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From Elsewhere
The story begins by following the sharill, Nysol as he and a group of space pirates he is with steal asteroid mining spacecraft from their enemies, the kisleem. Nysol leads the ship guards away from where his allies are headed and strands himself on a planet(that happens to be Earth) to keep them safe.
Once he lands on there, the first person Nysol runs into is Sean, who is out camping. Without much thought, Nysol zaps Sean with a beam that extracts an understanding of human language from him, so now he can understand and speak English. Unfortunately, the beam also knocks Sean down. Sean wakes up after a moment, but he is slightly confused now.
On the next day, Sean’s friend Lester Jones runs into him and Nysol. Because of the new confusion, Sean doesn’t recognize Lester. Lester sees Nysol as human. Worried about Sean’s health because of the strange memory problems, Lester and Nysol decide to get him to a doctor.
The two men and Dr. Amy Carter, who is trying to help Sean soon find themselves hunted by the Kisleem Alien Poit who is determined to take Nysol prisoner as his enemy. Nysol discovers that his attempted escape has become something of a trap for all of his new friends.
Once he lands on there, the first person Nysol runs into is Sean, who is out camping. Without much thought, Nysol zaps Sean with a beam that extracts an understanding of human language from him, so now he can understand and speak English. Unfortunately, the beam also knocks Sean down. Sean wakes up after a moment, but he is slightly confused now.
On the next day, Sean’s friend Lester Jones runs into him and Nysol. Because of the new confusion, Sean doesn’t recognize Lester. Lester sees Nysol as human. Worried about Sean’s health because of the strange memory problems, Lester and Nysol decide to get him to a doctor.
The two men and Dr. Amy Carter, who is trying to help Sean soon find themselves hunted by the Kisleem Alien Poit who is determined to take Nysol prisoner as his enemy. Nysol discovers that his attempted escape has become something of a trap for all of his new friends.
- GenresScience Fiction
206 pages, Paperback
Published July 22, 2019
3 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Baethge
14 books123 followersSarah Baethge is a fan of Science-fiction and fantasy who lives and writes in central Texas.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 27, 2018
What if aliens have invaded our planet and infiltrated our lives? What if two alien worlds brought their conflict into our backyard? FROM ELSEWHERE by Sarah Baethge’s tale gives us just that scenario, but without the horror and spaceships destroying our planet. Instead, a quirky group of friends find themselves caught up in an otherworldly dispute when the Sharill, Nysol finds himself stranded on Earth and the Kisleem, Poit is determined to take him prisoner, and it all started with a camping trip and a language barrier.
Meet Sean, Lester and Amy who befriend Nysol, only to become pawns in an intergalactic spacecraft theft that leaves them wondering who the bad guys really are and what to do about it! (And no, they didn't even think about contacting "the authorities")
Sarah Baethge has created a fun read that is light, a little quirky and definitely entertaining as we sit like a fly on the wall as witnesses to the fact that just maybe, while more advanced than Earth, these aliens really are just as flawed as we are! Forget what you think you know about how an alien should act, look or feel, just enjoy this quick read, because, fellow earthlings, they could be your neighbor!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Sarah Baethge!
Expected Publication Date: July 22, 2019
Genre: Science Fiction
Available from: Smashwords
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
Meet Sean, Lester and Amy who befriend Nysol, only to become pawns in an intergalactic spacecraft theft that leaves them wondering who the bad guys really are and what to do about it! (And no, they didn't even think about contacting "the authorities")
Sarah Baethge has created a fun read that is light, a little quirky and definitely entertaining as we sit like a fly on the wall as witnesses to the fact that just maybe, while more advanced than Earth, these aliens really are just as flawed as we are! Forget what you think you know about how an alien should act, look or feel, just enjoy this quick read, because, fellow earthlings, they could be your neighbor!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Sarah Baethge!
Expected Publication Date: July 22, 2019
Genre: Science Fiction
Available from: Smashwords
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
October 5, 2018
This is a middle of the range, soft sci-fi adventure story which covers the subject of inter-species contact but doesn’t stay long in the mind as something special. The cover design doesn’t give any clues.
