Invasion of the space books

Americans are ushering in the 21st century with countless tales of aliens from outer space. The mythical "Roswell incident" is so famous that a character on The X-Files, when accosted by agents Scully and Mulder, can make his point merely by crying, "Roswell! Roswell!"

REVIEWS BY MICHAEL SIMS

If you thought the new X-Files movie was the last word on this subject, think again. That award goes to a new series of books aimed at the teen market. You've heard of Sweet Valley High? Get ready for -- it had to happen -- Roswell High. Beginning in September, Melinda Metz will be providing bimonthly visits.

    Roswell High
    By Melinda Metz
    Archway/Pocket, $1.99 for the first, $4.99 thereafter

Much of the fuel for conspiracy theorists comes from the U.S. government's childish refusal to tell the truth until spanked. Again and again, military officials claimed that reconnaissance balloons were weather balloons and denied the existence of secret aircraft. Of course, that doesn't mean aliens are visiting us, but somehow many people think it does. Phil Patton addresses these issues, and many others, in his new book, coming in August, Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of Roswell and Area 51. You may be familiar with Patton's popular book, Made in the USA: The Secret History of Things That Made America. Nothing like the word "secret" to perk up a subtitle.

Although officially it doesn't exist, Area 51, in the dry lakes of Nevada and California, is a top-secret test site. Patton argues that a great many of the reported flying saucer sightings were actually glimpses of secret Air Force vehicles, from the U-2 to current UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle or robot planes).

Dreamland is also a tour of the alien subculture, from Area 51 to Roswell to the rest of the country. Along the way, Patton tells many fascinating stories, from how Gary Powers of U-2 fame wound up a traffic helicopter pilot in L.A., to the fad for airship sightings in the mid-1890s, when balloons were becoming common and flight experiments were rampant.


Whether or not we have company out there, the universe is a big and mysterious place. In this anniversary month of the Moon landing, you can check out several new books that address what we actually know about space. In 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the Universe, William A. Gutsch ranges, well, throughout the universe. Why 1001? In his introduction, Gutsch sounds like George Bush when he admits that the title is "a publishing thing, not a science thing." A former chair of the Hayden Planetarium who has been Special Science Correspondent for ABC, Gutsch has a chatty yet well-informed style. He recounts the discovery of Pluto and refutes the misconception that the frequency of births rises during the full moon. He is always lively. A sample: "The ice cliffs of Miranda are not only a great geological wonder, they'll also make a great theme park ride someday." Miranda is a moon of Uranus. Thanks to its weak gravity, if you stepped off one of its nine-mile-high cliffs, you wouldn't reach the ground until half an hour later.


Next turn to The Handy Space Answer Book, by Phillis Engelbert and Diane L. Dupuis. It's a sequel to similar volumes on weather and science. As in most such books, now and then the question-and-answer format seems forced, but it lends a conversational friendliness. The authors assume no prior knowledge of the subject, and hold forth enthusiastically. This is a wonderful introduction for anyone over the age of, say, 12.


The most specialized volume in our roundup is also the most beautiful. The celestial neighbor closest to the size of Earth is the subject of a gorgeous gift book coming in August from National Geographic, Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet. "The Mariner 9 photographic results from Mars," Carl Sagan observed, "correspond roughly to 10,000 times the previous photographic knowledge of Mars obtained over the history of mankind." Practically the whole feast is here in this book. Next to the Moon, Mars has always been the most intriguing object in the night sky. Recent discoveries have made the planet more interesting than ever before, and this lovely new volume sums up the knowledge, with sparkling writing and fabulous photos. Soon Mars may be the first planet in the solar system to be visited by aliens--ourselves.


Michael Sims is the author of Darwin's Orchestra (Henry Holt).

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