One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Alien, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 400 Pages, 6474 Locations
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle


When early release from jury duty set marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt free to make her way back to a half day of work, she had no idea that her life was about to take a serious turn to the weird. Witnessing a minor fender bender evolve into a domestic dispute between husband and wife wasn't pleasant, but didn't exactly clue her in, either. Watching the husband in that domestic disturbance morph into a gigantic winged beast and slaughter his wife, then turn his terrifying rage and deadly abilities into a vicious and bloody spree killing started to tip her off, but it was only when she found herself leaping into action and dispatching the winged beast with a pen that she really realized her life wasn't going to be quite what she'd thought it was when her alarm went off that morning.

Forty-eight hours later and Kitty's world had expanded to include the knowledge that aliens - gorgeous ones at that - are living in our world, they're part of a world wide organization to keep a space parasite from infecting the planet, and one of the largest terrorist groups in the world is run by one of those parasite-enhanced superbeings. Her mother and father aren't who she thought they were, highly evolved aliens aren't as smart as they thought they were, and hair spray is more than just a necessity on a windy day.

Being recruited by the Alpha Centurians (A-Cs) to wage war on the parasites leads her to fight things that are indescribably disgusting, one of the uberhunky A-Cs keeps proposing marriage...and has since he first laid eyes on her...and his cousin can't stop glaring at her long enough to drop the sarcasm. Gifts like hyperspeed and empathy are common among the A-Cs, but so is religious persecution...which is actually sort of depressing for an evolved species. Oh, and speaking of religion, it's a big reason that the parasites are coming through space to our world. There's baseball...sort of, public restroom portals, and dead fish. Terrorism and guns, giant slug-like fuglies and a bad guy with a Lucifer complex. There's terror and humor, romance and science. And there's lots and lots of Armani.

If Kitty can survive past hour forty-eight, maybe there's hope for the planet, too.

Touched by an Alien is a romp. It's fast, action-packed, and with a few exceptions, it's just a right good time. True, there's not a lot of character development and there's little time given to really flesh out the world as the characters race from point A to point Z. There are some points that don't quite connect along the way, and there's a huge amount of information dumped on the readers head about the A-Cs and their abilities, about their gadgets - how they work, why they work, what doesn't work, etc. As a result the narrative occasionally reads a little like a dream sequence for a techie nerd with ADD - packed full of smart, flashy stuff without a lot of substance behind it, but shifting so quickly that you don't really notice the lack right away.

But it's fun. And it's fast. There's a little bit of everything (and I do mean everything...except that darned kitchen sink) in it. And Kitty is a likable heroine, even though she tends to be a bit too adept at kicking alien butt for a mild mannered marketing manager. Despite her being so smart in some ways, so obtuse in others. Despite her being a bit of a slut (though I can't really say I blame her for that one). And even though she's a crack shot despite never shooting a gun before, and put in command of a team of aliens she didn't know existed two days prior for a sortie that is her brainchild. With their technology and their weaponry at her disposal.

Hey, it's her hairspray. Seems a fair trade off.

I didn't like the significance and importance of religion in the plot. That's just how I am. I like to keep science fiction and religion separate, because the idea that evolved civilizations still suffer from religious persecution and exile because of it doesn't bode well for the future of our own race. Plus, I'm a live and let live sort, so I tend to buck the sort of rigid religious framework that the A-Cs embrace. From a story standpoint, too, those were the weakest threads of the plot and where the suspension of disbelief stretched a bit too thin for me. I just couldn't figure out any reason for Kitty being so good at connecting a lot of esoteric dots and coming up with such bizarre - but of course, accurate - answers.

Still, as a whole, the book was a real good time.

And I don't generally favor science fiction, either.

Parts of Touched by an Alien did make my brain hurt, when I felt stuffed with technology mumbo jumbo that I couldn't care less about, and the character definition truly had nothing much about which to wax philosophic. The narrative has a short sentence/rapid fire style that lacked fluidity, and it was short on description, so I never had a clear picture of any of the characters actual physical appearance (behind their gorgeousness - that I knew...as it was oft repeated), nor the scenery surrounding them. From that perspective, there was an almost superficial feel to both the characters and the world created here. It didn't feel real, or achieve a sense of shifted reality like some of the great science fiction masters achieve.

Eh, who cares? It was a rockin' good time, for the most part, and I enjoyed myself while I was reading it. Some SciFi brain candy for your reading enjoyment. Yum.

