Customer Reviews

Alien Taste (Ukiah Oregon, Book 1)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Set in the Pittsburgh, Pa area in the near future, this book is the story of the foundling, Ukiah Oregon. He was found caught in a humane wolf trap, appearing to be a young child, naked and gnawing on a rabbit. The woman who found him desparately wanted a child, and took him home to Pennsylvania with her.

Time has passed and Ukiah is now assumed to be 21 and is the partner of Max, a private investigator with a sad past of his own. Ukiah is an extraordinary tracker and has made a name for himself by finding missing persons. So the police call him in on a mysterious murder that turns out to be much more than it seems.

I don't want to give away any of the twists and turns of this fascinating book, but I will at least tell you that Ukiah finds out that his past is much more strange than he ever thought.

Great characters, interesting and well-fleshed out. His father-figure, Max; the mysterious biker gang, Ukiah's two Moms, and Ukiah's girl, tough-talking FBI agent Indigo Zheng--they are all just wonderful. And there is a conspiracy that any X-Files fan will love.

I will admit, I picked this book up because the main character is named after a tiny town in my home State. I laughed out loud. People stared. I could not believe that an author had chosen such a name, but then...I read the backs of the first three books and they screamed READ me!!

The premise is crazy and some times you have to slow down to let it all sink in. I think Wen Spencer is coo-koo, but in a good way. The imagination is a wonderful thing and you can make a story anything you want it to be if you can make it believable.

Ms. Spencer has made Ukiah, his past and his abilities likable and lovable. Ukiah is a private investigator/tracker and with Max his partner/friend/mentor/father figure and his extended family the Pack you are in for a wild ride and a stretch for what you thought was possible. Spencer weaves a tight story, great characters and infinate imagination into every page.

All I can say is, if you are reading this review, buy the books, you won't regret it.

This was a wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable book. Ukiah Oregon was abandoned as a child and raised by a pack of wolves. Discovered and adopted by humans at the approximate age of 12, he has grown to be a part of human life. He now works as a tracker for a private investigator, a finder of lost children. But he still has no idea of his true parentage, no idea who they were or why they abandoned him.

The novel opens with his latest case -- a missing woman who attacks Ukiah when he finds her, forcing him to kill her in self-defense. This brings him to the attention of both the FBI and a group known as the Pack, a biker gang that is more than they seem. And, from this point on, things get *really* weird.

I loved this book. It was great fun to read; it kept me glued to the edge of my seat, always wanting to know what happens next. The characters, especially Ukiah and Max, were well-drawn, complex, three-dimensional human beings; the villains were scary and evil without being cartoonish. I cared about these caracters; I really wanted the heros to win and the bad guys to be defeated. I was swept up in their lives. The plot was complex and fascinating; it kept me guessing. I don't want to give anything away, so I won't tell you how it turns out, but I will say this: this book eventually involves aliens. And the aliens are really original. Their method of reproduction, the way their memory works -- all of it is new and interesting.

If I had one complaint, it would be that I thought the romance was rushed. Ukiah's love interest is a strong, fascinating woman, but the two of them seem to fall in love almost at first sight. I wanted the relationship to develop a little more slowly and fully -- but that's a very minor quibble. It didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all.

Overall, I loved this book. It was well-written and compulsively readable. I will be on the lookout for anything else this author chooses to write!

No one really knows how old allegedly twenty-one years old Ukiah Oregon is. He was found caught in a wolf trap when he was approximately twelve. The woman who captured Ukiah took him to Pittsburgh so she and her female mate Lara could have a child since the courts ignored adoption efforts by a same sex couple.

Now Ukiah works with private detective Max Bennett. Ukiah is a world-class tracker who can find a trail with the faintest of clues. There are other oddities about Ukiah. His olfactory, taste, and hearing senses are much more acute than the average person's and he can read DNA with another unknown sense. He has suffered strange memory losses that only sometimes he regains. On one of his cases, Ukiah learns about The Pack, a loose coalition of bikers who take a sudden interest in him. When he finds out why, he also learns he is the key to saving the human race.

ALIEN TASTE is an urban science fiction tale that takes place on earth in three years. However, new technological advances make the reader feel that Wen Spencer's tale takes place much further into the future. The characters are fully developed and understandable and The Pack is likable in a feral sort of way. This novel is keeper shelf material and hopefully Mr. Spencer will return with more tales starring the Pack.

Harriet Klausner

Ukiah Oregon is young--but is by far the best tracker in the business. Part of the Bennet Detective agency, Ukiah is unequaled in following the missing and the lost.

When Ukiah is asked to trace a possibly kidnapped woman, he stumbles upon a dangerous group of people. People who can see in the dark, smell blood on the wind, and hear through walls. People who seem to recognize Ukiah, and want to kill him.

