Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite

Rift begins when veterinary pathologist Kaori Tsunaki examines a massive carcass outside Roswell and finds evidence of a theoretically impossible origin that vanishes as soon as it is recorded. Her work draws paleontologist Alicia Taylor and investigator James Wyatt into a hidden pattern tied to the 1997 disappearance of Atlanta officer John Cooper. As records change and witnesses recant, James connects the events to his own family history and to a private energy enterprise operating without oversight. Their search leads toward Quantech, a power project founded by Miles Riley, whose experiments produce sudden transfers of people and animals across time. A quiet containment network works to erase proof and manage intrusions. Kaori presses forward despite pressure, following the trail from abandoned neighborhoods to secure facilities as the rifts widen.

Scott Cagle’s Rift is a massively ambitious and fantastically executed speculative novel. I love that the title is both literal and metaphorical, with genuine gravitational rifts that open across time. The ruptures are produced by human technology that pulls people and animals out of their eras; symbolic in its fractures in trust, family, and ethics created as these breaches are exploited. The tech is outstanding. The standout is a Quantech proton accelerator called Big Ben, which, as a Londoner, I love. Kaori Tsunaki is a fierce protagonist with an absolute refusal to accept official falsehoods. This is eerily relevant to the current, real world phenomenon of telling people they cannot trust what they see with their own eyes. I love James Wyatt, who has an Ian Malcolm meets Gary Webb persona. The settings and landscapes are cinematic, and we are dropped right into a North Georgia lake facility, where storms, water, and light frame a charged confrontation. Overall, this is everything I hoped it would be going in and more, with a great, big twist of an ending. I'd give it a whole bucket of stars if I could.