Apt social commentary. [The Earthling's Brother by Earik Beann]
Sam never knew his parents. In fact, he’s never met another human—or seen a sunrise, smelled a flower, or eaten a regular meal. All of that is about to change. It’s night in the desert, but he doesn’t feel the cold. The sky is clear, and the stars twinkle at him. He has never seen the sky from Earth before. Everything looks so strange. So . . . alien. He shakes his head in wonderment and laughs. He can’t stop smiling. This is Earth!
There is a building ahead. Other people will be inside. His heart skips a beat as he takes a step forward, the rocks crunching under his bare feet. He has dreamed of this moment for as long as he can remember. But that which can be found can just as easily be lost again. It would have been better had Sam’s arrival gone unnoticed. But the artificial life form known only as the Authority is not one to miss such things. Nearly as old as time, and almost as powerful, the Authority was built by an ancient civilization as both an enforcer and a war machine, the destroyer of worlds. It has been watching Sam his entire life. Watching, and waiting, and judging. And now, it has decided that it’s time to act.
Starting out in the southwest, we have our standard would-be alien encounter. The stranger new visitor encountering and interacting with humanity in commonplace settings and situations. But then, oh no, the stranger does something extraordinary in context. What follows is our standard militaristic overreaction that escalates an other wise quiet situation to one of increasingly escalating aggression. Misunderstandings take place and xenophobic warmongering drives the rest of the plot.
A little bit of spoilage if you will. Our main character, Maria, is a woman of Mexican descent living in the American Southwest. Attending an online college, but also in fear of being deported, Maria's status as a citizen, her sense of place in the society in which she lives is tentative, and she understands that. The beautiful irony of the book, the often comedic irony, is that someone who is made to feel alien in her community is then tasked as the highest native-born human intermediary to the alien presences in the book. The parallels of her situations as the book progresses made me laugh and seriously reflect on the aggressive mindset with tend to associate when we think of the American military.
There was a lot of comedy in the book too. For me it was best exemplified when our hateful representative of the worst of American aggression was routinely reminded of his insignificance, his lack of power and voice to impose his control on the situation around him. The petty nature of the men who drive the world and those men suddenly finding themselves out of the loop and their stubbornness worsening the situation. That selfishness, that egocentricity - the subtle critiques of these flaws of "civilization" in the context of a science fiction story really exemplifies what the genre ought to be about, social critique.
This book was so much better than I had expected. When I thought it would follow an expected format there were fun twists and turns that made sense in different ways. For a smaller novel (my eBook was just under 250 pages) it did a lot and had well-thought-out character development. For a majority of the time I spent reading it I bemoaned being unable to give partial ratings.
There were some oversimplifications that, while I didn't mind them, made me roll my eyes or shake my head in generic. And Maria's naivety was ridiculous and annoying at times so I can't give this book 5 stars. This was more like a 4.5 or 4.25 star read for me, so the 4 star rating I'm giving it feels appropriate. But I'm definitely recommending this. I think it'd be really good as a TV adaptation. Maybe even a film.
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