Little Green Men (First Contact)

A great novella that makes you think out of the usual sf box of tricks! I felt undertones of forbidden planet in a strange way as well as Philip K Dick. Peter’s sf is amongst the best I’ve ever read and above all the are so readable - great stories, great characters and plausible science interwoven with factual science - can’t recommend highly enough

This is short, but it was better that the author kept the book at the length it needed to be for the story to be told, than try to pad it out. As with the other Cawdron books I have read, it is not great on character drawing or development, that is not his style / strength. It is however engaging and there are moments of genuine tension if you go with it. Any seasoned sci-fi reader will guess where some aspects of the story are going, but it was certainly not tediously predictable and kept my interest. The title and the cover suggest a much lighter story and it is actually quite dark and bleak. It is a decent short read and I enjoyed it.

Great short story and for me a definate page turner. It really got me excited and I read it in one sitting

This is a fun story but the strong language has left me well unimpressed. I felt that I would have liked to know more about the planet, which sounded absolutely fascinating but having said that - the action bounces along nicely and the pictures that the author draws in your mind are very clear. I loved the reference to events of '3 centuries ago' which turns out to refer to a time in living memory. As I said, shame about the language, I would have liked to read more by this author.

I did enjoy this book.Classic S.F., it was quick and easy to read with an engaging plot line and an excellent building of tension, especially in the middle section. It was, perhaps, a little predictable given that it was a tribute book to Philip K Dick and the characterisations were only brush strokes. But this latter was compensated for by the vivid atmospheric descriptions and the short length precluded too much in depth writing.Only 4 stars rather meanly given but it is a book which will stay in my memory, fondly, for a long time. And I will be looking out for others by this author.I first read Peter Cawdron's story almost a year ago: my review is above Recently I was sent a revised copy by the author. The book is now told in the present as the action unfolds so that what was a good story has now become far more immediate and, consequently, dramatic. The tension between the crew members stranded aboard ship and confronted with the unknown and, apparently impossible events taking place around them, builds powerfully in a way absent in the original. Despite knowing what was happening from my previous reading, i was caught in the fears felt by the protagonists as they struggled to make sense of the situation and survive the attack of the little green men.An intriguing tale, well told.I have therefore upgraded my rating from four to five stars. Highly recommended to all who love science fiction, adventure and something to ponder after the story is told.

Sci-fi is a very hit-and-miss genre, especially since- unlike other genres- is has so much space in which to work, and so many different options and variations that are open to it. It can be very hard for authors to explore this genre effectively, without becoming bogged down in their own thought process as well as in the fine details of technology and scientific theories that don't exist (yet) in the real world. A lot of sci-fi ends up rambling, and the story gets lost somewhere along the way.This is not true for 'Little Green Men.' The story is direct and concise, the technology described in a manner that makes it sound functional without the minute details to spoil it, and the science is plausible- again, avoiding the fine details that can spoil it, while still sounding reasonable. The characters are also very good- vivid, but not over-explored. Perhaps it would have been nice to have reams of backstory and information for them all, but actually, the story doesn't need it and they don't suffer from not having it. The story feels like a snap-shot- and episode in a bigger tale, perhaps- but that does not detract from it in any way.I very much enjoyed this book, and I would definitely recommend it to others.

A short but original-idea novella

If you have read any of the other First Contact novels then read this. Similar but different and at this price, what have you got to lose?

Another voyage into the world of ‘First Contact’ by an author who excels in this genre. Like most of Peter Cawdron’s books, this story is a standalone novella about an exploratory and mining mission that approaches an unknown world. In the course of the venture, they are attacked by ‘Little Green Men’ and how they survive and learn is a story with many twists and turns.Well worth reading.

A very good story in the style of Robert Sheckley and the classic science fiction of the 1950's and 60's, but taking place in England of the current age. I was tickled that the story begins in Coventry, a town I knew well as I lived and went to school in Leamington Spa, just a few miles away. The story itself is unusual, full of moral questions and how we would react to a spectactular visitation by a giant (alien ?) stone man that, just by walking forward, becomes a danger to anything that stands in its way. No more spoilers from me then, but five stars and I am looking forward to reading more scifi novels by Peter Cawdron.

This book is hard sf wrapped in a horror shell. The first few pages are relatively sedate, but after that it kicks into overdrive and doesn't slow down until the end.Little Green Men is an homage to classic sci-fi horror films, such as Alien and The Thing - Cawdron writes about this in the afterword - and, like them, it contains a twist I did not see coming.Speaking of afterwords, if you are a reader who likes to read the afterword before you read the novel, you really should refrain from that in this case - it will spoil the story. I have read a few of the author's novels before (and enjoyed them) but this has a very different tone to the other stories I have read.Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended.

Little Green Men is a great, page turner of a story. It's a not a long story, more a novella than a novel, detailing the experiences of the crew of space ship Dei Gracia on a frozen, distant world. The writing is brisk and the tension of the story is perfect. Halfway through the book there was a spot where I stopped and said "Holy Crap, I never saw that coming!" It's a great puzzle of a story that in the end fits together with a very elegant and satisfying logic.Peter Cawdron says that he wrote Little Green Men as a tribute to the works of Philip K. Dick and the classic science fiction stories of the 1950s. He's certainly succeeded, the story manages to mix the pulse-pounding fear of the Alien movies with some of the big questions of perception and existence that one normally associates with authors like Dick, Asimov or Clarke. The interactions of the crew reminded me of the best of the old Star Trek episodes.I don't want to give away any of the story, this is a book to be read and enjoyed, not explained. The book was free when I downloaded it to my Kindle, but the story is well worth the regular price of 99 cents. Such deals exist to introduce the reader to a new writer. Little Green Men certainly worked on that level for me, I've already downloaded some of Peter Cawdron's other stories.

It's a very nice and classic science fiction story. Once you start, it's difficult to stop; easy reading, I really enjoyed it.