Book Title: To Defend The Earth
Author: William Stroock
ISBN: 978-1461132578
Publisher: CreateSpace (September 28, 2011)
William Stroock’s To Defend The Earth is a collection of short stories dealing with an alien invasion of Earth, exploring the ensuing conflict from a number of perspectives.
The book is fast-paced, even with some lengthy, detailed battle sequences, no doubt reflecting Stroock’s interest in military history. But what I really liked about it is how Stroock did something different with this well-worn genre, instead of going the cliched route. The stories, while perhaps incorporating elements from other alien invasion stories and movies, seemed fresh and imaginative, with such plot points as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il offering to make an alliance with the approaching aliens (an impossibility now, due to his real-life departure from the land of the living), the French interrogating a captured alien, a guitar-playing vagabond kicking alien posterior, and Jews in the future celebrating victory over the aliens in a ceremony suspiciously like the Passover seder.
My only criticism of the book is that the stories are disparate, the only glue holding them together being the alien invasion. As such, there is no character development to speak of.
Having said that, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it, especially to those of you who like sci fi.
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