Aliens In Our Midst...
And On Our Bookshelves

by Fred Burke

They're the myth du jour, these saucer-riding, wide-eyed little people, and whether you believe or dis-, you'll still be hard-pressed to escape their influence. I, for one, am happily soaking up the gross-outs every Friday night, turning The X-Files into both social occasion and addictive extravagance.

The scientific worldview has made it increasingly difficult to encounter "the other," to explore the mystic and the strange. With its feeble explicatory coating, The X-Files grants us entry into the world of the paranormal without forcing us to divest our rationalist armor. Quite a service to the psyche.

Somewhere Jung is chortling, pleased he had the foresight to write his monograph "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies," where he tellingly notes that:

"...just at the moment when the eyes of mankind are turned towards the heavens, partly on account of their fantasies about possible space-ships, and partly in a figurative sense because their earthly existence is threatened, unconscious contents have projected themselves on these inexplicable heavenly phenomenon and given them a significance they in no way deserve."

Dark Carnival is clearly the place to indulge my appetite for the extraterrestrial, whether deserved or not. Here are just a few of the past year's offerings...

Mysterious Skin
by Scott Heim (hardcover $20.00)

Scott Heim's first novel rips open the mysterious skin of memory, delving into the dark anatomy underneath with a discerning eye that heralds a new voice in the Generation X pantheon. Recovered memories -- of child abuse and UFO abduction -- lie at the heart of this horrifying story, which parallels the lives of two teenagers who, one dreadful summer, shared the same Little League team. From there, the similarities between the fear-frought Brian Lackey and the hustling Neil McCormick end, and we are granted an all-too-rare look at how two people can interpret equivalent circumstances in entirely different ways. As Brian struggles to discover the truth about a fateful five hours when he was eight, Neil turns to a reckless acting-out that may lead him to his death. These two young men are on a collision course that will change them both forever.

Throughout, the simplicity of Heim's prose moves us forward, as his first-person narratives let us touch his characters at their most vulnerable. It is rare to see the human journey stripped of so much metaphor: in Heim's capable hands, the movements of the characters' psyches become dangerous enough that the veil of "hero vs. villain in a chase to the death" is unneccesary. At one point, the simple dust-jacket photo of two spoons and scattered Froot Loops was enough to make my skin crawl.

Ground Zero
by Kevin J. Anderson (hardcover $20.00)

The man whose Star Wars novels have won him both acclaim and New York Times bestseller status takes on Agents Scully and Mulder in this rivetting original X-Files book. I can give it no higher praise than to say that Ground Zero is as compelling a joyride, as strange a journey, as any episode of the series.

Anderson's vivid portraits of Scully and Mulder bring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny straight into the mind's eye, and he adds to Scully's backstory with aplomb, giving her a rich Cal-Berkeley experience that makes Ground Zero doubly rewarding for Bay Area folks.

But plot is clearly at the forefront of Ground Zero, and it bullets along at an incredible pace. Although this novel lacks in extraterrestrial intelligences, conspiracy fans will love the nuclear secrecy brought into play, while the occult gets its nod in ways I won't spoil for you here. Ground Zero is also manifestly X in its politics -- it has them, and it's refreshing.

Working without the constraints of a TV special effects budget, Anderson pulls no punches: the mass-destruction is on an A-Bomb level, at the least, with a monstrous hurricane (excuse me -- typhoon) thrown in for good measure. Chris Carter is surely pleased with this fulfilling addition to his mythology.

Brother Termite
by Patricia Anthony (paperback $5.50)

The wide-eyed visage of the Gray, alien master of Earth, is filled with ambiguity. To some, the Communion/Close Encounters face is a sign of hope, of an extraterrestrial intelligence which can help right the wrongs done to our planet by its power-hungry inhabitants. To others, the Gray is an anal-probing experimenter, kidnapping human guinea pigs and erasing their memories. In Brother Termite, Patricia Anthony eschews the simple black and white of the angels/demons dichotomy, treating us instead to a, uh, grayer view.

Too many writers, when confronting the concept of the extraterrestrial, anthropomorphize their subjects, neglecting the difficult task of truly creating a whole new type of consciousness. Anthony goes the distance, and I was captivated by the result. Sure, the political conspiracy plot (the alien White House chief of staff must confront betrayal from all sides) kept the pages turning at a nice pace, but I was more intrigued by my visit to a future America in which the aliens ("Cousins") are a matter of fact -- a relationship which alters both the humans and, inevitably, the odd minds (not to mention sleeping patterns) of the visitors.

