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Michigan Chillers #4
Aliens Attack Alpena
Mark and Meghan sure have a boring life. That is until they're enlisted to save the world from hostile aliens ready to destroy it!
207 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 16, 2023
Michigan Chillers is a fine series when it clicks just right. The author is capable of good writing, and when his imagination hones in on a promising idea and he executes it well, the stories have their appeal. All those factors come together nicely in Aliens Attack Alpena, arguably the best of the first four books in the series. Poltergeists of Petoskey is still likely my personal favorite of the four, but it's hard to beat the mix of surprising occurrences, suspenseful writing, and interesting, likable characters that form the backbone of Aliens Attack Alpena. Twelve-year-old Mark Blackburn feels like he has a lot to deal with when the school bully threatens to beat him up for a phantom indiscretion committed on the bus, but it's nothing compared to being one of only two people on planet Earth made privy to an imminent invasion by an extraterrestrial species capable of rendering the human race extinct. Can Mark and his friend Meghan neutralize the insidious invading aliens before the wave of infiltrators is too powerful to turn back?
Mark wouldn't have learned of the coming alien attack at all if it weren't for bully Greg Daniels chasing him off school grounds, boldly crowing his intent to squash Mark. Narrowly escaping Greg's punishing fists, Mark and Meghan stumble on a futuristic spaceship in a wooded clearing, and come face to face with a bona fide green creature from space, one armed with weaponry beyond anything attained by humanity. Luckily for Mark and Meghan, the alien (named Brothron) is on their side, in the midst of reconnoitering on behalf of an alien race to find a particular extraterrestrial menace and eliminate it before Earth's citizenry is endangered. The otherworldly enemy has been tracked to the depths of Lake Huron where it abuts Alpena, and Brothron needs Mark and Meghan's assistance in eradicating the hostile aliens before they grow large enough to threaten mankind.
It's a fast turnaround for Mark from fleeing his bully, but Earth is in the clutches of a far worse foe than Greg Daniels, and Mark is willing to answer the call of duty. Soaring high in the sky in Brothron's technologically advanced space vessel and plunging hundreds of feet below the dark, mysterious surface of Lake Huron, Mark and Meghan refuse to succumb to fear and abandon their world when its people need them most. The invading alien species, called the Globblings, is growing rapidly, and soon the danger they pose will be too great for Brothron to stop them. Can Mark and Meghan survive multiple attacks by lethally predatory Globblings long enough to launch a counteroffensive against the mothership in a final underwater confrontation...all while the fate of our planet hangs in the balance?
The author shows considerable skill in how he builds Aliens Attack Alpena, not falling into predictable story patterns. There are surprising twists in this book, whereas previous Michigan Chillers had few or none. Unexpected incidents of peril come into play with good timing and sometimes go in directions I didn't anticipate, and the suspense is a grade or two higher than in Johnathan Rand's earlier books. The unconventional grammar, spelling, and writing that marked previous Michigan Chillers is toned down a lot in Aliens Attack Alpena, as well. I also appreciate the return of the word search in the back of the book, and this time every word was there to be found, some requiring closer examination than others. I would almost consider awarding this book two and a half stars, even though there's a certain loose end that didn't get tied up which could have made the story more meaningful if it had been. I'm excited about future installments of the Michigan Chillers series; up next is Gargoyles of Gaylord, and I look forward to getting to know the girl Mark meets at the end of Aliens Attack Alpena and reading her story. For fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps or most any other series of scary stories for kids, I recommend trying Johnathan Rand's Michigan Chillers and American Chillers. They never fail to deliver a good time.
Mark wouldn't have learned of the coming alien attack at all if it weren't for bully Greg Daniels chasing him off school grounds, boldly crowing his intent to squash Mark. Narrowly escaping Greg's punishing fists, Mark and Meghan stumble on a futuristic spaceship in a wooded clearing, and come face to face with a bona fide green creature from space, one armed with weaponry beyond anything attained by humanity. Luckily for Mark and Meghan, the alien (named Brothron) is on their side, in the midst of reconnoitering on behalf of an alien race to find a particular extraterrestrial menace and eliminate it before Earth's citizenry is endangered. The otherworldly enemy has been tracked to the depths of Lake Huron where it abuts Alpena, and Brothron needs Mark and Meghan's assistance in eradicating the hostile aliens before they grow large enough to threaten mankind.
It's a fast turnaround for Mark from fleeing his bully, but Earth is in the clutches of a far worse foe than Greg Daniels, and Mark is willing to answer the call of duty. Soaring high in the sky in Brothron's technologically advanced space vessel and plunging hundreds of feet below the dark, mysterious surface of Lake Huron, Mark and Meghan refuse to succumb to fear and abandon their world when its people need them most. The invading alien species, called the Globblings, is growing rapidly, and soon the danger they pose will be too great for Brothron to stop them. Can Mark and Meghan survive multiple attacks by lethally predatory Globblings long enough to launch a counteroffensive against the mothership in a final underwater confrontation...all while the fate of our planet hangs in the balance?
