Book Review~~”Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders” And Wait for the Subtitle!
Delilah Jean Williams, of Seattle, Washington, has written a book whose full title is
Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders: Can Earth Be Saved By This Unlikely Group of Aliens, Animals and Humans?
The book’s front cover elaborates:
“A humorous eco-adventure about betrayal, hope and enlightenment”
You see here that I am perfectly serious.
Delilah Jean Williams of Seattle has a passion for prairie dogs, among other things-most having to do with the natural world and the need to pay closer attention to its care and maintenance. Delilah Jean Williams is a bit of a crusader. You will notice there’s a prairie dog on this cover.
It is an intriguingly crowded front cover. Somehow just right for Scorched Earth which, by the way, I recommend that you read.
And what about that blue dragon fly? And the very large binoculars which Ms. Williams tells me are “the inanimate form of the alien bot-shifter.” And there you have it. An alien bot-shifter. What self-respecting work of science fiction would be without one?
While I’m at it, I should probably tell you there is a series of four books (so far) called, appropriately, The Keystone Prairie Dogs eBook Series. And I hope I’m not the only reader who had to look up “keystone species.” According to Wikipedia, that source of all information worth knowing,
“A keystone species is a species that has a disproportionately large effect on its environment relative to its abundance. Such species are described as playing a critical role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community, affecting many other organisms in an ecosystem and helping to determine the types and numbers of various other species in the community.
The role that a keystone species plays in its ecosystem is analogous to the role of a keystone in an arch.”
Absolutely clear. What is possibly less clear is how a woman like Delilah Jean Williams of Seattle, Washington, self-proclaimed “environmental journalist, published author, political activist,” and nobody’s fool, I might add, becomes passionate about prairie dogs in the first place. According to Delilah herself,
“My journey with prairie dogs began in a pet store over 20 years ago. They had baby PD’s in cages being sold as exotic pets. I thought that didn’t seem right, so I called the local fish and wildlife services, and confirmed that, yes, indeed, prairie dogs were approved as pets in the state of Washington, along with most other states in the US.”
Not to be deterred, she waited, and at the first sight of baby prairie dogs in the pet stores, Delilah bought Digger (see below). She soon concluded these animals didn’t belong in cages as pets at all. She apparently concluded it rather decisively since she spent the next several decades of her life as a journalist publicizing the plight of the prairie dog. Not quite satisfied with even this effort (which was considerable), our Defender of the Species also spent those decades taking in non-releasable prairie dogs that were abandoned or abused as pets. I’d say if you’re careless about animals, you don’t want to mess with Delilah Jean Williams. I’d say if you’re careless about prairie dogs, a move to Seattle probably shouldn’t be in your plans.
Oh, and that isn’t Delilah Jean on that crowded cover, looking affectionately at the featured prairie dog, or wistfully at the dragonfly or at the sun rising over the earth’s horizon. Delilah herself looks to me like a tougher cookie altogether. She’s been on the barricades most of her life, for ecological causes and for human rights–which I imagine she would tell you should be the same.
Well, perhaps not entirely tough. Meet Ms. Williams and her friend Digger.
Unfortunately, my task here isn’t to tell you all the fascinating facts I’ve collected about Delilah Williams. My task is to tell you about Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders.
I am delighted to report that Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders: Can Earth Be Saved by This Unlikely Group of Aliens, Animals, and Humans is Delilah Jean Williams.
The book-like its author-has many layers, so that it is both “a little adventure about how an unlikely team of aliens, animals and humans come together in a last ditch effort to save the dying planet of Earth, after most of the remaining humans have colonized Mars to capacity” and a narrative filled with every deep concern that is essential to both the woman and the author. The novel moves with considerable ease between the story that is great fun for any young adult (and some of us older ones) and a narrative voice that continues to force us to think about those absolutes that we surely must tend or we will die–“the environment, corporate greed, wildlife conservation, betrayal, respect for all living things, love and decency.” And that comprehensive catalogue comes direct from Ms. Williams.
So. It’s a book about pretty much everything important, written either for young adults or for older adults or for anyone at all. Ms. Williams says that, although she hears most often that readers of any age would love the book, when pushed she has always categorized it as Young Adult Sci-Fi.
So we have a young adult science fiction novel,whose characters include humans, animals, and aliens, which-in spite of a certain top layer of silliness, rings loud and clear on the serious subject of protection of the environment.
And did I say that Delilah Williams has a wicked sense of humor and of the ironic? A chapter midway through the book, titled, “Mushrooms,” ends with this (which, for some reason, had me holding my sides with laughter):
‘Your mother is pregnant.’
Brava, Ms. Williams. You’ve done those critters of yours proud! And the rest of us as well.
Folks, buy this book. Read it. Buy more copies. Give it to every young adult you know; give it to the smart children you know. Read it aloud to them all. You will have more fun than you’ve had in years, and you will set those young people thinking about a few of the things that matter in this world.
The post Book Review~~”Scorched Earth, Alien Wonders” And Wait for the Subtitle! appeared first on Dean Robertson.
