Back Cover: THE SLUG OCCUPATION They arrived in the sky over Earth one fine April day in their ships the color of gold. Seventy-seven ships ranging around the circumference of the globe, ships that seemed to chase the rising sun. In their wake, the golden ships left a wave of devastation, destruction, and (at least for a time) death. Among the cities, towns, and villages annihilated: San Francisco; Rome; Joplin Missouri; Dar-es-Salaam; Minsk and Kiev; Padua; Paterson NJ; Quebec and Geneva; St. Louis and St. Petersburg (Florida); Venice in California and Venice in Italy; Salt Lake City and Mecca; Springfield Mass and Springfield VA; Benares, Mecca, Kyoto, and Austin Texas; Mukilteo, Washington; Pittsburgh PA and Pittsburgh CA; seventeen obscure villages along the upper Yangtze; and three of the five metropolitan boroughs of greater New York City. Among the towns and cities spared: London and Athens; Bangkok and Baghdad; Tangier, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Tijuana; and Winesap, Illinois. ... Seventy-seven ships the color of gold—all in a single April day. Not only were certain towns, cities, and villages destroyed but anyone and everyone within their borders either died or else disappeared without a trace. In 17% of the affected areas the entire human population was struck instantly dead. Three days later all of the dead returned to "life" again. In most respects the resurrected corpses remained oblivious to the ordeal they'd gone through. They walked, they talked, they laughed, they cried—the same as always. One thing they didn't do--since technically they remained dead--was breathe. Nor did they sleep ...
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