Diplomatic Act - Hardcover

Jurasik & Keith; Jurasik, Peter; William H. Keith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671877887 ISBN 13: 9780671877880

Publisher: Baen, 1998

Synopsis

Playing an alien on a television show, Richard Faraday is astonished when he is mistaken for an alien by real extraterrestrial visitors, who are threatening the galaxy with interstellar war unless Richard's character, a diplomat, can save the day

About this title

From the Back Cover

Coming to a Galaxy Near You!

Richard Faraday didn't believe in aliens, even though he played one on TV Unfortunately, the aliens believe in him . . . or rather, they believe in Harmon, the alien diplomat Faraday plays on the SF program Star Peace. A war is threatening to tear the civilized galaxy apart, and only a diplomat as superb as Harmon can stop it. The problem is that the real aliens are just a little confused about the bizarre human concept known as fiction. They think Harmon is real....

Well, real or not, "Harmon" had better solve their alien problems fast or Faraday, galactic civilization, and Earth itself will be abruptly cancelled.

Reviews

Among the recent spate of actors in sf TV series co-writing sf books comes one by Babylon 5's Ambassador Londo Mollari. Aliens believe Richard Faraday, who plays diplomat Harmon the Eldar in Star Peace, an sf show, really is Eldar. Then Faraday is called upon to avert a galactic war. This space opera with a lot of references to old TV shows satirizes fans who believe TV characters really exist. Unfortunately, the pedestrian treatment makes it a marginal purchase for sf collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Richard Faraday plays a wise extraterrestrial on a tacky syndicated TV series when real ETs kidnap him and replace him with one of their own. Meanwhile, Faraday continues to play his character among the alien Watchers, who have been observing Earth through the medium of TV for decades. But since they don't understand the uniquely human concept of fiction, the aliens think that Faraday is actually one of the Wise Old Ones; in fact, they are depending on him to solve their metaphilosophical crisis. Only in Hollywood. From Candide to ALF, the figure of the alien haltingly learning human cultural reality is familiar in literature and can provide a fine focus for a satirical look at our society. This example of the form could have been a formulaic hack job, but Jurasik and Keith have crafted instead a fine comic narrative of the collision of Hollywood and outer space. By following both Faraday and his alien stand-in, we can see the farcical consequences of such an ultimate cosmic culture shock. Dennis Winters

Edition details

• Publisher: Baen
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671877887
• ISBN 13: 9780671877880
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368