In the end, Anthony takes two divergent clichés -- the invaders from Mars and the political pot-boiler -- and comes up with a satirical new recipe for success.

The Unofficial X-Files Companion
by N.E. Genge (trade paperback $14.00)

If Fox's Friday night X-travaganza has piqued your curiousity about the worlds of the paranormal, then The Unofficial X-Files Companion is for you. N.E. Genge covers the first two seasons, briefly summarizing each episode and then providing the "deep background" that makes this series so provocative. These real life tales of the supernatural -- from UFO abductions to near death experiences, from the vampyre subculture to faith healing -- give a texture otherwise lacking in the X-Files mythos. But Genge doesn't stop there: not only is this a paranormal primer, but conspiracy buffs will find informative details on Scotland Yard, the CIA, and the Philadelphia Experiment, to name a few.

Salted with trivia tests and behind-the-scenes tidbits from the show, this Unofficial X-Files Companion also delights in discovering "bloopers," the spots where the show gets the science completely backwards. Fact files on the actors and the characters they play liven the proceedings, but it's the details on such diverse topics as pheremones, fingerprinting, artificial intelligence, forensic medicine, radiation, and the Voyager mission that make this covert guide to The X-Files an indispensable asset to the true fanatic -- and a sure-fire enthusiasm booster for the unconverted.

Akhunaton: The Extraterrestrial King
by Daniel Blair Stewart (trade paperback $16.95)

A flaky crust of historical narrative wrapped 'round a beguiling filling of genetic engineering and religious warfare, Akhunaton: The Extraterrestrial King turns the history of ancient Egypt into an E.T. conspiracy. It's a delicious conceit, and the deadpan seriousness of the tale makes it all the more bizarre. The author even treats us to his own illustrations of the pharaohs in all their deformed majesty: really, who wouldn't wonder if these guys were from another galaxy?

Stewart weaves the ins and outs of cosmic intrigue with a heavy hand -- this is hardly a page-turning novel of suspense -- but that in no way interferes with "the fringe factor," the fun of witnessing a crazed imagination in overdrive. Just try to bring a basic knowledge of Egyptology to these pages, for maximum impact.

I admit it: I'm having a great time with this heavy and half-baked novel, soaked as it is with New Age sweeteners. And, frankly, I'd be having a lot more fun if the book didn't say "science fiction" on the back cover. I'd much rather a kook with the courage of his convictions, a Bill Cooper on a rampage, than someone who admits he made it all up.

UFOs: A Manual for The Millennium
by Phil Cousineau (paperback $5.99)

The layout of this little paperback is disturbingly magazine-like -- complete with page skips around sidebar stories and lists -- turning an already overly complex topic into a maze-like reading experience. Cousineau coins the term uforia to mean "a feeling of being eased or relieved by the indication that a few unsolved mysteries and enigmas remain beyond the scope of calibrators and computers, holding out the possibility of a new vigor and hope."

As an introduction to the uforic, this Manual for The Millenium does its job, breaking the sightings into three "waves" and outlining the most important cases. Cousineau also incorporates the sociology of the UFO phenomenon, citing Gallup polls and discussing the pop culture appearances of saucers and aliens. There are even historic references to objects in the sky and comparisons with legendary phenomena such as fairies.

For those in need of a crash course -- complete with places to visit, a glossary, and a listing of UFO organizations -- this is the place to start.

The Truth Is Out There: The Official Guide to The X-Files
by Brian Lowry (trade paperback $15.00)

The big news is revealed right on the cover: The Truth Is Out There is a trademark, presumably of Twentieth Century Fox. With that out of the way, we can turn past Anderson and Duchovny's unsmiling faces to a captivating behind-the-scenes account of the series, from its inception in Chris Carter's odd mind to the day-to-day ins and outs of shooting the most interesting show on television.

The meat of this official guide, however, is 128 pages devoted to an episode-by-episode précis of the first two seasons, 49 episodes in all, accompanied by great photos. I'm not sure what X-phile needs the Nielsen ratings for the series (on a lovely graph), but who am I to quibble? Big is more, and more is better -- particularly when the space is wasted on such nice grace notes as U.S. maps (pinpointed with major sites of story action) and brief but detailed character dossiers.

I assume that publisher HarperPrism will grant us an updated volume later in the year, replacing the rather lame actor profiles with the third season's worth of juicy paranoia.



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