Stated first edition, dated, with complete number line. Tight, clean, flat, square, sharp and crisp book in wrinkled DJ. Very light marginal toning. Winner: Seiun Best translated novel, 1989; Runner Up: Locus Best SF Novel 1986, Honorable Mention Hugo Best Novel 1986. Anatomy of Wonder (3e) 4-396: a re-cycling of aliens deleted from Lucifer's Hammer at the request of the editors in an attempt to attract movie money for another disaster film.
In the vast reaches of the immeasurable cosmos, a tiny dot is traveling at immense speed in the background of the flickering lights, is seen from the oblivious distant Earth. The unimaginable is arriving in a small unimportant looking object, Aliens, at last are coming.
Alone...the destination is our world, unprepared, divided full of great hate towards one another, almost helpless nevertheless an enormous struggle for survival ensues, millions will perish, and the blue planet will never be the same.
They call themselves THE FITHP led by wily Herdmaster, Pastempeh-keph, resembling...fantastic baby elephants with two snouts, henceforth the Earthlings speak of them disparagingly as "Snouts". Their spaceship is not small either but huge , a mile long, carrying many thousands of aliens and tons of equipment in their intergalactic journey, with generations living and dying in this craft:the callous aliens, have come to conquer.
Destroying a Soviet space station, that is welcoming them.
President David Coffey of the United States flees Washington, goes deep underground to Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Maybe he'll be safe there as the aliens hurl down a big asteroid. Others will fellow hitting the Indian Ocean forming a colossal tidal wave which crushes the people living near the coast. India disappears. Other nations go dark, no lights no humans remain.
The invaders land in Kansas, the local National Guard fights bravely, soon the U.S.Army intervenes but to no avail, these creatures from another world have too much... unknown arms, with superior technology which devastates the land, structures, roads, homes, dams that give us electricity, refineries, and the all important crops feed the country: the famous wheat fields gone.
Still the Earth will not give up no matter how feeble their efforts seem, to save civilization the long upwards climb from the mud, to hopefully in the future the stars, will not be denied without an enormous resistance the history of humanity shows this... A splendid story, exciting with enough plot for a score of novels, one of the best alien invader books ever written