This episode of the Danger Close Podcast is brought to you by Sig Sauer,

makers of the pistol that was on my side for every deployment.

Welcome to this special bonus episode of the Jack Car Danger Close Podcast,

an early access narration of Ray Porter reading the preface to my latest novel,

Red Sky Morning. Enjoy.

Preface.

Here be monsters. monsters.

monsters still exist, though perhaps not the types depicted on charts drawn by early cartographers

for ancient mariners. Those warnings sometimes accompanied by the word

monstra, Latin for monster, likely represented maritime hazards, but the idea of monsters and hazards beyond the horizon has stayed with

us.

And where there are monsters, there are those who rise up to slay them. In a 1993 interview speaking about the film

adaptation of his novel Jurassic Park, a reflection on the delusion of

scientific control, author Michael Crichton said,

biotechnology and genetic engineering are very powerful.

The film suggests that science's control of nature is elusive.

And just as war is too important to leave to the generals,

science is too important to leave to scientists.

Everyone needs to be attentive. As with Mary Shelley's

Frankenstein, Michael Crichton was issuing a warning through the medium of popular

fiction. It is a warning we have yet to heed. Both authors explore

ethics, power, and nature through the lens of scientific achievement and ambition,

...