The Quiet Invasion

by Sarah Zettel

Book Overview

Mankind explores Venus for signs of life, and an abandoned alien outpost is discovered. Dr. Veronica Hatch is sent to investigate, and she discovers an alien race escaped its dying planet and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446524891
• ISBN13: 9780446524896
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Aspect
• Length: 419 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Very intelligent, especially in today's world (and culture-sheltered America)

This novel is an amazing piece of work. It's intelligent, imaginative, and relevant to today's issues. Zettel paints the unknown world of Venus so beautifully that you thought she had actually traveled there. Upon introducing the aliens that consider Venus their only hope for surviving their dying homeworld, her imagination shows more creativity than many writers do when writing about alien races. This novel is a very rewarding read, even if slow at times. The heart of the story revolves around the issue of cross-cultural conflicts, bringing to light the fact that sometimes there is not always just one way to do something "right". Even if this novel becomes dated with its technology descriptions, its lesson will not. The Quiet Invasion is extremely intelligent and heart-opening. It hits home the point that just because a people of an alien culture think differently, it does not make them wrong.

Sarah Z's best novel yet

Helen Failia has almost singlehandedly created Venera, a scientific research base in the atmosphere of Venus, but as with so many research facilities, its survival hinges on precarious funding. Meanwhile, aliens who call themselves "The People" are looking into colonizing the planet-to them, its hot, high-pressure atmosphere provides a haven from their dying planet. But The People have environmentalism almost instinctively drilled into them, and the presence of humans gives them cause to stay away.After a dramatic first encounter, conflicts rage on both sides: the pragmatic representatives of The People want to take what is theirs and to hell with the humans, who (without the ecological sensitivities of their race) are morally suspect already, while the more idealistic members try to do what is right while terrified that they me damning their race to extinction. Meanwhile, some humans embrace the arrival of the aliens, particularly those on Venera, for whom the arrival of the aliens has been a godsend in terms of ensuring the base's survival. Others see contact with the aliens as something to fight for, while yet others are fearful. Decisions need to be made and they need to be the right ones, else one or both races might perish or go to war with one another. But the situation is complex and both sides persist in misunderstanding one another, often wrongly assuming a monolithic unanimity from the alien parties that simply doesn't exist, risking catastrophic consequences. This may be Sarah Z.'s best novel yet. She has once again created an alien species that is almost more believable than her humans, and she has set up a gripping, page-turning conflict that I can't talk too much about for fear of giving things away. An excellent book.

Incredible

The Quiet Invasion is an absolutely wonderful novel. The alien race is portrayed realistically, with their own agendas that come in conflict with the people colonizing Venus. The humans are equally well portrayed, including a future in which the UN runs the entire world, plus the affairs of every colony world that humans have begun settling.The book also contains one of the most incredible, fast paced, and action-packed first contact scenes I've ever read--or seen on the big screen.This was the first Zettel book I've ever read, and I will definitely read more.

Another winner from one of SF's brightest new voices

Maintaining the high standards she set with "Fool's War" and "Playing God," Sarah Zettel's "The Quiet Invasion" is a very good hard SF book that doesn't skimp on characterization and good writing. In each of her books, she develops a well-realized alien race, and the People in this book - aliens who feel right at home on the blazing surface of Venus - are her best invention yet. Where the Dedelphi in "Playing God" occasionally seemed (and acted) like humans in alien suits, Zettle has taken care to make the People's culture in this book quite different from human, to the point where the two races sometimes have no matching cultural referents. In other words, sometimes her aliens are truly alien, and it's a rare SF author that can pull that off.There are a few plot holes, and some loose ends that I would have liked to see tied up. But I enjoyed this book a lot. If you're a fan of hard SF, but not so hard that it clanks and whirrs, it's worth spending your money on "The Quiet Invasion." Sarah Zettle has definitely won a place on my coveted "Buy Everything This Author Writes" List.

Great

Even without reading it, this book seems great to me. Sorry, I can't add more, lol.