Nate asked Peter Cawdron:

Of all your First Contact books, which one is your personal favorite?

Peter Cawdron Oh, that's a bit like asking who is my favorite child :)

I try to address genuine possibilities in my stories, so I am drawn to some concepts more than others, but I love all of them.

As an example, Xenophobia was inspired by the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion which had aliens plundering Earth for its water. The movie is amazing. I love it. But stealing water is NOT a valid reason for aliens to visit Earth. There's more water on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn than there is on Earth. If they want water, why not go there as it would be easier (less gravity to work against)? And they can get that water without having to start a genocidal war. So Xenophobia answers the question—why would aliens visit Earth? What's the most compelling reason for them to come here? (You'll have to read the book for the answer)

Another example is my latest novel Clowns, which asks the question, what would an intelligent extraterrestrial species think of our intelligence? Again, the answer is core to the novel so I won't spoil that, but I love that book for how it tackles that topic head on.

Cold Eyes asked the question—given how much we lie, could we trust aliens and could they trust us?

Anomaly asks the question—what if aliens were so advanced we could barely recognize their presence on Earth?

3zekiel asks the question—what if an alien mission to Earth ran into technical problems akin to those that sometimes plague our attempts to explore places like Mars?

Jury Duty is subtle. I'm not sure how many people will realize this as most of the book is a redemption arc for the main character, but it asks the question—would aliens be able to distinguish between us and other animals with varying levels of intelligence? Would they treat us the same as them or would they treat us differently?

Ah, it's fun to think about these things, huh?

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