The Slug Rebellion

The Slug Rebellion is an 86,000 word humorous, non-serious, science fiction novel, primarily for young adults. It is comprised of a prologue (because every good book has a prologue), ten intermediate chapters and an epilogue. Each chapter is split into several scenes, with each being told from the first-person perspective of one of the three main characters. The story is technically based in Australia, but it could be applied anywhere.

The novel deals with how an alien manages to crash land on Earth. Once here, it decides that it needs to blend in, in order to survive. The novel actually begins twenty years later, where a homeless teenager named Ethan is attending a school for severely financially disadvantaged children. At this school, Ethan's best friend of several years is an eccentric student named Matthew. Unbeknownst to Ethan, however, Matthew is actually the very alien that crashed on Earth two decades ago (wouldn't be a good story if he wasn't), who has diverged quite significantly from the ‘normal’ way of his race.

It's during their friendship and attendance at the school that Matthew's past life begins to catch up with him. Despite his attempts to conceal the truth, Matthew is soon visited by a group of his autocratic and militaristic race whose mission is to rescue him and bring him back to his home, so that he can continue to fight in their ongoing war. Once he learns that Earth may actually be in danger from their enemy, however, he rebels against the command – a decision that has great ramifications – and decides to stay and try to defend the Earth. This is when Ethan learns that, due to his extensive isolation, Matthew is not entirely sane anymore.

The majority of the book is told from Ethan's perspective as he learns about the Slugs, Matthew's former race, and their enemy, the Cyborgs. Most of the story deals with the interactions between the diverse set of characters, and how their completely alien natures means that they live very different lifestyles to what Ethan would consider normal. In this way, Ethan – and thus, the reader – learns about the different cultures, ideologies, lifestyles, and anatomies of the two other alien species, and how they differ from his own.

The Slug Rebellion tells a general story of an ancient conflict between two spacefaring nations, and how such a long exposure to warfare has shaped their respective ideologies and outlook on life. However, it is also about the vast differences in evolution and culture that occurred between species from different planets, how they view each other, and how they are changed once exposed to another form of sentient life.

As previously stated, however, this is a somewhat humorous, somewhat serious work, so if you're looking for deep philosophy or hard-core science fiction, look somewhere else. Well, there is a little bit.

[Note: You will notice that the Prologue is written in an uncomfortable, strange, and grammatically incorrect way. This is purposeful and is the only section of the novel written in this way. You may also notice slight grammatical differences between the characters’ viewpoints; this is also purposeful.]