The Season for Flying Saucers

by Brendan Colley

A father who has been abducted by aliens; a mother who sees the spirits of dead people; a sister who communicates with angry dogs; and 29-year-old Noah Grey, whose life has gone off the rails.

In Tasmania, strange lights appear in the skies every summer, signalling we’re part of something bigger than the world of our worries. Bigger even than our hopes.

When economic pressures force the Greys to live together for one season – the first time in twelve years since Noah left home after college – tensions are high.
Things get weird as locals become increasingly convinced the residents at this Hobart address have been targeted for alien abduction. As the summer unfolds Noah accepts things will never be normal again, even though his measure is the simplest of all. Family love.

Brendan Colley’s The Season for Flying Saucers is strange, alluring and tender – a love letter to hope.

298 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2026

About the author

Brendan Colley was born in South Africa, and now lives in Hobart. The Signal Line, his first novel, won the University of Tasmania Prize for best new unpublished literary work in the 2019 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes and was published by Transit Lounge in 2022.

Reviews

[Veronica ⭐️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing like what I expected from reading the blurb.

The Season for Flying Saucers is amazing; wry, funny and heart-wrenching. It is strange and whimsical. As the family hunker down for the summer away from media and prying eyes they are forced to communicate with each other, open up and express their hopes and fading dreams.

The Season for Flying Saucers is a memorable story of community, luck and coincidence, fate and destiny. This is a story about what it is to be family.

The Season for Flying Saucers is a highly recommended read. It gets all the stars and some eerie midnight lights.

Read my full review at: https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogsp...

[Charlotte O · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is lovely, a bit strange, and full of hope. Great amount of dogs. Paranormal.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking this was a full-on Sci-Fi novel, I was pleasantly surprised by the strong focus on the family dynamics of the characters Noah and his sister Martha, his mother and his father who has been abducted by a UFO. Set in Hobart, it follows the journey of the family trying to understand and live life under the scrutiny of the media and society with regards to the abduction and the special powers that the rest of the family behold. The realistic elements of friendship and living in the current world of speculation are intertwined with the supernatural and world beyond earth, to create questions.

[Jan Mawdesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reviewed by Nan van Dissel for Bluewolf Reviews and Transit Lounge.
Between 12th February and 14th April 1976 there were at least nine separate occasions of sightings of UFO’s in Maydena, a small Tasmanian locally, which were reported to the Tasmanian UFO investigation Centre. Award winning author Brendan Colley was inspired by these events to create his second novel ‘The Season for Flying Saucers’ an interesting but strange narrative.
Noah Grey, unemployed cook and known by some as the UFO poet, has bought his family home from which his father had been abducted by aliens twelve years ago. Not long after his return to his family home his father returns unexpectedly. When within weeks, his sister, Martha and mother join him there a tense domestic situation is created.
Meanwhile, the locals ‘stalk’ the house, taking a great interest in its inhabitants, as the residents are convinced that something supernatural is imminent. Is this location attracting the lights from the scout crafts? Is there a mothership circling? Will something happen before the summer is over? How does Martha use her telepathic magic in her job as dog groomer?
By relating the story from the main characters’ point of view, readers are given a fascinating insight into the dysfunctional Grey family and their special gifts. Sci- Fi readers will no doubt find this an intriguing read, while those unfamiliar with this genre will at times be totally confused and struggle to fully appreciate the nuances of the storyline.

[Lisa]

I really liked The Signal Line and found its exploration of two brothers in conflict over selling the house they'd inherited authentic and genuine. So I was expecting this second novel to transcend its weirdness in the way that the previous novel had. I got all the way up to page 212 before I gave up.

It wasn't that I didn't find the UFOs convincing, it's that I didn't find the dysfunctional family dynamics convincing. I think I was meant to feel empathy for Noah but I didn't, and the rest of the family were even less engaging, especially the parents who seemed like cardboard characters to me.

I've read a review which suggests that I've missed the point.
See https://www.artshub.com.au/news/revie...

I don't rate books I don't finish.

[Kiri Malarski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book quite quickly over a weekend, I was captivated by the characters that Brendan had created but also by the story and the niche location of Hobart. I enjoyed the way that he wove smaller stories into the plot, in particular Travis, Beetlejuice and Burton. There were moments that I felt a bit lost by the story, new information would come to light that would make the relatively fast pace of the book feel a bit clunky, however these moments were cleared up by the end of the book.
I enjoyed the authors perspective on humans, weirdness and enbracing life in all it's messiness.

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting mediation on family, set in Hobart where a family reunites some years after the father has been abducted by a UFO. Less sci-fi than I expected, and more an emotional journey.

[Essjayeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[viv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this because it was about alien abductions in Hobart where I'm from!!! Very cool vibes, but was left feeling a little confused, which was actually probably the point.

[Garth Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brendan Colley gives us a deeply relatable Hobart, full of kooks and misfits, navigating their way through family trauma while the spectre of extraterrestrial visitation looms over everything.

Check out my interview with Brendan here:

https://pass-the-amyl.offprint.app/a/...

[Amos O'Henry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yah nah