The first thing I’d say is there’s a difference between a synopsis for a publisher (who does need to know it all to make an acceptance decision) and a synopsis on Goodreads, which is really an opportunity to intrigue the potential reader into buying a copy. It can pose a few unanswered questions, a cliff-hanger for example, or showcase the author’s gorgeous writing style if they have one. This synopsis seems to summarise the whole plot in a matter of fact style and saves the potential customer the trouble of reading it.
The best section of the book is the raid on the alien ship, followed by an escape and evasion sequence. There’s also this sweet idea about capturing enemies, putting them into a block of ice and dropping that on their own people from orbit. If you suspend disbelief around the heat of re-entry, this is a very cinematic idea. The main conundrum is which of the opposing alien species represents a threat to Earth and which would it be strategically sensible for the humans to side with – and this decision is kept deliberately unclear for the reader as new information and alien explanations of their actions, or promises, alter the context in several places.
The standard slips a little when a character arrives on Earth, although that should have been where the book took off because it’s an opportunity to show the problems of blending in, the culture clash and unique approaches to problems that highlight the differences between terrestrial and extra-terrestrial life, their alternative philosophies and understanding of time etc., or even set off an exchange about what the Universe is for. The best sci-fi addresses these kind of issues.
What we got instead was two alien species who look exactly the same as and can be mistaken for humans (mathematically close to impossible, as they evolved under totally separate conditions so won’t have the Earth mammal skeletal pattern [4 limbs, central spinal axis, rib cage, bipedal, head and eyes at the top] and they will not even be based on CGAT DNA and they won’t breathe the same proportions of atmospheric gasses). If an author is going to design a species or two and wants the reader to accept them as credibly alien, I think they should show how they have been shaped by the completely different stimuli in the radically different places where they evolved. Recycling the human body plan for your aliens is idle thinking. It won’t convince anyone. If a human actor was playing an alien part, they would at the very minimum put some deely boppers on.
The classic language barrier problem is instantly solved by a device which draws information from others’ minds, conveniently. The difference between this version and other stories where a device has done the same thing is that this one leaves the subject damaged.
What I viewed dimly was the padding and repetition, especially about what the brain ray does. In other words, the device is shown doing its thing, zappo, then a few pages later someone says ‘this is what the device has just done’, then the explanation of what has been done is brought up again on a few more occasions after that. All the author needed to do was show the thing in action and then we’d know the change was the result. Then drop it and move on, please. I didn’t count but there are also an extraordinary number of sentences which end in an exclamation mark, some rhetorical and some not. When there are too many, the reader becomes aware of that and anticipates the next one which spoils the flow of the story.
I may have been overly critical there but I wouldn’t be surprised if other reviewers don’t labour these points even harder. It is an easy-going adventure with a touch of intrigue and, I must say, it wins a star from me for being a first contact story with ordinary people for a change because too many others follow the cliché of landing on the White House lawn and wanting to speak to exactly the same person every time. You can read this book for light entertainment and draw some fun and adventurous ideas out of that but it’s advisable not to compare it to any of the more famous tales of aliens stranded on this planet because, with the exception of K-PAX, they have a lot more to say and aren’t so mild and pedestrian. Sorry.
The first thing I’d say is there’s a difference between a synopsis for a publisher (who does need to know it all to make an acceptance decision) and a synopsis on Goodreads, which is really an opportunity to intrigue the potential reader into buying a copy. It can pose a few unanswered questions, a cliff-hanger for example, or showcase the author’s gorgeous writing style if they have one. This synopsis seems to summarise the whole plot in a matter of fact style and saves the potential customer the trouble of reading it.
The best section of the book is the raid on the alien ship, followed by an escape and evasion sequence. There’s also this sweet idea about capturing enemies, putting them into a block of ice and dropping that on their own people from orbit. If you suspend disbelief around the heat of re-entry, this is a very cinematic idea. The main conundrum is which of the opposing alien species represents a threat to Earth and which would it be strategically sensible for the humans to side with – and this decision is kept deliberately unclear for the reader as new information and alien explanations of their actions, or promises, alter the context in several places.
