“The Laika Vega Years – Aliens on the Moon”
by Danny Ruxton
To give it its full title takes a while and with respect to that title, the book takes a while to read as well.
Danny Ruxton is the creator of this science faction story. It starts with a note from the author explaining that this is his first real book and is written for the screen. He even includes a list of characters and the actors he would like to play their parts. This is the first real hint you have that this book is going to be something different. It is, but not in the way most people would expect. I will write a little more about that later.
The book covers supposedly secret deals that were made with the American government and weaves them in a science fiction story. It tells us about a group of aliens called The Greys that want to live on the moon. It talks about the secret meetings, the agreement of peace and mutual aid and the secret “behind the scenes” machinations of other aliens and their attempts to undermine the supposedly good work that is going on.
It also introduces us to the main character of this adventure and tells us a little bit about him and his first trip into space. To say more would spoil it, if you choose to read it, but many conspiracy theorists will recognise, within this story, a lot of the urban myths that regularly appear on the Internet and in modern media.
The story has a lot of scope and unfortunately not a lot of details. It glosses over a lot of more complicated information and over simplifies information that we really would like to learn a lot more about. Because it is written for cinema, it reads very much like a plot treatise and not a completely fleshed out story. At times it feels like words are placed into the mouths of the characters and what could have been a massive plot twist becomes another matter of fact explanation.
Don’t get me wrong, the story is there, but it feels like it was written in a rush and lacks a great deal of depth and character building. In essence, it reads like the plot of a movie has been placed in a very simplistic way onto paper. There are even basic illustrations sparsely placed at intervals during the book. I assume this is because the reader needs them to visualise the authors’ concepts and ideas.
Now to the formatting of the book itself.
First off I have to say that this book does not appear to have been edited. At times there is a complete lack of punctuation and sentences seem to just stop in mid flow. At times a constant lack of grammar and spell check takes place. Words get repeated, replaced with different words or words with the same sound but different meanings. The story formatting is all over the place and it feels like it has been written by a young teenager without any thought for the observer. It is in fact a reader’s nightmare, being faced paced and overly simplistic in some places and a lot slower with repetitive detail in others. I would have liked to have seen more about the characters but instead we get a two dimensional explanation about the main characters life story and precious little about any of the others, except for the villains that is. I would love to see some speech marks where they are supposed to be, but when they are used you usually only get them at either the beginning or the end of the conversation.
This book reads like one of those badly translated manuals that you find with certain cheap electronic devices. It has the content, but it’s not always clear how it should be read or even whether it is in the right order.
I could go on, but it would seem like this book review is all about the negatives. The truth is that there is a story in there just waiting to be re-written with a proper editor and maybe some character clarification too. It needs more depth; it needs to be a little more imaginative and it needs a little more excitement. All this can be achieved by taking what is already there and writing it as a truly immersive story and not as if you were watching an audio described film.
This could have been a great book, written in the 1950’s style, with a Flash Gordon type appeal. Instead it falls far short of what I expect of modern Sci-Fi and that is a great shame. To be honest I preferred the children’s book that he included as a freebie.
For further details on how to obtain the book, visit http://www.aliensonthemoons.com
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