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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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The Alien Years What do you do when you’re faced with an absolutely
unbeatable enemy?
Robert Silverberg’s novel poses this question in the first section,
leaving the rest of his book, which is character driven rather than event
driven, to trying to answer it. While
clearly a parody – although not a humorous one – of Independence Day, the
book does raise interesting questions. Basic Plot: One
day in the near future, alien ships appear on earth. The aliens ignore us completely, but when we try to fight,
the aliens defeat us with ease. That
happens several times, as humanity presents several different angles of attack,
all of which are defeated, often followed by massive retaliation.
The book revolves mainly around the lives of an American family (the
government having simply vanished after the first attack) who live out in the
wilds and head the local resistance, which, as one reviewer notes, is a pretty
frustrating task. Nothing works. "The whole
law-enforcement structure fairly swiftly dissolved as though it had been dipped
in acid, and vanished. Only by
common consent, one could see now, had any of it been sustained in the first
place.” (Part 2) There are several reasons to enjoy this book.
First, Silverberg pricks our self-importance right from the start, the
aliens do not pay any attention to humanity and their craft do not appear where
we think they should. For example, Washington does not get a spacecraft landing
there. Further, the book sends up
Independence Day by using similar themes, although suitably modified for novel
form. As an example, humanity’s
best computer expert manages to hack into the alien systems, but they discover
that the remarkable achievement has had no effect on the aliens.
Further, the only person to manage a successful strike against the aliens
(although on a tiny scale, al la Will Smith) is not an American, but a
half-Pakistani from England. The aliens are very alien and we have no insight on them at
all. There is no Atvar figure for
us to see events from their point of view.
We have no idea why they came to Earth or what they want.
It may be reading too much into the book, but it’s suggested that the
first quisling is not receiving real instructions from the aliens, but is simply
trying to satisfy them by doing pointless projects. The real theme of the book – once you get over the parody
of ID4, War of the Worlds, et al – is how humans survive when faced
with impossible circumstances. Understandably,
most humans try to keep their heads down and just survive.
The main characters are all well drawn. The solution to the alien invasion is no solution in human
terms. One of the main characters,
right at the start, muses about how War of the Worlds presented the question
“What do you do when you’re faced with an absolutely unbeatable enemy?”
WOTW never answers that question, and so, in a parody, the aliens simply
pick up sticks on day and leave their new conquest. No big screen battles at all. My verdict: 3 out of 5. Worth reading for the plot and characters. Not worth the action.
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