This Changes Everything (The Spanners, #1)
by Sally Ember
Genres: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Feminism, Paranormal, Science Fiction Romance, Fiction
Average rating on Goodreads: 3.81

Are YOU ready for the changes? The five alien delegates from the Many Worlds Collective (MWC) come in hologram form to the selected liaison for Earth, Clara Branon, Ph.D., 58, for the first time on December 21, 2012, after several millennia of mostly secret visits and contact with Earthers. Members of the MWC InterGalactic Council decide that a liaison, dubbed the Chief Communicator (CC) must be contacted and that this contact must be made public in order to avert multiple types of disasters on Earth. As a “Spanner,” Clara is one of millions of “Baby Boomers” who survive across two centuries and bridge the divide (hence, “Spanners”) between nonpublic and public contact with the MWC and many other major changes that occur during these decades. Because most Earthers are not prepared to accept this type of reporting or storytelling as nonfiction, this first and some other volumes of the series are of the realistic fiction/science fiction/fantasy/ romance genres. Many of the characters, events and locations are actual; some are not, or haven’t happened (yet) at the time of first publication. In "This Changes Everything" are: a love story, spanning about 40 years; dialogue and scenes of the relationships among the CC and her mother and siblings; communications between the CC and her adult son; dialogue between the CC and some friends; info about the selection and identity of the chosen media contact for the CC, with excerpts from her journal; news stories about the CC and the MWC events from Earth media as well as MWC media; background about the CC and the reasons for her being selected; excepts from minutes of meetings of the InterGalactic Council of the MWC; and much more. After the MWC educational resources and information become widely available, in 2013, all time is now known to be simultaneous. Writing from any point in time and timeline means that the love story and other aspects are depicted in multiple versions. Will Clara and her love, Epifanio Dang, be together? Which Re-set of the Transition After Public Contact prevails?Tone is humorous/serious; mode is utopian. Narrative and themes include history, poetry, literature, music/lyrics, science and technological advances, psi phenomena/ paranormal skills, law and government, Buddhism and other religions, meditation, social-emotional intelligence, multiverse/multiple timelines, time and space travel, interspecies communication, and social/futuristic depictions of the Earth, post-MWC public contact. "This Changes Everything" is the first of "The Spanners Series," which chronicles the public contact between the CC and the MWC and the impact of these contacts on Earthers and the MWC over the almost 30 years that Clara is the CC. Chapters are written from several perspectives. Some Volumes in series are purported to be nonfiction or have nonfiction sections, as this one is.Sci-Fi/Romance/Speculative Fiction, Adult/ New Adult/YA genre novels are in the 10-volume series. Volume II, "This Changes My Family and My Life Forever," releases in Spring, 2014. Appendix A has annotated descriptions for all 10 volumes; App. B & C are Glossaries. App D. lists the actual individuals referred to in the Volumes, annotated. App. E is the Branon-Ackerman Family Tree.Genres: Fiction, Sci Fi, Utopias/DystopiasSubgenres: Fiction, Romance, Paranormal