Hard Landing by Algis Budrys

Hard Landing Reviews

• 
  Bradley

  This is the first Algis Budrys I've read and while I didn't fall in love with it, it certainly had its good points.
  
  It's first contact from the PoV of humanlike aliens that had crash-landed here half a century ago and who tried to make ends meet however they could.
  
  Honestly, it read like any other kind of fish-out-of-water culture shock kind of novel that would have worked just as well as anyone seriously from the boonies coming to America for the first time, only these people saw some things a bit more clearly. And they were definitely appreciative of the American experience.
  
  There have been tons of stories like this, of course, and while it feels dated and optimistic, even when it truly wasn't, it seemed quite old-fashioned for SF.
  
  Not bad, mind you, it just had that old optimistic feel while trying to show itself as gritty and realistic.
  
  Or maybe I just feel like we live in some bad times. Whichever, lol
• 
  Erik Graff

  I never met Algis Budrys, but I knew his son pretty well. Jeff Budrys lived above the On the Tao restaurant/bar near the corner of Morse and Sheridan at the time and was close to Tom Kosinski, a friend from high school days. Not himself much of a science fiction fan, he was a collector of lizards. Once, while urinating during one of his parties, a bit drunk, something of that nature ran across the rim of the toilet--a geico, I learned, my fundamental soundness of mind having been reaffirmed.
  
  Jeff ran a floor sanding business back when he still lived in East Rogers Park, Chicago. When I and some friends purchased the three-flat where I now live, he and his crew did our floors to the satisfaction of all.
  
  I'd been first exposed to Algis Budrys as a kid, reading his'The Falling Torch' in elementary school, caring little, however, for its authorship. Later, having met Jeff, I consciously looked for his father's work, picked up 'Michaelmass' and read it over in Michigan. Neither book had much impressed me, but 'Hard Landing', a retrospective account of aliens stranded on earth combining elements of historical with science fiction, did.
• 
  Olethros

  -Curioso, interesante y poco común.-
  
  Género. Novela corta.
  
  Lo que nos cuenta. La tripulación de una nave espacial alienígena queda atrapada en nuestro planeta tras un accidente. Su aspecto externo es similar al de los humanos, por lo que su labor de mimetización entre nosotros, siguiendo parámetros preestablecidos en manuales para esta clase de crisis, debería ser sencilla, pero seremos testigos de los diferentes problemas y destinos que esos alienígenas deberán enfrentar. Esta edición incluye, también, un relato largo del autor sobre un directivo empresarial que debe dejar a un lado sus planes de salida de la corporación para hacer frente a la crisis que ha desatado un increíble descubrimiento técnico de uno de sus empleados.
  
  ¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
  
  
  http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
• 
  David Nichols

  Like Joseph Conrad, Algis Budrys achieved authorial fame in a language he learned later in life. Born in Lithuania, Mssr. Budrys became an SF writer in the United States, and subsequently an editor, a writing teacher, and an affiliate of L. Ron Hubbard's controversial Writers of the Future. His best-known novels, ROGUE MOON and WHO?, were published in the 1950s and '60s, but this short novel of 1993 may be better than both of them. HARD LANDING tells the story of a crew of humaniform aliens, remote observers of Earth's growing industrial civilization, who crash-land in New Jersey in the 1940s, and must then blend into and survive among the general American population. Budrys provides a thoughtful explanation of why alien UFO pilots might prefer not to make open contact with humans, and a plausible account of the lives that two of the marooned crew members subsequently make for themselves, one as a commercial writer and the other as a secret adviser to a very high-ranking American politician (whose real identity Budrys reveals late in the novel). It is a mature tale, crisply written, tightly plotted, and seasoned with dry wit, and Budrys respects his readers' intelligence, keeping exposition to a minimum and allowing readers to figure out several mysteries (like the name of the Earth illness that afflicts one of the crewmen) themselves. Highly recommended.
• 
  Arbys Mom

  This was strange, but rather shorter than I’d like, as I didn’t care for it to end, it was that good. That said, it is far from a normal format, being composed of police reports and other statements, some of them impossible to have been written. How can someone who’s dead state what the killer did after they died? It’s still a compelling and interesting story, and worth reading.
• 
  Joshua Koerner

  This is my first book by Algis Budrys, and I didn't know what to expect. It had a great contemporary feel. It's a serious of dossier accounts of a crew of aliens that crash lands on Earth as each one goes their separate ways and tries to assimilate into Earth culture, with varying results.
• 
  Paul

  This is a story about some aliens that crash land on Earth and have to blend in with the local population. When one of the aliens dies, the case is picked up by a government bureau that keeps track of unusual humanoids. You'd think that this is some X-files like thriller, but it's a bit more mundane than that; turns out one of the aliens wanted a less mundane existence and decided to subtly manipulate technology and government to make himself rich and powerful. He had to do it very subtly because the whole reason his people didn't just rescue their downed aliens is that they don't want humans to know that advanced aliens exist, and they'd be very pissed if he was giving fire to the mortals or whatever. In the end I believe it turns out that he deliberately crashed the ship to give himself the opportunity to be a big fish in the little pond.
  
  It was interesting enough, but nothing to write home about.
  
  3 of 5 stars
• 
  Timothy

  I am especially interested in a specific variety of science fiction: the kind that explores the ideas of ufology from the “aliens’” perspective: especially sub rosa contact; evasion of detection. The classics in this field include Zenna Henderson’s tales of The People.
  
  Algis Budrys's Hard Landing does this fairly well.
  
  There are of course many “standard” First Contact stories, including Clifford Simak’s late-in-career The Visitors, which was written in the standard multi-character pop-thriller style, not in Simak's emblematic pastoral style. It nevertheless does a good job of advancing a truly “alien” visitation, but certainly not from the alien POV.
  
  Budrys offers us very human-looking aliens — and a combination of first-person and third-person narrative techniques. With the first-person accounts often being from the aliens.
  
  This is actually a very clever fix-up novel. And it intersects with history in an interesting way, which, to avoid spoilers, I will leave unexplained. The ending is touching, I think, and makes this a very human book after all.
• 
  Doug

  I picked this up based on review from others, suggesting this was written by one of the classic sci fi writers. And indeed the writter, Algis Budrys was active until 1978 and then waited 15 years to put this book out (1993). At least to me it still has the feel of 'early' sci fi, but it's quite well written and the story flows well. I enjoyed it and recommend it.
• 
  Rebecca

  A short, but intelligent little sci fi story.
• 
  Jon

  So far as I knew, every single inhabitant of Earth was tougher than I. It made a fellow proud to be a soldier.
• 
  Edward III

  I was given this book by Algis at a con. The anomaly aspect of the tale made a real impression on me. A fast and enjoyable tale.