Author Cliff Ball draws on his considerable knowledge of history, folklore and Christianity to craft a convincing retelling of humanity’s time on Earth.

Told mostly from the point of view of a newly sworn-in U.S. President, we learn that Earth has existed under the shadow of secrets and lies for thousands of years. As Noah was building his wooden ark to escape the flood, a highly developed race of people called Terrans was designing starships and planning to leave the earth entirely.

The Terrans travel to an Earth-like planet and set up a colony, naming it Terra. They explore their new system and meet many friendly cultures. They also meet the Ragnor, a race obsessed with military conquest. The Ragnor attack Terran ships relentlessly and without cause.

Soon the Terrans return to Earth to see if their human cousins have advanced. They find Egypt at the time of the Pharaohs and decide the earth humans are far too primitive to help Terra fight the Ragnor.

Some Terrans decide to interfere with human development and pose as Earth people. From the times of King Arthur to Genghis Khan, Terrans make their mark on history.

Centuries later, a spy base is set up on Mars. From Mars, the Terrans watch as the Great War explodes in Europe and later as World War Two engulfs the entire planet.

The Ragnor visit Earth in cloaked ships and begin abducting and experimenting on humans. Tales of abduction and UFOs spread around the globe. A Ragnor scout ship crashes in New Mexico in 1947. The Americans develop the Area 51 program at Roswell. The project’s mandate is to use the technology from the downed alien craft to defend the United States against her enemies.

Sixty years later, a secret starship is ready, the crew trained, and the newly elected Present must address the nation and the world. He orders the ship to attack Earth’s alien foe. Is one advanced ship enough to match the combined fleets of both Terra and Ragnor? Is America on the brink of its greatest military victory since D-Day? Or is it doomed to fail like no other combat mission in history?

Ball has written an intriguing new take on history. He keeps the pages turning, explaining historical events in his own unique style. The story builds to an explosive climax that won’t leave you disappointed.

I recommend Don’t Mess With Earth to Sci-Fi and alternative history fans.

Reviewed by WR Potter for Reader’s Choice Reviews.

My first review for Don’t Mess With Earth, done by Feathered Quill Book Reviews

Don’t Mess With Earth

By: Cliff Ball
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Publication Date: March 2009
ISBN: 978-1602643413
Reviewed by: Will Gabbett
Review Date: June 10, 2009

In the new book, Don’t Mess With Earth, intellectually and scientifically advanced humans, as well as aliens from a distant world, have descended on Earth. They have been experimenting and meddling in the affairs of humans for the advancement of their own species for centuries. But wait! Earthlings have caught on to the devious ploys and are fighting back.

Don’t Mess With Earth begins with the President of the United States getting ready to hold a press conference to explain how Earth has been manipulated. “…it all started a few thousand years ago…” The story then jumps back to a time when Earth was populated by primitive people with the exception of the Terrans, a race of technologically advanced humans. The Terrans worked constantly to advance their society while those around them fought and scrounged for food. Eventually, the Terrans were able to build a space ship and leave Earth, and all its problems, behind.

With the help of another alien race, the Terrans exponentially advanced their technology and soon were in conflict with the Ragnor, another advanced race. While these two enemies battled each other, they both descended on Earth – the Terrans to meddle and the Ragnor to experiment.

Once the author presents the history of the Terrans and Ragnors, he then brings us back to Earth and the reader is taken on a history trip where we meet Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Michelangelo, Galileo, and King Arthur along with many other historical figures. In the U.S., we meet Amelia Earhart and Chuck Yeager. The reader sees how some famous characters from the past were actually Terrans, and how these advanced people affected history.

The story chronicles various historical events around the world, including the well-known alien spaceship crash in New Mexico in the late 40s. In Don’t Mess With Earth, the crash is real. When a Ragnor space vessel crashes on Earth, one alien is captured alive and taken to a secret research area known only as ‘Area 51.’ By using the Ragnor captive’s knowledge and studying the spaceship, humans, particularly the U.S. military, advance their own knowledge. Soon, they are able to launch an attack of their own.

