Cover of ‘Humans vs. Aliens.’ Courtesy/T. Jackson KingLITERARY News:
Los Alamos author T. Jackson King’s newest science fiction novel Humans vs. Aliens has hit No. 11 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases in Space Opera Bestseller list.
T. Jackson King
“I got the idea for this novel when I asked what if First Contact between Humans and Aliens happens in our Kuiper Belt just beyond Pluto?” King said. “Will Humans surrender to apex predators from the stars, or will we fight to keep from being colonized by interstellar tigers?”
King, 66, is a former government archaeologist and an award-winning journalist who lives in Los Alamos.
The idea that Aliens will be carnivore predators like tigers follows the evolutionary biology theme that humans are animals who are part of Nature and that Nature is unforgiving for lifeforms that do not defend their ecological niche, or lifezone, King said.
In Humans vs. Aliens, King’s hero Jack Munroe leads a group of fighters from the Asteroid Belt and Mars into battle against the invading HikHikSot Aliens, who resemble a cheetah-leopard mix.
King’s novel has also hit Amazon Bestseller ranking in six other SciFi categories. They are: No. 5, Space Exploration; No. 6, Alien Invasion; No. 7, Colonization; No. 8, First Contact; No. 9, Galactic Empire; and No. 12, Space Fleet. The novel is the sequel to the Amazon bestseller Earth vs. Aliens, which has gained multiple five-star reviews. King plans two more novels in his Aliens series.
Amazon’s ebook ranking lists only bestselling novels released in the last 30 days, and is updated hourly. King’s latest novel was released Feb. 3, so it has climbed to these bestseller rankings very quickly. Its ranking can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/digital-text/6157858011/ref=zg_bsnr_nav_kstore_5_6809443011.
King’s conviction that Humans will be the “New Kids on the Block” when we first encounter Aliens, has led to books like his first novel, Retread Shop (1988), published by Warner Books. He further explored this concept in his novels Ancestor’s World, Stellar Assassin, Star Vigilante, Alien Assassin, The Memory Singer and Speaker To Aliens.
Another theme King explores in his Vigilante novel series is that a future galactic culture will oppose a United Planets of the Stars. That gave King the foundation for the two million year-old Anarchate culture. Its space navy enforces anarchy because that is most profitable for the interstellar corporations that run things in the Milky Way. This idea led King to write a five-book SciFi series that began with Star Vigilante, and continued with Nebula Vigilante, Galactic Vigilante and Anarchate Vigilante. Book 5 will be Alien Vigilante, set for release in Summer 2015.
In addition to being the author of 16 published science fiction novels, King is a UCLA-trained archaeologist/anthropologist. This gives him a lot of insight into how an Alien society structured very differently from those on Earth might function.
“I asked myself what could Human society have in common with an Alien culture?” King said. “Well, for starters, there’s the need for food, living territory, there’s curiosity, there’s sex and there’s greed. I disagree with scientists who say we won’t have anything in common with Aliens. I think there will be interesting people on other worlds that we will appreciate knowing. We might even make a buck off of them!”
Support for the idea of many planets in the Milky Way galaxy has been documented in the sky survey of the Kepler astronomical satellite that has recorded about 2,700 planets of all types surrounding other stars in the Milky Way. Some of those planets are in the ‘liquid-water’ eco-zone similar to Earth’s distance from the Sun.
Why is King attracted to this genre?
“One reason I love sci-fi is because it’s a literature of hope. Science fiction assumes a future for humanity. A lot of modern literature is alienated from the theme of hope. I think human nature finds a way to keep on going on,” King said.
Ancient history, archaeology and evolutionary biology are also within King’s reading circle, along with international geopolitics. “Aliens that compete will have many motivations in common with humanity,” King speculated.
His writings can be found online at www.amazon.com/author/tjacksonking, on his Author Page at www.tjacksonking.com, and on his Facebook page: T. Jackson King. The bestseller rankings can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/digital-text/6809443011/ref=zg_bsnr_nav_kstore_5_6157858011 .
