Buy this book
Books N Bytes participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org. We may earn a commission when you purchase through our links at no extra cost to you.
Going Alien is the Jeffrey A. Carver short fiction collection that pulls together pieces from across his career, with several stories set in the broader Chaos Chronicles universe and standalone work in his other SF settings. The collection serves as a useful entry point for readers curious about Carver's short-form work.
Carver's strengths in Going Alien are the careful first-contact procedural pieces and the alien-intelligence stories that have been his signature throughout his career. The hard-SF physics is handled with appropriate care; the alien characters are written as genuinely alien rather than as analogues for human factions. Fans of Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep or C. J. Cherryh's Chanur sequence will recognize the careful alien-perspective rigor.
The collection is uneven, as collections are. The strongest pieces hold their own next to better-known short fiction from the period.
Three stars. A useful sampler for new Carver readers. Recommended for SF readers interested in first-contact fiction. The Going Alien Jeffrey A. Carver collection is best read alongside the Chaos Chronicles novels rather than as a standalone introduction; the novel sequence carries the stronger long-form payoff.
Related reads
If you liked Going Alien
Sunborn
by Jeffrey A. Carver
The fourth Chaos Chronicles novel from Jeffrey A. Carver. SF that takes its actual science seriously while keeping its emotional center intact.
The Infinity Link
by Jeffrey A. Carver
The Infinity Link by Jeffrey A. Carver 1984 review. A first-contact hard SF novel about a NASA technician who becomes the conduit for a deep-space alien dialogue that nobody else knows is happening.
Battlestar Galactica
by Jeffrey A. Carver
Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver review. The 2006 novelization of Ronald D. Moore's reboot mini-series. Carver doing serious work in a media-tie-in form.
The Rapture Effect
by Jeffrey A. Carver
The Rapture Effect by Jeffrey A. Carver 1987 review. A near-future SF novel about a small team racing to interpret a wave of mysterious mass disappearances before the government does.
Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century
by Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card editing an SF retrospective anthology. His introductions are worth the book on their own.
Man In His Time
by Brian W. Aldiss
A second short fiction collection. The title story alone earns the entry.
More by this author