Review: A different perspective on alien invasions
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2013
Readers who expect aliens to lose to Deus ex machina schemes, as done by H G Wells, or technical absurdities, plugging our PC into their warship, are in for a surprise.  It is indeed possible to give our world a much more severe challenge, a challenge that is outside historical experience, so that victory or defeat is in doubt.  The Inca Empire failed to solve the challenge of Spanish invaders.  The Islamic world eventually solved the problem of the Crusaders, but not before the invaders had killed vast numbers of people and captured one of the holiest places for three religions.Nuttall gives us an alien invasion confronting near-future technology.  The aliens have limitations of their own, some quite surprising and original.  The puzzles and solutions faced by our world are indeed an Outside Context Problem, one for which there is no experience.  Outside Context Problem is a page turner in the classic Nuttall style.