Author Cliff Ball draws on his
considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a
convincing retelling of humanity’s time on Earth.
Told mostly from the point of view of a newly sworn-in U.S.
President, we learn that Earth has existed under the shadow of secrets
and lies for thousands of years. As Noah was building his wooden ark to
escape the flood, a highly developed race of people called Terrans was
designing starships and planning to leave the earth entirely.
The Terrans travel to an Earth-like planet and set up a colony,
naming it Terra. They explore their new system and meet many friendly
cultures. They also meet the Ragnor, a race obsessed with military
conquest. The Ragnor attack Terran ships relentlessly and without cause.
Soon the Terrans return to Earth to see if their human cousins have
advanced. They find Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and decide the
earth humans are far too primitive to help Terra fight the Ragnor.
Some Terrans decide to interfere with human development and pose as
Earth people. From the times of King Arthur to Genghis Khan, Terrans
make their mark on history.
Centuries later, a spy base is set up on Mars. From Mars, the
Terrans watch as the Great War explodes in Europe and later as World
War Two engulfs the entire planet.
The Ragnor visit Earth in cloaked ships and begin abducting and
experimenting on humans. Tales of abduction and UFOs spread around the
globe. A Ragnor scout ship crashes in New Mexico in 1947. The Americans
develop the Area 51 program at Roswell. The project’s mandate is to use
the technology from the downed alien craft to defend the United States
against her enemies.
Sixty years later, a secret starship is ready, the crew trained, and
the newly elected Present must address the nation and the world. He
orders the ship to attack Earth’s alien foe. Is one advanced ship
enough to match the combined fleets of both Terra and Ragnor? Is
America on the brink of its greatest military victory since D-Day? Or
is it doomed to fail like no other combat mission in history?
Ball has written an intriguing new take on history. He keeps the
pages turning, explaining historical events in his own unique style.
The story builds to an explosive climax that won’t leave you
disappointed.
By: Cliff Ball
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Publication Date: March 2009
ISBN: 978-1602643413
Reviewed by: Will Gabbett
Review Date: June 10, 2009
In the new book, Don’t Mess With Earth, intellectually and
scientifically advanced humans, as well as aliens from a distant world,
have descended on Earth. They have been experimenting and meddling in
the affairs of humans for the advancement of their own species for
centuries. But wait! Earthlings have caught on to the devious ploys and
are fighting back.
Don’t Mess With Earth begins with the President of the United States
getting ready to hold a press conference to explain how Earth has been
manipulated. “…it all started a few thousand years ago…” The story then
jumps back to a time when Earth was populated by primitive people with
the exception of the Terrans, a race of technologically advanced
humans. The Terrans worked constantly to advance their society while
those around them fought and scrounged for food. Eventually, the
Terrans were able to build a space ship and leave Earth, and all its
problems, behind.
With the help of another alien race, the Terrans exponentially
advanced their technology and soon were in conflict with the Ragnor,
another advanced race. While these two enemies battled each other, they
both descended on Earth – the Terrans to meddle and the Ragnor to
experiment.
Once the author presents the history of the Terrans and Ragnors, he
then brings us back to Earth and the reader is taken on a history trip
where we meet Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Michelangelo, Galileo, and
King Arthur along with many other historical figures. In the U.S., we
meet Amelia Earhart and Chuck Yeager. The reader sees how some famous
characters from the past were actually Terrans, and how these advanced
people affected history.
The story chronicles various historical events around the world,
including the well-known alien spaceship crash in New Mexico in the
late 40s. In Don’t Mess With Earth, the crash is real. When a Ragnor
space vessel crashes on Earth, one alien is captured ...
I just thought I’d take the time to post what I’m writing about next,
since I don’t blog as much as I should. I’m currently working on a
re-write of my novella Out of Time. Since I published it last year,
after working on it for what seemed like an eternity, so I had it
published even though it wasn’t what it should have been. After about a
year or so, I realize it needs more in depth characterization of more
than one character, and a lot more details. Those that have read it
have told me it’s a good story, but, I it could be so much more. So,
watch for a re-release some day after I write the next two that I’m
also working on.
The next novel I working on is a sequel to my
science fiction novel Don’t Mess With Earth. I always intended Don’t
Mess With Earth to have a sequel, because I intentionally made a
misleading title because while you’re reading this current novel, you
think Earth is going to win in the end. Once you get to the ending, I
hope everyone wonders what happens next, so the next title is
tentatively called Shattered Earth . *Spoilers ahead* So far, those
survivors on Earth who the Ragnor didn’t find, decide to build a fleet
of starships with Area 51 technology, armed to the teeth with every
conceivable weapon available. They also get aided by another alien
species who have tried to stay out of the conflict between the Terrans,
Ragnor, and Earthlings, but the remaining Ragnor go on a rampage
throughout the Milky Way. An epic battle will ensue, but, who remains
standing will be currently undecided.
The third novel I’m
writing isn’t science fiction at all. It’s about the United States
being taken over by a dictator(I leave the political persuasion up to
the reader), who dissolves the military, creates a Civilian Defense
Force, has them assassinate the previous president, try to silence
through the Fairness Doctrine and then try to kill the main opposition
who happens to be a talk radio show host. The president decides that
Christians, the 3+ day a week kind, are also the enemy(along with
members of the opposition party), and he creates “Re-Education
Centers.” States like Texas and Oklahoma secede, taking over the old
military bases and the weapons on those bases, while the President
tries to force those States back into the Union, causing a civil war in
the process. The main character is part of the CDF, is really apathetic
about politics and everything ...
I just saw the new Star Trek movie, and I
was expecting it to be kind of like “Cloverfield,” which was a total
crappy monster movie. Now, I’m a major nitpicker with all things Trek,
I prefer them to stick with the canon, so, even though I watched all 5
series and 10 movies, I was expecting this to be like most other
re-boots, a total disaster. It wasn’t, it was kind of like Batmans’
reboot, a pleasant surprise. The alternate universe idea was done
right, in my opinion.
First off my nitpicks. I’d say the first fifteen minutes of the
movie(I checked my watch) after the prologue, I was disappointed or
annoyed with, because it just made no sense to me that anyone would
have a Corvette 200+ years after it was made; but, if we’re supposed to
see that Kirk is a rebel even as a kid, well I guess it makes some
sense. What’s up with the cop robot by the way? The whole bar scene
thing, well, it reminded me of Star Wars a little bit. Plus, aren’t
Orion slave girls supposed to be just that, Orion Slave Girls? Why is
one in the Academy? Plus, they never explained why a starship was being
built on Earth in Iowa, what happened to Utopia Planitia? In the books
and in the original series, wasn’t the Enterprise something
like 15 years old by the time Kirk took command? Isn’t there supposed
to be at least one or two starships or some kind of fighter craft
protecting Earth and Vulcan? What about those space stations? Isn’t the
universe supposed to explode when young Spock meets old Spock? At least
that’s what Doc Brown always said!
Now, what I liked. This movie had all sorts of references to TOS,
TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, and a couple of the movies. Scotty said
something about Admiral Archer when he was younger(wouldn’t he have
been way too old by then?), the scorpion thingee reminded me a lot of
the Wrath of Khan, but this time you just assumed Captain Pike told
them everything. Then, when Nero yelled “Spooock!!!” it flashed me back
to “Khaaannn!!” The whole time travel revenge thing kind of reminded me
of the Voyager episode “Year of Hell” where the scientist kept making
changes to history and kept ruining it and taking it further and
further from where it was originally. Too bad destroying the Romulan
ship didn’t reset history. When Kirk first meets older Spock, I thought
it was cool when he told Kirk that he would always ...
