Book review: Alien Taste

Today's book review is Alien Taste by Wen Spencer.

Three weeks ago at OVFF, I was looking at the books on Larry Smith's table and thinking that I should give this Wen Spencer a try.  I asked Larry (or was it Sally?) which one I should start with, and this was the recommendation, so I bought it.  And it's the first in a series, so I decided to bump it to the front of the queue so that if I liked it I could buy the others while they're still in print.

This is a science fiction story set in almost the present day; the chapter headings claim it takes place in 2004, though it's a slightly different 2004 than we had.  The story flows from a single event, a bit improbable in its details, but handled fairly consistently, and gives us a pretty good adventure story, with a protagonist wrestling with slightly bigger issues of identity than most of us have, and arriving at a fairly satisfying conclusion about what it is to be human.

( Plot summary, cut-tagged for those who don't want spoilers )

Overall, a fun read and a good book; I'll be buying the next couple this weekend.  8 out of 10.

A pleasant political image

In comments on someone else's journal, a certain conceivable (though highly unlikely) matchup was proposed.

Wouldn't it be cool if Condi Rice and Hillary Clinton were the candidates in '08?  All the country's bigots' heads would explode.  After we mopped up the mess, I bet we'd have a much better country.