Product Description

Advanced humans, calling themselves Terrans, leave a highly corrupt and mostly primitive Earth to search out a new planet to inhabit. Once on a new planet, they begin exploring the rest of the galaxy and begin watching over their more primitive human cousins back on Earth. Some Terrans are well known in human history, people such as King Arthur, Galileo, Genghis Khan, and Amelia Earhart. The Terrans come across an alien species, called the Ragnor, that experiment on other species for no reason other than that they can. The Ragnor discover Earth by accident and start their abductions and experiments on the first set of humans they come across, the colonists on Roanoke Island. The Ragnor continue to cause mayhem and mischief on Earth, eventually getting shot down over Roswell, New Mexico. Once the humans on Earth figure out they're being manipulated by both sides, President Truman has the United States embark on a plan to pay back both the Terrans and the Ragnor with the technology created by Area 51. Once the plan is initiated, will Earth succeed in its payback or fail gloriously?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1832949 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

Don't Mess With Science Fiction, Please!
I'm a huge SciFi fan and read so much of it in so many incarnations that I always look for new things to read. Unfortunately, I should have done some research ahead of time before buying this book.

For the generous four star reviews, the main key word is generous.

The writing isn't strained in places, the writing is nonexistent in any incarnation of "good" writing.

From the first page, I began to question a few things. The first was the fact that the book is written in font 12-14, and the pages are so narrow that one page from this book maybe takes up a third of page from a standard pocket paperback. With 180 pages total for this novella, that comes to about 60 pages of writing.

Now, this book could be a novel and contain plenty of information for 180 or even 600 pages, but that is where the author's style come into question. Maybe the fact that the only other published work by the author was in a $35 dollar competition for Faith Magazine should have turned on the sirens in my head.

From the first 18 pages (as far as I read before being unable to take any more), I realized that this is some sort of practical joke. I've written short stories better than this, but even I had not dared to even consider self publishing them due to overall lack of quality. This author has no qualms however.

It is simply too hard to describe the lack of character and the fact that the whole 18 pages retold the story of the Terrans in a rambling fashion (similar to some of my writing done maybe in 8th or 9th grade). For an advanced race, the Terrans have some dumb starfleet ensigns that need the captain to explain to them how the world works.

Another (of the two) reviewers states that the author "draws on his considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a convincing retelling of humanity's time on Earth." Well, to begin with, while the Terrans are testing jet engines, the rest of the world is just starting to work on steam power. I get the concept of civilization rising and falling over and over, but if they had steam power, why is it that Noah built his ark out of wood without using any of the knowledge of the time? Even this I can swallow, but the next few encounters are outrageous. After about a thousand years, the Terrans are a thriving civilization with a full army and a star fleet (this, from a few thousand people after only a couple of centuries). They decided to visit earth, and determine that there are only one hundred million people, all living within four thousand miles of each other, the densest location being Egypt. Here, the Terrans find the Jews building the third Pyramid and the Sphinx. After leaving and reporting back, the Terrans return in another thousand years, and find that there are now three hundred million people, and that the center of civilization is Rome. The Terrans witness the death of Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony taking power, and leave yet again.

This was the part where I had to set the book down.

For one, if the Terrans came at the time of Julius Caesar, the time was ~50B.C. That means that the Terrans came around ~1050B.C. to witness the Jews building the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and the world flood came around ~2000B.C. Even if we go on this demented Christian look at world history, the dates are off by a mile. Not to mention the fact that there were people living on ALL continents of the world, in every corner, not just around Egypt.

It's hard to come up with a conclusion to this, but all have to say, from the style and direction of this book in the first 18 pages, I'm sure that the people of Earth will be triumphant over the evil Ragnor and the pesky Terrans...with their one small space scout ship.

A good concept, very poorly executed. A shame.

It would encourage a new generation of writers.
Because the general sentiment is going to be, "I can write better stuff than this &*$$@@". I will recommend that the author to do better research in future works as some had already mentioned on prior reviews. For my part, his portrayal of the US Military was cartoonish and insulting. There is not "Commanders" in the US Air Force as a rank. No serious attempts to contact the Terrans and discover their motivation? The "President" not getting impeached and sent to prison for ordering a genocidal attack? Russia and China attack the US and are still around to invade it? With what? Oh, please.

I developed more sympathy for the putative bad guys, the Ragnors who come across as hostile as Malvin the Martian of Bugs Bunny fame. Everyone else fell quite short.

Don't Mess With Earth
Author Cliff Ball draws on his considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a convincing retelling of humanity's time on Earth.

Told mostly from the point of view of a newly sworn-in U.S. President, we learn that Earth has existed under the shadow of secrets and lies for thousands of years. As Noah was building his wooden ark to escape the flood, a highly developed race of people called Terrans was designing starships and planning to leave the Earth entirely.

The Terrans travel to an Earth-like planet and set up a colony, naming it Terra. They explore their new system and meet many friendly cultures. They also meet the Ragnor, a race obsessed with military conquest. The Ragnor attack Terran ships relentlessly and without cause.

Soon the Terrans return to Earth to see if their human cousins have advanced. They find Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and decide the earth humans are far too primitive to help Terra fight the Ragnor.

Some Terrans decide to interfere with human development and pose as Earth people. From the times of King Arthur to Genghis Khan, Terrans make their mark on history.

Centuries later, a spy base is set up on Mars. From Mars, the Terrans watch as the Great War explodes in Europe and later as World War Two engulfs the entire planet.

The Ragnor visit Earth in cloaked ships and begin abducting and experimenting on humans. Tales of abduction and UFOs spread around the globe. A Ragnor scout ship crashes in New Mexico in 1947. The Americans develop the Area 51 program at Roswell. The project's mandate is to use the technology from the downed alien craft to defend the United States against her enemies.

Sixty years later, a secret starship is ready, the crew trained, and the newly elected Present must address the nation and the world. He orders the ship to attack Earth's alien foe. Is one advanced ship enough to match the combined fleets of both Terra and Ragnor? Is America on the brink of its greatest military victory since D-Day? Or is it doomed to fail like no other combat mission in history?

Ball has written an intriguing new take on history. He keeps the pages turning, explaining historical events in his own unique style. The story builds to an explosive climax that won't leave you disappointed.

I recommend Don't Mess With Earth to Sci-Fi and alternative history fans.

Reviewed by WR Potter for Reader's Choice Reviews.