detroit named Joe, who has a volatile temper—but at least he cares. Meanwhile, vainglorious scientist Bruno Crawley proudly possesses the world’s last colony of Pongo River Migrating Ants. His grad-student lab assistant in entomology is Rafter Cadenza, a Jamaican distracted from his antsitting duties by attractive co-eds, specifically a duo of sensual and otherworldly Wiccan women. The action occasionally shifts to a couple of characters who readers later learn resemble Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, a “Prince” and “Princess” on the run in a fantasy realm; their true nature is a fun reveal. Meanwhile, wise, peaceful, and concerned humanoids in a spaceship observe the radiation-imperiled Earth; their true nature is telegraphed rather baldly by the book’s subtitle. The impish author, with his outsized depictions of human foibles (mainly greed, ego, and irresponsibility), may remind some readers of Leonard Wibberly, of The Mouse That Roared (1955) fame, though the book’s ribald sex scenes and more surreal elements (including an alarmed cameo by the writer himself) are closer to the work of Tom Robbins. All of the quick cross-cutting between the ensemble cast builds a neat comic momentum (good thing, as these stereotypes work best in small doses). A short afterword directs readers to study the potential real-life hazards of cellular signals, though very little in the main text belabors serious scientific concerns.

A rambunctious, eco-themed satire fires death-ray volleys at the media and corporate greed.

Kirkus Reviews