The Grays
by Whitley Strieber
Read By Stephen Lang
64 k Unabridged
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.
From Booklist
In 1985, Strieber, then a top horror writer, author of The Wolfen 1978)
and The Hunger (1981), had an alien-abduction experience. The book he
wrote about it, Communion (1987), was so successful that his output
of fiction dwindled in the 1990s as he expanded upon his biggest best-seller.
Stillborn sequels to The Hunger emerged in 2001 and 2002, but The Grays
is a quantum leap back to his fictional form, powered by his newer,
nonfiction obsessions. In it aliens--the grays--have been with humanity
for a good, long time, for excellent reasons. They've been helping humanity
avoid their mistakes, which destroyed their emotions. Now, after a several-mill-
ion-years journey, the rest of the grays, for whom those among us were
pioneers with a purpose, are nearing Earth. Measures crucial to their
success have been set in motion, most important among them, the creation
of a human child of supernormal intelligence to receive the grays' advanced
knowledge. Trouble is, hints of the child's existence had to be made
to humans with authority; hence, the Roswell business. And hence, the
development of rival factions within the top-secret military operation
that guards the Roswell aliens. Strieber manages the plot built on those
premises as a breakneck race to find the child and, depending on which
faction the characters belong to, protect or destroy it. It's a terrific
read, already blocked out like a screenplay for the major movie which was a hit.
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Replies
Thanks, Rick!