Ebook638 pages10 hours
Alien Contact
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this ebook
Are we alone? From War of the Worlds to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, ET to Close Encounters, creators of science fiction have always eagerly speculated on just how the story of alien contact would play out. Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers, weaving a tapestry that covers a broad range of scenarios: from the insidious, to the violent, to the transcendent.
Related to Alien Contact
Related ebooks
Time: Complete Short Fiction, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Taste of Different Dimensions: 15 Fantasy Tales from a Master Storyteller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Listeners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Earth: Complete Short Fiction, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn the Distance, and Ahead in Time Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What Neither Star nor Sun Shall Waken: A Sci-Fi Horror Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Abduction Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Conspiracy! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catastrophic Discoveries: Children of Cthulhu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSupermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Planet of Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Earth for Inspiration: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Man in the World Explains All Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Undead at War (And Other Stories) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEncounter in the Desert: The Case for Alien Contact at Socorro Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlien Abduction: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of the Supernatural: Ghost Chronicles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #289 (November-December 2020) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMysteries Of Time Travel: 35 Cases Of Time Travel Intrusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jersey Devil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Space: Recent Combat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dead Dreams of Days Forsaken: A Sci-Fi Horror Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Orbital Decay Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fantastic Stories Presents the Fantastic Universe Super Pack Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLightspeed Magazine, Issue 147 (August 2022): Lightspeed Magazine, #147 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 166 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Variable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infinite Space - Choose Your Story: Mystery i Solve, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science Fiction For You
Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England: Secret Projects, #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Perelandra: (Space Trilogy, Book Two) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blindsight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time and Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Light From Uncommon Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Alien Contact
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
4 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty-six fantastic stories about alien contact are stuffed into this anthology. From humor to romance to suspense each author finds their own world with aliens. Not only are all of the stories completely different, but all of them are worth multiple reads, and say something about the human condition. What I really enjoyed about this anthology, was that all of the stories are fairly recent. Especially with science fiction, I simply didn’t have much exposure to anything written by talented living authors. On a cute note, each story ends with a tiny alien head. All in all, this collection really blew me away and is my new favorite anthology. Simply put: awesome content, awesome authors, lots of awesomeness.I would highly recommend this to anyone.Nibble from Effinger’s story: “To hear a nup talk, he had a direct line to some categorical imperative that spelled everything out in terms that were unflinchingly black and white. Hollyhocks were the best flower.”I received a free paper copy of this book from the First Reads program via Goodreads.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twenty-six fantastic stories about alien contact are stuffed into this anthology. From humor to romance to suspense each author finds their own world with aliens. Not only are all of the stories completely different, but all of them are worth multiple reads, and say something about the human condition. What I really enjoyed about this anthology, was that all of the stories are fairly recent. Especially with science fiction, I simply didn’t have much exposure to anything written by talented living authors. On a cute note, each story ends with a tiny alien head. All in all, this collection really blew me away and is my new favorite anthology. Simply put: awesome content, awesome authors, lots of awesomeness.I would highly recommend this to anyone.Nibble from Effinger’s story: “To hear a nup talk, he had a direct line to some categorical imperative that spelled everything out in terms that were unflinchingly black and white. Hollyhocks were the best flower.”I received a free paper copy of this book from the First Reads program via Goodreads.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm not normally much for short story collections, but something about this book just spoke to me, so I couldn't resist taking the chance to read it, especially after seeing such a stellar (if you'll encuse the pun) list of contributing authors. Neil Gaiman, Ursula K LeGuin, Stephen King, and yet more. There's all kinds of talent evident in this collection, and I'll say right off the bat that this is a book that no sci-fi fan should really be without.The stories contained within the book's pages don't keep to one tone or theme beyond "there are aliens, and we know about it." There are stories about people accidentally running across extraterrestrials while on vacation, scientists meeting them for the first time, or cases far into the future where we've been collaborating with aliens for decades. The aliens themselves range from anything that we can recognise in a humanoid shape, which is sometimes disturbing enough, to completely unlike anything we've seen, where the aliens are more blobby insectoids with a hive mind. Sometimes, such as in Stephen King's tale, the aliens are not so much seperate entities as things that possess and twist humans into something new again. The variety here is rich and highly demonstrative of the varying degrees of creativity that can come when a dozen brilliant literary minds look at the same basic concept in a dozen different ways. Sometimes amusing, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes deeply disturbing, always entertaining.The fun thing that I find about alien encounter stories is that they end up saying more about humanity than about any alien culture we can dream of. Whether it's displaying our own human arrogance about the universe and all within it, or displaying our sheer curiosity about what lies beyond us, all stories I've found that involve humans and some unknown sentient life form end up showcasing humanity in ways that a human-only cast of characters just couldn't. There's suddenly contrast, something to compare ourselves to, which brings out our innate traits in ways that are more difficult in other settings or stories. I find that more than a little fascinating.As I said previously, this is a book that no science fiction fan can afford to be without. I enjoyed every minute of reading this book, and considering my usual dislike for short story anthologies, I like to think that says a great deal about not just the writers or the editor, but the book as a whole, being more than the sum of its parts. When this one hits the shelves, don't wait to grab a copy for yourself. You won't be disappointed!
