Brief First Encounter – A Refreshing Take on the Human meets Alien Sci-fi

Once you have taken care of your basic survival needs: food, water, shelter, and tribe, your curiosity is finally allowed to flourish! Curiosity is what Miezejeski suggests drives all intelligent life as he describes in his latest hardcore sci-fi novel Brief First Encounter. Differing greatly from the extraterrestrial life represented in most of our pop culture, the Cronins do not arrive on our planet with laser blasters at the ready, causing widespread destruction with intentions to take over our planet, plunder it for its resources, or wipe out all life so that they can create a colony planet for themselves. Instead, the Cronins reach out through a probe on the dark side of the moon. They wanted to talk. They wanted to share. Perhaps, as humans, we are all cynics deep down. Or maybe it’s a subconscious bias, the belief that the only reason intelligent life would contact us would be to destroy us. But I digress. Miezejeski’s Brief First Encounter is a refreshing take on the human meets alien sci-fi favourite.

Spoiler-Free Summary

Thirty-five lightyears away, in a star system far, far away, you will find the planet of Cronin. Populated by a little less than a billion highly intelligent humanoid(ish) life forms, Cronin is under threat of a cataclysmic event. Gus is a part of a team of Cronins searching the universe for other intelligent life forms to bequeath the Cronin’s legacy arc – a database of all their culture, knowledge, and technology. Gus and his team have been observing Earth from a space probe on the dark side of the moon for thirteen years. They have been watching and hoping that the humans of Earth are worthy of their gift of knowledge, and time is running out!

My Take on Miezejeksi’s Brief First Encounter

Brief First Encounter describes a fresh take on extraterrestrial life coming into contact with humans. The story is filled with thought-provoking ideas, and in-depth explanations of complex physics. I found myself becoming very existential in the face of some of the ideas Miezejeski introduces, such as the Pope’s reaction to alien life. On researching the topic further, I was fascinated to find that Miezjeski’s story was reflective of the research conducted by NASA’s Astrobiology program on the topic.

However, Miezejeski falls at the hurdle that so many self-published works do: Editing. Brief First Encounter is riddled with typos, punctuation, and grammatical errors, which makes for a frustrating read at times. With the help of an editing team, this feels like it could have been like a Tom Clancy novel – sophisticated ideas melded into an edge-of-your-seat read, filled with complex characters and fascinating physics.

As it stands, characters don’t have conversations so much as monologue speeches where characters info dump on readers. No character feels like an individual because they all speak with the same vocabulary, in the same tone, and from the same perspective. Particularly when it comes to politicians and mining magnates, I had expected a high degree of emotionality and conflict when it comes to discussion around the economy. The idea of the introduction of fusion technology rendering the fossil fuel industry obsolete could have been an opportunity for development of the plot, to have politicians in bed with mining companies trying to stop the introduction of the fusion technology, but it turned out to just be an opportunity to deposit information into the story in an uninteresting way.

However, a scene much later in the novel reminded me of a Brian Cox video I saw online recently.

“I would like you to take the perspective that we gained from seeing our planet from the surface of the moon.”

Chapter Seventeen.

The video featured Cox talking about his belief that, if it were possible, all politicians should be sent into space to help them develop a more global mindset. This related to astronauts’ reported experiences of looking at Earth from space – the first few rotations, they look at Earth searching for their countries and trying to see if they can find their homes. But by the seventh or eighth rotation, all they see is the planet – the home we all share. It is apparently a hugely humbling experience.

Brief First Encounter is a thought-provoking read, not only for all the science and existential ideas, but also for the romantic notions about what makes intelligent life just that – intelligent. On the most basic clinical level, Gus defines it on behalf of Cronin as the ability to use electromagnetic communications. But as the story progresses, this definition is explored further, and perhaps it is curiosity and the ability to relate to one another that truly defines intelligent life.

Audience

Brief First Encounter is an adult read. There are a lot of complicated science and social ideas.

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