I’m late. A whole month late and I am sorry. I’d gotten a few weeks ahead so I took a bit of a break and just like always I’ve had trouble getting back in the groove. But no more! I’m back with this recently (three months ago) released book.
Title: The Orion Plan
Author: Mark Alpert
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: CU, Modern, Aliens
Synopsis: An alien probe crash lands in New York City. A scientist, a gangster, a drunk, and a terminally ill woman all play critical roles in humanities first encounter with entities beyond our solar system.
Recommendation: Teen-Adult. There were some mature themes but nothing too extreme.
I was a little underwhelmed with this book. It felt a little rushed…..strained? There are 4 different points of view in this slim book that barely goes over 300 pages. There just wasn’t enough space to get the intricately woven plot that was attempted. Add a couple hundred pages and limit the main points of view to 2 and it might have been amazing.
The characters were pretty flat because there just wasn’t enough time to get to know them all. The plot was slow to get going and then just as it was getting going it jumps to light speed and ends. There was also at least one major contradiction in the plot. Even if you account for standard scifi logic it’s still pretty major to me.
All-in-all, I wish I could recommend this book, but it was just “meh.” Sadly, that’s the highest praise I can give it.
Robert
Reading Over The Shoulder 