The World is at risk; not the ordinary risk seen every night on prime time news, but a horrific one that portends the possibility of total annihilation. Mysterious but silent objects have been found buried deep in the murky depths of the ocean. However, something has happened. These objects wake up and start sending messages to outer space. Mike, pulled back into a clandestine world to help decipher these messages, is attacked by gangs of ordinary looking Americans and must fight for his very life. Who are these attackers? Why have they targeted Mike and his colleagues in the secret agency? On top of these interwoven threats, Mike learns that a revered friend has died. With the death of this friend, is mankind's last hope for understanding the signals lost forever in the silt and muck of the ocean bottom?

Falling Star is a realistically written thriller that often leaves the reader wondering whether it really is fiction. Author Brendan Carroll had this to say about Falling Star: "Mr. Chen's writing style is precise, almost military and chock full of information that makes the reader wonder if this story might not be fiction at all, but something very real and very disturbing.'

Alan Caruba, a charter member of the National Book Critics Circle had this to say about Falling Star: "It is rare when a novelist makes his debut with as powerful a novel as Philip Chen’s Falling Star .… This novel stands out for the way you are introduced not just to the characters, but the physical reality in which they live, the sights and even the smells. Slowly and then with increasing intensity, the mysteries are unraveled, the enemies identified, as life and death often hangs in the balance. Drawing on his own life as an ocean research engineer, attorney and banker, Chen brings an authenticity to the novel that provides a heart-pounding reality that forces you to ask 'What if?' …. If you read just one novel in 2011, make it Falling Star."

Cover image by Tomo Yun at http://yunphoto.net/en/