The Challenge of Contact: A Mainstream Journalist's Report on Interplanetary Diplomacy

The second in a series of acclaimed books, this nonfiction installment sees a retired Los Angeles Times editor reporting on a coalition of humans and aliens who between 1998 and 2001 engaged in extensive interplanetary diplomacy with a goal of open contact. The contact was reportedly abandoned after the events of September 11, 2001, but this epic project is documented as the author--the project's designated writer and herald--shares the daunting challenges this role forced upon him.