I continue my survey of works published in 2022 by veterans of Taos Toolbox, master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy.
Toolbox 2008 veteran Brian K. Lowe has had an interestingly various career, including the Stolen Future trilogy, the Nemesis series of pulp-inspired thrillers, the fantasy Once a Knight, and a book on how to protect yourself from securities fraud.
Brian’s latest is in a lighter mode, involving an alien invader who finds himself pledging at an American frat house. Here’s the word:
Conquer the Earth or date a cheerleader? College is tough!
Phil failed invasion scout team training, but he was smuggled onto a ship anyway and sent to spearhead the invasion of his people’s new home planet: Earth. Then his ship was sabotaged, losing his weapons, documents–and his clothes.
Now disguised as a student at Newton College, Phil finds himself pledged to Alpha Tau Ceti fraternity, a hard-drinking ever-partying house of slackers who deserve their reputation as the lowest form of life on campus. But Phil’s got other problems: He’s being shot at by laser-blasting assassins, the dean of students wants him to help to hunt for UFOs, he’s developing a crush on a sexy professor, and the Alphas keep conspiring to make him lose his pants in public. Not to mention that they’re are building some kind of project in the basement that’s so secret they won’t even let him see it.
Phil has to decide: pass History 101, or conquer the Earth? And if he chooses to follow his destiny, how is he going to find a defense to Earth’s greatest secret weapon…
…girls?
