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ericbuscemi's review against another edition
3.0
This book was really two disparate stories -- the protagonist finding an alien and helping them become a human, and the world's government finding and tracking the aliens in a technological power grab. Since there are two authors, Darrell Bain and Travis Taylor, I wonder if one finished the other's story.
The first half was okay, but spent a lot of time in conversation between the two main characters -- Kyle, the ex-military man that finds the alien, and Jeri, the alien that becomes human by choice -- telling instead of showing, and there was a good deal of political and religious speechifying in those conversations. Also, there was a lot of unnecessary talk about bras and tampons, that could have been implied instead of so implicit.
However, at almost exactly the 50% mark, the book takes off, and never looks back. The second half is almost entirely action, playing out like an awesome sci-fi B-movie, with chases, compound infiltrations, villainous Chinese communists, and rocket ship launches.
The first half was okay, but spent a lot of time in conversation between the two main characters -- Kyle, the ex-military man that finds the alien, and Jeri, the alien that becomes human by choice -- telling instead of showing, and there was a good deal of political and religious speechifying in those conversations. Also, there was a lot of unnecessary talk about bras and tampons, that could have been implied instead of so implicit.
However, at almost exactly the 50% mark, the book takes off, and never looks back. The second half is almost entirely action, playing out like an awesome sci-fi B-movie, with chases, compound infiltrations, villainous Chinese communists, and rocket ship launches.
haldoor's review against another edition
3.0
Great premise; terrible execution. The plot itself wasn't bad, but there was so much extraneous material about the main protagonist's view on things that often had no bearing on the story, I got quite annoyed. His arrogant Americanism also left a little to be desired as a non-American reader (eg: the description of a British socialist prime minister was frankly annoying and xenophobic to say the least and I'm not even British). It simply reinforced my opinion that many Americans are extremely insular and intolerant of other ways of living and made me think his character somehow thought he was superior to most others. He also read as extremely Mary-Sue, or whatever the male equivalent is, and in addition had no grasp of sex or much else from a woman's perspective.
Won't read the sequel, if it ever eventuates.
Won't read the sequel, if it ever eventuates.
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