Emdad Rahman interviews Astronomer and Space Science Researcher Abdul Ahad on his debut bestseller
Abdul Ahad was born in the Sylhet district of Bangladesh in 1968. When he was 9 years old, he and his mother and two sisters left Bangladesh to join his father, the late Haji Abdur Rahman in the UK.
Ahad obtained his secondary school education in the United Kingdom and graduated from the University of Luton in 1994 with a Higher National Diploma in Business & Finance.
”My interest in astronomy took off in the early 1980s at the age of 12, when I showed a notable leaning toward mathematical and positional astronomy” he said.
When he was just 15, at the dawn of the present era of home computers, Ahad compiled his own celestial mechanics algorithms for the precise computation of positions of planets, comets and minor planets from orbital elements.
Ahad has recently debuted with a bestseller. The book titled; First Ark to Alpha Centauri is an epic space adventure story with as Ahad says, an important distinction: “it could very easily become a reality one day in the not too distant future.”
The book is about the Centauri Princess, launched from Earth in the late 23rd century on a multi-generational voyage to New Earth, a planet located in the neighbouring solar system of Alpha Centauri. The journey, set to last for an eye-watering 50,000 years into the future, marks humanity’s first cosmic ark heading out towards the stars, carrying a colony of people, plants, and animals on an epic, one-way mission into the forever… Two thousand years into the voyage, as the ship travels further into deep space away from the bright neighbourhood of the Sun, a future generation begins to experience a series of psychologically disturbing nightmares. Mysterious creatures from the cosmic darkness are seen to approach the lonely ark ship from all directions in space and attack its occupants during sleep, putting the mission into jeopardy. In a desperate effort to safeguard their very survival, the ship’s 3,000-strong small town residents are forced into a battle which they seem powerless to win, since the nightmare creatures appear to be operating in an alternate dimension from their own.
Browsing through the book it is evident that the author’s distinguished astronomical background and spaceflight research experience shine through prominently, and the reader is made to feel he/she is very much in the hands of a solid expert.
Where past authors have often failed in their quest to make a multi-generational mission concept work, pointing to breakdowns in hierarchy and law and order, social dysfunction, and so on, Ahad handles these bottlenecks and many others extremely well in the carefully thought out design of his mission.
“My background gave me tremendous scope with regards to research, accuracy and attention to detail.
“In First Ark we are introduced to the flawless hierarchy of the Centauri Princess’ Mission Management Committee led by starship president Zed Lincoln. Readers are given a detailed tour of the ship’s hardware and infrastructure, the central computer system, CPC, and the way they all work together to keep the starship cruising through space in a peaceful and serene kind of way. Of course, the Alpha Centauri destination is still many thousands of years in the present generation’s far future.”
Ahad is clearly very excited; “There are no Star Wars style of Tie fighters or Enterprise transporter beams that are well and truly in the realm of fantasy” he continues.
“There are no metallic control rooms with Federation Commanders sitting at their joysticks waiting to zap the next alien race. Instead, this ark is an eco-friendly forested world, with natural habitats for wildlife and exotic species of birds and other wild animals that are freely roaming in the picturesque wilderness.”
Where Ahad earns the biggest distinction points with this master class SF fantasy is in the design of his ark. He describes it as; “a curved 6-miles wide by 9-miles long cylindrical interior world that’s unlike any other depicted in the history of science fiction.”
Because of its unique dimensions, First Ark it really is one of a kind. Inside this ark, it is possible to see aerial views of rivers, forests and settlements curving all around the world. Those specific dimensions not only make this visually more attractive than other designs, such as the alien ark in Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, but is also of a size that could be manageable to a future Earth society when it comes to building the object in orbit around our own planet one day.
“For 10 points, did you know that First Ark is currently the best selling book on Amazon.co.uk?” I ask.
Ahad as ever chooses to be modest: “That's just too good to believe”, he quips. “Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri books are based on the famous Alpha Centauri PC games and they've always been the top performing books up till now. But it looks like mines is on top.
“I wonder if this could be just a temporary blip while my book is yet to be properly digested by the market over the next few months? But a wonderful result nonetheless... I feel very inspired!”
The characters in First Ark are believable and the plot and scenes are described with enough detail to enlighten a potential screenplay writer to visualise the scripts for use in a big screen movie.
“The lead character is commander Nikolaus Zakarov who has a grudge against Sharuk Rashid, their point of conflict is in who is to succeed in the role of starship navigation” Ahad pointed out.
“The romantic couple are Alcyone and Joey, who go on mouth-watering river boat excursions along the fantastical Eridanus River that flows across the sky and the humour is provided by Frederick Chang, who has a problem with his English and enjoys a game of ‘crazy golfing’ every now and then.”
Incidentally, the reason why the game is prefixed by the word ‘crazy’ is because the golf ball - as indeed anything else that’s thrown up into the sky - never lands vertically down or where you would want it to! There is no gravity once you’re airborne inside this cylindrical world, and rainfall never ever falls straight down either.
The alien encounter does not fall short on intrigue either, and draws on the author’s superior imagination to create something that is mysterious, spellbinding and deadly at the same time.
“We are shown how the subtle changes brought about on a planet with two suns in its sky can cause the behaviour and energy patterns of the creatures that have evolved there to vary over time” exclaims Ahad.
I can only expect this novel to launch Ahad onto greater things, alongside dare I say it, Arthur C. Clarke, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and others. Why? Whether you see this as the specifics for a real interstellar ark voyage to Alpha Centauri or a theme to shoot a continuous series of cinematic films, there can be no limit. On a 50,000 year long adventure by humans, it's impossible for another interstellar voyage to emulate or surpass this vision. The flow of the Eridanus River through Utopia and underneath the diamond bridge, all up on the sky, as looked at from the opposite side of the cylindrical ship will take your breath away.
“It seems,” I say, “that this is a Hollywood motion picture concept in the making.”
“Judging from my website stats in the initial marketing, the early response is looking promising! The book needs to maintain popularity for this to succeed.”
“For readers who have been keenly waiting to get a copy of my book, may I suggest buying the book using a local online retailer like Tesco.com, WHSmith.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk or Play.com.
“Because of its simplicity in style of writing, along with illustrations, I would recommend this book for children over the age of 12.
“Signed books make ideal gifts for Christmas and the like, so if anyone would like a copy, along with a FREE A3-sized poster (limited edition!), you know where I am.”
Ahad will be doing book signings in provincial bookstores in Luton and London over the next few months.
For further information please visit www.publishamerica.com