Alien Tango (Alien Novels) [Mass Market Paperback]

Gini Koch (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 7, 2010 | Series: Alien Novels

Read Gini Koch's blogs and other content on the Penguin Community.

It's been five months since marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt started working with the aliens from Alpha Centauri, and she and Jeff Martini are getting closer. But when an experimental spacecraft is mysteriously returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and the rest of her team are called in to investigate. Now the team must survive murderous attacks, remove a space entity from a group of astronauts, and avoid an unhinged woman with a serious crush on Kitty's high school boyfriend. And that's all before evil masterminds decide Kitty's extermination is vital.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Koch continues her lively series, launched with Touched by an Alien (2010) and featuring Kitty Katt, now a commander in the elite Centaurian Division force of gorgeous men and women in Armani black. Deep in the subterranean base beneath the New Mexico desert, her relationship with Commander Jeff Martini, an Alpha-Centaurian, is moving along nicely. The bizarre return from space of three astronauts to Cape Canaveral takes the division to Florida to investigate. Along the way, they foil a terrorist plot and uncover a secret organization that wants to expose and annihilate aliens. Arrival in Florida plunges Kitty and company into a melee involving bombings, fires, disappearing dead bodies, and a battle utilizing alligators. Meeting Jeff’s formidable family illuminates some aspects of Alpha-Centaurian culture, including a ban on marrying Earth humans. Quirky characters, wacky situations, and nonstop action from battleground to bedroom keep this romp entertaining. --Diana Tixier Herald

About the Author

Gini Koch lives in the American Southwest, works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. Touched by an Alien, the first in her Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt Series, received a starred review from Booklist and was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten adult science fiction and fantasy novels of 2010. Alien Tango releases December 7, 2010, with Alien in the Family releasing April 5, 2011, and Alien Proliferation coming in Winter 2011. Gini started writing as an excuse to stay up late playing on the computer while listening to rock music and mooning over pictures of hunky men. She's thrilled all that drooling has finally paid off.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: DAW; Original edition (December 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0756406323
• ISBN-13: 978-0756406325
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Over-the-Top Adventure and Alien Craziness December 9, 2010

By akb--bookworm VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

4-1/2 Stars

I only recently delved into the world of Kitty Katt and Jeff Martini and their band of merry Aliens from Alpha Centauri in Touched by an Alien. I loved it so much I ran out to the local bookstore on release day to pick up ALIEN TANGO.

Five months have past since "Operation Fugly," and Kitty has been busy training and running around the world killing parasites and super-beings. When an experimental spacecraft is unexpectedly and inexplicably returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Kitty and Alpha Team are called in. They just have to survive the trip over and political conspiracies before they can even make it to the landing site--all in a day's work for Kitty. However, all that is nothing compared to meeting Jeff's parents who disapprove of his choice.

I could not put this book down. And when I did, so I could at least *try* to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking about it. This book didn't suffer from the huge info dumps the first book did and was a lot smoother and action-packed because of it.

1. Kitty--Still love the girl! She's learning and growing, but she still a smart mouth. It's funny to watch her catch so much of what's going on around her at work but be completely clueless when it comes to.....other things.
2. Jeff Martini--I loved getting to know his family and understanding more about what made him the Alien we know and love today. I loved seeing Jeff and Christopher together and seeing their strong bond, which wasn't present last book due to obvious reasons. Also, for some reason it cracked me up that Jeff was so intent on going to Kitty's High School Reunion: he thinks reunions are romantic. I love his quirks.
3. Mr. and Mrs. Katt--I wish we saw more of them! I do love that Kitty keeps mom on speed dial and all the advice she gets from her former Mossad mother. I really love that family plays such a huge role in this series. Very refreshing.
4. The Martinis--What an interesting family! They have it out for Kitty and don't pull any punches. (They don't stand a chance.) I loved Mr. Martini and the few members we got to meet up close.
5. Humor--So many times I was laughing out loud. I just couldn't help it. The whole book was just so funny.
6. Storyline--The story wasn't a rehash of the first one. There was a LOT going on. I few times I was confused, but that was because I was reading so fast.
7. Youth Uprising--Kitty teaches the younger AC generation how to rebel.

There was only one drawback for me--The multiple romantic declarations. I don't want to spoil anything, but I have to ask the question: just how many guys are going to come out of the woodwork to crush on Kitty? It was balanced out by Jeff's observation at the High School Reunion that most everyone there doesn't remember Kitty. But still. It was just a bit overkill and I'm afraid it's not going away anytime soon.

As a bonus, we get an excerpt to the 3rd Alien book, Alien in the Family, which I can't wait for.

The Alien Series
Touched by an Alien
Alien Tango
Alien in the Family
Alien Proliferation(2011)
Alien Diplomacy(2012)
Alien vs. Alien (2012)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Lacks the charm of the first book June 19, 2011

By Evan the Dweezil

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Jeff is a jealous, jealous, jealous guy. It makes most of this hard to read. James is gay, as the author hits us over the head with. Kitty is the only one on earth with a functioning brain. Everybody *loves* Kitty. These are the things that this book is about. It feels like a cheap imitation of the previous book.

There were some fun spots and there were a lot of dreadful ones. How many hundreds of words were wasted on Kitty fondly remembering all the places she's banged her boyfriend? How often in Jeff supposed to be on the edge of death and not be a complete and utter liability? How many more people in Kitty's life have spent years and years lying to her about who and what they are?

Racism, classism, religious persecution, this book had a lot of element with the potential to elevate it to a new level and didn't.

The alligators get a star to themselves. They were fantastic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Light and Fluffy October 25, 2011

By Cybercliper

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Alien Tango was not nearly as interesting as Touched by an Alien. Too many new characters added along with returning characters from the previous book made it hard to keep everyone straight. The book had a lot of pages but they didn't take the story anywhere. Kitty, Jeff and the gang made it to the Kennedy Space Center and did a lot of running around without actually doing anything. The experimental aircraft and its crew of returning astronauts - the main plot element of the story - doesn't even make an appearance until about half way through the book. All the characters, with the exception of Kitty, seemed to fade into the background to become merely window dressing designed to showcase Kitty. The action did pick up in the last half but there were a lot of snooze worthy scenes of waiting around while Kitty figures out what needs to be done next before you get to the good stuff.

Kitty again is portrayed as the hottest thing on the planet with everyone wanting her. It got old in the first book fairly quickly and got even older and more ridiculous in this installment. Also on the redundant list was Jeff's jealous act, James's gay declaration every other page, and James's constantly suggesting that he and Paul could go bi or straight just so they can have Kitty. Even a joke tagline ceases to be funny if you hear it often enough. The romance between Jeff and Kitty couldn't be taken too seriously since Kitty didn't really think of or refer to Jeff in terms of anything other than an alien "sex god" and has no problem lusting after whatever hot body she happens to gaze upon.

This series has a lot of imagination and the potential was there for a really interesting story with some great space and alien adventures including romance between several secondary characters. But the repetition, comic book antics, and cutesiness of Kitty and her associates quickly wore too thin for me to continue with the series. Readers who like quirky superhero style characters and tongue in cheek slapstick may enjoy this one.