The Grays

The author of this novel claims to have been abducted by aliens (the grays) in 1985. Journeying from afar in the universe, the grays are about to descend on Earth again for the purpose of saving us from ourselves. The focus of their plan is 9-year-old Conner, whom they view as a potential savior. Their plan also involves genetically manipulating all of humankind. Stephen Lang's narration is intense, and the suspense is unrelenting. Lang captures the essence of the precocious Conner, the kids who torment him, and the father who is intimidated by him. No story of an encounter with aliens is complete without a government conspiracy, and Lang makes the conspiracy in this book believable beyond a doubt. J.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

August 21, 2006
Vocally, Lang and Vincent Price have a lot in common. While Price reveled in the spooky and sinister, Lang, though he packs a similar, possibly more extensive arsenal, does not hyperbolize, instead using his creep factor to corral the listener into the den of the writer and lets Strieber do the scaring. Strieber, who claimed in 1987's Communion to have been abducted by aliens (or "Grays"), parlays that experience into a yarn about the Grays' ultimate plan, to save themselves and mankind by breeding a human savior: nine-year-old Connor Callahan. The small hitch is that all humans, like Callahan, will be the subject of genetic manipulation. Enter Col. Michael Wilkes, steely government spook willing to kill most of mankind in order to eliminate the Grays. Lang shows great range, conveying each character's anxieties and emotion with elan. Even as the action and horror intensify, and the characters fight for the survival of mankind, Lang is cool as a cucumber-and that makes it all the scarier.

June 5, 2006
Fact into fiction? In bestseller Strieber's engrossing SF thriller, which draws heavily from Communion
(1987), the author's controversial account of his personal contact with aliens, Danny and Katelyn Callaghan are a happily married couple oblivious that both took a saucer ride as kids—until a UFO sighting in their Indiana town awakens subliminal memories and excites their genius teenage son, Conner. Meanwhile, in a secret facility in Colorado, Air Force Lt. Lauren Glass learns that the Roswell incident really happened, and that for decades the surviving ETs have been sharing their advanced science with us. In exchange, these "Grays" have sought to rejuvenate their dying species by genetically manipulating human receptacles for their DNA. But some military hard-liners see this as a betrayal of humanity, and they launch a manhunt that brings them to Indiana and the Callaghans' doorstep. Though Strieber's human characters are sometimes as stiff and unbelievable as his Grays, his depiction of black ops intrigue and military espionage is a first-rate exercise in literary paranoia. It goes without saying that his abduction scenarios have a disturbing authenticity that even skeptical readers will find provocative.