Spectacular Silver Earthling

Had the pleasure of receiving an advanced reader copy of 'Spectacular Silver Earthling.' I'm not going to turn down a science fiction other world story with a humor bent. It's a concept too rare and infrequent within the publishing industry, and somehow this delightful creation landed on my lap. Sure, I get it, some people are nervous around the idea of exploring other words or concepts outside of their comfort zone. But, it was such a humorous and joyous twist that it makes me wonder why this isn't a gold standard within the science fiction genre. It's fresh and so very needed.

Other world science fiction's premise is a ton of world building in a foreign place with strange vegetation and wild biology with a whole host of rules that don't apply to our Earth existence. Then again, 'Avatar' was one of the highest grossing movies ever because it had a Pocahontas romance plot, so even actual aliens can't be that alienating to the general public. The only reason why other world stories are weird to people is because most of the time they're not attached to a story the average reader can relate to. Johnstone solved this conundrum perfectly. What if there was a camera crew led by a hyper, showboating robot called Hubcap who is filling in for a year 3000 AD-ish Mike Rowe? Dirty Jobs plus Mythbusters, and if Hubcap, Elliott and team don't find the most interesting and nutty things to film on the latest space colony, they're going to lose funding and be replaced by a fashion show. The horror! Also, everyone keeps freaking out from the invisible frenzy plague that requires needling people in the neck on top of it adds the needed tension.

There's the plight, then there is the drive to film rocket seed pods, the steroid supergophers, and to chase around alien pterodactyls like crazed maniacs for a share of their dinner (it carries an antidote.) The perspective mostly attaches to Hubcap and his grounding co-host, Elliott, whom you need to calm the excitable Hubcap. And dang, is Hubcap ever hilarious! The dialogue is genius and outrageous. He pranks, he has insane and wild ideas, but he's also a fleshed-out character. He may seem over-the-top and a jokester out to boost morale, but in a former profession he was a rescue bot. Chatty and exuberant, always looking to get a laugh; it's because he's invested in the physical and emotional well-being of others. So there is the protectiveness, the coddling, but also cheek. A character as such is hard to give a realistic drive, and Johnstone developed a perfect balance for the reader to attach to and be carried along the story with. (Though by the end of the book, I suspect that Ms. Johnstone is capable of some heinous April Fools' pranks based on what is in this book.)

Dialogue and Hubcap's crazed ideas for the best shot make the story relatable and fun. Not all are realized, which makes the humor not overbearing. The one problem with this story is that in the search for footage, the film crew does film and interact in some scenarios that do nothing to push the story forward. The three arcs are distinct: Finding good footage not to be cancelled, how the unexplained frenzy plague begins to impede on everything, then, the discovery of intelligent life. While I appreciate down time and bonding within a story, to ground it, the book felt a little long in places with content that wasn't either needed or could be attached to another chapter/segment. Example I'll go with is what is on the book cover. The film crew is following the colonists as they're trying to subdue and steal the dinners from basically giant dino pelicans. After that success, they go and try to also fight giant crabs and one of the film crew gets banged up. Of course, this is to challenge the crew and make them aware of the dangers as well as get Hubcap to be extra guarded about the fragility of life around him. On the other hand, the same character could have been injured by the pelican instead, and the crab sequence could have been cut without much care. Same goes for the supergopher section. While it fleshes out the world, and the supergophers was a natural story element that introduces the readers to how the colonists grow their edible crops (which is very important world building! A lot of authors forget to feed their characters in other world sci-fi), it doesn't move the plot along. The story slowed in places because of world building, but at least it was world building done properly, and not a grand prologue slapped on the front.

One of the other elements that perplexed me about the world building wasn't exactly why the humans were on this world, but why there were entire teams devoted to harvesting the alien resources. The commercial value of the seedpods that were being harvested wasn't elaborated on, and the sedative that was collected on the planet had yet to be marketed. I get that startups take time before they build a commercially-viable product, I personally wanted to see a little more of the economic side. Okay, I'm weird, and nitpicking. Johnstone created a novel alien language and biology that was some of the most unique I've encountered, and my 'major' criticism is what the going rate of an explosive seedpod is. That is how trivial the issues are with this book, as in none. Aside maybe the pacing being a bit slow in the odd place, this is an amazing novel, and any emotion I could express is the shear indignation that as a reader I feel robbed by an industry that traditionally snubs something this clever.

This is one of my top reads of 2022. Read it. Appreciate it. It's smart, clever, funny, and a type of sci-fi that everyone needs right now in a sea of dystopias and flaky space operas.