Alien Infection

Reviewed by Kathryn Andersen (05 September 2006)

I got this as an e-book from www.fictionwise.com, but I don't think I'm going to get anything by this author again.

Plot

It sounded really interesting from the summary -- otherwise I wouldn't have read it. What is the Alien Infection? Will Our Hero survive the Men In Black chasing him?

The amount of coincidence and luck required in this plot is amazing. Sure, we give the author one coincidence for free (the one that starts off the story). I guess it isn't quite the events that happen that are lucky, but, gee, Our Hero has a conveniently useful bunch of acquaintances!

Another part of the problem is that the title gives away 50% of the plot, and the blurb gives the other 40% away. Which meant that, instead of feeling like this was a tense thriller, I was just impatiently waiting for them to get on with it.

Characters

Too good to be true, and flat at the same time. The three main characters are given characteristics that the plot needs in order to solve the problems that come up, yet they don't feel like "whole" characters, just containers for attributes that push the plot along. For example, we meet Our Heroine because she's a go-between for false IDs, that's fair enough. Oh, but she's also a nice girl on the run from the mob, because the plot requires that Our Hero find somewhere hidden to hole up in. Oh, and she also has Lupus, because the plot requires a demonstration that the Alien Infection can cure incurable diseases. Oh, and she's also quarter Cherokee, like Our Hero, so that she can survive the Alien Infection. Oh, and she has exactly the same taste in books, so that she can be fallen in love with. Oh, and just when the plot needs to have people who can fight, she casually mentions that she's an ex-Marine. Perhaps it isn't the characteristics per se, but the way they're presented, at the last minute, like a deus ex machina. Though I think it's more than that; I also didn't get a feel for the "voice" of the characters, nothing that made them sparkle and come to life.

Another thing that irritated me was the confusion of love and lust.

Style

Full of cliches. Plodding. Pedestrian. Also repeated things we already knew, and left out things we should have been told. Telling, not showing.

Ideas

Gee-whiz ideas without any great thought about the implications. Again, concepts were introduced in order to make convenient solutions to otherwise difficult plot-problems.

Sid and Nancy scale: a stale pink donut