Book review by Dennis D. McDonald

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

ALIEN MORNING is the first of a projected three-volume series. The story takes place a couple of decades from now. It describes what happens when aliens finally visit the earth. I'm ordinarily a big fan of intelligent "first contact" science fiction but have mixed feelings about this one.

First the good:

• Technology is convincingly well projected from current trends involving VR and AR, implants, live streaming, electronic voyeurism, and self-driving cars.
• The descriptive writing is superb. Details of Gulf Coast Florida, Ireland, and Spain are realistic and immediate.
• Human characters are three-dimensional and dramatic. They may not be lovable but their family troubles are well integrated with the story.

Now the bad:

• The aliens. I can buy their advanced technology in shape shifting, but making their family squabble central to the story is a disappointment.
• The human-alien romance. I just can't buy the main character, effectively portrayed as having conventional romantic taste, falling for an alien even if she can adopt a gorgeous and strong female form.
• The key plot element. Supposedly the aliens ally themselves with the main character since he is an early adopter of a new implant technology that enables him to live stream even his most intimate experiences to other early adopters. The sophistication of the aliens own technology as presented, though, makes this supposed reliance and use of the main character as a communication conduit seem completely unnecessary, especially given their ability to mimic other life forms including humans.

That said, I did enjoy this book. The author writes well. His repeated use of cliffhangers as a segue to the introduction of character flashback detail, while initially annoying, eventually makes sense. But I doubt if I'll be continuing with volume 2.

Review copyright (c) 2017 by Dennis D. McDonald. To find more reviews like this scroll down. To find out more about my consulting go here.