The standard slips a little when a character arrives on Earth, although that should have been where the book took off because it’s an opportunity to show the problems of blending in, the culture clash and unique approaches to problems that highlight the differences between terrestrial and extra-terrestrial life, their alternative philosophies and understanding of time etc., or even set off an exchange about what the Universe is for. The best sci-fi addresses these kind of issues.
What we got instead was two alien species who look exactly the same as and can be mistaken for humans (mathematically close to impossible, as they evolved under totally separate conditions so won’t have the Earth mammal skeletal pattern [4 limbs, central spinal axis, rib cage, bipedal, head and eyes at the top] and they will not even be based on CGAT DNA and they won’t breathe the same proportions of atmospheric gasses). If an author is going to design a species or two and wants the reader to accept them as credibly alien, I think they should show how they have been shaped by the completely different stimuli in the radically different places where they evolved. Recycling the human body plan for your aliens is idle thinking. It won’t convince anyone. If a human actor was playing an alien part, they would at the very minimum put some deely boppers on.
The classic language barrier problem is instantly solved by a device which draws information from others’ minds, conveniently. The difference between this version and other stories where a device has done the same thing is that this one leaves the subject damaged.
What I viewed dimly was the padding and repetition, especially about what the brain ray does. In other words, the device is shown doing its thing, zappo, then a few pages later someone says ‘this is what the device has just done’, then the explanation of what has been done is brought up again on a few more occasions after that. All the author needed to do was show the thing in action and then we’d know the change was the result. Then drop it and move on, please. I didn’t count but there are also an extraordinary number of sentences which end in an exclamation mark, some rhetorical and some not. When there are too many, the reader becomes aware of that and anticipates the next one which spoils the flow of the story.
I may have been overly critical there but I wouldn’t be surprised if other reviewers don’t labour these points even harder. It is an easy-going adventure with a touch of intrigue and, I must say, it wins a star from me for being a first contact story with ordinary people for a change because too many others follow the cliché of landing on the White House lawn and wanting to speak to exactly the same person every time. You can read this book for light entertainment and draw some fun and adventurous ideas out of that but it’s advisable not to compare it to any of the more famous tales of aliens stranded on this planet because, with the exception of K-PAX, they have a lot more to say and aren’t so mild and pedestrian. Sorry.
October 20, 2018
This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com
‘From Elsewhere’ is a hard book to review because I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything like it. The premise is simple and not particularly original, but has promise. A human-like alien lands on earth. It’s familiar because it has been done many times before, and done well. Movies like ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and ‘Brother From Another Planet’ are classics because they use their alien protagonists to cast a different light on human society. Bringing an outsider’s view has enormous potential for both social commentary and comedy.
In ‘From Elsewhere’ the alien is being pursued by a different species of extraterrestrials, who are also indistinguishable from humans. It’s easy to see how a story about an alien fugitive on earth could be exciting and action packed. Imagine the drama that could unfold as his pursuers hunt for him. Imagine….
Now keep imagining, because ‘From Elsewhere’ contains none of the above. There’s no comedy, no social commentary and certainly no excitement. The absence of thrills isn’t even down to bad writing (although there is plenty of that). The writer just doesn’t bother to include any even remotely exciting events beyond the initial crash.
The plot is essentially this. Nysol (who is from the Sharill race of space pirates) is being chased by member of the Kisleem species. The Kisleem are the dominant race and the Sharill are in a kind of guerrilla rebellion against them. Nysol crash lands on Earth in a national park in the US. He meets Sean, a human who is camping there. Sean inexplicably mistakes Nysol for Kevin, an acquaintance of his. Nysol then uses an alien device to wipe Sean’s memory and take his knowledge for himself. The rest of the book is about the implications of that act and largely takes the form of people talking about it. Some of Sean’s friends and neighbours get involved, as does Poit, a Kisleem policeman who is chasing Nysol. A few other things happen, mostly to do with characters having their memories wiped or restored, but not many. Anything that does happen is discussed at length before it happens and then again after the fact. I’m not sure I’ve read a book where the ratio between things actually happening and people talking about them was weighted so heavily in favour of the talking. This might not be a problem if any of the characters were engaging or the dialogue was snappy. Sadly neither is true. Sentences in ‘From Elsewhere’ often run on unchecked, as if daring a full stop to try and put an end to them.
