I really don’t like books like this! Now, I hope that doesn’t turn you off from reading the book because some of you might very well like the theme of this kind of book. It’s an Earth invasion story. Simply put, some aliens travel the stars to our lonely planet and literally kicks our butts! They kill somewhere around 3 billion, yeah, that’s billion humans and then say they were trying to help us!
What I hate about these books is that they are so depressing during the first seventy-five percent of the book. Earth and humans that live on this planet have been broadcasting our TV and radio waves out into the universe for hundreds of years now. Sooner or later, some civilization on a distant planet will capture our old broadcasts and that will form their basis of figuring out who we are. That’s pretty frightening. I don’t think we can stop it. I mean our radio and TV just shotgun everything all over the planet and that stuff is what we call “entertainment”. But, what if the aliens started just now hearing stories and news releases of World War I and then not long after, news about World War II. I would guess they would think we’re all deranged and I would know that’s what they’d think after viewing some of our comedy shows.
Well, that’s what happens in this book. The Oghaldzon live on a moon of a gas giant in a system not that far from Earth. They have started receiving our radio and TV transmissions and are terrified that humans might someday get out into the vast reaches of space. They believe that we need to be turned into civilized society and are willing to help us get that way. Except, they start out be firing the first shot. Now, who isn’t civilized?
Anyway, the story goes on to tell how Earth has barely colonized Mars and even have some terra-formers on Venus. The Moon is a thriving colony, although they don’t want to be considered a colony of Earth. They want independence! And then we have all the people who have settled in the asteroid belt. These “Rockrats” have hollowed out asteroids while mining them for their minerals, which are then sold back to Earth. Hollow asteroids can be a very nice place to live and be away from all the problems now on Earth. The Rockrats are also wanting independence from Earth, so humans now have found more reasons to fight with each other. Still, humans in general, don’t take kindly to aliens showing up and lowering the boom on our Earth.
The Oghaldzon are very, very alien. They don’t look like us at all and they don’t think like us. They are about 50 to 100 years more advanced than we are, after all, they made the journey between stars and we have not. They demonstrate their superiority right off the bat, although they are a little surprised when the asteroids, Earth has placed in orbit for mining and habitation, don’t self-explode when they fall out of orbit towards Earth. So, we have numerous very large asteroids striking Earth and causing the death of millions. It’s pretty easy for the Oghaldzon to then being their invasion. No telling how many soldiers they have brought, but there is a lot. They also control LEO or Low Earth Orbit which means they can shoot KEW (Kinetic Energy Weapons) right down on anything they want on Earth. KEWS can be just about anything. Mostly their either rocks or chunks of junk metal blasted down to Earth with gravity making a huge assist. When they hit, it’s almost like a nuclear strike; nothing in the area survives.
Just for once, I’d like to read a book that has aliens arriving in our Solar System only to find out that we are armed to the teeth and they aren’t getting anywhere close to Earth. I’d like to read about a huge alien armada suddenly showing up thinking they are the superior race and then finding out that they just hadn’t met humans before. Once we disposed of their huge armada, we’d then head to their home world and see how they like being blown to heck. That would be a very good book.
So, should you read this book? By all means, please do so. Christopher Nuttall has written a lot of very good books and nothing like this one. I usually enjoy his writing, but this book follows the same pattern as most alien invasion books and it’s really depressing to have to read through seventy-five percent of the book before I start to feel better. But, that’s just me!
BTW – I have no idea what the title has to do with this book!