On Earth as It Is on Television

April 17, 2023
Jane’s cutesy debut takes the old sci-fi motif of first alien contact to a far-fetched new frontier. Mysterious spaceships briefly hover over Earth’s big cities before disappearing without a trace, leaving humanity baffled. Three story lines humorously trace human and feline reactions in the fallout. Long-suffering husband Blaine bemusedly supports his wife, Anne, who he calls “superwoman”; two TV-addicted children; and their grumpy cat, Mr. Meow-Mitts, on a haphazard road trip to Disney World. Meanwhile, Oliver Smith, who’s been in a coma for decades following a terrible car accident while trying to save his sister from an abusive stepfather, abruptly wakes and is adopted by a telepathic cat, Bouchard. And spoiled Malibu teen Heather chafes against the cheesy lifestyle her wealthy TV producer stepdad Jack P and his cat, Bastet, provide her. When the alien ships—piloted by meerkat-like beings who mistake Earth’s cats for its dominant species—return, these humans gradually achieve a joint acceptance of otherness. Feline psychology plays a pivotal role in Jane’s whimsical if somewhat heavy-handed admonition that even when humans seem strangest to one another, they have more in common than they think. It’s fun, but over the top. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

April 15, 2023
When spaceships hover over Earth's major cities for an extended period of time and leave without doing anything, humans struggle with the way forward, particularly a few beings that live in the Los Angeles area. The departure of the spaceships starts a domino effect for some, but this isn't a novel about fighting the aliens or the politics of how to deal with them but about family and love. It turns out the aliens have been on Earth for the past 19 years and have created relationships against orders from the home planet. They aren't sure what the future holds, but they want to protect their loved ones. Cats, television, and bacon all play important roles in the book; cats can perceive things humans can't and are given powers that help the characters find their way, and the funny way television changes the aliens' minds about their own culture is quite the commentary on our world. A compelling plot with some quirky features makes this book a great entry for a new sf reader.

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April 1, 2023

DEBUT Jane's novel subverts the classic first-contact story to explore humanity's responses to uncertainty in the modern age. Here, aliens came to Earth--and then left, leaving humanity to process their new place in the universe. Through interconnected stories Jane details the aftermath. Passive dad Blaine tries to corral his children while his wife acts increasingly erratic. Resentful teen Heather suspects there's something unnatural about her perfect stepdad. And Oliver, unresponsive for the last 20 years, awakens and makes an unexpected friend. Their three stories converge while an increasingly panicked world waits to see if the aliens are coming back. As the title suggests, the novel comments on how people process their lives through mass media. It eschews intergalactic conflict for a meditation on the importance of family and the joys of a mundane existence, no matter what crisis hangs overhead. When key confrontations arrive, their resolutions are oddly subdued, but maybe that's the point. Not everything is a spectacle. Most of the time, the world doesn't end. VERDICT Jane's energetic and contemporary debut will appeal to fans of family-focused sci-fi like Mike Chen's Light Years from Home.--Erin Niederberger

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