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Nighteyes
AFTER YEARS OF OBSERVING US, ABDUCTING US, AND EXPERIMENTING UPON US, THEY HAVE FINALLY MADE THEIR FIRST MISTAKE...
As the sun sets on a lonely Connecticut farmhouse the shadows come, gliding through windows, sliding up walls, enveloping Sarah Gilmour as she searches frantically for her missing child. Then the shadows, with their dark, inhuman eyes, are everywhere, surrounding her as she sobs silently, realizing with horror that they have taken her daughter once again. And now they have come back for- for her!
As the sun sets on a lonely Connecticut farmhouse the shadows come, gliding through windows, sliding up walls, enveloping Sarah Gilmour as she searches frantically for her missing child. Then the shadows, with their dark, inhuman eyes, are everywhere, surrounding her as she sobs silently, realizing with horror that they have taken her daughter once again. And now they have come back for- for her!
434 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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195 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 30, 2021
If you examine the reviews on Amazon for this book; you will see a startling amount of derision and scorn. No idea why. Mystifying; because its a genuinely well-written, energetic treatment of a premise that has seen a lot of over-use in contemporary science fiction. Just because the idea at the base of this story is so plastic that every SF-based tv series relies on it at least once a season; is no reason to slight this novel. Furthermore, the author had to deal with the challenge of treading in territory already deeply carved out by 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. Not an easy task.
Anyway. Let me make it clear that this author is thoroughly competent and writes a ripping yarn. There's no reason to dismiss this effort out-of-hand. I actually think its good enough to be considered the top novel dealing with this plot; and I'll tell you why: scientific accuracy.
I can't divulge more without revealing a major spoiler but I assure you that Reeves-Stevens has done his homework. The descriptions of the alien confrontation in the final few pages is vividly done--and maybe most readers don't fathom why its so bizarre--but it is thoroughly grounded in the best scientific knowledge currently available.
I stand behind this book--it accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
Anyway. Let me make it clear that this author is thoroughly competent and writes a ripping yarn. There's no reason to dismiss this effort out-of-hand. I actually think its good enough to be considered the top novel dealing with this plot; and I'll tell you why: scientific accuracy.
I can't divulge more without revealing a major spoiler but I assure you that Reeves-Stevens has done his homework. The descriptions of the alien confrontation in the final few pages is vividly done--and maybe most readers don't fathom why its so bizarre--but it is thoroughly grounded in the best scientific knowledge currently available.
I stand behind this book--it accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
July 4, 2012
review from 1989
At first glance Nighteyes appears to be a cross-over novel: part mainstream best seller, part Steven King horror, part spy thriller, but mostly a sinister version of Close Encounters. Well it's all of that, but at heart it remains a better than average sf novel.
Garfield begins with the intriguing premise that if (a) UFO's were really in the habit of abducting human subjects from secluded locations, and if (b) spys spend a lot of their time conducting covert actions in said secluded locations, then (c) it stands to reason that sooner or later the aliens are going to abduct a spy from the middle of a stakeout, to the great consternation of all involved.
From here Garfield weaves an intriguing tapestry of ideas combining elements of the UFO mythos with the latest theoretical advances in physics and biology. Nighteyes twists and turns, not only between genres, but from one side of the UFO question to the other. Just when you think one of the characters has finally figured out what's going on, has nailed down whether we are dealing with aliens, Soviet agents, or psychotic episodes, one of the other characters explains why the current conclusion couldn't possibly be the correct one. Whatever you think you're reading, it turns into something completely different two chapters later.
But the suspense runs much deeper than merely trying to guess what will happen next. Garfield has managed to identify the underlying psychological archtypes that give rise to the UFO mythos, and therefore to tap into the reader's own childhood nightmares. Ever had an imaginary friend? Dreamt of flying, falling or floating? Huddled under the covers as the clothes in your anxiety closet turn into an undefined monster? Garfield hints insidiously that these may be the suppressed memories of your own brief abduction by UFOs. As one of the character puts it: "And at times like these, she knew why there were some movies that she couldn't watch, whose makers had been here and unknowingly reproduced this, drawing from their own half-remembered dreams." It doesn't matter who you are, Garfield has a chapter somewhere with your personal dread in it.
Nighteyes is a virtual catalog of paranoid fantasies: Various viewpoint characters believe themselves hunted by fanatical government agents, kidnapped by flying saucers, controlled by alien conditioning, victims of rape, falsely accused of sexual child abuse, or that they've lost their babies. There is no way you can defend your psyche from everything he throws at it, because if you can laugh off the martians and the CIA and the dead cats, there's always those mounting accusations that you're the neighbourhood pervert, to leave you feeling violated, exposed, and vulnerable.
