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John L. Owens grew up in northeast Florida in a coastal community similar to Green Port Beach, the setting of his latest novel. He served as an oceanographic line officer in the U.S. Coast Guard and later settled in Coastal Georgia. He and his family were full-time missionaries to the former USSR. He has also served as a college instructor, pastor, seminar speaker, and is active in truckstop and prison ministry. He has two published novels – The Ninth Generation and Anomaly.
Three of his favorite novel authors are Frank Peretti, Dean Koontz and Clive Cussler, all of whom helped to shape his writing style. John's hope with each novel, both five year projects, was to produce a compelling adventure with a classic plot while rewarding the reader in a surprising way.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Anomaly is a Christian science fiction thriller written by John L. Owens. Joel loved his morning runs along Green Port Beach in Florida. He even braved category 4 hurricane winds to be out there, pounding the sand and watching as the waves crashed upon the beach and splashed his running shoes with foam. As he was about to head back home, he heard a woman’s voice, calling for her dog. He could understand her concern for her pet in this weather and offered to help her find Midnight, her black lab. He recognized her from the weekly recovery meetings they both attended at the local church. As they searched, Amber told him about her job at the local veterinary hospital. When they found Midnight, he was industriously unearthing what appeared at first to be a long skeleton of a fish, but as they got closer to it, they realized that the skeleton was different than anything they’d ever seen. While the bottom half of it was definitely that of a fish, they saw what clearly looked like arm bones and fingers on the top portion. The jaw was large, with double rows of teeth, some still intact and strangely humanoid. The two decided to take the jawbone for Amber’s boss to identify. Joel was already writing up an article on the strange find in his head for submission to his boss at the local newspaper. But someone was determined to suppress any information about their discovery, and the skeleton was spirited away in the middle of the night. Joel was determined to follow this lead, despite the danger, but at what cost to his life and well-being?
John L Owens’s Christian science fiction novel, Anomaly, is a fascinating and suspenseful tale about an undiscovered species and the conspiracy to suppress their existence that confronts Joel and Amber. This well-written tale offers an alternative to the Darwinian theory of evolution and discusses the role of the Bible in education and at recovery meetings such as those held by AA. Joel is confused by the fact that passages from the Bible are not read at his AA meeting, and he doesn’t seem quite convinced that accepting that others may have their own higher beings to lean on doesn’t actually cheat them of the knowledge of his God and savior. His premise is thought-provoking. I especially enjoyed that part of the book which takes Joel to Andros Island in the Bahamas as he follows the trail of the missing bones. Anomaly gives the reader a lot to think about. It’s recommended for Christian fantasy and science fiction fans.