Genre: Science Fiction (Sorta)
Series: N/A
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 390 Pages, 4204 Locations
Formats: Paperback, Kindle


She was the first - the origin. Two thousand years ago she was forced into a leper colony and worked as a slave for the Romans, sent deep into caves to excavate two different rocks that the Empire used for color pigmentation. Her leprosy was highly advanced when she got lost deep in the maze of caves. It was highly advanced until she stumbled into a glowing, warm pool of water and found the stone. The water saved her life, the stone changed it forever. But it made everyone else who came close to it ill with a coughing sickness. It didn't kill them. She did that, when the thirst for blood grew so intense she couldn't ignore it. She's been the apex of apex predators ever since.

The vampire - the first vampire - is now being hunted by an entity with even fewer scruples and less conscience than the highly evolved predator. An entity known for throwing cannon fodder at a problem until sheer numbers overwhelm the enemy, regardless of death toll. An entity coldly focused on its own agenda and utterly unsympathetic to ideals. The American government.

Seven years after the twin towers fell, members of the administration are desperate to take out the highest terrorist threat - mostly for political reasons, to salvage two terms beleaguered by scandal and economic disaster. Add some pork to a bill or two and you have enough money to capture, study, and control the single most efficient and cold stone killer on the planet. But scientists aren't politicians and Calida isn't just a killer, a fact that microbiologist Dr. Ryan becomes aware of when studying her remarkable physiology. Something about Calida draws him in beyond his fascination with her on a genetic level.

Before he can get all the answers to her with his science, Calida is taken out of the lab and used as a weapon by a force of evil that rivals dictators and terrorists. Being forced to kill doesn't sit well on Calida, but she's not given much in the way of choice. Ryan is sent with her to take down the most wanted terrorist on the planet. If they fail, they're expendable...and if they succeed, they're expendable. And while Calida may be a predator, she's not the monster of this story. Not even close.

By no means a perfect story, American Blood: A Vampire's Story suffers from some technical problems. There are grammatical errors and misused words (i.e. 'our' instead of 'are'), and an overall lack of the sort of polish that is found in more mass market publications. There are also story issues, like the beginning which seemed abrupt and choppy, a narrative that had some awkward transitions and felt a bit clunky on and off throughout the book, dialogue that lacked fluidity and a natural cadence in places, and more than one plot point that stretched the boundaries of believability (a microbiologist civilian with little to no field experience sent into Afghanistan on a vital military mission? Really??) and/or came off way too heavy-handed and overdone (subtly is often more chilling when you're defining villainy). I would have loved to have seen what a thorough editor could have done with it.

Yet, while all that may be true, there are a lot of things about this book that totally worked for me and got me really excited, not the least of which is the concept of the story itself. One of the most impressive things about this book is the simple fact that I completely buy not only the possibility but the probability that something like the events described absolutely could and would happen. Totally.

It actually reminded me quite a lot of Jurassic Park in that way - a story that had some flaws and sure, dealt with some woo-woo science, but the motivations of the characters and the plausibility of the sometimes twisted path of scientific 'progress' so enthusiastically (if unwisely) pursued were spot on. And that's the same feeling I got from American Blood: A Vampire's Story. If the US government could get its hands on the first vampire, poke, prod, and do everything but dissect it before unleashing it on the country's unsuspecting enemies?? Hell yeah, I see that happening. Weaponizing an apex predator? Yup. Totally believable. Maybe I'm jaded, maybe I'm cynical, and even though I love my country...I'm not even a little naive in my understanding that tyranny is not relegated to foreign soil. And that's where the majority of the strength of this book lies.

Admittedly, the characters are a bit two dimensional and slightly stereotypical...and other than in Calida's case, there's not a lot of depth in their personalities or backstory. The development of the romantic relationship between Calida and Ryan is a bit perfunctory and stuffed into an odd setting, but their scenes and interactions are solid from the beginning, and I really enjoyed their final scene - a lot. I liked Ryan as a character. Idealist, maybe, but an all around uncomplicated good guy with a pretty clear moral compass. Sort of a geek socially, but pretty confident of his abilities and his science. And there's a lot of science - pretty good science, too. I don't have an advanced degree in microbiology...or geology...or anthropology, but I wasn't so overwhelmed with the science stuff that it made my brain hurt, and I really liked the angle for explaining Calida's abilities and limitations.

Overall, and despite issues, this is a story that resonated with inherent truisms and used a fictional vehicle to shine a slim beam into the pitch black depths of political aspiration. The book and the characters both will stick with me. I'd love to see a sequel, as I think the groundwork supports it, and I would've appreciated a bit more...comprehensive end for a conclusion. Another sequel might offer that. I'll keep hoping.