Even characterization is a vehicle for developing tension in this novel. With nearly five hundred pages to play around in, Garfield can afford to provide even the minor characters with a richly detailed interior life, so that it's never clear which, if any, of the protangonists are going to make it out alive.
Besides being a great thriller, Nighteyes is also a handbook of spy procedures and a summary of current UFO "research". If you want to know what's going on in UFOlogy these days without actually bothering to read that drek yourself, or if you wish to get the feel for the internal politics of the CIA without actually undertaking a career change, this is the book for you. All in all, Nighteyes is a surprisingly good read.
At first glance Nighteyes appears to be a cross-over novel: part mainstream best seller, part Steven King horror, part spy thriller, but mostly a sinister version of Close Encounters. Well it's all of that, but at heart it remains a better than average sf novel.
Garfield begins with the intriguing premise that if (a) UFO's were really in the habit of abducting human subjects from secluded locations, and if (b) spys spend a lot of their time conducting covert actions in said secluded locations, then (c) it stands to reason that sooner or later the aliens are going to abduct a spy from the middle of a stakeout, to the great consternation of all involved.
From here Garfield weaves an intriguing tapestry of ideas combining elements of the UFO mythos with the latest theoretical advances in physics and biology. Nighteyes twists and turns, not only between genres, but from one side of the UFO question to the other. Just when you think one of the characters has finally figured out what's going on, has nailed down whether we are dealing with aliens, Soviet agents, or psychotic episodes, one of the other characters explains why the current conclusion couldn't possibly be the correct one. Whatever you think you're reading, it turns into something completely different two chapters later.
But the suspense runs much deeper than merely trying to guess what will happen next. Garfield has managed to identify the underlying psychological archtypes that give rise to the UFO mythos, and therefore to tap into the reader's own childhood nightmares. Ever had an imaginary friend? Dreamt of flying, falling or floating? Huddled under the covers as the clothes in your anxiety closet turn into an undefined monster? Garfield hints insidiously that these may be the suppressed memories of your own brief abduction by UFOs. As one of the character puts it: "And at times like these, she knew why there were some movies that she couldn't watch, whose makers had been here and unknowingly reproduced this, drawing from their own half-remembered dreams." It doesn't matter who you are, Garfield has a chapter somewhere with your personal dread in it.
Nighteyes is a virtual catalog of paranoid fantasies: Various viewpoint characters believe themselves hunted by fanatical government agents, kidnapped by flying saucers, controlled by alien conditioning, victims of rape, falsely accused of sexual child abuse, or that they've lost their babies. There is no way you can defend your psyche from everything he throws at it, because if you can laugh off the martians and the CIA and the dead cats, there's always those mounting accusations that you're the neighbourhood pervert, to leave you feeling violated, exposed, and vulnerable.
Even characterization is a vehicle for developing tension in this novel. With nearly five hundred pages to play around in, Garfield can afford to provide even the minor characters with a richly detailed interior life, so that it's never clear which, if any, of the protangonists are going to make it out alive.
Besides being a great thriller, Nighteyes is also a handbook of spy procedures and a summary of current UFO "research". If you want to know what's going on in UFOlogy these days without actually bothering to read that drek yourself, or if you wish to get the feel for the internal politics of the CIA without actually undertaking a career change, this is the book for you. All in all, Nighteyes is a surprisingly good read.
March 24, 2022
I’m a sucker for tales of UFOs and little grey men abducting people. I was looking forward to reading this book since I’d first heard about it. Though this is a tale of UFOs and there is involvement with FBI agents, it is quite different from the X-Files clone you might be expecting.
Interesting story and the writing at times is quite lovely. But I never connected to the characters and so I felt distanced from the book. Also, I think too much time was spent on government agency infighting. In the end, I don’t think that thread added anything to the book. Indeed whenever that became the focus the pacing of the book suffered.
There is good stuff here and the author’s theory on UFOs and what the aliens are after make for interesting reading. But there are too many other problems with the book for me to be able to recommend it.
Interesting story and the writing at times is quite lovely. But I never connected to the characters and so I felt distanced from the book. Also, I think too much time was spent on government agency infighting. In the end, I don’t think that thread added anything to the book. Indeed whenever that became the focus the pacing of the book suffered.
There is good stuff here and the author’s theory on UFOs and what the aliens are after make for interesting reading. But there are too many other problems with the book for me to be able to recommend it.
