The Latest(ish)

Be afraid, very afraid. Someone somewhere, probably in a French newspaper, is soon going to make a big deal out of the fact that all three U.S. television networks are debuting series about extraterrestrial invasions of Earth. Much as the enjoyable, and perfectly straightforward, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” has long been reinterpreted as a parable of Cold War paranoia (it was nothing of the sort, of course), so “Invasion” (ABC), “Threshold” (CBS), and “Surface” (NBC) will undoubtedly be viewed as an expression of American unease at the threat posed by the alien civilization of Islamic extremism, and, yes, this [...]

Prime-Time Space Invaders

September 20, 2005

"Invasion" (ABC), "Threshold" (CBS), and "Surface" (NBC); published originally in The New York Sun

To British author Chris Cleave, it must have seemed like a dream come true. The rights to Incendiary, his first book, had been snapped up, an unusually large print-run had been prepared, and an extensive promotional campaign was in the works. In a sign of a best-seller to come, glossy posters advertising Incendiary were already up on the walls of London’s subway system designed to entice commuters into buying what many thought would be the summer’s big read. And then, on the very day that Cleave’s book was released, everything went horribly, tragically wrong. His dream, in a sense, became [...]

Incendiary Device

September 15, 2005

Incendiary, by Chris Cleave; published originally in National Review Online