Spooksville: Aliens in the Sky Review
In my search for new sci-fi horror books from the ’90s, I came across another later that I missed from my original list (one I will add as soon as I finish writing this review). You could say I had a close encounter of the 3rd kind! I discovered Spooksville: Aliens in the Sky. Well, not quite!
Aliens in the Sky (1996) is the 4th book in the Spooksville series. Christopher Pike penned the Spooksville series which consisted of 24 YA horror fiction books, between 1995 and 1998. Spooksville is what I consider Christopher Pike’s attempt at a Fear Street style series. Like the Ghosts of Fear Street series it is aimed at a younger audience while keeping the location of the horror consistent throughout the series.However, thee main characters, and some peripheral characters, remain consistent throughout the 24 books, unlike the original Fear Street series.
But what about this book? It has alien abductions, ray gun fights, a scene where alien skulls are smashed in with rocks and even gambling (albeit with pebbles). This book so far looks like a very interesting read! Want to know more? Read on… if you dare!
Plot
Today is unusually hot. Too hot! Fed up with the unbearable heat, Sally, Cindy, Adam and Watch decide to ride their bikes to the reservoir to cool down. Over 50 innocent people were tortured to death by Madeline Templeton, and the psychic energy of their torment has kept the area around the body of murky, grey water the coolest place in Spooksville.
The kids ride their bikes up to the reservoir, promising each other beforehand that they would not venture into the haunted cave if they did, in which they previously had to fight the malignant spirits which haunt it to stay alive.
Much to their relief, the coolness of the place is much to their liking – no longer having to suffer the heat. After chilling quite literally in the space, they decide to play poker to pass the time. Before they know it, the sun has gone down, plunging them all into darkness.
Watch, who is quite the kid astronomer, then goes on to point out the constellations, stars and galaxies they can see from the spot. But then a new star comes into view from the inky blackness of the sky. It is joined by another. The kids then realise that these are not stars at all, but some kind of aircraft.
It hovers in their direction. But planes can’t hover! It is not a helicopter, as it emits no sound. It must be… but it sure can’t be… they’re UFOs!
Soon after landing, the alien life forms offboard of the ship, ray guns in hand. Capturing Watch and Adam, they depart – leaving it up to the girls to save them. Will they be able to save Adam and Watch? And how will they get back home to Earth if they manage to reach them?!
Review
Aliens in the Sky is interesting. For starters, it shows a lot of social conscience for a book aimed at YA audience. With such sentiments as ‘girls can be heroes too’, awareness of the effects of climate change, themes of activism and even a comment about race relations can all be found here. I may or may not be reading into things too much on this latter point, but when Adam comments that an alien has a “corny” name, Watch retorts that there are maybe hundreds of aliens with that name.
On the subject of dialogue, this is a particular sticking point for me. Especially from brainiac Watch, much of the dialogue felt verbose. I’m aware that he is supposed to be the brains of the operation. But (a) kids don’t talk like that, and (b) such flowery language does not fit the urgency of the situation. For instance, in chapter 8 whilst currently kidnapped by aliens, Watch says to his co-kidnapee Adam, “Your pollution theory might not be farfetched”. C’mon, who would sound like Spock in a situation like that?
There was a particular level of violence, or at least hinted at, in this book. From what I have gathered from reading around the Spooksville series, there was some concern about this in light of its intended young audience. Torture is at least a couple of times, along with experimental vivisection. This added more of a dark flavour to what mostly was a tame book, which I feel worked.
Another thing I noticed about Aliens in the Sky was that it was a very nineties book. Along with the obvious subject matter concerning little green men, there are themes of governmental conspiracies and scenes regarding establishing a connection to an alien network – in which comparisons are made to modems and Earth’s internet. With no perceived threat of invasion from another country after the Cold War thawed, the American zeitgeist looked inward for its enemies – which in turn spawned many horror movies in the decade where the secret sects and cabals were the antagonists. This change in then-current events also turned America’s interest to the skies, renewing interest in aliens and UFOs. The fact that internet-like technology is given great importance in the novel by the aliens, also highlights how the world did indeed see the internet as the biggest breakthrough in technology in decades.
Despite my complaints about the dialogue, the pace picked up speed near the story’s end. The pace is not stifled by talking, and reads as quickly as the conclusion of a James Herbert novel, which was a great surprise, proving to be exciting and somewhat unpredictable. Aliens in the Sky suffered in parts due to the wordiness that did not quite fit what was happening in the book. Yet this recovered with the help of the story’s interesting themes, dark lore, and implications of violence.