The plot starts and continues quickly in this entertaining novel. The main characters are all engaging, and as things get more ominous, there are elements of humor, romance and poignancy to break up the tension. The premise is solid, but the main attraction of the book are the characters and their interaction. While the book is complete in itself, one looks with anticipation towards future adventure of Ukiah and his friends.

...

I can't say enough good things about this book. The ultimate outsider is someone who thinks he is "normal" then discovers he is not. Much as all teenages do. Most kids grow out of it. What if you really were an alien in human form? How would YOU handle it?

This story is a "coming of age" story. Everyone wants the answers to, "Where am I from? Will my first love be worth the pain? Are my friends really trustworthy? Is my father worthy of respect?" Nothing new here, yet the story has so many twists that it takes your breath away.

The kid in the story is a tracker for a detective agency. So far so good. Then it turns out he has photographic memory. Okay. I can handle that. He can has a sense of smell that allows him to classify by DNA. Ooooo...boy, this is getting too weird. Then the woman he is tracking turns on him and he kills her. He wakes up in the hospital and reruns all the action and filters out all the gunk and centers in on two people who should not be there. Who are these people? Then the body of the woman is carved up by the coroner, bagged and the bagged organs turn into ferrets and frighten the coroner to death and the ferrets EAT the coroner's body.

Ferrets? Ferrets? What the hell is going on here?

Nothing is as it seems. Lots of blood. Lots of action. Some lyrical sex. Great mystery. Why are all these people fighting each other?

On top of a great and different plot, the author has good prose style. Don't look at me that way! You know that most action books have nothing in the way of character development or background fill in. This book does.

I was pleasantly surprised by how this book sucked me in and held my interest from start to finish. Ukiah Oregon is certainly a character that you develop a sympathetic bond with, and the depths of his "alien-ness" only make him more human in the end. I really liked the way his character developed, along with the friendship with his partner Max, and his family relationships. The relationship with Indigo Zheng, the female FBI agent, was not convincing, and somehow seemed gratuitous, but all told it is a great read.

The characters, some of which I could relate to at a deep level, pushed this book to three stars for me. I definitely enjoyed following the people through a complex situation--though some of it was a little too predictable, like the romance. I'd like to see a little more complexity in loving relationships for me to feel that it's real.

Some of the science just didn't work. For instance, near the end of the story, during the climatic moment in a Earth-based Mars-rover control room, the speed of light delay for transmissions from Earth to Mars (and back) conveniently disappear. Here was a pivotal moment in the story ruined by an amateurish mistake, one that pulled me out of the story completely. Only the convincing characters compelled me to begin reading again--and this took awhile.

The novel was a good effort, and I look forward to seeing what Wen Spencer will accomplish in the future.

Alien Taste is a stunning debut novel- a fresh and original twist on a classic SF theme. From the very opening you find yourself drawn to these characters, especially to the narrator Ukiah Oregon, who is more than he seems and more than even he realizes.

The author blends SF with mystery/action adventure, and throws in a dash of romance for good measure. Easily one of the best science fiction novels of 2001.

If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, with a unique author's voice, then look no farther. You'll be glad you read this book.

What a fantastic story this is. There is something for anyone - mystery, sci fi, a good dollop of romance. It reminds me a bit of Jim Butcher's series featuring wizard-private investigator Harry Dresden, although all it really shares is that Ukiah is also a PI with something 'extra'.

Ukiah Oregon has run with the wolves - literally being raised by them until his teens - and only a few short years ago was discovered by a woman who was to become his mother. He now is dedicated to his family, to his partner Max and their PI partnership. He's a tracker, and a good one. More than that - there is no one who can match his tracking skills. After all, no one else can track identifying the DNA of the lost by touch alone, as Ukiah can. A serious case is referred to them. Ukiah and Max have to track a missing woman. Someone who it appears has gone completely mad, killing her friends / housemates and escaping into the woods. Ukiah identifies in her blood that she seems to have some kind of invasive virus. Using her blood he tracks her, finds her - and that's when the weirdness starts.

I enjoyed all the characters peopling the book, from Ukiah's unusual family structure to the woman he picks to love. Here is a strong, masculine male that actually seems to enjoy showing people that he loves them. The plot is carefully paced as befuddlement turns into excitement builds on danger and culminates into mega risk, ultimately making me wonder what really is out there.

The concept is unique and will grip you from the start. The opening concept of the book (a man raised by wolves) may not seem on the surface to be so different, but the treatment and development of the story definitely is. There are some interesting themes including what makes a family, and what it is to be human. I loved the gradual revelation of the meat of the story. Spencer resisted the opportunity to shock the reader with sudden revelations, and instead we learned with Ukiah. Unusually, most of the people Ukiah cares deeply about actually seem to deserve the depth of his feeling, being pretty great people in themselves which I liked it a lot - another resistance of 'pat' writing from Spencer as there are no betrayals from within.

This is a great book, that left me with a couple of questions, a couple of 'huh's, and a great deal of satisfaction. I'm looking forward to go on reading of Ukiah in 'Tainted Trail'.