I bought this book directly from the editor in February 2026 at Book Fair Australia. I won’t say I buy everything McKenzie writes or edits, but there’s a distinct possibility that I am. It’s an anthology and the basic premise is that when humans from Earth meet aliens from another planet that it’s the humans who misbehave rather than the aliens. We’ve had a plethora of movies and books where the aliens come to Earth and run rampant with behaviour that causes us humans problems. I thought it would be refreshing to see things from the other point of view. Science fiction and fantasy are often used to examine a situation and show us how people might react given the circumstances.
There are short stories by:
- Daniel Fox
- Narrelle M. Harris
- Mia Dalia
- Liam Hogan
- Martin Livings
- Jason Franks
- Paul Edmonds
- Colleen Anderson
- Zac Ashford
- Peter J. Aldin
- Paul Carro
- Benjamin Admans
- John Peel
- Anthony Ferguson
- Andreas Hort
- D.S. Telling
- Ryan Colley
- Hannah Baxter
I’ve read some of these authors before and I was very excited to see them in action again. Maybe it was my enthusiasm that was my undoing.
It started off well, every story beautifully crafted and then I got to Peter J. Aldin’s name. I’ve read a number of books by him and my mood lifted knowing I’d be reading a story by him. The story left me thoughtful, I don’t want to give any details as it’s such a short story and saying anything would likely be spoilers.
Don’t get me wrong, the writing of each short story was masterful, there is some wonderful talent here. If I had to use one word to describe how I feel about this book it would be ‘unsettled’. Humans can be such horrible people and it would be nice if humans could prove that the opposite can be true. The last story left me reeling. Using real aliens from different planets we see how people might respond to them living amongst us. But, the situations are exactly how we’ve been seeing things play out in the USA. Immigrants, sometimes people who have been living there since the age of three, have been put into camps with little ceremony and totally mistreated. The parallels left me horrified.
I’m not writing about any other story because I want you to read this book for yourself. As I’ve already said each story is very well written. Some of them left me less unsettled than others, but reading the entire was a huge challenge. I had to stop a number of times between stories and take a day or two break to let my psyche calm down. I rarely tell people they should buy a book, but this one is different. Get the book, take your time and read it carefully. Bear in mind your own sanity while reading, it will give you a different perspective on the Humans From Earth!!