Invaders From Beyond caught me with its tagline, and I do rather like Attack The Block and The World’s End. What we have here is three tales of the unknown, of aliens among us, of something rather weird, all of which I like to look for in my SF, especially in the shorter variety on offer here. The main question is whether these stories hit the mark, or if the expectations given by that tagline are just too high to meet…
‘Alien invasion’ is one of the oldest devices in modern science fiction, dating back to Wells’ The War of the Worlds. It spoke to the paranoia of mid-twentieth-century life, spawning such classics as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Thing. Why do so many damn aliens want to invade Earth anyway? And who’s going to stop them? Is this going to take long? Only I was going to go to the pub later.
By turns funny, blackly comic and thoughtful, Invaders From Beyond: First Wave chronicles three unlikely invasion bids, in dingy commercial estates and broken-down council estates, where unlikely heroes – kids, screw-ups, survivors – will stumble their way through protecting the Earth.
Midnight in the Garden Centre of Good and Evil by Colin Sinclair
This is the first story in this collection, and as the title says, it’s set in a garden centre. A strange venue for alien invasion, that’s for sure, and given the way the story starts with staff banter around a Friday night delivery event, it’s a little weird. It’s also very British, and, until about halfway through, somewhat disjointed and certainly not shouting ‘alien invasion’ to you. However, when the story takes a turn into the expected alien territory, it does so quickly, and before you know it things are full-on strange. The ending is also quick to come about, though it is somewhat satisfying. However, this isn’t an easy read, mainly due to the fact that you just don’t really know what is happening until it’s right there, and the characters are a little all over the place. There’s also a lack of exposition for both characters and situation, and explanations fall woefully short of the target.
Blighters by Tim Major
Blighters is more a short story about Becky, our main character, than explicitly about the alien Blighters of the title. However, don’t let that fool you, this has some great aliens in the Blighters – they’re highly sought after and the effect they have on humans, essentially a natural high, means that violence will be committed to keep them hidden. It’s this we learn through Becky’s eyes whilst she deals with the loss of her father some years before and has a hatred for many people due to the apparent cover up of his death. In the end this all comes together nicely, and it has the added bonus of some nice closure to the story.
Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves by Julian Benson
When Hal and his mother move to a new apartment in an estate of flats, Hal and his new friend, Shahid, take to following a local mysterious Rag and Bone Man that goes around collecting unwanted items due to rumours of his involvement in a death on the estate some years back. From there we have a strange tale of this mysterious man and the connection Hal has with him, and the truths he learns along the way. Set in the late 60’s the prose brings the era to life, and while it is an interesting story, it is very slow moving without any real push to keep you reading other than the explanations for what, exactly, is going on.
Now, Invaders From Beyond is a strange one. It’s the kind of book I’d pick up if I saw it on the shelf due to the cover art and blurbs, but it’s one that fails to meet these high expectations almost across the board. I couldn’t compare this collection to Attack the Block or The World’s End, and even the title is a misnomer. While the first story, Midnight in the Garden Centre of Good and Evil, is the closest of the three to an alien invasion tale, it’s unfortunately too disjointed to really work as that. Blighters and Rags, Bones and Tea Leaves are both better stories – the latter probable the best of the two – but they are not ‘alien invasion’ ones, more in the ‘aliens among us’ category.
It’s hard to recommend this collection based on what its ambitious title is telling you because, quite simply, it isn’t. However, that’s not to say it’s not worth reading – two of these stories are certainly interesting and are strange enough to work. It may well be worth checking out the stories individually, though a brief look at online retailers lets you know you buying this collection is the more economical choice.
Publisher: Abaddon
Author: Colin Sinclair, Tim Major, Julian Benson
November 2017, 400 Pages
Paperback, ISBN: 9781781085189
Review copy received from the publisher
© 2018 Mark Chitty | @chitman13
