Truck Stop Earth

A wild ride that will have you laughing, gasping, and wondering if, just maybe, it all might be true.

I downloaded a free copy of TRUCK STOP EARTH from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review because it claimed to be a sci-fi novel and because the cover art reminded me of Douglas Adams. But mentioning aliens from time to time does not make this stream of consciousness into a sci-fi novel any more than mentioning a few dinners could make a Patricia Cornwell thriller into a cookbook.

Also, it's nothing like Douglas Adams. Full stop.

So what is it? I'd call it Jimmo's crazy journal of Alaskan sex and travel. If that sounds like a good book to you, then you'll love it. (And I mean that sincerely.)

The thing is, I am a wymmin, as Jimmo would say. And not one of Jimmo's Alaskan fantasy wymmin either. An honest-to-God real-life wymmin, and therefore somewhat at odds with this one. But that isn't really fair to poor Jimmo. After all, he didn't make me read it. He just told the story to Max, and Max wrote it down. So there ya go. Jimmo's innocent in all that, if ya know what I mean.

(Not that wymmin can't read it, mind you. That would be sexist, and Jimmo isn't sexist, as he'd be quick to tell you himself.)

What ultimately sells this book, despite my wymmin's sensibilities, is its extraordinary voice--unique, to say the least, and marvelously consistent from start to finish. Jimmo is Jimmo, through and through, and I have to give Michael A. Armstrong high praise for writing outside the box and making TRUCK STOP EARTH well worth the read.

Even if you are a wymmin.

Truck Stop Earth

Now, here's a book that stands up and demands to be noticed! There's something very refreshing about a novel written in the first person in an extremely colloquial narrative voice. Our hero is a refreshing indigent man who goes by the name of Jimmo. He's the type of character you'd make the mistake of saying “hello” to over morning coffee, and you wouldn't be able to get away from until midnight. Jimmo has survived several alien abductions, and he's always got his eye out for agents of the extraterrestrial forces that have been ruining everything (global warming is on them for example) in recent memory. However, apart from the belief in aliens, Jimmo seems pretty normal. Most of the folks who believe in alien conspiracies believe in other, less socially acceptable conspiracies, but Jimmo is not among their number, which makes you almost want to believe him.

This is a not easily categorized novel, like all the great ones are. The alien talk makes it science fiction, but I couldn't help wondering the whole time if maybe Jimmo was just pleasantly crazy. Oddly, I found myself reminded of “Into the Wild” a little bit, as Jimmo makes his way to Alaska hitchhiking and pontificating on human nature. Along the way he manages to score a few pleasant trysts with the characters he meets on the road. These played out like scenes from Charles Bukowski's “Women.” I'm willing to bet there are no other science fiction novels listed on Amazon that evoke reflections on those two particular titles.

I think I liked the survivor component of Jimmo's story the most. This was a guy without a penny to his name as happy to live in a tent as sleep in the dirt or a five star hotel. He goes from job to job and knows what regulations he has to obey and which ones he can push a little bit. This is the type of person you might make the mistake of dismissing, but these people have their doctorates in human nature and that comes across loud and clear in 'Truck Stop Earth.' Also, I think if there are aliens on earth and there are people who get abducted, the exact type of character to put a stop to it all is a guy like Jimmo.

Pick it up for your sci-fi (I've learned some hate that term) loving friends, but also give this book to your students of human nature. This is a great story for travel, because unlike the crazy guy at the coffee shop, you can close the covers when you need a break...then again, my bet is that you won't want to.

An unusual book! Fun story about a certifiably crazy person "saving the world" from aliens, or at least a small town in Alaska. Fun story.

I have some experience, due to my day job, speaking with ...delusional people. Reading this book was exactly like listening to one those people I've spoken to before.

The X-Files meets Penthouse Forum. That is the simple definition of a rollicking good time sci fi book.

I know for a fact that the first line here has already had one person put it on their 'to buy' list.

Not really a book about battling aliens - it is the story of Jimmo as he spends a lot of time talking about his experiences with aliens while he has sex with many different women, often in great detail! Salacious, somewhat foul mouthed but hey, you can't have more than a half a dozen graphic sex scenes without the odd naughty word.

I found the book captivating and an easy, fun read. A very, very, very adult kind of Hitchhiker's Guide to an Alien Conspiracy. Never seen one like this before!

If there had been a tad more alien butt kicking I would have gone the max but it's a fun, irreverent, raunchy read. I recommend it to anyone 18 and over who likes a bit of smexy sauce with their sci fi.

My Rating: 4.5 stars

Truck Stop Earth was an amusing tale, written as a re-tellling/memoir type novel, much like David Wong's John Dies at the End. It had a surprising amount of sex (it was more or less part of the story, and not really just dropped in there for no other reason than to have sex scenes), which may put some readers off. My biggest gripe about it, was how quickly it wrapped up. The build to climax was lengthy, and the denouement was rather swift. That's the only thing that prevented me from giving it 4 stars.

Jimmo is on meds and clinically delusional. He's on the run from the Grays, alien infiltrators responsible for abductions and anal interventions (which install "butt chips" - it turns out these are the alien equivalent of tagging wildlife so that it can be located and identified). He's just arrived in "Della", a small Alaskan town, where he hooks up with a number of interesting ladies, scores his meds from a local Health centre, and does his bit for the anti-alien Resistance.
This book is a classic case of the "Do we trust the narrator?" quandary. If it weren't for the fact that Jimmo freely admits taking his meds, we'd probably believe him. He comes across as rational - for a given, magic-realist type of rationality, and the Grays do seem to be trying to kill him (or at least warn him off). Within the frame of the story, are the Grays real? It's up to you to decide!
While the plot is largely an introduction to the delights "Della" has to offer (I'm not up enough on Alaska to identify which town this is a pseudonym for - Valdez?), it nevertheless makes easy reading and Armstrong's writing is fluid and evocative.
There's just enough admixture of sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll (admittedly marimba-based!) to give the narrative that strong human dimension so necessary for reader empathy (at least, if you're an old hippy like me). His central character is sympathetic and the community with whom he interacts are strongly characterised. Light humour abounds - Jimmo's sense of alien persecution is never allowed to overshadow the story.
The whole narrative possesses what my old Lit. professor used to call "Literary Verisimilitude", ie it's true to itself, and, once you suspend disbelief of its stranger precepts (as any reader has to do with any work of fiction), Truck Stop Earth turns out very convincing. I enjoyed reading it, and I think many others will also have a good time with this book.

Not my typical paranormal read, but I VERY much enjoyed this! I'll be looking for more from this author and recommending it to my customers!

A silly but highly entertaining story.
This is a silly book done well. It tells the tale of a UFO kidnapping victim, Jimmo, as told to Michael Armstrong. But it is stupid done well, which I always appreciate. The book was very entertaining and the world seen through Jimmo’s eyes. The dialogue is clever and Armstrong sets the scenes very well. My one quibble with the book is that it was written the way that Jimmo would have written it and not the way that Armstrong would have written it. But if you put that aside, the book is a lot of fun.

What a great adventure. Not what I was expecting however was better then I imagined.