What if aliens listened to pirated American music? And what if American music industry lawyers went after them to collect royalties and fines? And what if said aliens reacted by trying to destroy Earth? And what if it came down to one lowly entertainment lawyer to save the Earth (and save the aliens a lot of money)?

That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Rob Reid‘s new novel Year Zero, coming out July 10th from Del Rey. Here’s an animated trailer that explains it all:

Rob Reid, in case you don’t recognize the name, is a pretty major name in the tech world, not just as a writer but as the founder of what became Rhapsody and the guy who gave a very popular TED Talk earlier this year, “The $8 Billion iPod,” which explained the, um, interesting “Copyright Math” behind the royalty debate:

So he knows whereof he speaks, he’s also very funny, you’ll want to read this thing as soon as it comes out, and you can pre-order it by clicking here. But that’s not all, not by a longshot, for Nerdist.com is privileged to have a World Exclusive for you right here, right now, the prologue of the book, “Chapter Zero,” read by none other than John Hodgman. John Hodgman! Exclusive! Right here!:

That. Is. Great. Buy the book here. You might do it while listening to 70’s TV themes and “Boogie Oogie Oogie.”