Skip to main content

The Intergalactic Interloper by Delas Heras: book review






The Intergalactic Interloper (2020) is set in New York City in 1995. 

 

An alien vessel lands on the roof of a New York building in the shape of a water tower. In the command chair sits a turtle-like creature with two heads. It has scaly skin, four yellow eyes, four arms, and two long antennae protruding from its bald skulls. 

 

The extraterrestrial’s name is AxzleProva: Axzle is the male head and Prova is the female head. AxzleProva is cautious, venturing out of its space ship only at night to do its job for the Amalgamation: to identify intelligent life on planet Earth, according to specific criteria. 

 

Ollie works in a bookstore and is a musician, a guitarist, living in his tiny New York studio. He hears something crashing down onto the rooftop. In a panic, he searches for his cat Pirate.

 

It was regrettable that AxzleProva had been ‘conspicuously visible to that human male [Ollie] for a brief moment.’ Ollie, on the other hand, was trying to make sense of what he had just seen. 

 

Ollie tells his band-mates Wally and Miguel about his encounter with a space turtle. Of course they don’t believe him. 

 

The singer in the band is Zara who works in an animal hospital while studying to be a vet. She helps Ollie look for Pirate the missing cat.

 

Handyman Manolo is making his regular inspection of the water tower on the roof of a building, but he stops just before going to the roof. His sixth sense told him to stay away. Retired Mrs Nora Butler is president of the New York branch of Bird Watchers of America. She was looking through her binoculars when she saw something strange on the roof of a building. They weren’t the only ones who had noticed a two-headed creature on a roof. 

 

Now that the space ship’s position is compromised, and earth beings know that there is an ET on a roof, what is AxzleProva going to do?  Oops, things don’t go quite as planned. 

 

This novella is a brief, easy, and quick read. It doesn’t develop characters well, keeping them fairly superficial. Nevertheless, they are a delightful bunch of bohemian New Yorkers. 







 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.


MARTINA NICOLLS

Website

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

  

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing
1 comment
Read more