Illegal Alien eBook Robert J Sawyer
Download As PDF : Illegal Alien eBook Robert J Sawyer 
When a disabled starship enters the Earth's atmosphere, fear is quickly replaced with awe. The first contact ever between humans and aliens is made. Seven incredibly intelligent members of an advanced race are welcomed by the world. In exchange for the resources and help to repair their ship, they offer to share their knowledge and technology.
But as the people of Earth put their best faces forward, the growing sense of trust is shattered. A popular scientist, part of the aliens' traveling entourage, is found dead — mutilated and dismembered by a mysterious weapon. All evidence points to one of them. Scrambling to avoid a planetary incident, the United States government acquires the country's leading civil rights lawyer to defend the alien. In the unprecedented trial, human and alien cultures clash. And when the search for justice threatens to overshadow the truth, there may be more at stake than accounting for one human life...
Illegal Alien eBook Robert J Sawyer
While mostly entertaining, I found this book rather contrived. I didn't enjoy the original OJ trial, and didn't enjoy the rehashing of it in "Illegal Alien" -- complete with a cameo from prosecutor Marcia Clark. Also, the writing style seemed somewhat immature, for lack of a better description. (There was an odd overuse of the name "Stephen J. Gould," for example.)I found the SF side of the book disappointing as well. The explanation of Tosok evolution is, scientifically, improbably at best. As this forms the basis for the entire story (is the reason the Tosoks came to Earth), I found the book to have a very low "believability factor."
These criticisms aside, I read the book quickly, and enjoyed it overall. Sawyer had some interesting ideas, especially the blending of genres, and I would be interested to read another crossover book like this one. (Without any reference--explicit or otherwise--to the OJ Simpson trial, please!) If you're thinking about buying this book, wait for the paperback edition.
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Illegal Alien eBook Robert J Sawyer Reviews
This is likely the Sawyer book that I enjoyed the least. Now, by that, I don't mean I didn't like it. In fact, it had some of the best written aliens to come from his pen, and had great human characters that I found well characterized and plausible.
The concept is fairly simple Aliens land on earth, they tour around, become celebrities, and then someone who had close contact with the aliens is found murdered, and prime suspect number one is one of the aliens. Hence, a trial.
The notion of putting aliens on trial was very good, and the idea was kept rather sound. The science of the alien physiology was very well crafted into the story (especially the concept of using alien DNA typing in the trial).
Then, enter OJ Simpson. No, not as a character, obviously, but as reference after reference. This book got bogged down in the OJ references, which, given when the book was written, would have been fine, but reading it now made it clunky and a little bit out-of-date. Making a contemporary reference or two is usually fair play, but the reliance on OJ metaphors was just overdone, and this book will likely suffer more from it as time goes by.
Still, in and of itself, there is a good plot here - not just for those of you interested in the legalities, but of alien cultures and physiologies - not to mention a good ol' fashioned murder mystery! The twist at the end is another Sawyer great, and as long as you can get past the OJ stuff, it's worth your while.
'Nathan
Daniel Dennett called evolution Darwin's Dangerous Idea. He describes it as a 'universal acid', eroding the fabric of traditional habits. Dennett recognizes how violent those threatened by new ideas can become. Robert Sawyer has taken that thesis to a new, wonderfully conceived, level in this book. Those reviewers grizzling about this story recapitulating the O.J. Simpson trial must have skipped over the hard parts. Illegal Alien is a much deeper presentation of the workings of reactionary minds. We've all seen how vicious fanatic religious "leaders" can be when orthodoxy is challenged. Sawyer has extended that concept to a cosmic scale. And he's done a superb job of it.
While the bulk of this book is an excellent summary of a modern criminal trial, Sawyer's real success is the building of the alien personalities. Unable to lie, they are adept at evasion and equivocation when they deem it necessary. The aliens are not the uniform society usually found in speculative fiction. Instead, they turn out to be as divided as ourselves. That the division is based on the discovery of evolution of their species is classic Sawyer. He's to be congratulated on his deft handling of an alien civilization undergoing the same stress as our own in dealing with Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
Sawyer isn't just the best Canadian speculative fiction writer. He is at the top of the genre. Unlike so many of his fellows, the 'speculative' side of his writing is minimal. We may have to stretch our minds in reading him, but not because his ideas are too bizarre or his science base faulty. Sawyer's science in this book is rock solid. The exchange over evolution's producing the eye was a prime example of his research abilities. Richard Dawkins [Climbing Mount Improbable] must be proud of his 'colonial' advocate. Sawyer merges science and fiction with sublime finesse.
I am a big fan of Robert J. Sawyer and consider him the best scifi writer available right now. This book fall in his middle of the road efforts (I give it 3 1/2 stars). Having read such excellent works such as the Neanderthal series, Calculating G-d, Mindscan and Factoring Humanity, I was a little bit disappointed by this one which is more a like a scifi version of a John Grisham courtroom novel.
A group of aliens lands on Earth and their ship needs repairs for them to leave. Little is known about them or their actual intentions. In the meantime a popular TV personality is murdered apparently by one of the aliens. The LA District Attorney decides to prosecute the accussed alien calling for the death penalty. An aide to the President tries to help the alien and hires one of the top criminal lawyers who had experience working on the OJ Simpson trial.
The book then turns into a courtroom drama with many pages devoted to boring court procedures (note it worked real well in Mindscan but this approach falls short in this novel). You expect the other aliens to revolt but they all seem ambivilent to the whole situation.
Not to give away the ending but the case is somewhat solved similar to an episode of the original Star Trek series (no doubt, Sawyer got his idea from it since he constantly reference Star Trek throughout the book).
I definately would not recommend starting with this book if you are new to Sawyer but if, like me, you want to read all his works then you should definately read this.
Sawyer delivers a great courtroom drama and an awesome look at aliens.
While mostly entertaining, I found this book rather contrived. I didn't enjoy the original OJ trial, and didn't enjoy the rehashing of it in "Illegal Alien" -- complete with a cameo from prosecutor Marcia Clark. Also, the writing style seemed somewhat immature, for lack of a better description. (There was an odd overuse of the name "Stephen J. Gould," for example.)
I found the SF side of the book disappointing as well. The explanation of Tosok evolution is, scientifically, improbably at best. As this forms the basis for the entire story (is the reason the Tosoks came to Earth), I found the book to have a very low "believability factor."
These criticisms aside, I read the book quickly, and enjoyed it overall. Sawyer had some interesting ideas, especially the blending of genres, and I would be interested to read another crossover book like this one. (Without any reference--explicit or otherwise--to the OJ Simpson trial, please!) If you're thinking about buying this book, wait for the paperback edition.
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