First Contract

by Greg Costikyan

Johnson Mukerjii is a happy man; hes the CEO of a successful high-tech company about to unveil a newer and better technology. His beautiful wife greets him poolside every night with a drink and a sexy smile. Hes got it made. The alien landing changes everything. Suddenly, the company is worthless, and the lovely wife has become the lovely ex-wife, taking every single penny of liquid assets with her. His only hope to reclaim his life is to rebuild his connections with a strange science fiction writer whom the aliens seem to like and to find a product the aliens will buy.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2000

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Contract is a very entertaining update of a classic SF question: what happens if the aliens arrive, and WE become the Aztecs or Incas or South Sea islanders? Costikyan's answer: a business collapse that makes the Great Depression look like a 'rolling readustment', bringing 50% unemployment, shantytowns and soup lines to Silicon Valley -- and to every industrial country. After all, who's going to buy a Lexus, when you can buy an alien aircar that goes from zero to Mach 1 in 60 seconds for $30,000?

Johnson Mukerji, the fabulously wealthy founder of Mukerji Data Systems, quickly becomes a statistic as he loses his company, his mansion, his Jag -- and his trophy wife, the treacherous but practical Maureen, who, noting it was "sweet, but possibly unwise" of him to have given her power of attorney, cleans him out of everything but his underwear and pocket change: $17.41.

Mukerjii finds a certain satisfaction in cooking 'thon pour chat, avec une sauce tomate' for his fellow down-and-outers in Sludgetown. But you can't keep a good entrepeneur down, and with an unwitting grubstake from a wealthy, right-wing SF author -- the galactics find his human-supremacist novels a hoot -- he introduces the Mukerjii Drink Valet: an improved drink-bulb for zero-gee travel. It's a hit with the alien tourists, but there are trillions of potential customers out there -- so it's off to the Carina Arm Travel Accessories Trade Show, once Mukerjii surmounts the minor difficulty of raising $85 million for starfare, registration and travel expenses....

One of many nice touches is the rate-of-exchange disparity: one gozashtandu is worth about US$5,000, so power, air, gravity and radiation shielding for Mukerjii's booth will set him back 6500 gosh, or a cool $32 mill American.

But the flipside is -- to a galactic, a gosh is a negligible sum, so he can retail the Drink Valet, which costs maybe a quarter to manufacture, for $5,000 apiece! Even after shipping and sales commissions, this will leave a 'substantial' profit....

But the biggest customers will be the zdeg warrior-traders, who regard breach of contract as a capital offense. And limited-liability is a truly alien concept to the zdeg....

This is a very funny book -- I lost track of the number of times I laughed aloud. Plus it's economically-literate, clever, brisk, wise, witty and short. Some of the exaggerations-for-effect border on cartoonish, and I've given up on predicting other people's reaction to humor. But if you know the world of IPO's and trade shows, big business and burn rates, schmooze, booze and sales -- First Contract is your kind of book.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Alienígenas, crisis, oportunidades y humor.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. Johnson Mukerjii está al frente de una compañía tecnológica a punto de lanzar al mercado un producto revolucionario pero teniendo que afrontar importantes riesgos financieros, un hecho alterado por la repentina llegada de alienígenas a nuestro planeta con la intención de negociar y cuyos resultados cambiarán nuestro mundo para siempre y mandarán a Mukerjii, junto a muchísima otra gente, al desempleo y la ruina.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Robin Danek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't often find a book that makes me laugh out loud, but this one certainly did. Having worked in marketing for many years I was quite entertained by this book that uses the age-old "alien invasion of earth" theme to poke fun at business and commerce. I could particularly relate to the off-world tradeshow.

[Smetanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space O.P.A. de Greg Costikyan chez L’Atalante poche

16/20

C’est le titre qui m’a attiré vers cet ouvrage. J’ai beaucoup aimé le petit jeu de mot avec space opera, à la manière d’un Jack Vance. Et surtout le titre est très intrigant, l’ouvrage parlerait de capitalisme, dans un contexte extra planétaire ? En bref beaucoup de questions rien qu’avec le titre de cette œuvre.

La terre est contactée par les extra-terrestres. Elle est désormais suffisament développée pour faire partie du réseau des planètes de l’univers. Pour les terriens, le premier aperçu de la technologie extraterrestre est éblouissant, il promet un avenir radieux. Malheureusement, très vite, c’est le désenchantement. Ensevelis sous les innovations, les entreprises terriennes font faillites, les unes après les autres. Mukerjii se retrouve à la rue, lui qui était le PDG d’une société cotée en bourse. Mais il a un plan pour regagner le sommet, et pour cela, il est prêt à tout, quitte à enfreindre les règles et pourquoi pas tuer une personne au passage.

Je ne connais rien à l’univers de la bourse, de la finance, des OPV et autres joyeusetés du même genre et pourtant, cela ne m’a pas gêné dans ma lecture. Si l’ouvrage traite de finance c’est sur un ton grinçant et humoristique, accessible au tout venant. J’ai adoré voir une situation renversée où la terre se retrouve reléguée à l’âge de pierre au vu des autres super puissances. Pour moi cet ouvrage est une belle leçon d’humilité et surtout une certaine critique du capitalisme, dont il démontre les limites.

A défaut de space opera, on découvre certes des races extraterrestres et une ou deux planètes extérieures mais l’ouvrage reste concentré sur la Terre. C’est une nouvelle forme de SF où la course n’est plus à l’innovation technologique mais à autre chose (je n’en dirai pas plus pour ne pas gâcher le plaisir du lecteur).

Une très belle lecture, choisie sur un coup de tête mais que je ne regrette pas. L’auteur change les codes et le fait très bien.

