AN alien race has invaded Earth to find ... that we are just as blundering as they are. Somersham author Michael K Robinson s new sci-fi novel A New Treatise on a Small Blue Planet, gently derides some of our modern preoccupations. For example, the prefac

AN alien race has invaded Earth to find ... that we are just as blundering as they are.

Somersham author Michael K Robinson's new sci-fi novel A New Treatise on a Small Blue Planet, gently derides some of our modern preoccupations.

For example, the preface says: "The ink on these pages was gathered by South-Sea Islanders in a traditional method which dates back thousands of years. No planets were harmed in the production of this book."

American Mr Robinson says he was inspired by Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but readers will also recognise the atmosphere of television series Third Rock from the Sun.

"I grew up with storytelling as a central part of my life. I studied criminal justice at university, hoping to enter law school after graduation.

"Instead, I entered into the restaurant business at 22.

"My first (and only) business venture ended after a year when I noticed that I had not had a full day off work in the previous 12 months.

"I left soon afterwards in order to 'broaden my life experiences'.

"My next enterprise took the form of eight years in the US Army. I had the rather dubious luck of enlisting six months before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

"I had a great desire for adventure and the experience certainly exposed me to people, places and circumstances beyond my earlier imagination."

He left the military in 1997 and moved to Silicon Valley in California, where he worked on space science.

It was there he met his wife, Frances, a doctor from Oxford who was then studying at Stamford University and who is now a specialist in rheumatology at Addenbrooke's Hospital, in Cambridge

Mr Robinson, 42, who was seconded to the campaign trail of Senator Robert Dole in 1996, moved with his wife to Oxford in 2000. They moved to Cambridgeshire two years later.

The book is on sale at stores and is available from Somersham Library, where £1 from each sale will benefit the library.

Mr Robinson has written two more books, a sequel called Earth ­Calling...Wrong Number - this has an alien embassy based in Slough - and a fantasy novel called The Horn of Heaven.

He said: "My writing has improved since my first novel and I am now daring to call myself an author. I am also a full-time dad."

INFORMATION: A New Treatise on a Small Blue Planet by Michael K Robinson is published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie at £7.99.