Touched By An Alien by Gini Koch
Series: Alien Collective
Publisher: DAW, 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 2 1/2 pint of blood
Explosions! Romance! Ladies inappropriately dressed in midriff-baring tops! This book cover promises excitement of the summer blockbuster variety, and there's nothing wrong with a good popcorn book. The bright colours of the explosion definitely makes our black-clad cover models stand out, but I do kind of wonder about their IQ, if making out is their priority while the world around them burns down. Um, ouch?
Some people might be a little confused by my classification of the novel, as listed above. I debated over it for a bit, but the truth is that this is essentially an urban fantasy novel with aliens as the paranormal critters instead of the more common vampires or werewolves or angels or what have you. Oh, there are some sci-fi trappings in there, but it could just as easily be explained by magic without losing anything from the story.
I'm pretty sure Touched By An Alien came to my attention through a recommendation based on books I'd already bought and/or read, likely Amazon or Goodreads. I like sci-fi romance and romantic sci-fi, so book recommendations said I'd probably dig this, too. And I said "well, ok!"
When Kitty sees a mild fender bender turn into an ugly argument, she finds herself keeping one eye on the situation. Which is how she manages to be there to see the rage-filled man sprout wings and launch a horrifying attack, killing and maiming nearly everyone in the immediate vicinity. With a little quick thinking, Kitty is able to decapacitate the winged man, and almost as soon as she does the area is crawling with men in suits who act and sound rather official. They briefly question her, and request that she go with them. Considering what just happened, it seems reasonable the authorities would want more information, so Kitty agrees.
These authorities are like nothing Kitty has ever known, though. For one thing, they come from another planet. And for another, every last one of them is incredibly sexy. But things aren't exactly running smooth for the aliens. For one thing, there are more of those rage-filled demonesque creatures out there. And the most dangerous one seems to have his eye on Kitty.
If I had to sum my thoughts on the book up in one sentence, it would be this: Touched By An Alien is wish fulfillment cranked up to 11. Kitty is good at absolutely everything. She is never wrong, not even when she's disagreeing or finding fault with plans and theories created by people who have been dealing with the demonesque creatures (called "superbeings") for decades. Every idea that successfully defeats a superbeing comes from her, she's able to shoot on target the first time she holds a gun, and she seems to be irresistible to the super hot aliens. Even the female aliens are drawn to her (although not sexually attracted to her like the males), but while they're also all kinds of superhot, they don't present any threat to Kitty because they're not interested in the same kinds of men she is. The other characters are constantly talking about how smart Kitty is, and she repeatedly makes giant leaps in logic to come to what the book tells us is the correct conclusion despite not having enough information to make that leap. In other matters, though, she's so dense as to be frustrating. ("Why is this guy so mean to me? I mean, I've only had three different people try to tell me he's attracted to me, and I can't figure out why he's glaring at me as I make out with his cousin!")
The whole book is this same kind of over-the-top from the first page right up until the end. And it's not just Kitty: Martini (one of the suit-wearing aliens) proposes to her within minutes of meeting her. She laughs it off as a joke, but one of the other characters tells her it's meant in earnest. He's an empath, so there are some allowances to be made for feeling he knows her faster than others might do, but last I checked, an empath can read or feel someone else's emotions, they don't read someone's soul. But then, I could be nit-picky here because in general I'm not fond of men who insist on referring to grown women as "baby," especially when they're so aggressive in their attempts to hit on her.
There's also a lot of exposition going on here. I realize this is the first book in a series, and as such has a lot of set-up to do, but I felt like half the book was yet another conversation explaining to me what was happening and why it was happening. While there are a good number of action scenes, there's also an awful lot of talking heads, characters having lengthy conversations about what they're about to do before they can do it, even when they're supposed to be in a hurry.
With all that being said, I think the "summer blockbuster"-style cover art is absolutely appropriate for the story this is. Touched By An Alien is wish fulfillment, but it's a lot of fun. It's not the best written book I've ever read, and once this review is done I'll probably forget a lot of it, but I enjoyed myself while I was reading. If it was a movie, it would sell a lot of popcorn and give people a couple of hours of fun special effects they'd forget about the minute they left the theatre. And you know what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with something that's just for fun.
