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An Alien, a Time Machine, and a Loser
The end of humanity is imminent. Alfred, an extraterrestrial, has been working on Earth for the last 50,000 years. His job is to observe and record every detail of humanity’s development for his employer, the Intergalactic Corp—they run the local galactic cluster. But Alfred’s current assignment is about to end, along with humankind. His advanced monitoring equipment has predicted a chain of events that will end all human life in the next thirty days. Tragic as that is, Alfred is more concerned about starting over on a primitive planet and waiting millennia for things to become interesting enough to entertain him again. The Corp strictly forbids its observers from interfering with their assignments in any way—but there’s a loophole. Alfred just needs to find the world’s biggest loser and convince him to single-handedly save the world.
Skylar Holden is the world’s biggest loser—at least one of them. He has received the short end of the stick his entire life in everything he has ever done. Even though he’s genuinely talented, he can never get a break. He has no money, no friends, his job sucks, and his apartment is a dump. Constant disappointment has made him cynical and lazy to the point where he has basically dropped out of life. Then he’s abducted by an alien who gives him a mission. Humanity’s continued existence now rests entirely on the shoulders of a loser who has never succeeded at anything.
Skylar Holden is the world’s biggest loser—at least one of them. He has received the short end of the stick his entire life in everything he has ever done. Even though he’s genuinely talented, he can never get a break. He has no money, no friends, his job sucks, and his apartment is a dump. Constant disappointment has made him cynical and lazy to the point where he has basically dropped out of life. Then he’s abducted by an alien who gives him a mission. Humanity’s continued existence now rests entirely on the shoulders of a loser who has never succeeded at anything.
196 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 24, 2016
2 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Joey Rogers
8 books9 followersJoey Rogers is an enthusiast of sci-fi, video games, and all-around geekery. He’s a software developer by day in the high-tech city of Huntsville, Alabama and loves writing about what the future might hold.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 20, 2019
First and foremost, I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and as a follow-up to reading and reviewing A Funny Thing Happened on the Moon.
This book is a delightful read and full of good humor and thoughtful situations. What I mean by this is the humor is quite funny and well timed. When you need a laugh to break the tension building up inside of you, the story naturally has one somewhat close by. I found the read to go much smoother because of this. The thoughtful situations are a little harder to explain but I shall attempt to do so. Skylar (MC) is put into a very odd situation, one which you are acquainted with in the opening lines of the story. He has to save the world with outside help but not really with the outsider helping. This means he needs to use the stuff he's given in a way which may not really be the way it was intended to be used. His 'helper' can only give a small amount of information or very very bad things will happen. Even if nothing is done something really bad is going to happen anyway. See what I mean by thoughtful?
Pour Skylar is needing to do some serious thinking and pondering to get out of the pickles he finds himself jarred with (all puns intentional). The story is very well written and flows quite well. There weren't really any jarring situations or wording I found while reading. The story progresses from one idea of how to solve the overall situation to the next and follows a very logical system from the MC's point of view. This leads to some very interesting things occurring as well as a few humorous scenes. It also helps to find the bad guy in all of this and how things keep getting further and further out of hand.
Do they save the day? Sorry, I can't tell. No spoilers from me. Do they get the things set up for moving on with life? Still not saying a thing. Does Skylar have to remain a loser his whole life? Duct tape is still firmly in place. I'm not saying a thing about it. You'll just have to read the book to find out. :P
I highly recommend this novelette for a good read as part of the backstory leading up to the events of the big book, AFTHotM. It was an enjoyable story and well put together to create suspense when needed and to relieve the tensions of the day with a good laugh or two. Also, as needed.
This book is a delightful read and full of good humor and thoughtful situations. What I mean by this is the humor is quite funny and well timed. When you need a laugh to break the tension building up inside of you, the story naturally has one somewhat close by. I found the read to go much smoother because of this. The thoughtful situations are a little harder to explain but I shall attempt to do so. Skylar (MC) is put into a very odd situation, one which you are acquainted with in the opening lines of the story. He has to save the world with outside help but not really with the outsider helping. This means he needs to use the stuff he's given in a way which may not really be the way it was intended to be used. His 'helper' can only give a small amount of information or very very bad things will happen. Even if nothing is done something really bad is going to happen anyway. See what I mean by thoughtful?
Pour Skylar is needing to do some serious thinking and pondering to get out of the pickles he finds himself jarred with (all puns intentional). The story is very well written and flows quite well. There weren't really any jarring situations or wording I found while reading. The story progresses from one idea of how to solve the overall situation to the next and follows a very logical system from the MC's point of view. This leads to some very interesting things occurring as well as a few humorous scenes. It also helps to find the bad guy in all of this and how things keep getting further and further out of hand.
