Set in the middle of the twenty first century an astronomer named Aurora is the first to hear the extra terrestrial message emanating from one tenth of a light year distance; "We're Coming". The message validity is questioned but all data points to the imminent arrival of aliens on our planet on the first day of January. The message is made public and from this the novel takes shape. Through a series of vignettes we are introduced to the entire spectrum of people living in the town from where the message was first heard. Through their eyes and many points of view we experience their reactions. A novel that utterly bored me from its opening chapters,. Suffused within this thinly veiled pseudo science fiction novel we are presented with characters that are woefully anemic and no discernible plot. This is a novel without any true story. Nothing ever seems to vary in pace and the events which unfurl are prosaic and lack any real affect. The actual two last chapters of this novel are simply rubbish. I hated this novel as it stole two days from my life which I will not recoup. Utter crap!!






After having read the truly abysmal The Coming late last year I decided to give Joe Haldeman another chance. He is an author with a much respected pedigree, and I wondered if it were possible that the I could find his Nebula Award Winning novel Camouflage more digestible to my palette. The novel is broken into three segments, all of which run with separate timelines. The first timeline forwards us to the year 2019 and recounts marine biologist Russell Sutton's meeting with Jack, a retired naval officer. Jack Halliburton makes Russell the offer of a lifetime, perhaps, even the chance of immortality, for off the coast of Samoa the chance discovery of what is presumed to be an alien spacecraft is discovered, and Halliburton wants Sutton to oversee the research. In two disparate timelines we are introduced to two immortal aliens. One is referred to as the Changeling, a seemingly invincible being who has spent its life in the oceans of the world as its apex predator and by some whimsical reason not fully explained by the author, comes ashore one night, kills a helpful stranger, and then interacts with the local human populace. The second is call the Chameleon, an immortal bereft of morality who has lived as a human being for thousands of years. Both these aliens are unaware that the other exists and throughout undocumented human history they seek to meet someone, or something, of their own species. Right from the first chapter I braced myself for an expected disappointment, it didn't quite turn out to be so. The narrative and story telling is very ordinary, the pace of events through history regarding both aliens is told with more conviction that the failed attempts at communications or testing on the alien craft. Overall, a slightly better than average novel which will not in any way tax your sense of wonder at the unknown.

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