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4.0 out of 5 stars
Humanity's last days, Jan 30 2002
It is possible David Gerrold is better known for his Star Trek novels than the "War Against the Chtorr" series. For me, his writing is engaging at many levels. As works of pure adventure, they're good but as philosophical explorations of a horrible future, they're great. Some will find his work a little preachy and some will find it juvenile. I am lucky enough to sit in between these two categories and just find these books on my bedside table again and again.There are currently four books in the series, "A Matter for Men," "A Day for Damnation," "A Rage for Revenge" and "A Season for Slaughter." I understand three more books are planned, "A Method for Madness," "A Time for Treason" and "A Case for Courage" but it's been so long I have given up hope of seeing them. The original four are hard enough to find as it is. The series describes an alien invasion that was totally original for it's day and even now has not been bested in the creative stakes. Imagine an alien biosphere that is seeding the Earth with selected ecosystems, evolved in much more competitive evolutionary circumstances that can be found locally. Each organism is both capable of out competing its local variants as well as paving the way for more complex life forms, higher up the evolutionary pyramid. Viruses, super algae, motile plants and omnivorous gastropods are just some of the amazing variety of specimens that are wiping out the Earth's native ecology with frightening rapidity. All of this is explored through the eyes and ears of a young American, James McCarthy. He survives the plague years only to emerge into a devastated society that is barely away it is now at war with an alien threat. Through bad luck and bad planning James is quickly submerged directly in the fight and quickly becomes an expert on "worms" simply because he manages to keep surviving contact. Intermixed with desperate fights, we are introduced to the world political scene that is hampering humanity's slim chance for continued existence. Jim is drawn into a secret organisation whose sole aim is killing the alien menace, at whatever cost. The methods they employ are drastic and shocking but hard to argue with as Jim quickly learns after seeing a little girl executed rather than go on living in a worm's larder. These are challenging books that are not for everyone. However, if you like Heinlein or Christopher Wyndham, then you should enjoy these novels tremendously.
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by David Gerrold
