The quiet invasion [Unknown Binding]

Sarah Zettel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2001

Venus, second planet from the Sun, is a lonely sphere of lethal heat, deadly pressure, and poisonous winds. Yet mankind still explores it for signs of life. When an abandoned alien outpost is discovered on Venusian soil, Dr. Veronica Hatch is sent to investigate. What she discovers is extraordinary -- an alien race has escaped its dying and distant world to colonize Venus, the only planet that can support it. But back on Earth, this news is received with dread. Fearing the aliens will invade and conquer the entire solar system, Earth prepares for war. It is now up to Veronica to urgently convince the aliens that mankind is truly worth saving -- before Earth becomes ground zero of an interstellar war.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When scientists discover an alien artifact on Venus, intrigues and conflicts proliferate. Dr. Helen Failia struggles to transform her disdained research station into a permanent Venus colony. Dr. Veronica Hatch fights to restore her lost reputation and communicate with the mysterious aliens. An ambitious chemist protects a dark secret by any means necessary. An incognito radical seeks to rekindle Mars's failed rebellion on Venus. The U.N. will do anything to control its space colonies. And the aliens have agendas of their own--not to mention far more advanced and dangerous technologies.

In addition to The Quiet Invasion, Sarah Zettel has written the critically acclaimed SF novels Reclamation (winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel and a Philip K. Dick Award finalist), Fool's War (a New York Times Notable Book of 1997), and Playing God. --Cynthia Ward END --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Zettel (Fool's War, etc.) has a gift for creating fascinating aliens with rich cultures and radically different, though still comprehensible, mindsets. She's somewhat less successful at portraying intergalactic politics, though in this novel she valiantly struggles--and almost succeeds--in generating a realistic future where a nearly omnipotent United Nations on Earth controls what happens to the colonies on Mars, the Moon and, especially, Venus. The Venus colony is the life's work of Dr. Helen Failia, who has done everything possible to make the base a self-sufficient outpost rather than a temporary research station. Just as Helen is about to lose funding for her beloved city, the surface of Venus sprouts what appears to be an alien artifact. Closely monitoring the humans' discovery of the artifact are aliens from another planet, who are looking to claim Venus as their new home. These aliens are in dire straits because their ancient, living cities are falling ill and dying. Their complicated belief system dictates that they cannot colonize Venus if humans have a legitimate claim to the planet, but if they judge the humans insane, they can destroy them like weeds. While Zettel's humans plod through the fairly pedestrian plotting, her aliens soar forward in unexpected and wonderful ways, making this a first-contact novel worth reading and relishing. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 478 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (2001)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006RLULK
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great buildup to a disappointing conclusion, May 10, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Klisiewicz (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Quiet Invasion (Hardcover)

I devoured this book. It's rare to find a writer who is so adept at inventing new civilizations with large and *interesting* casts of characters. Kettel kept me riveted to this novel of first contact with a race so different and so unique from Humans that I expected a lot more than I got at the novel's end.

In Quiet Invasion, the Humans have colonized Venus and discover that someone else got there first. Factions on Earth want to interfere with the Venusian colonists and the politics behind the Earth's world government and those on Venus made this fascinating reading. Kettel also delves into the dying world of the aliens (called The People) and as different as they are, there are also some basic commonalities with our race.

After all this tremendous buildup, Kettel totally disappointed me by story's end. Several storylines are unresolved and while one alien makes the ultimate sacrifice to help the humans, you have to wonder why the villain gets away with murder.

Kettel is a promising writer with tons of potential, but she needs to learn how to deliver the goods. If being ultimately disappointed does not bother you, then by all means, you should read this book. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book, but not more than that., September 13, 2000

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Quiet Invasion (Hardcover)

Dr. Helen Failia is the founder of Venera, an orbital city designed to provide a research base for investigating Venus. But, things are going sour, and it seems that Venera will not be around for long. Ambassador T'sha is a leader of an alien people whose world is dying. They need a new home, and have found one...Venus. This is a story of misunderstanding between people, and the quest for understanding by some and for results by others.

This book should have been a great book, but for some reason it is not. The author simply introduces the aliens, but does not describe them; I found myself constantly trying to understand what they even looked like. The story dragged on, while the storyline took turn after turn. I think that this book would have benefited from being simplified and shortened.

Overall I do think this was a good book, but not more than that. I don't recommend it.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Mental Struggle, July 1, 2000

By 

James R. Harrington - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quiet Invasion (Hardcover)

I read about one-third of The Quiet Invasion and finally decided I didn't enjoy it enough to finish it. I think the author did a phenomenal job of creating a thoroughly alien personality. The book alternates between chapters written from a human's viewpoint and ones written from the alien's viewpoint. The alien is an interesting being, and one with values we can relate to. But I noticed that the passages about the alien would bog me down trying to understand the alien's thought processes and figuring out how the alien would be affected by the things it was seeing. So the great job the author did in creating this alien creature also disrupted the flow of the story in a serious way and created a major character whose thought processes are somewhat inscrutable. I think one of the jobs of an author is to put us in the minds of the characters. The author understands this, and does a fairly good job of putting us inside the mind of this alien. But this alien's world and motivating influences are so different from our own that being inside the alien's mind is bewildering. The author probably had everything worked out well in her own mind so that these passages are self-consistent, but that is not the same thing as relating things clearly to the readers. I think this was not done well, and for me, the book suffers greatly from it.

The other big drawback of the book is that the writing is somehow immature. Some of the characters are older and quite experienced, but their characters do not reflect their age at all. All of the human characters as far as I read seem to share the same levels of energy and the same strengths of their convictions, and are affected similarly by failures and successes. In real life people are widely diverse in these things. The story was pretty interesting, but the sameness of the characters made them too unreal to draw me in. Some people won't care much about this, and if you are intrigued by the story line you may enjoy the book. But if you look for real people in your reading, you will be disappointed. I am sure the author will continue to develop, and future books may not suffer from these problems. And she deserves recognition now for creating a marvelously alien character and culture. But I think it takes more than this to make a great book. I will look forward to better from her in the future, but I do not highly recommend The Quiet Invasion.