The Alien Years | |||||
Robert Silverberg | |||||
HarperPrism Books, 428 pages | |||||
A review by Greg L. Johnson
And it quickly becomes apparent that that is exactly what the
Entities are. Refusing all attempts by human beings to communicate with
them, they simply take over, and humans are quickly relegated to the status
of a second rate species on our own planet.
There is, of course, a resistance. That is where the Carmichael
family comes in. Situated on their ranch in the mountains of eastern
California, they are able to maintain a somewhat independent existence, and
quickly become leaders of the resistance movement. It is a frustrating
occupation.
The various efforts to fight against the Entities can be read in
part as a parody of standard SF ideas of high tech warfare. Orbiting laser
beams, assassins with unusual mental abilities, and borderline criminal
computer hackers are all enlisted in the cause, with results that vary from
totally ineffective to disastrous. The Carmichaels are involved either
peripherally or directly in all these actions.
Indeed, The Alien Years is as much a multi-generation family epic
as it is a novel of alien invasion. Instead of taking the wide-screen
cinematic approach common to most disaster novels, and other invasion
stories like Niven and Pournelle's Footfall, Silverberg focuses our
attention on the activities of the Carmichael family. Scattered and
splintered along generational lines at the beginning, the family is forced
to pull together in the face of the new reality. There are advantages and
disadvantages to this approach. Instead of stereotyped characters meant to
give us an impression of what is happening in many different places, we get
to know the characters as real people with talents and faults. The
disadvantage is that much of what we learn about what is happening in the
rest of the world comes at us second-hand, as news filters through to the
Carmichael ranch. The exceptions are interludes that tell the story of
Khalid Burke, a half-Pakistani child in England, and Karl-Heinrich
Borgmann, a computer genius from Prague, who sells his services to the
Entities.
Many readers will find sections of The Alien Years to be familiar.
Parts of the novel have previously been published as short stories, most
recently "Beauty in the Night", collected in David Hartwell's Year's Best SF
3. This is fitting, though, in that The Alien Years is very much the work
of an old master re-examining one of the classic themes of science fiction.
The result is a novel that doesn't so much break new ground as it asks us
to take another look at the assumptions that lie behind many stories of
encounters between humans and whatever waits for us out there in the rest
of the universe. Silverberg narrates an entertaining and compelling story,
while at the same time taking obvious delight in standing several science
fiction conventions on their heads. Readers of The Alien Years will find
plenty to enjoy in the story, with just enough commentary on the human
condition to keep them thinking after the story ends.
Reviewer Greg L. Johnson thinks that many science fiction fans will be discussing the meaning and effectiveness of the ending of The Alien Years over the coming months. He believes that the biggest clue to what happens can be found in the initials TTD. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
If you find any errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to editor@sfsite.com.
Copyright © 1996-2014 SF Site All Rights Reserved Worldwide