Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict--The Arrival (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Midnight had come, and the day that was now beginning would be unlike any that the human race had ever known, in the many thousands..." (more)
Key Phrases: enchanted hill, control cabin, rubber snake, San Simeon, Casa Grande, Jonathan Doors (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this enticing novel, the prolific Saberhagen (Ariadne's Web, reviewed above) offers a prequel adventure to Gene Roddenberry's popular television series Earth: Final Conflict. Multibillionaire Jonathan Doors is the focus of this account of the first visit to Earth by deep space Taelons and of the formation of the human Resistance. The Taelons come bearing "many wondrous things," including a possible cure for Doors's wife, Amanda, who is dying of cystic fibrosis at the dawn of the third millennium. Despite the Taelons' apparent goodwill, Doors struggles with his distrust of the aliens, especially when they evidence a sinister curiosity about his recently purchased Hearst estate, the art-filled San Simeon. While Doors puzzles over the real motive of Taelon emissary Va'lon, Doors's father, Jubal, shows up with a tall tale about a high-profile party that took place at San Simeon in 1936. Jubal, then 16, was invited to the party to accompany a young Marilynesque starlet, but while there he stumbled into some intergalactic trouble. Jubal's detailed account of his "trip of a lifetime" picks up the novel's previously dragging pace, and his descriptions of a space station where "re-adaptation" occurs convey a vivid sense of aural and spatial disorientation. When the Taelons' actions confirm his father's story, Doors goes into action. The ensuing excitement includes a miniwar, a cleverly disguised superpower entity that gives the Taelons a run for their money and, in the novel's frantic conclusion, some old-fashioned knuckle-sandwich work: in other words, space operatics enough to satisfy any fan. (Dec.) FYI: In February, Tor will release the second novel in the Earth: Final Conflict series, The First Protector by SF veteran James White.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The beginning of the third millennium brings with it the arrival of the alien race known as Taelons. At first, multibillionaire Jonathan Doors welcomes the seemingly peaceful extraterrestrial visitors and uses his influence to introduce them to Earth's movers and shakers. When he discovers the true purpose of their visit, however, Doors disappears, becoming a fugitive bent on the destruction of the Taelons. Based on the popular TV series originated by the late Gene Roddenberry, Saberhagen's latest novel explores the dark secrets behind the Taelons's arrival on Earth. The author of the Beserker series demonstrates his skill at bringing depth and insight to the story of one man's bitter confrontation with the truth. Media fans will welcome this first installment in a continuing series.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (December 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312873026
• ISBN-13: 978-0312873028
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,292,834 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Companion Mystery, December 6, 1999

By A Customer

I am a big fan of the television series, Gene Roddenburry's Earth: Final Conflict, and personally I would have found myself reading this book one way or another. I was happily surprised, though, by both the ability of the author to accurately portray the Taelons, and by the actual basis of the story. At first review, I believed the novel would span a much longer period of time after the arrival of the alien Companions. As I found out, half of the book is actually spent in a flashback that yields incredible information about both the Taelons and another mysterious type of being that I had not known about previously through the TV program. This past-tense adventure, told through the eyes of Jonathan Doors' father, is an insightful tale in itself, bordering on fantasy slightly more than science fiction. Then, following Jubal Doors' confessional, occurrences in the present begin to uncannily equate to those from the past. Pure action encompasses the better part of the conclusion of the novel, and thus the reader knows what Jonathan Doors truly stands for. As was Gene Roddenburry's ongoing intension, the mystery of alien abilities never ceases throughout the tale. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested, whether or not the reader has knowledge of the show on TV. Of course, I believe that having watched the show since its premiere made this first tale of The Arrival even more comprehensible, and certainly much more intriguing.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disapointed, but still perhaps worth a reading, January 24, 2000

By	Kay A Hollender (Winthrop, MA USA) - See all my reviews

I thought this book was OK. Not great. I would think they would want to start the EFC book line with the best story they could get. Still this book had it's good points. It didn't totally rewrite EFC history. The story does explain how Doors starts to suspect and work against the Talons. Thats the good point of the book.

The bad points. Mainly technical plot errors. Errors which show that the writer of this book does not exactly watch the show reguarly. 1. The writer does have the Talons touching humans, taking and mimicing their DNA. 2. A rocket missile is said to have hit a Talon shuttle, but the shuttle isn't even scratched. This is contradictory to an episode in which a shuttle is destroyed by a rocket launcher. 3. This mistake was a major disapointment to read. The write says a Talon is scratched, bleeding black blood. Hello! The Talons are suppose to be pure energy! They just had an episode about the Talons being worshiped just becuase of that. There are also numerous refrenses in the show to this fact. (Like when Zo'or was a jury member in the Ro'ha trial.)

I know it's just a book based on a show, but it's still sooo much more enjoyable when a book accurately fits in with the show's plots.

Bottom line: wait for the Paper back if you must read this. Don't get me wrong, the book is good in some points. Just little details like these just ruin the plot sometimes.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "Earth Final Conflict's History re-written", January 15, 2000

By A Customer

This book was very bad. I always have a problem when authors go back in the history of a story line without knowing what the show is all about. The author of this book doesn't watch EFC, or if he does it is a different show than I watch. He brings in things that are totally wrong, I did not like this book and will not buy the other ones when they come out.