"“I have to object to your decision, also,” said Amy. “First you said that you were our friends, but now you’re basically picking and choosing which ones of us you want to keep imprisoned here; what are you going to do next, decide that some of us need to be iced just like you do to those Sharill who you call enemies, as well?”"
This absence of pace or tension infects the whole book. The characters never seem to care about the events on anything other than an intellectual level.
"“Making up stories just to have other people unknowingly fill in non-player character roles in your game is a pretty messed up thing to do; you really ought to leave everybody else out of this pointless make-believe! People who’ve never met you, like Amy here, are taking what you are making up v seriously. Please don’t try to take advantage of Sean’s momentary confusion, and stop lying to my neighbors to make them mad at me.”"
Even when the characters aren’t under stress their dialogue is weirdly robotic like they don’t really understand communication. If it was the alien characters who spoke like this I could understand it, but it’s all of them.
"“Ok,” Randall said to them all; “let’s go into the next room and play some playstation or something instead of continuing our D&D campaign since Sean isn’t here. I say right now that I’ll defeat you all in Call of Duty!”"
Despite the modern references, the book often feels like a bad pulp SF offering from the 1950s, or maybe a lost offering from Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional SF author Kilgore Trout. Taken in that way it’s kind of fascinating. I found myself almost eager to keep reading it because I had absolutely no idea where it was going. Sadly it wasn’t anywhere interesting.
‘From Elsewhere’ is a hard book to review because I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything like it. The premise is simple and not particularly original, but has promise. A human-like alien lands on earth. It’s familiar because it has been done many times before, and done well. Movies like ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and ‘Brother From Another Planet’ are classics because they use their alien protagonists to cast a different light on human society. Bringing an outsider’s view has enormous potential for both social commentary and comedy.
In ‘From Elsewhere’ the alien is being pursued by a different species of extraterrestrials, who are also indistinguishable from humans. It’s easy to see how a story about an alien fugitive on earth could be exciting and action packed. Imagine the drama that could unfold as his pursuers hunt for him. Imagine….
Now keep imagining, because ‘From Elsewhere’ contains none of the above. There’s no comedy, no social commentary and certainly no excitement. The absence of thrills isn’t even down to bad writing (although there is plenty of that). The writer just doesn’t bother to include any even remotely exciting events beyond the initial crash.
The plot is essentially this. Nysol (who is from the Sharill race of space pirates) is being chased by member of the Kisleem species. The Kisleem are the dominant race and the Sharill are in a kind of guerrilla rebellion against them. Nysol crash lands on Earth in a national park in the US. He meets Sean, a human who is camping there. Sean inexplicably mistakes Nysol for Kevin, an acquaintance of his. Nysol then uses an alien device to wipe Sean’s memory and take his knowledge for himself. The rest of the book is about the implications of that act and largely takes the form of people talking about it. Some of Sean’s friends and neighbours get involved, as does Poit, a Kisleem policeman who is chasing Nysol. A few other things happen, mostly to do with characters having their memories wiped or restored, but not many. Anything that does happen is discussed at length before it happens and then again after the fact. I’m not sure I’ve read a book where the ratio between things actually happening and people talking about them was weighted so heavily in favour of the talking. This might not be a problem if any of the characters were engaging or the dialogue was snappy. Sadly neither is true. Sentences in ‘From Elsewhere’ often run on unchecked, as if daring a full stop to try and put an end to them.
"“I have to object to your decision, also,” said Amy. “First you said that you were our friends, but now you’re basically picking and choosing which ones of us you want to keep imprisoned here; what are you going to do next, decide that some of us need to be iced just like you do to those Sharill who you call enemies, as well?”"
This absence of pace or tension infects the whole book. The characters never seem to care about the events on anything other than an intellectual level.
"“Making up stories just to have other people unknowingly fill in non-player character roles in your game is a pretty messed up thing to do; you really ought to leave everybody else out of this pointless make-believe! People who’ve never met you, like Amy here, are taking what you are making up v seriously. Please don’t try to take advantage of Sean’s momentary confusion, and stop lying to my neighbors to make them mad at me.”"
