I found Illegal Alien is a strange mixture. Not really science fiction, it is actually a legal thriller, however much I was hoping for a first contact novel.
The Navys of several countries move into the international waters of the Atlantic to converge upon a spacecraft that has just landed. The lander opens to reveal a non-humanoid being, one of seven Tosok's - the other six still in hibernation on a disabled orbiting ship. They take the being named Hask to the United Nations and introduce him to the world. The other beings arrive on Earth and they tour the countries of the world. Seems like a dynamic first contact story, but that isn't what Illegal Alien is about.
Housed at a university campus in California, one of the humans liasons is brutally murdered. Only a few people besides the Tosoks were in the secured area, and it looks as though one of the aliens did it. From the moment the police investigate and Hask is arrested for murder, the story becomes a straight up courtroom drama complete with Objection! Overruled! and Sustained! The other Tosoks sit in on the trial and are called as witnesses. It's a standard legal thriller in the John Grisham style with several references to the media saturated trials of the past (like OJ), a last ditch effort to obtain more evidence, and the revelation of why the Tosoks actually came to Earth
As a legal thriller, it was certainly well researched and written. My problem was - we have the first contact with another alien species and instead of learning about them and their technologies, we put them in a California courtroom charged with murder. It was a strange mixture that wasn't science fiction enough to recommend to sci-fi fans, and a little weird to recommend to mystery fans.
It was a finalist for Crime Writers of Canada Award, winner of Japan's Seiun Science Fiction Award, and the Globe and Mail's pick for the Best Canadian Mystery Novel of the Year, so it was well received. What made me read it was the author Robert J Sawyer being one of only seven writers in history to receive all three of science fictions top awards, as well as being the all-time worldwide leader in awards and nominations as a science fiction or fantasy novelist, ahead of Stephen King and Ursula K. LeGuin. The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association gave him the fourth ever Lifetime Achievement Award, the first in 30 years.
So, I'm not saying it was poorly written!
I was hoping for more of a first contact novel, something that rises above our petty fighting and opens the possibilities of space. It does say 'courtroom drama' right on the cover, so I don't know why I was disappointed. Like the jury, you have to forget they are alien beings and only consider the facts to determine who-done-it. Entertaining on that level, but I was disappointed.
2009 / Paperback / 399 pages
Comments