Do they save the day? Sorry, I can't tell. No spoilers from me. Do they get the things set up for moving on with life? Still not saying a thing. Does Skylar have to remain a loser his whole life? Duct tape is still firmly in place. I'm not saying a thing about it. You'll just have to read the book to find out. :P
I highly recommend this novelette for a good read as part of the backstory leading up to the events of the big book, AFTHotM. It was an enjoyable story and well put together to create suspense when needed and to relieve the tensions of the day with a good laugh or two. Also, as needed.
July 26, 2016
Hello, my name is Skylar Holden. I'm recording this video to explain why I'm probably bullet ridden, radioactive corpse when you watch this video. I was tasked with a mission to save the world from destruction. If I was unsuccessful, you may be able to finish what I started. If I was successful, you can sing songs about how great I was....
I just ate ten kilograms of plutonium - yes, plutonium and that's why my body is radioactive. And my phone the one you are playing this video on is probably radioactive, too..
I'm sure you have some questions. You might be asking why I would eat radioactive material in the first place. Am I crazy? It would be easy for you to think so, but you don't know the details yet. I performed this selfless act to save all of humanity....
You'd better have a seat because the answers are going to be crazy. Did I mention the extra-terrestrial and the time machine?
The above is the first few pages of the novel which made to read this story. Not only that, the word time travel is also a bait for me. The protagonist is Skylar Holden who works as an IT guy in GegoDyne. One day he was abducted by an extra terrestrial who resembles like a Roswell alien and Skylar names him as Alfred.
The alien was Class I Cataloger for the Intergalactic Corp and be has been in our planet for the last 50,000 years. His job is to document the development of humanity. He informs Skylar that he chosen him to save the world as his company GegoDyne will provide Plutonium to terrorist group and he should somehow stop the chain of events.
How a person like Skylar who is intelligent but hates work can save the world remains the novel. The story itself is about a serious issue, but the author had written the novel with dash of humour. Many hilarious dialogs are in the novel I like to quote some:
"You are an interesting individual. I must say, I have never seen anyone work so hard to avoid working" (Skylar who programs a bot which tricks the system that Skylar is working in the premises)
Skylar first meeting with Alfred the alien and when the alien tells him that he is here to document the development of humanity this is what Skylar says:
"Who cares how we developed? Are you all a bunch of alien voyeurs? I asked".
Alfred the alien says why he wants to save humans from destruction.
"How interesting do you think reading a few cave paintings is? They are no graphic novels".
Below two are by Skylar about his education and his dwelling place:
"Went to only school I could afford, Happy Hills Community college a place which was neither happy nor among any hills".
"I lived in a picturesque dump called The Blue Seashore Apartments - which was neither blue nor near the sea".
I just ate ten kilograms of plutonium - yes, plutonium and that's why my body is radioactive. And my phone the one you are playing this video on is probably radioactive, too..
I'm sure you have some questions. You might be asking why I would eat radioactive material in the first place. Am I crazy? It would be easy for you to think so, but you don't know the details yet. I performed this selfless act to save all of humanity....
You'd better have a seat because the answers are going to be crazy. Did I mention the extra-terrestrial and the time machine?
The above is the first few pages of the novel which made to read this story. Not only that, the word time travel is also a bait for me. The protagonist is Skylar Holden who works as an IT guy in GegoDyne. One day he was abducted by an extra terrestrial who resembles like a Roswell alien and Skylar names him as Alfred.
The alien was Class I Cataloger for the Intergalactic Corp and be has been in our planet for the last 50,000 years. His job is to document the development of humanity. He informs Skylar that he chosen him to save the world as his company GegoDyne will provide Plutonium to terrorist group and he should somehow stop the chain of events.
How a person like Skylar who is intelligent but hates work can save the world remains the novel. The story itself is about a serious issue, but the author had written the novel with dash of humour. Many hilarious dialogs are in the novel I like to quote some:
"You are an interesting individual. I must say, I have never seen anyone work so hard to avoid working" (Skylar who programs a bot which tricks the system that Skylar is working in the premises)
Skylar first meeting with Alfred the alien and when the alien tells him that he is here to document the development of humanity this is what Skylar says:
"Who cares how we developed? Are you all a bunch of alien voyeurs? I asked".
Alfred the alien says why he wants to save humans from destruction.
"How interesting do you think reading a few cave paintings is? They are no graphic novels".
Below two are by Skylar about his education and his dwelling place:
"Went to only school I could afford, Happy Hills Community college a place which was neither happy nor among any hills".
"I lived in a picturesque dump called The Blue Seashore Apartments - which was neither blue nor near the sea".
November 29, 2016
It was entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews