Review: A realistic look at what would happen if aliens came to conquer an unprepared Earth
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2014
Realistically speaking, such an alien "Invasion" could take place today or tomorrow, with us here on Earth without the technical means to do anything effective to stop it.I thought that this was quite an exciting read, and up to the high standards set by many of Nuttall's other well received science fiction stories.It is a "truism"--and a truism because it is indisputably true--that, if they wanted to, whoever controlled the Space above and around the Earth could control the Earth, since it would be a very simple matter for such space farers to just accelerate cheap, plentiful chunks of rock and shower them down on targets on the Earth, where such "hyper-kinetic missiles" would land and detonate with the destructive power of nuclear weapons.This a virtually unstoppable blackmail weapon, enabling such spacemen to force us here on Earth to do whatever those in control of Space wanted us to do, because enough such strikes and not only would the casualty count be potentially in the hundreds of millions or even in the billions, but if such a bombardment went on long enough Earth would be rendered uninhabitable; the Aliens would have created an "extinction level event."**SPOILER ALERT**"Invasion" explored what would happen if a force of billions of aliens arrived to displace Earthmen and to occupy the Earth, to ruthlessly subjugate and rule over us, and to impose their religious "Truth" on Earthmen who were in the defenseless position we are in today:One ramshackle, trouble-plagued "International Space Station" in orbit, the U.S. "Space Program" effectively out of business,  a mothballed space shuttle or two that could possibly be made ready to get up to orbit, experimental, weak lasers, a few rockets capable of lofting small payloads into orbit.  But, no real, active, aggressive "Space Program," no true, routine spaceflight, no real space ships--much less warships--no settlements or colonies in orbit, at the Lagrange Points, on the Moon or Mars, on any other planets or moons in our Solar System, or in the Asteroid Belt, and certainly no space fleet, no orbital, or other really effective ground or space-based defenses.We are naked and without defenses against the first true spacefaring race with bad intentions that happens to come along.Nuttall paints an arresting picture as Earthmen scramble to survive, to adapt, to forge an international alliance to fight these Aliens, and to put together some sort of attack in Space to overcome these adversaries and their huge military advantages. In the end--and after a billion humans killed and widespread, catastrophic destruction and disruption on Earth--humans only able to hurt the Aliens enough to force an end to active warfare that leaves permanent alien settlements in the Middle East and Australia, and an agreement that the Aliens are able to proselytize throughout the world.