Little Green Men

Roswell (Pocketbooks) #3

by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

It's Not Easy Being Green At first it seems amusing when Kyle Valenti's skin takes on a lime-colored hue. But within hours, the hospital has become a disaster area, full of humans who look more like aliens than the real "Scandinavian" occupants of Roswell. Soon, Maria and Alex have joined the club, and Max decides to use his powers to return them to normal. Except his healing touch apparently doesn't work when the trouble is cosmetic, and not life-threatening. While the military forces the colored population into top secret quarantine camps, Liz searches for a scientific explanation and finds a familiar culprit -- and a new sense of urgency. Within forty-eight hours, this alien contaminant will change the humans' skin permanently, leaving the humans green...and Max, Michael, and Isabel unveiled.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Media Tie In, Fiction

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 7, 2002

About the author

Pen Names
Edward Taft
Dee W. Schofield
Sandy Schofield
Kathryn Wesley

Dean Wesley Smith is the bestselling author of over ninety novels under many names and well over 100 published short stories. He has over eight million copies of his books in print and has books published in nine different countries. He has written many original novels in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thriller, and romance as well as books for television, movies, games, and comics. He is also known for writing quality work very quickly and has written a large number of novels as a ghost writer or under house names.

With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he is the coauthor of The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. The following is a list of novels under the Dean Wesley Smith name, plus a number of pen names that are open knowledge. Many ghost and pen name books are not on this list because he is under contractual obligations not to disclose that he wrote them. Many of Dean’s original novels are also under hidden pen names for marketing reasons.

Dean has also written books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and has done scripts for Hollywood. One movie was actually made.

Over his career he has also been an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books.

Currently, he is writing thrillers and mystery novels under another name.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Green Men was the second novel by the husband-and-wife team of Rusch and Smith in Pocket's series of prose tie-ins based on the television series and the third overall. It's another good story, and all of the characters have a role to play in the adventure. Liz being science-girl rather than a spectator was a big improvement. Seeing some of the less-likely matchups and how they manage to work together is fun, such as Michael with Alex and Kyle. It's a book aimed at a younger reader and carries a good message illustrating the evils of discrimination based on race and ethnicity. There are a couple of inconsistencies with the filmed version (Czechoslovakian, not Scandinavian!), but overall it's a good story.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all: Finally, in the third and final book of the Pocketbook series of Roswell novels, Liz has something to do!!! She's not stuck in a post-traumatic stress induced memory loop of being shot, and she's not sitting around while everyone around her searches for Michael. She is being the science queen the show always wrote her to be and is solving the alien dilemma pretty much all by herself. THAT'S MY LIZ PARKER! (I'm so glad someone finally wrote her the right way, can you tell?)

In addition, this is the only one of the three novels where ALL of the Roswell gang is present a good amount of the time. Kyle, Michael, and Alex get to steal a construction truck together to save part of the town; Valenti, Max, and Tess get to sneak into a warehouse to save another part of the town; Liz and Maria sneak into a hospital to cure all the patients; Isabel gets to be their woman on the inside to tell Max & co about the army developments in the quarantined hospital.

For the most part, this book is 100% the way I remember the show. Everyone works together even when their personal relationships with each other are falling apart, with occasional small moments of heart-to-hearts with the characters. And the plot line is exactly the kind of thing that the show would have tackled in a one-off episode.

The only hiccoughs are minor: a few notable typos really close together, the group refers to the alien codename as "Scandinavians" when any fan worth their salt knows the term was "Czechoslovakians," and again there was too much Tess for my taste. That last one is a personal preference, not a technical critique, however; Tess was a big part of season 2, so it makes sense for her to be a big part of the book. Doesn't mean I have to like it though.

[Cori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a great time reading this.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very true to the characters and a great read.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When people in Roswell start turning green, including Kyle, Maria, and Alex...it is up to Max, Liz, Michael, Isabel, and Valenti to find out what is going on.

Liz does an experiment using skin taken from Alex, and some from her own, using her understanding of recent bio chemistry lessons to guide her along. When Max enters her room and the cells under her microscope light up to a brilliant blue like the alien crystals in the cave and inside Grant Sorenson...they realize when the crystals died that the liquid went into the ground and into that side of town's drinking water.

Using Max's plasma dripped into water...they first cure their friends and then set out to cure everyone else without being caught by the Army who has taken over the care of the 'green-skinned' people.

[Jackie Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story was fun and funny, with the usual excitement that a fan of the TV show would come to expect. The authors, although not exactly fantastic writers, have a very good feel for the characters' personalities and how they react to situations. I would just love to see an entire town full of green people... I would probably die laughing.

[Katie Jauncey · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are rated more for teens, and I read the Roswell series when I was about 15 ..... but I still really love reading them now. They're written in an easily worded way so that if you want something quick and easy to read, they're perfect ..... I love the whole series :)

[Lizzie the Book Hoarder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any book that let me visit with Max, Liz, Maria and Michael, I am there. I always loved these characters on Roswell and even though the books are never as good as the television show I just love visiting with these old friends again.

[Master · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of people in roswell have their skin change color to green, and our group must do something about it.

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christopher Buckley, Wm. F. Buckley's son, is a satirist about Washington and politics. This one is about talk shows and UFO's and government conspiracies.