The author shows considerable skill in how he builds Aliens Attack Alpena, not falling into predictable story patterns. There are surprising twists in this book, whereas previous Michigan Chillers had few or none. Unexpected incidents of peril come into play with good timing and sometimes go in directions I didn't anticipate, and the suspense is a grade or two higher than in Johnathan Rand's earlier books. The unconventional grammar, spelling, and writing that marked previous Michigan Chillers is toned down a lot in Aliens Attack Alpena, as well. I also appreciate the return of the word search in the back of the book, and this time every word was there to be found, some requiring closer examination than others. I would almost consider awarding this book two and a half stars, even though there's a certain loose end that didn't get tied up which could have made the story more meaningful if it had been. I'm excited about future installments of the Michigan Chillers series; up next is Gargoyles of Gaylord, and I look forward to getting to know the girl Mark meets at the end of Aliens Attack Alpena and reading her story. For fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps or most any other series of scary stories for kids, I recommend trying Johnathan Rand's Michigan Chillers and American Chillers. They never fail to deliver a good time.
April 15, 2008
Colin loves this series. I like that these are places that we (Colin and I) have actually been in our own state. We would like to visit Jonathan Rand's store upnorth also.
January 11, 2017
Cringe Alert
May 15, 2022
This was the first Chillers I ever read. It was in 2000, and I got this book for my 20th birthday. I had been living with my girlfriend, going to college and studying molecular biology. She got this book for me because it was marketed as America's #1 series for maximum chills. It lived up to that title, because a few chapters in, I pissed myself in fear.
I couldn't stop pissing myself as I read the book. By the end, our house smelled so bad that my girlfriend left me and I was forced to move into a trailer. I continued reading these books and I left college. I wouldn't try to go to college again for many years but I dropped out because Dollar Store Danny was teaching me a lot.
This was how it all started. I continued reading Johnathan Rand books and I always follow up on his series. They're so scary!!
I couldn't stop pissing myself as I read the book. By the end, our house smelled so bad that my girlfriend left me and I was forced to move into a trailer. I continued reading these books and I left college. I wouldn't try to go to college again for many years but I dropped out because Dollar Store Danny was teaching me a lot.
This was how it all started. I continued reading Johnathan Rand books and I always follow up on his series. They're so scary!!
January 2, 2021
Only took me 3 years to finish! It’s a cute kids book that takes place in my hometown about aliens, what I can I say? The whole thing is constantly repetitious chapter by chapter, but it IS for kids, and my kids had a good time hearing the story.
May 5, 2019
Enjoyable though somewhat repetitive. Getting to experience one of the Great Lakes was fun. My son has a love/hate relationship with cliffhanger chapters.
June 8, 2019
Best alien book ever.
February 15, 2024
The writing, story and characters are not great, though the mechanic linking the books in the series is interesting. Not as bad as the first one though.
May 15, 2013
I think this was a good book. I liked that two ordinary kids named, Mike and Summer find an alien spaceship and they have to stop a whole alien race from destroying the earth. Jonathan Rand is my favorite author in the whole world because makes all these amazing monster books located in different state. I especially like reading about ones in Michgan and Wisconsin. One sentence summary... (Mike wanted to have a good school year but insted he ends up discovering an alien race so he has to save the whole Earth then he ends up saving the earth.
June 28, 2015
I read quite a few books in this series back when I was in elementary school and I really liked them. Basically, they've got two gimmicks: They took place in a city or town in Michigan and they had an alliterative title that included that city or town.
Aliens Attack Alpena was one of my favorites. Still, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't take place in Ann Arbor. Then the title would have been alliterative and longer. But it was good. It was sort of scary to read (but, like the other books in this series, it was not as scary as any of the Goosebumps books I had read).
Aliens Attack Alpena was one of my favorites. Still, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't take place in Ann Arbor. Then the title would have been alliterative and longer. But it was good. It was sort of scary to read (but, like the other books in this series, it was not as scary as any of the Goosebumps books I had read).
September 13, 2015
Johnathan Rand is known for multiple books but the book he wrote named "Aliens Attack Alpena" is my favorite of his. Mark and Meghan find a mysterious object in the woods after a meteor flew over the sky a few days before. They figure out that the mysterious object is a spaceship and they soon encounter alien-like creatures. Those alien-like creatures have one goal = to destroy planet Earth. What will Mark and Meghan do to save the Earth from these aliens? Read this great book filled with action and mystery to find out.
January 21, 2013
one day after a large meteor hit planet earth it was seen over alpena Michigan Mark and meghan discoverd a silver object in the forest the creature that they saw was an alien and those aliens would stop at nothong to overtake the whole earth.
June 30, 2011
wow this book was awesome! I really enjoyed this book!
September 12, 2012
i liked it alizzot
September 30, 2015
This is about a kid that finds a spaceship and the aliens attack them what do they do next.....
March 24, 2016
PB-B @ 1999, 7/00. Michigan Chiller series. Juvenile book. Mark and Meghan fight aliens in Alpena. Another fun J-book.
June 1, 2009
i love this book
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October 18, 2018It was pretty good although the ending was pretty predictable.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews