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On Earth as It Is on Television

ebook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks

In Emily Jane's rollicking debut, when spaceships arrive and then depart suddenly without a word, the certainty that we are not alone in the universe turns to intense uncertainty as to our place within it.
"Weird and sweet ... like a 2020s White Noise: loud and colorful Americana with a sprinkle of apocalyptic doom."—Edgar Cantero
"Heartfelt, witty, and secretly romantic ... a delightful and poignant story about what it is to be human, and what we owe each other." —Christina Lauren

Since long before the spaceships' fleeting presence, Blaine has been content to go along with the whims of his supermom wife and half-feral, television-addicted children. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they're aliens, and his wife drags them all on a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack.
Half a continent away, Heather floats in a Malibu pool and watches the massive ships hover overhead. Maybe her life is finally going to start. For her, the arrival heralds a quest to understand herself, her accomplished (and oh-so-annoying) stepfamily, and why she feels so alone in a universe teeming with life.
Suddenly conscious and alert after twenty catatonic years, Oliver struggles to piece together his fragmented, disco-infused memories and make sense of his desire to follow a strange cat on a westward journey.
Embracing the strangeness that is life in the twenty-first century, On Earth as It Is on Television is a rollicking, heartfelt tale of first contact that practically leaps off the planet.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 17, 2023
      Jane’s cutesy debut takes the old sci-fi motif of first alien contact to a far-fetched new frontier. Mysterious spaceships briefly hover over Earth’s big cities before disappearing without a trace, leaving humanity baffled. Three story lines humorously trace human and feline reactions in the fallout. Long-suffering husband Blaine bemusedly supports his wife, Anne, who he calls “superwoman”; two TV-addicted children; and their grumpy cat, Mr. Meow-Mitts, on a haphazard road trip to Disney World. Meanwhile, Oliver Smith, who’s been in a coma for decades following a terrible car accident while trying to save his sister from an abusive stepfather, abruptly wakes and is adopted by a telepathic cat, Bouchard. And spoiled Malibu teen Heather chafes against the cheesy lifestyle her wealthy TV producer stepdad Jack P and his cat, Bastet, provide her. When the alien ships—piloted by meerkat-like beings who mistake Earth’s cats for its dominant species—return, these humans gradually achieve a joint acceptance of otherness. Feline psychology plays a pivotal role in Jane’s whimsical if somewhat heavy-handed admonition that even when humans seem strangest to one another, they have more in common than they think. It’s fun, but over the top. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2023

      DEBUT Jane's novel subverts the classic first-contact story to explore humanity's responses to uncertainty in the modern age. Here, aliens came to Earth--and then left, leaving humanity to process their new place in the universe. Through interconnected stories Jane details the aftermath. Passive dad Blaine tries to corral his children while his wife acts increasingly erratic. Resentful teen Heather suspects there's something unnatural about her perfect stepdad. And Oliver, unresponsive for the last 20 years, awakens and makes an unexpected friend. Their three stories converge while an increasingly panicked world waits to see if the aliens are coming back. As the title suggests, the novel comments on how people process their lives through mass media. It eschews intergalactic conflict for a meditation on the importance of family and the joys of a mundane existence, no matter what crisis hangs overhead. When key confrontations arrive, their resolutions are oddly subdued, but maybe that's the point. Not everything is a spectacle. Most of the time, the world doesn't end. VERDICT Jane's energetic and contemporary debut will appeal to fans of family-focused sci-fi like Mike Chen's Light Years from Home.--Erin Niederberger

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      April 15, 2023
      When spaceships hover over Earth's major cities for an extended period of time and leave without doing anything, humans struggle with the way forward, particularly a few beings that live in the Los Angeles area. The departure of the spaceships starts a domino effect for some, but this isn't a novel about fighting the aliens or the politics of how to deal with them but about family and love. It turns out the aliens have been on Earth for the past 19 years and have created relationships against orders from the home planet. They aren't sure what the future holds, but they want to protect their loved ones. Cats, television, and bacon all play important roles in the book; cats can perceive things humans can't and are given powers that help the characters find their way, and the funny way television changes the aliens' minds about their own culture is quite the commentary on our world. A compelling plot with some quirky features makes this book a great entry for a new sf reader.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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