Book preview
Alien Contact - Marty Halpern
1^ book_preview_excerpt.html }ےǑ寤DUJD@"
A)!bcccQQUK!/](>iA;?W~9Y
f3b*+32q?}l>w.~@Hjoްi`{1ÃTMAsٗO_8+\?wxa|T7]jPWQƱkWz{}bŮڎU07pϲE"vS5[Ű*]M\q'ǩ>ʵ[_V˓R^8ô=F_vx.渉u_u(~ׇ_b?7)?8ܜq
XTm~"ڲjō+]'~ǿ˩ù*V Cg];{Rn_+~]]+w>Es.d0rƪb35W5հqj5CqƩa|x:Du{JLe8-.DZ,0Vmuw;:U̺x"#ϖM:~Z^Fd!ڠy2UC%3^5L^?XU1
f+0KePwh^6l=6 ڻ8^&Wuw\EZ֩+]]W c/Ũ(Xa
l!#dv;V$L_WEBL e=ete?jF;
S%
&Vc14\a+fKMM&zk~6noEt:{GU8!:}*3Pq;5aWW[Ț늋/ev8NumUrw]L\/vNf\mEoEsI0MF^L[DT<-LլZ,[]U7y-cznȧ+?}jb-IlPsڍWngK)o.- MU[
RXwȲoN#QCCx';0>w 3?9ڦuh*AV0{3ʲ>/D1rkY\Cq*5ȇbPdjse"{]CK?G1d"?b"2ktURlT5".vwlyR_q'*)XDџV)G1 M5A]U_፸d3{n#1\ij(]N1p)Ћjie=u@cQU3@v]7^TǾji0([wKCݙMZ=0sMio)=YdVu1 :ɺ3w1b:_bluXˍP* ٽ̀sn Pթ>هǏ~YZۑ"kUI6҄BByU=N_.^v%ch#_LObĈ?=9kqjԉ; ,: yyaP!w'k}9i4?
[ٹq>9%^̱l!E9Gg[djSN9+U*M8o"m4s*)
%
Mt8~_v䋘q+0 .jj Y,B+hg@A~֜BpÖYNSӇ{{%4r5w T|#N|oU{0t!ewR?myvj6N6|(0bN
':[CA"ޗBUM^U3[2ݥl|̱-"YnדȜU24qj#~
6ͩ:a>U|M@뿹D=6ƓڤXA}B⮣EFk۷;6@V7ˤVH5bP薎=4(Sf[Q&ڊ_2'<0@8Pc*₉om"QĐVy//34#V~,tْ6u &\c~:|0C&cn]|+JyW#v~O+`(vhR}o]_?{u?S'm-lByݥ-MؠWp}o
hEHYp_/bj[@n'@>kVD\J6sYɊw=|m8<%7xͦS憛s@Z0@uI\vX`J1pCa| 7"ky/;j@uBzĊ{dY'2,}&wy9|Ak1cB븗U,vȸ1p
?Eyy},/!y=7u#T_r[`ͳ߄*꾒!yx29EN:ֲhnTtUvms_#^ Ņ!ɐoM]Qc]Vc7zNRүqʚBni=Lqk
)~>pG1ynpZkukt3b0
%45} x3v
h
P0L=B,x2UGеa=f CAČb+.vX2"+B:Mv_(iJ>!FM(l#܈7 ҧ,
QCa6[ c@Z|--H`2&K>iES'bYp_".:B:^-Kr'
OEzMYPmM-
?Gw<2J(Pѳ`s(NݟiᡫK44F_$H*6(IsOVjv9uPRy3LY#']<u[|!Hx@P4dcVqX)҅[Mqaza,4#g~/<ɡ9-}Qbj+[kt~AE']bۈ#J,;]8;7@@f쿙4$rheߎ2x.PJ5=C(xm衪4PuZQ}ekʸrPYH*EM}6.zUcݕjً]eTKc}`~eQ||}Rv'!M
+s*JV^ LNݶ?B,A
"˲,! o`nu]'`+xĽ $8d8k@AlO
]EhМii@#hT,o A,䣆.$y3w~/HL&U{RRn$ PS'rer">;#WUn|=:
9kb\*^YfJwHaZƧ0ž4l#SsFC2,!0P&:,.Fg]˦pi pAD8"g˔UP*^,7\
P
bQ
pO.t
b`H$[C+Fd