Even when the characters aren’t under stress their dialogue is weirdly robotic like they don’t really understand communication. If it was the alien characters who spoke like this I could understand it, but it’s all of them.
"“Ok,” Randall said to them all; “let’s go into the next room and play some playstation or something instead of continuing our D&D campaign since Sean isn’t here. I say right now that I’ll defeat you all in Call of Duty!”"
Despite the modern references, the book often feels like a bad pulp SF offering from the 1950s, or maybe a lost offering from Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional SF author Kilgore Trout. Taken in that way it’s kind of fascinating. I found myself almost eager to keep reading it because I had absolutely no idea where it was going. Sadly it wasn’t anywhere interesting.
November 5, 2018
Nysol is an alien (a Sharill) which is a human like alien so when he escapes his Kisleem enemies who are chasing him and crashes on Earth he is mistaken for a human and treated as such. He meets Sean a human camping with friends and without thought uses some advanced technology on him to extract memories so he can gain language as quickly as possible. This causes a problem as Sean is injured and is very confused about everything. So when Lester arrives he is not recognised by Sean and then he assumes Nysol is human and together they try to get Sean some medical attention. They meet Dr. Amy Carter who tries to help Sean. However when Polt (a Kisleeman) tries to catch Nysol it suddenly becomes a risk to the new friends he has made too.
This was a retelling of an old theme for sci/fi books and films of an alien that is human like and stuck on Earth. It did however have some new twists with the arrival of Polk and the danger they were all in. It was an ok story which I enjoyed although a couple of times I found it a bit tedious and had to put it down for a little while. So an enjoyable read that was well written but just came a bit short on what I expected from the blurb for it.
This was a retelling of an old theme for sci/fi books and films of an alien that is human like and stuck on Earth. It did however have some new twists with the arrival of Polk and the danger they were all in. It was an ok story which I enjoyed although a couple of times I found it a bit tedious and had to put it down for a little while. So an enjoyable read that was well written but just came a bit short on what I expected from the blurb for it.
November 18, 2019
The word that immediately sprang to mind when I started to read From Elsewhere was ‘quaint’ because it was a very similar 1950’s plot about an alien species that is stranded on Earth, and who looks very much like humans. There was a hint of excitement when this alien, a Sharill, has a device that extracts information from Sean’s brain so that the Sharill may speak and behave much like the other earthlings who live here. This slight thrill increased a little when another alien from a different planet, a Kisleem, arrives on Earth in pursuit of the Sharill, who is a rebel. This Sharill is also considered to be a criminal by the Kisleem, as he stole one of their spaceships. But then the excitement fizzled out and the story became very pedestrian and even quainter, since the characters who subsequently arrive on the novel’s stage spend page after page talking about what has happened. They do spend some time discussing what they might do about the incident and the effects upon Sean in various situations – again and again. They even get transported aboard a Kisleem spaceship that is orbiting Earth and we learn that there are other aliens, identical in many ways to homo sapiens, already present in numbers living undetected here on Earth. This scenario promises to be something that could be explored in endless ways for the rest of the book, but sadly it isn’t.
The main problem with the story is that it is not exciting, which most sci-fi fans expect, or scientifically challenging through ‘new’ or imaginative concepts introduced by the author, also expected by most sci-fi fans. Many discussions become rather tedious after a while as they repeat what has been stated earlier – on the same page or very soon afterwards. Dialogue is mostly used here to ‘tell’ the story when ‘showing’ it through the characters’ actions usually makes the plot much more engaging. Unfortunately, the whole book needs re-editing or to be run through a spell-checker since numerous spelling and grammatical errors are present: e.g. ‘grown’ when it means ‘groan’ and missing speech marks after some of the dialogue.
The main problem with the story is that it is not exciting, which most sci-fi fans expect, or scientifically challenging through ‘new’ or imaginative concepts introduced by the author, also expected by most sci-fi fans. Many discussions become rather tedious after a while as they repeat what has been stated earlier – on the same page or very soon afterwards. Dialogue is mostly used here to ‘tell’ the story when ‘showing’ it through the characters’ actions usually makes the plot much more engaging. Unfortunately, the whole book needs re-editing or to be run through a spell-checker since numerous spelling and grammatical errors are present: e.g. ‘grown’ when it means ‘groan’ and missing speech marks after some of the dialogue.
