Travis Taylor

This is a thought-provoking book that has already been topical in reference to the recent report in the journal Acta Astronautica that made headlines with its claim that our pollution problem on earth might attract ETs who would destroy humanity in order to save the earth. (Sounds like someone has seen the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" too many times.)

The authors of "Alien Invasion" would likely disagree. For one thing, they argue that there are plenty of ways for ET to recognize that earth is inhabited aside from seeing our pollution. They might actually have built a huge orbital telescope capable of visualizing the surface of the earth from thousands of light years away. It might actually be possible that an inhabited alien planet, technologically far ahead of us, has seen us just that clearly, and yet not been able to visit us because they might not be able to get around the speed-of-light speed limit; their journey to earth might take thousands of years, you see. Would we want to visit a planet, even though we knew it to be inhabited, if it took that long to get there?

"Persuasive" is the word that best describes the authors' approach to this unlikely subject. They explore and demolish arguments that pooh-pooh the possiblity of visitors ever arriving from across the great distances of space. Nature seems not to have too many one-of-a-kind phenomenon; if there are planets around our sun, there are also planets around other stars; if there are billions upon billions of stars in the universe, some of them must have inhabited planets around them just as our sun does. The authors look at the enormous distances between solar systems and conclude that it is so vast that we really need to give ET more time to discover us before we give up on him; they point out that just because something has not happened yet does not mean that it won't or that preparations for the event are unnecessary. They consider the probability that there are all kinds of ETs just as there are all kinds of stars and planets. We do not have any way of knowing what a typical intelligent lifeform is like. (We only have ourselves to go by, and that is an awfully small sample.) Some ETs might be more warlike than we are and some might be less so. Which is in the majority? The authors admit that logic only takes one so far and then all of the other variables are unknowable.

The question is, how do we prepare for the possibility that hostile ETs will some day invade earth? While special plans would have to be made by governments, the authors say that there is nothing specific to an alien invasion that the average person can do; we can only prepare for a major disaster. For you or me, preparing for a killer hurricane calls for the same action and planning that an alien invasion does. Since the odds are greater that each of us might face a natural disaster, this book sends a message that seems worthy of consideration: prepare as if ET is coming, and if he doesn't, you will be prepared for every kind of disaster.

I am beginning to read the part about warfare and how the military will have to revise a great deal of their thinking if we are to survive an alien invasion.

The authors do not assume that we will have to fight with any aliens who visit; rather they assume that if we do not have a plan for our first contact with aliens, then a war might happen by happenstance. They prescribe that we should, as a planet, develop a protocol to determine what we should do depending on how aliens present themselves to us. This, of course, should include data gathering operations so that we can detect to the best of our abilities when aliens approach.… (mehr)

Only a few chapters in to this book; pleasantly surprised at how sensitively the main character (a middle-aged woman) is written. She spends a little too much time thinking about the various male characters and whether they like her more than she likes them.

Based on other reviews of Taylor’s books this is less likely to be a “Mary Sue” but I’ve just read a section introducing a new character that may be a descendant of a Taylor stand-in in a previous book that was not well reviewed.

It’s too early to add a rating, but so far it’s a fairly solid 3 stars.

He could use a better editor; so far I’ve caught 2 typos. There’s a lot of techno-babble, but other sections read like classic Heinlein.

UPDATE: Finished the book. It’s competently written, but I caught at least one more typo (“Santa Clause”), so it appears his editor is that literary hack, Otto Korecht.

There’s a diagram on the first page that lays out various timelines, ship-time and relative to Earth-time. If you read it, you know what the big surprise reveal is at the end of the book.

Actually, I correctly predicted every major plot development all through the book; there’s foreshadowing, and there’s telegraphing, and then there’s broadband “now hear this ahhhhOOOOGaaaaah” spoilers in blink tags.

That said, I liked the characters but skimmed some of the technobabble (plus one tense sequence near the midpoint). It was a mercifully quick read.

There’s a lot of skulduggery for reasons that remain mysterious; the book finally gets more interesting at the 2/3 to 3/4 mark, but the Proximans turn out to be surprisingly boring.

There may be a series, but about the only thing that interests me is the archeological and mythological underpinnings to be investigated. I may not check out the next book(s).… (mehr)

Taylor, Travis S., Les Johnson. On to the Asteroid. Space Excursions No. 2. Baen, 2016.
Travis Taylor evidently likes working with co-authors. He has worked with Ben Bova, John Ringo, and here Les Johnson. For all I know, there may be more. In On to the Asteroid, Taylor and Johnson tell the story of a mission to save the Earth after a failed attempt at asteroid mining puts the rock on a collision course with the Earth. The Back to the Moon cast returns with a few additions. Both authors have some good science background, so the space technology is believable, they have figured out some ingenious ways to move an asteroid. The story has good suspense, but dialogue is wooden, and some character and plot elements stretch a reader’s credulity. 3.5 stars.… (mehr)