Review: Not entirely believable alien culture.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 12, 2012
This is a story about a man named David being abducted by aliens, and taken aboard their ship. He makes a friend aboard the ship, and when the aliens take him away, David follows to ensure his friend is not harmed. While out of his cell, David is presented with an opportunity to escape, and takes it. He finds himself on an alien world, and realizes that he is stranded there, since the aliens and their ship are his only form of transport, and they do not know he is missing. David makes the best of this situation, and tries to fit in and make a life with the people living on the planet. The choices and decisions he makes have lasting ramifications on this society, changing it from a communal utopia to a distrusting, greedy society in no time. Before he can fix the things he has affected, he is re-taken by the aliens, and returned to Earth, forever out of the reach of those whose lives he altered.While this was a good premice for a story, and the characters held my interest, it was difficult for me to get around the ease with which David affected this group of people. The author presents a society where all work together toward the needs of their community, without thought of comfort or reward. They do not have money, everyone just takes what they need, only in the amount that they need, and does what they want/need to do to keep the wheels of their society turning. However, when one person arrives who presents something slighly different than what those living on this world are used to, it opens them up to personal wants, greed and hopelessly corrupts them, leading the society to plummet out of control. I didn't quite find this level of corruption, or the speed that it occurred in, to be believable. It is obvious that the author does not find captialism entirely to his liking.If you can get around this blatent message, the story itself is interesting, and fast-paced. Worth reading if you don't mind the message.