Robert J. SawyerIllegal AlienMonika says:
Mankind makes first contact with an alien civilization when a space ship is stranded in our solar system. The Tosoks come from Alpha Centauri, which is about four light-years away. One of the eight astronauts was killed in a tragic accident when he tried to repair the damage the ship sustained crossing the Kuiper Belt, an asteroid belt on the outer rim of the solar system. The other seven Tosoks are received on Earth with open arms. It looks like they have to spend two years on our planet until the parts they need for a lift off can be made. The strangers are a big media event and nobody thinks to ask them why they came here in the first place. Everybody just assumes that they are scientists wanting to make contact with other civilizations. A close friendship forms between Cletus Calhoun, the host of a popular scientific TV program, and Hask, one of the Tosoks. When Calhoun is found murdered in his quarters and Hask is the main suspect, the public is shocked. ILLEGAL ALIEN is a well-done mixture of science fiction and mystery. The idea of an alien defendant in a courtroom on Earth is intriguing and quite new. There's no Grisham-style dynamic young lawyer who wants to kick off his career with a spectacular case. The lawyer for the defense is a not quite young African American who seems predestined to defend a member of a very special ethnic minority. Sawyer doesn't bore the readers with endless trial preparation, but lets the bigger part of the story take place in the courtroom and describes the investigations that shed more and more light on the nature and origin of the Tosoks. The description of the Alpha Centauri system is vivid, and in the end you are convinced that even a technically much more advanced civilization doesn't have to be all that different from humanity. The beliefs of the Tosoks were shattered when they discovered evolution and realized that they were not created in the image of their omnipotent god. Without moralizing Sawyer holds up a mirror and shows us what grotesque shape religion as a universal phenomenon can take. ILLEGAL ALIEN is probably no eternal masterpiece, but a fun read for the masses. Ace
Books, New York, 1999
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Last changes: 02-09-03 Copyright 2000 Christina Gross & Monika Hübner |
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