Don’t Mess With Earth has a great premise and the way the author weaves historical fact with creative alien mischief is clever and intriguing. There are a bit too many background chapters that present historical figures which, although fun to read, eventually drag the story to a halt. They are really mini vignettes that prevent the plot from getting into the meat of the story until about halfway through the book when the Ragnor ship crashes and ‘Area 51’ is established.
The writing in Don’t Mess With Earth is a bit strained in places as is the dialog. For example, when Amelia Earhart is having problems, we read, “She was beginning to suspect that her radio was being jammed by the Terrans, so she waited for whatever that was about to happen, go ahead and happen.” There are also several holes in the plot, such as how the Terrans became so much more sophisticated than their primitive neighbors. When the military captures a Ragnor, they force him to cooperate. How could one Ragnor’s reluctant assistance, the technology his ship offers, along with human ingenuity be enough to launch a strike against a much more advanced civilization? This idea may strain believability and evoke questions from the reader. Still, the unexpected twist at the end of the story, plus the creative storyline, will keep many readers hooked.

Quill says: A good attempt at showing what might happen when aliens think they know more than their human subjects.

I just saw the new Star Trek movie, and I was expecting it to be kind of like “Cloverfield,” which was a total crappy monster movie. Now, I’m a major nitpicker with all things Trek, I prefer them to stick with the canon, so, even though I watched all 5 series and 10 movies, I was expecting this to be like most other re-boots, a total disaster. It wasn’t, it was kind of like Batmans’ reboot, a pleasant surprise. The alternate universe idea was done right, in my opinion.

First off my nitpicks. I’d say the first fifteen minutes of the movie(I checked my watch) after the prologue, I was disappointed or annoyed with, because it just made no sense to me that anyone would have a Corvette 200+ years after it was made; but, if we’re supposed to see that Kirk is a rebel even as a kid, well I guess it makes some sense. What’s up with the cop robot by the way? The whole bar scene thing, well, it reminded me of Star Wars a little bit. Plus, aren’t Orion slave girls supposed to be just that, Orion Slave Girls? Why is one in the Academy? Plus, they never explained why a starship was being built on Earth in Iowa, what happened to Utopia Planitia? In the books and in the original series, wasn’t the Enterprise something like 15 years old by the time Kirk took command? Isn’t there supposed to be at least one or two starships or some kind of fighter craft protecting Earth and Vulcan? What about those space stations? Isn’t the universe supposed to explode when young Spock meets old Spock? At least that’s what Doc Brown always said!

Now, what I liked. This movie had all sorts of references to TOS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, and a couple of the movies. Scotty said something about Admiral Archer when he was younger(wouldn’t he have been way too old by then?), the scorpion thingee reminded me a lot of the Wrath of Khan, but this time you just assumed Captain Pike told them everything. Then, when Nero yelled “Spooock!!!” it flashed me back to “Khaaannn!!” The whole time travel revenge thing kind of reminded me of the Voyager episode “Year of Hell” where the scientist kept making changes to history and kept ruining it and taking it further and further from where it was originally. Too bad destroying the Romulan ship didn’t reset history. When Kirk first meets older Spock, I thought it was cool when he told Kirk that he would always be his friend, referencing Trek 2 and 3. I found it funny when they explained away Chekov being there by having him be 17 years old, which would make him at least 4 or 5 years younger than everyone else. At the end, when Leonard Nimoy as Spock spoke the “These are the missions of the starship Enterprise…” plus the TOS music, that was awesome!

I thought everyone had their characters down pat. I thought I would see Sylar instead of Spock, but he was close to mirroring Nimoy almost exactly. Chris Pine, I thought, is a good replacement for Shatner, the guy playing Scotty was funny, the new guy playing Chekov had a little too thick of a Russian accent though, Sulu was good, and Uhura seemed more like a copy of Lieutenant Hoshi from Enterprise than the original. Even the guy who played Sarek reminded me a lot of Mark Lenards’ Sarek.

Overall, I thought this was a good movie and I hope J.J. Abrams doesn’t disappoint in the future. As long as one person is the director instead of more than one for a movie series, then it should do really well. Live Long and Prosper, Star Trek.