I’m not going to summarize the plot, or say much about the book per se, except that it’s very different, interesting and entertaining, with a lot of surprises. Well written, too. I highly recommend it. I didn’t find it earthshaking or numinous; it’s not 2001 or anything, but a lot of fun.
I enjoyed it, despite its length. Got tired of it for a minute after it had already gone on for a very long time and was still far from over, but then I got my second wind. If I enjoyed it that much, and it doesn't have major flaws, it gets five stars.
I have one major quibble, something I find objectionable but a lot of people probably wouldn't even notice, and I'm not going to mark it down for that.
I just looked at some of the 1-star reviews, and they say it's slow, boring, predictable, and amateurishly written. I strongly disagree with the accusation that it's predictable. Slow, yes. Boring, not to me, but if you're looking for action, yeah, probably so. The writing, I think it's pretty good.
It’s about aliens, or is it? It’s also a lot about politics, PR, stuff like that, and for a wonder, the way people act is not specially implausible. In fact, not nearly as implausible as recent actual events. (Sigh).
Check it out.
I got it for free, via BookBub. A lot of the self-published novels on BookBub are terrible, so I always “look inside” on Amazon first, maybe check the 1-star reviews, and usually end up not downloading them, but this one grabbed me right away.
I just have a few quibbles. On these unedited self-published books, people often complain about typos. Generally, there are almost no such errors in this book, but for some reason, there are several instances of a plural noun with an apostrophe, like “the brother’s”. Not a possessive or a contraction, just a plural with a mysterious alien apostrophe. Weird.
I know no one knows where apostrophes are supposed to go, or what they’re for, and we should just get rid of them, but I haven’t seen this particular mistake before. Never mind. Not important.
The author is British, and at least 90% of the dialog in the book is spoken by Americans. It doesn’t bother me that the authorial voice, the omniscient narrator, speaks British English, even though 90% of the book takes place in the US. I’m not even talking about how they spell “colour” or “programme”; that’s understood, but the authorial voice uses Britishisms. Not too blatant, not a problem. At least he doesn’t do strange things with commas.
Well, there’s one time where the narrator says someone speaks with a “North London accent”, that struck me a little oddly. Like the vast majority of Americans, I wouldn’t know a North London accent from second base, or should I say “a Yorker into the wicket”? It is the omniscient narrator, so (s)he could be allowed to know that, I guess, but it sounds weird to me. Never mind.
Actually, there are several comments about accents, and I guess Brits are keenly aware of these things, but Americans can’t tell Australian from Manchester. We hardly even have, or have awareness of, our own regional accents.
In fact, there’s a line in the book about someone having a “strong California accent”— that’s oxymoronic. California, and the West Coast generally, is as close to a neutral American accent as it gets. There is something called Valley Girl talk, but it’s not really a regional accent, and grown-up professional women don’t talk that way.
What does bother me, and where this book really could have used an editor, is that the Americans speak British English! (Even if pronounced with a “strong California accent”).
It’s fairly subtle; the author is probably unaware of it. I doubt if I could write convincing dialog for Brits without some Americanisms creeping in, possibly things I don’t even know are Americanisms, but if you’re going to write a whole bookful of dialog (“dialogue” to you) supposedly spoken by Americans, maybe run it by an American?
Here’s what I mean: various American characters say things like:
—“will I bring the computer?”
(An American would say “shall I” or “should I” or “Want me to?”, but never “will I?”.
—“We’ll go back to ours”. (American: “our place”)
—“The firm have insisted”— no, the firm is an it. IT insisted. “My bosses at the firm insisted”, fine, but the firm has to be singular. We’d never say “Los Angeles have won their last three games on the road”; the “Lakers have won”, yes, but it has to be “Los Angeles has”.
—“It sounds a lot, but…” Americans say “it sounds LIKE a lot”.
—people are “keen” to do things. Americans would say “eager”, “anxious”, “hot”, “dying to”, or more likely just “they want to”, but never “keen”. If we ever use the word “keen” it would be like saying “coool!”.
—one character jumps in the car and tells the driver to “reverse!” and get the hell out of there.
Americans would say “Back up!”
Actually it got to be kind of fun spotting all these things, but I think convincing American dialog would have worked better for suspension of disbelief.
Anyway, it’s a fun read, if a little long, and I recommend it.
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I liked the tempo, the steady pace, reveal, and rhythm of surprises in the novel.
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- J. M. SimmondsReviewed in Japan on May 14, 2019
Cool idea but needs a better editor
Format: KindleVerified Purchase - Sue ScottReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2025
Fascinating contemporary story, only too believable!!!
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