The Fall

The cookie-cutter action of this SF thriller from Pineiro (Y2K) doesn’t do justice to its imaginative premise. Jack Taylor, a former Navy SEAL who tests new technology for the military, is the guinea pig for a special suit, designed by his wife, Angela, which in theory enables a person to fall safely from just above Earth’s atmosphere to the ground. The Army general overseeing the project, George Hastings, decides to alter the original path of descent, but Angela, mistrusting Hastings, secretly switches it back. When Jack lands after his jump, he finds that he’s five years into a future where the U.S. is on the metric system—and everyone believes Jack died during combat in Afghanistan. The story alternates between Jack’s attempts to return to his reality and Angela’s efforts to find out what happened to him. Jack is little more than a Jack Bauer clone, and the schemes of the villain will strike many as too over the top. Agent: Matt Bialer, Sanford J. Greenburger. (July)