Friday, March 30, 2007
Alien Taste
***** Alien Taste by Wen Spencer. Science fiction.
I got the recommendation for this book from Dallas Schulze, who, in addition to writing wonderful books, also has damn good taste.
Ukiah Oregon was a boy raised by wolves. He's an extraordinary tracker with a photographic memory--of everything except his own past.
Together with his partner and mentor, Max, he works as a private investigator, specializing in missing persons cases.
As the story opens, they're called to a crime scene where three women have been killed, and a fourth is missing, presumably abducted by the killer. Tracking her is the start of something much larger, and results in encounters with a mysterious and sinister motorcycle gang called the Pack, and revelations about Ukiah's own history.
A lot of the reviews about this book give away the punchline, which happens about halfway through the story. I'm not going to do that, but as a result, I'm leaving a lot out. It's written in Ukiah's POV, for the most part (*wincing* --it's been 3 weeks since I read this, so I can't remember if it's all in his POV), and therefore, we readers know what Ukiah knows. Which isn't much, at first.
The story is fascinating and clever, and the aliens (the title is Alien Taste--there have to be aliens) were unique and well thought-out. And they tended to prompt me to think Deep Thoughts about what it means to be human, always a good thing, especially when it's left up to me, the reader, rather than spoon-fed to me.
Huge thanks to Dallas for the recommendation. I wish I'd gotten to it sooner. The next book is in my to-buy list.
...more
Categories: Books, 5stars, ScienceFiction
Labels: 5 stars, books, ScienceFiction
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I read this one a few years ago, but didn't like it enough to keep reading the series. Nothing really pulled me in.
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