Customer Reviews

Nighteyes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book on a whim and really enjoyed it. The author presents many different possibilities on the subject of alien abduction that will make you think long after reading the book. If you like the X-Files but always wished it would "deliver" what it always entices with the UFO and alien phenomenon then this book is one you will love.

This was the first book by this author I have read and am looking forward to reading more.

I love this book. I'm a sucker for alien-abduction stories--and this one doesn't disappoint. I've read it at least 3 times over the years.

"Nighteyes" is an interesting and relatively beleivable sci-fi novel about alien abductions. It does seem a little dated given that since it was published in 1989 we have been treated to eight seasons of "The X-files" (often dealing in very similar matters). The last 100 pages are really fascinating but why spend all the time on secret government agencies if they don't even know about the the aliens? A good read excpet for the needless FBI/governemnt angle. Great take on the aliens reasons for wanting abductees.

Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Nighteyes (Doubleday, 1989)

Watching a good (or decent, or even mediocre) book go bad is roughly analogous to watching a slow-motion train wreck. You can see it coming, and you're powerless to stop it; all you can do is sit back and prepare yourself for the experience. Needless to say, the longer the book, the slower the motion.

The hardback edition of Nighteyes is 452 pages, which provides a great deal of time to watch this particular train wreck. Nighteyes never reaches the level of good, but "decent" and "mediocre" trade off for a while before the train collides with whatever a train collides with in your particular train wreck fantasy. (For some reason, with me, it's always a herd of goats.) Reeves-Stevens opens us up with two parallel storylines about alien abduction. One concerns a divorced mother and her sixteen-year-old daughter, the other a pair of FBI operatives surveilling a rogue agent. If you've read any Dean Koontz novels in the past quarter-century, this setup will look quite familiar to you, I'm sure (except the alien abduction part, which is straight out of Whitley Streiber). A number of other folks get involved, the stories suddenly collide, the wacky UFO researcher shows up, secret government agencies get involved, you know the drill. The book is like something out of Fox Mulder's dream journal; all the usual conspiracy-theory stuff is brought out of the woodwork and rehashed again. The train wreck comes when said UFO researcher starts babbling about how the aliens are going to lead us all to a higher consciousness, blah blah blah. Of course, by that time, you've probably figured out all the major plot twists and that sort of thing, and you've still got a hundred fifty pages left to go.

The only real positive is that the book is readable; once you get past the first few confusing chapters and things start falling into place, the writing style is such that the pages keep turning, though there's not a great deal happening therein that's worth reading about. **

For the record I've only read about 3 real sci-fi books in my entire life. The other two won a lot of medals, were extremely popular, and were very good, but nowhere near as good as Nighteyes. It's a wonder this book is so little-known. Ah, the injustice of the world.

It's actually kind of like two books. The first half is very effective horror (very much like the movie Fourth Kind) that will scare you unless you are one of those silly people who don't get scared by paranormal things. The second half is completely different but equally enjoyable.

In fact I think the Fourth Kind copied a lot of this book, but maybe that's just me.

That is where this book ended up, I bought this book at a used book store for a $1.50, figuring that a book that promises to be about aliens, abductions etc..and as thick as it was couldnt be that bad. It was worse. It wasnt even worthy of the 1.50 that i could have spent on a mcdonalds hamburger and a water.