October 17, 2024
I had a difficult time with From Elsewhere by Sarah Baethge. The premise is good, although not particularly original; aliens "stranded" on Earth. Sadly, for me it did not live up to the possibilities.
The biggest improvement to this story would be an independent editor. It appears to me that any editing was done by the author, or at the very least someone too close to the writing to view it with a critical eye. The promise of the story is never truly realized.
The writing does not engage and draw in the reader. Characters are not developed leaving the reader no way of sympathizing with anyone. The alien characters are completely isolated from culture contact, which would be a rich storyline to mine.
It reads more like a report of the incident rather than an adventure the reader participates in. The narration was redundant and repetitive, retelling earlier details over and over to the point of irritation on my part.
The story was so bland and static that it took longer to complete the read because it was easily put down.
This said, the story is not without some charm , levity and intrigue. It is not without value and promise. I feel it could be saved by a good strong edit. I guess I have been harsher than usual with this review because I do see the promise and possibility of From Elsewhere. I found the final 10% of the story much more satisfying. I just had to work too hard to get there.
So, the same advice I give to every independent author I connect with; get fresh unbiased eyes to edit your work, you are too close to be objective.
The biggest plus is that I did stay with it for the duration, I didn't walk away and put it in the dreaded DNF file. With the proper editing From Elsewhere by Sarah Baethge can be a fun read. Enjoy!
The biggest improvement to this story would be an independent editor. It appears to me that any editing was done by the author, or at the very least someone too close to the writing to view it with a critical eye. The promise of the story is never truly realized.
The writing does not engage and draw in the reader. Characters are not developed leaving the reader no way of sympathizing with anyone. The alien characters are completely isolated from culture contact, which would be a rich storyline to mine.
It reads more like a report of the incident rather than an adventure the reader participates in. The narration was redundant and repetitive, retelling earlier details over and over to the point of irritation on my part.
The story was so bland and static that it took longer to complete the read because it was easily put down.
This said, the story is not without some charm , levity and intrigue. It is not without value and promise. I feel it could be saved by a good strong edit. I guess I have been harsher than usual with this review because I do see the promise and possibility of From Elsewhere. I found the final 10% of the story much more satisfying. I just had to work too hard to get there.
So, the same advice I give to every independent author I connect with; get fresh unbiased eyes to edit your work, you are too close to be objective.
The biggest plus is that I did stay with it for the duration, I didn't walk away and put it in the dreaded DNF file. With the proper editing From Elsewhere by Sarah Baethge can be a fun read. Enjoy!
July 22, 2019
Interesting Story
From Elsewhere by Baethge is a very interesting story. Filled with aliens and survival, it's a story that keeps the reader guessing, and wondering what happens next. The characters are well developed and the story is pretty well written. I've read this author's work before, and I enjoy the genre and how this author pens the story. I think the premise is similar to other stories, but it's a very interesting story, as the author puts her own spin on it. I liked the character Nysol, and not only an interesting name, but an interesting alien as well. It is not straight forward on who can be trusted and who can't. I look forward to reading more by this author.
From Elsewhere by Baethge is a very interesting story. Filled with aliens and survival, it's a story that keeps the reader guessing, and wondering what happens next. The characters are well developed and the story is pretty well written. I've read this author's work before, and I enjoy the genre and how this author pens the story. I think the premise is similar to other stories, but it's a very interesting story, as the author puts her own spin on it. I liked the character Nysol, and not only an interesting name, but an interesting alien as well. It is not straight forward on who can be trusted and who can't. I look forward to reading more by this author.
July 25, 2019
This was a nice take on the alien stranded on Earth trope. I enjoyed the interplay between the characters. The story keeps you guessing about who is trustworthy. It's nice to have an alien invasion without all the destruction of our world. The way these aliens are written, they could be living amongst us today. Overall, this is a pleasant read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews