Alien Morning
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“Rick Wilber has written the best "first contact" story I've seen in decades: deeply human, eerily alien, and altogether an exciting, moving and thought-provoking novel.” --Ben Bova
The fate of two civilizations depends on one troubled family in Rick Wilber's science-fiction adventure Alien Morning.
Peter Holman is a freelance sweeper. The year 2030 sees a new era in social media with sweepcasting, a multisensory interface that can convey every thought, touch, smell, sight, and sound, immersing the audience in another person's experience.
By fate, chance, or some darker design, Peter is perfectly positioned to be the one human to document the arrival of the aliens, the S'hudonni.
The S'hudonni offer advanced science in exchange for various trade goods from Earth. But nothing is as simple as it seems. Peter finds himself falling for, Heather Newsome a scientist chosen by the S'hudonni to act as their liaison. Engaged to his brilliant marine biologist brother, Tom, Heather is not what she seems. But Peter has bigger problems. While he and his brother fight over long-standing family troubles, another issue looms: a secret war among the aliens, who are neither as benevolent nor as unified as they first seemed.
Peter slowly learns secrets he was never meant to know, about the S'hudonni, and about his own family. Realizing that he has been used, he can only try to turn his situation around, to save what he can of his life and of the future of Earth.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Humans' willingness to believe everything they see on TV or its near-future equivalent is the key to this thriller (parts of which were previously published as short stories) about dysfunctional families and first contact. Peter Holman is a sweeper, recording immersive sensory entertainment called sweepcasts for his social media followers. He's in the right place at the right time on the Gulf Coast to record humans' first contact with aliens. Suddenly, Peter's got an exclusive contract with the aliens' intermediaries to broadcast the hottest story on the planet. Even better, his role on the show includes seduction by sexy boss Heather Newsome who just happens to be engaged to Peter's brother, Tom. Now estranged from his brother, and entangled with a lover whose motives are questionable, Peter becomes the sweeper entourage of the alien called Twoclicks, whom Heather bills as "the great leader for a new Earth." When not running from alien ship attacks, Peter recalls his troubled family history, which mirrors the ongoing war between Twoclicks and the alien's brother. This plot-driven story emphasizes action at the expense of characterization, but it does offer an intriguing look at colonization from the viewpoint of those being taken over. This review has been corrected. A previous version misspelled the author's name.