Touched By An Alien is available in mass market paperback
.
Publisher: DAW, 2010
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 2 1/2 pint of blood
Explosions! Romance! Ladies inappropriately dressed in midriff-baring tops! This book cover promises excitement of the summer blockbuster variety, and there's nothing wrong with a good popcorn book. The bright colours of the explosion definitely makes our black-clad cover models stand out, but I do kind of wonder about their IQ, if making out is their priority while the world around them burns down. Um, ouch?
Some people might be a little confused by my classification of the novel, as listed above. I debated over it for a bit, but the truth is that this is essentially an urban fantasy novel with aliens as the paranormal critters instead of the more common vampires or werewolves or angels or what have you. Oh, there are some sci-fi trappings in there, but it could just as easily be explained by magic without losing anything from the story.
I'm pretty sure Touched By An Alien came to my attention through a recommendation based on books I'd already bought and/or read, likely Amazon or Goodreads. I like sci-fi romance and romantic sci-fi, so book recommendations said I'd probably dig this, too. And I said "well, ok!"
When Kitty sees a mild fender bender turn into an ugly argument, she finds herself keeping one eye on the situation. Which is how she manages to be there to see the rage-filled man sprout wings and launch a horrifying attack, killing and maiming nearly everyone in the immediate vicinity. With a little quick thinking, Kitty is able to decapacitate the winged man, and almost as soon as she does the area is crawling with men in suits who act and sound rather official. They briefly question her, and request that she go with them. Considering what just happened, it seems reasonable the authorities would want more information, so Kitty agrees.
These authorities are like nothing Kitty has ever known, though. For one thing, they come from another planet. And for another, every last one of them is incredibly sexy. But things aren't exactly running smooth for the aliens. For one thing, there are more of those rage-filled demonesque creatures out there. And the most dangerous one seems to have his eye on Kitty.
If I had to sum my thoughts on the book up in one sentence, it would be this: Touched By An Alien is wish fulfillment cranked up to 11. Kitty is good at absolutely everything. She is never wrong, not even when she's disagreeing or finding fault with plans and theories created by people who have been dealing with the demonesque creatures (called "superbeings") for decades. Every idea that successfully defeats a superbeing comes from her, she's able to shoot on target the first time she holds a gun, and she seems to be irresistible to the super hot aliens. Even the female aliens are drawn to her (although not sexually attracted to her like the males), but while they're also all kinds of superhot, they don't present any threat to Kitty because they're not interested in the same kinds of men she is. The other characters are constantly talking about how smart Kitty is, and she repeatedly makes giant leaps in logic to come to what the book tells us is the correct conclusion despite not having enough information to make that leap. In other matters, though, she's so dense as to be frustrating. ("Why is this guy so mean to me? I mean, I've only had three different people try to tell me he's attracted to me, and I can't figure out why he's glaring at me as I make out with his cousin!")
The whole book is this same kind of over-the-top from the first page right up until the end. And it's not just Kitty: Martini (one of the suit-wearing aliens) proposes to her within minutes of meeting her. She laughs it off as a joke, but one of the other characters tells her it's meant in earnest. He's an empath, so there are some allowances to be made for feeling he knows her faster than others might do, but last I checked, an empath can read or feel someone else's emotions, they don't read someone's soul. But then, I could be nit-picky here because in general I'm not fond of men who insist on referring to grown women as "baby," especially when they're so aggressive in their attempts to hit on her.
There's also a lot of exposition going on here. I realize this is the first book in a series, and as such has a lot of set-up to do, but I felt like half the book was yet another conversation explaining to me what was happening and why it was happening. While there are a good number of action scenes, there's also an awful lot of talking heads, characters having lengthy conversations about what they're about to do before they can do it, even when they're supposed to be in a hurry.
With all that being said, I think the "summer blockbuster"-style cover art is absolutely appropriate for the story this is. Touched By An Alien is wish fulfillment, but it's a lot of fun. It's not the best written book I've ever read, and once this review is done I'll probably forget a lot of it, but I enjoyed myself while I was reading. If it was a movie, it would sell a lot of popcorn and give people a couple of hours of fun special effects they'd forget about the minute they left the theatre. And you know what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with something that's just for fun.
Touched By An Alien is available in mass market paperback
.