[Aiyana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, often hilarious, and well-paced. Johnny thought he was on top of the world. He's a business genius and a slick guy. He's got it all... until aliens show up and start beating him at his own games. To them, Earth is a backwater planet that just can't compete in an interstellar marketplace. And where does that leave us? This novel is extremely witty, but with an underlying current of all-too-astute commentary on our own world.

Quote:

"When one talks about business risk, one does not normally mean the risk of death.
"A one-sixth chance of death to save $15 million. That valued my life at $90 million.
"If my mere existence was worth $90 million, I was rich. At least in the same sense that Maureen used to contribute so much to the household finances by saving us money. I recall on one occasion, she saved us several thousand dollars on a single shopping trip. I had to ask her to stop being so thrifty lest she bankrupt us." p182

[Emmalyn Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

A belated selection for the r/Fantasy 2016 Bingo in the 'Science Fantasy OR Sci-Fi' square. Greg Costikyan is more well known for being a game designer but he has also written a few books, and this is one of them from 2000. Goodreads has just over 100 ratings and Amazon (US) only has 22 ratings, so I wasn't sure what I was in for, but the blurb on the cover from The San Francisco Chronicle says "One of the year's ten best" and Tor published it, so I decided to give it a go. I was reading the mass market paperback which seems to use a 6 pt font, so that wasn't fun (I couldn't find an eBook version of it). The premise is that aliens arrive on Earth and their advanced technology soon turns the world into an economic disaster with the greatest depression "since the fall of the Roman Empire". How do you compete with that? It was another quick enjoyable read and I enjoyed the humor. As a big chunk of the book is set in the Bay Area, I could relate to that as well.

[George Ronczy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting take on the first contact idea, except it's an alien business takeover of Earth rather than a military invasion. The aliens have technology so far advanced that humanity is reduced to making mud pies and yet somehow have translators that don't quite have mastery of English, although the translation of 'trade show' as 'industrial carnival' will seem accurate to anyone who has ever been to one.

A little bit slow in the protagonist's down-and-out period, but otherwise, a highly entertaining and easy read written stylistically along the lines of Douglas Adams. Highly recommended.

[Brown Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an unjustly neglected novel, well worth seeking out if you like satire of business, capitalism, and science fiction. The plot is fast-paced, the characters seamy and convincing, the resolution swift and apt. This is the best obscure title I've run across in a long time. I'm sorry it didn't make more of splash on release.

[Djangelic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a long time ago, but for some reason it's been stuck in my head like a worm that won't go away. It made me look at capitalism differently, that's for sure.

[D F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable tale.
Glad I read it.
Checking for other Costikyan books.

[Lidia Quintana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novela que entretiene, pero no atrapa

[Philippe Lenain · Rating 4 out of 5]

SF et stratégie commerciale vont rarement de paire. C'est ici le cas, de manière drôle et maligne.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life is going well for Johnson Mukerjii: he's the CEO of a prosperous high-tech firm and he only expects it to get more prosperous from here on out. That is until aliens arrive. They have vastly superior technology and they're practically giving it away. Pretty soon 50% of Americans are out of work, including Mukerjii. All he knows is sales and business, but what could he possibly sell to the aliens?



I really enjoyed this book and I didn't expect to. First off, I misread the title and didn't realize it for a few chapters. That sneaky little "r" really makes a difference. Second, the back copy is completely hokey and ridiculous. But it also completely works with the story. The main character Muckerjii is very cool and he's got a great vocabulary. Always a bonus for this Reading teacher. I know I categorized this as middle school but I might consider using it as a read aloud for some verbally acquisitive 4th or 5th graders. There are some terrific wordplays going on. Take the name of the law firm for example: Captious, Invidious, Conniving & Cruik. That's a nice variation on the standard "Dewey, Cheatum & Howe."
This book barely qualifies as science fiction. Yes, there are aliens and even some space travel but it is very light on the science. Which you could view as a good thing; it could lure some new fans into the genre. I love Heinlein but he could get a little heavy with the vectors and trajectories and three dimensional chess. I can't even play one dimensional chess.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was quite possibly the most original sci-fi story I've ever seen while being a more thorough lesson in economics and business than 6 years of business school. The otherworldly story has a more real-world example of how money and trade works than any textbook I've ever encountered. This should be a must-read for anyone who enjoys sci-fi, finance, or intelligent comedy. My only regret about this book is that Costikyan hasn't written more in its vein.

[Gregoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

un premier contact qui ruine l'économie de la Terre sans guerre éclair Un peu old school mais à prendre au second degré donc drôle, dans un style enlevé qui entraine le lecteur page après page façon montagnes russes en pointant les clichés, très américains, du libre échange
J'ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de Leander Huff et admiré Mukerjii pour sa faculté à rebondir et à s'adapter
"ah, life was sweet"

[Jason Fryer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed all 4 of Costikyan's novels. His writing style resonates well with me and this book was a fine example.

It's also a likely scenario (at least financially) for what first contact might be like.

[David Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining and fast-paced story of alien first-contact, global economic collapse, and one down-at-heels ex-tycoon who attempts to recoup his fortunes (and save his planet's economy) by selling cheap doohickeys to rich aliens.

[Sully Augustine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny in many instances and thought provoking in others. Sometimes the plot is a bit clumsy but it's never boring. Scott Adam's character Dilbert would relate strongly to the protagonist, and to the geek, of this story, as would Calvin, and Hobbes.

[Paul Callister · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. Alien economies could ruin us. It's best to avoid them.
2. Alien's don't respect the concept of limited liability as necessary to capital formation.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book, I love how it deals with a different aspect of an alien "invasion"