Read
September 2, 2017Fascinating read. Was a little confused at the beginning, though so were the characters. The story built at a steady pace, gaining characters at a rate that wasn't overwhelming. It felt realistic until the last few chapters, but still plausible enough to wrap up the story, with enough happening 'after the finale' to answer those lingering questions I'm always left with after a good story.
Would recommend.
Would recommend.
Read
October 19, 2021DNF @ page 296. Too much cop drama not enough alien abduction.
May 24, 2015
Garfield Reeves-Stevens is a writer that not enough people know of. He and his wife Judith have teamed up in the past many times on novels and TV shows like Star Trek Enterprise and the SyFy original movie Fire Serpent. Alone, Garfield has also written many novels, including plenty set in the Star Trek Expended Universe. Many of his works are genre-benders with a sci-fi touch.
When I came across Nighteyes in a used bookstore, it wasn't only the cover that led me to buying it. The inside flap compared it to the works of Whitley Strieber. For those who don't know, that means Nighteyes has something to do with the alien abduction phenomenon. This is a topic I find endlessly fascinating.
Nighteyes came out in 1989, not long after Whitley Strieber published Communion. One would think that the success of Communion might have led to more interest in the subject of alien abduction and therefor help sales on a novel like Nighteyes. Now, I don't know how well Nighteyes sold, but I do know that it is no longer in print. I recommend that anyone interested in purchasing the novel go straight to a used book dealer.
With Nighteyes, Garfield Reeves-Stevens does something similar to what Strieber is doing with his new Alien Hunter series: mixing the crime genre with classic alien abduction tropes. If it wasn't for the UFO on the books cover, the reader would likely be quite shocked when a good chunk into the story they realize what is behind the plot. I'm not giving anything away, because like I said, the cover makes this element very clear. Which I feel is a shame because a good portion of the novel's first half feels like a crime thriller and then BAM- the creepy bug-eyed Grays appear.
As an alien abduction novel, Nighteyes is unique in other aspects too. As I already stated, I don't want to spoil the plot because I'd being doing everyone a huge disservice. But there is another reason fans of this genre should seek out Nighteyes immediately. The aliens are not the typical sci-fi aliens. These Grays have a very complex history and aren't intensely focused on destroying humans. The climax of this novel is mind-blowing and not at all what you would expect.
Garfield Reeves-Stevens wrote an incredibly smart and thought-provoking piece of fiction. There are a lot of people who would avoid a book like this because they'd look at the cover and read the flap and feel they were holding a book full of sci-fi and alien cliches. I pity those people. They have no clue what they've missed. Nighteyes is not what you would expect it to be.
So go search every used book store, thrift shop, and online seller for a copy of Nighteyes by Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Any fan of smart, original horror and science-fiction will devour Nighteyes like it's candy.
FromThe Nic Report
When I came across Nighteyes in a used bookstore, it wasn't only the cover that led me to buying it. The inside flap compared it to the works of Whitley Strieber. For those who don't know, that means Nighteyes has something to do with the alien abduction phenomenon. This is a topic I find endlessly fascinating.
Nighteyes came out in 1989, not long after Whitley Strieber published Communion. One would think that the success of Communion might have led to more interest in the subject of alien abduction and therefor help sales on a novel like Nighteyes. Now, I don't know how well Nighteyes sold, but I do know that it is no longer in print. I recommend that anyone interested in purchasing the novel go straight to a used book dealer.
With Nighteyes, Garfield Reeves-Stevens does something similar to what Strieber is doing with his new Alien Hunter series: mixing the crime genre with classic alien abduction tropes. If it wasn't for the UFO on the books cover, the reader would likely be quite shocked when a good chunk into the story they realize what is behind the plot. I'm not giving anything away, because like I said, the cover makes this element very clear. Which I feel is a shame because a good portion of the novel's first half feels like a crime thriller and then BAM- the creepy bug-eyed Grays appear.
As an alien abduction novel, Nighteyes is unique in other aspects too. As I already stated, I don't want to spoil the plot because I'd being doing everyone a huge disservice. But there is another reason fans of this genre should seek out Nighteyes immediately. The aliens are not the typical sci-fi aliens. These Grays have a very complex history and aren't intensely focused on destroying humans. The climax of this novel is mind-blowing and not at all what you would expect.
Garfield Reeves-Stevens wrote an incredibly smart and thought-provoking piece of fiction. There are a lot of people who would avoid a book like this because they'd look at the cover and read the flap and feel they were holding a book full of sci-fi and alien cliches. I pity those people. They have no clue what they've missed. Nighteyes is not what you would expect it to be.
So go search every used book store, thrift shop, and online seller for a copy of Nighteyes by Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Any fan of smart, original horror and science-fiction will devour Nighteyes like it's candy.
FromThe Nic Report
March 25, 2009
Recurring people play scapegoats for secret agencies. They became a clog in the wheel of the secret service during this new age set story. These common individuals flee amok catching up somehow in controversy leading to powerful governmental consequences. The technology in this near future view compared to ours would look like our own perceiving it by a general point of view. This story is interesting. Its political viewpoint becomes a part of the story adding interest in the normal collective opinions of the FBI. An investigated crime is committed against the public security during an extreme surveillance of a secret agent and the higher-ups need answers or want it covered up.
A crust of time spans between the FBI and lives of innocent people who from their everyday activity go to hiding in fear of the FBI. They’ve learned of secrets and add some realizations about the FBI. The FBI begins to exhaust their powers investigating these innocent people. Only the FBI becomes pitted against their one self as their own terrorists in a baffling case that becomes a battle over an oppressive investigation spree.
Important FBI agents become eliminated while trying to apprehend the innocent group of people. The innocent eventually struggle with their learning of other uncovered secrets. After this they learn of a greater mistake than efforts can undo in time. The awareness of it to stopping it take on some definite shape. To succeed in its undoing the people continue running away from the FBI.
Uncunningly they come into play and they join in the fight against the uncovered tyranny or selfishness, secrets of a kind whatever it is, it becomes the sensation of invasion of these innocent.
What they never knew they now learn to hate it. They somehow learn of the oncoming world catastrophe but they do not know how to stop even that. It may have been determined already set into motion before their involvement to bring the end.
A crust of time spans between the FBI and lives of innocent people who from their everyday activity go to hiding in fear of the FBI. They’ve learned of secrets and add some realizations about the FBI. The FBI begins to exhaust their powers investigating these innocent people. Only the FBI becomes pitted against their one self as their own terrorists in a baffling case that becomes a battle over an oppressive investigation spree.
Important FBI agents become eliminated while trying to apprehend the innocent group of people. The innocent eventually struggle with their learning of other uncovered secrets. After this they learn of a greater mistake than efforts can undo in time. The awareness of it to stopping it take on some definite shape. To succeed in its undoing the people continue running away from the FBI.
Uncunningly they come into play and they join in the fight against the uncovered tyranny or selfishness, secrets of a kind whatever it is, it becomes the sensation of invasion of these innocent.
What they never knew they now learn to hate it. They somehow learn of the oncoming world catastrophe but they do not know how to stop even that. It may have been determined already set into motion before their involvement to bring the end.
April 27, 2015
One specific detail about the story is that, unlike most books written a couple decades back or longer tending to date themselves with everyday objects that our society has outgrown, such as a VCR tape collection or makes of cars, etc.; things only a collector would have now, this doesn't. I liked that. The country's alphabet agencies are involved in messing each other over til it irritates the reader with the paranoia but it's all story line so we have to deal with it. The rest of the story gets interesting & is well thought out & worth the read. As someone said, this type of story has been done to death but the twist & the details are very well written & original.
January 16, 2019
Loved it. Twists and turns. Compelling characters. Unexpected directions right up to the end. And a satisfying resolution. Would recommend.
October 18, 2020
Cliff hanger
May 5, 2018
Melodrama, dreck.
March 19, 2022
Great book... please read
June 2, 2016
Let me just begin by saying that this book was much longer than it needed to be. In my opinion, there were many filler scenes adding no value to the story that the author could have omitted.
Let me also warn you that I personally am not a fan of stories involving UFOs and aliens. Admittedly, I picked up this book out of desperation to have something to read and lack of other options. I didn't particularly care for the concept; it's unoriginal and done many times before. Honestly, this alien story is basically like every other stereotypical alien story, except by the end it turns into Terminator.
Let me also warn you that I personally am not a fan of stories involving UFOs and aliens. Admittedly, I picked up this book out of desperation to have something to read and lack of other options. I didn't particularly care for the concept; it's unoriginal and done many times before. Honestly, this alien story is basically like every other stereotypical alien story, except by the end it turns into Terminator.
Read
November 9, 2024This book...was good. The writing was good, some of the characters were amazing, the plot was exciting, and the pacing was intriguing. But this book is 450 pages, and it really only kept my attention for the first 200 pages. After that point, it fell into a cliche science fiction story. I am going to think about this book as it was for the first couple hundred pages because they were very fun and exciting. I'm glad I read this, but I doubt I'll read anything else from the author.
August 9, 2009
An OK SF about alien abductions. I don't know if the author changed midway between trying to be scary and trying to be hopeful. Again, it was OK.
August 6, 2013
Lady's daughter is stolen by aliens...again...and then they come back to get her, or something more sinister.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews