Free (Kindle) The Cloud by Ray Hammond [Sci-Fi Alien Radio Contact Technothriller]

[ATDrake]

The Cloud by British author Ray Hammond (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE), a science journalist and futurist, is his standalone science fiction first contact technothriller set in the near-future just a few decades from now, as humanity begins receiving and responding incomprehensible alien radio transmissions which eventually result in a reply in the form of a mysterious encroaching cloud on a collision course with Earth, prompting the panicked preparation of an armed response even as the code is finally cracked, leading to the obligatory startling revelations , free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press' Venture imprint.

This was originally published in 2006 by Pan Books.

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)

Description
2033. The first alien radio transmissions have been received on Earth—a torrent of encrypted information that no human or computer can crack.

But the decision to reply is made, and messages of goodwill are beamed into deep space. Thirty years later, just as humankind is expecting a reply from the aliens, the signals disappear.

Then scientists detect a space cloud approaching the solar system at high speed. Immense in size, immeasurable in power, this blazing storm of energy is on a collision course with Earth.

As one man desperately struggles to decode the original transmissions, Earth prepares to launch a nuclear attack against a seemingly unstoppable foe.

As the cloud rages through the solar system, the alien code is finally broken—and mankind realizes that the enemy is far closer than they knew.

[ZodWallop]

Thanks for that. It sounds interesting.