Review: A load of new ideas
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2011
I was given this book free to read and review.There have been many first contact books, however this one has many new ideas and particularly looks at things from both human and various alien races views. Initially it starts very well with a stranded alien making contact and Andrew one of the main characters in the book obtaining an alien device. Unfortunately after this I was about to abandon the book as there were too many pages of scientific or pseudo scientific jargon and which seemed to go on forever, a number of typos and some plot lines that go nowhere. Fortunately I carried on and it got much better after this with the various cultures not quite understanding each other which led to interesting misinterpretations. Based in the single alien item obtained at the beginning of the book a small group from a university were able to "reverse engineer" the device improve it and develop numerous other devices. With science fiction you always have to suspend disbelief however with this book once you accept the scientific advances the book is more about interaction between different cultures and a very readable book it is. Although this is the first part of a saga the next being "Patently Obvious" it reads well as a standalone book. I will definitely read the next one.