★★★★★ 3
When a pop-science author with a sense of humor alienates half his readership because ...
Format: Hardcover
This is a short but interesting and truly fascinating book, and I liked the author's description of what to do with your first alien encounter. IN part because my wife and I are writing a novel on a famous UFO encounter that occurred in rural Kentucky in 1955, and gave us the term "little green men.
" I used to write for UFO Magazine, and have written books on the subject that were NOT novels, but factual (as I see them) real encounters with something Not of This Earth. How this author addressed these incidents is a hoot. Or it was ...
This book remined me of Max Brook's first book on Zombies, yhe one that led up to his World War Z book. HOWEVER, at some point, this otherwise interesting Astro-physicist felt he had to vent his own personal political spleen for or against Trump. I was NOT interested in his views - I imagine if he reads my forthcoming book on UFOs, or the next one in the queue, on how to market and promote your books, he won't be interested in my political beliefs (almost certainly I'm either too far to the Left or too far to the Right for his taste). I thought he was brilliant. Now I see him "alienating" half of his potential reading audience, which isn't at all brilliant. It might even be "dumb as a tree stump."
It's different from some authors/scholars - for instance, military historian Victor Davis Hansen of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University has written a book about his political preference, and does a daily (or more frequent} video blog on the subject, but when he sets out to dissect the Peloponnesian Wars or the current war on Iranian terror, he treats these as an historian, and not as an opinionated political activist.
He may offend or reinforce my historical views, but when it comes to his areas of expertise (his recent World Wars Two book about how WW-II was really five or six different wars going on at the same time) is brilliant, regardless of his political views, which are not material to his remarkable historical scholarship.
The author of Take Me To Your Leader should have taken a page from VDH's book (literally and figuratively). I'm not sure I can actually go back to where I left off and still appreciate what this scientist says about UFOs and aliens (tongue firmly planted in cheek - it's a funny book) without fuming about his political views.
Our nation is so politically divided that I would say to all writers - unless they're writing about politics, don't show your views to your reader - you'll P.O. half of them, at least.
Oh, well, it was fun (and funny) while it lasted.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2026
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