Review of Sent to Watch

[Jenny Buddy]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sent to Watch" by David J. Lebenstein.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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I chose ‘Sent to Watch’ because I had read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Matt Haig’s ‘The Humans’; both books involve extraterrestrials coming to our earth and posing as locals; both books extol the virtues of our beautiful planet through the eyes of aliens and both are wonderfully written. What makes ‘Sent to Watch’ unique is the rich backstory that Lebenstein has created for his universe. 

Lebenstein’s imagined macrocosm is introduced to us in a glossary at the start of the book. The funky names of the characters and places gave me an overwhelming feeling that I was in for a fun ride with this book. I was not wrong. 

Lebenstein’s universe is made up of tens of solar systems that all have an earth just like ours. It was comforting, and at times amusing, to read about these ‘earths’, all developing in a similar way, technologically and culturally, just on very different timelines. Inventions such as the steam train, discoveries such as the presence of bacteria, cultural development such as women’s rights and events such as world wars are happening on all of these planets in a predictable order.

The story begins at the time of Napoleon and follows field agents from the Interplanetary Confederation; their secret mission is to ascertain whether newly discovered planets are developed enough to initiate contact. These agents, who are posing as ‘natives’, are sent to watch, but not to affect. The protagonists find themselves falling in love with ‘earth 48’, the planet that we call home, and they grapple with this ‘Noninterference Protocol’ as the future and survival of ‘earth 48’ depend on their interference. 

Space travel, politics, physics, history and even a bit of a love story are interspersed with inventive descriptions of alien ‘earths’, with their extraterrestrial names, languages, nations and space vehicles. Court cases, wars and interstellar terrorists kept me glued to the book, but my favourite parts were the playful stories that have been imagined for famous people throughout history, inferring that some household names are actually aliens from another earth.

‘Sent to Watch’ is incredibly inventive and original. I give it 5/5 stars because I wouldn’t change anything about it. Lebenstein had me so immersed in his universe that I found myself looking around, wondering who could be an extraterrestrial agent from the Interplanetary Confederation’s Intelligence Service.

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Sent to Watch
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