Customer Reviews

The Foreigners

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The Foreigners by James Lovegrove is a masterpiece of crime fiction, sociological critique, and unrequited love.

The main themes in The Foreigners are:

* A provoking commentary on mass tourism
* Unrequited love and loss - not just romantic, but also of nation, home, family and identity
* The constraints of law, good and bad

The Foreigners are tall, golden aliens who float effortlessly throughout the book, are tourists to Earth, seeking musical diversity. The biting social commentary is why this book simply must be read. The pure strength of the writing -Lovegrove write literary quality prose- is another reason this is MUST READ SCI-FI for NON-SCI-FI readers.

Lovegrove casts a hard, almost metaphorical gaze at mass global tourism:

* The Foreigners are tall and golden (like suntanned Westerners)
* Buildings have been specially designed to suit their physiques and tastes
* They come and go, apparently carefree, with no ties to the places they visit
* Their tastes and whims change quickly -economies thrive and collapse on fashions
* `Singers' -a kind of musical tout- gather wherever there are Foreigners, trying to earn their custom (a bit like tour guides in Asia!)

The reader never comes to `know' the Foreigners -they are there, part of the world of crystalline structures and harmonies that Lovegrove has created, but never intrusive, and not quite of it.

For weeks after I read this book, I was backtracking to it, sorting through the parallels between our own touristic exploits in developing and third world nations and those of the Foreigners on Earth.

Knowing that I too was one with the tall, golden Foreigners.


I've written a full review of this book on my site [...]

This is presented as SF, but rather is a detective that has been sprinkled with some sf-ish sauce to hide the fact that it is a backthrow to earlier days. As for the rest, format is not really clear. Likely the main character is a Captain Parry (he is the only one consistently present): an elderly englishman with a tendency to lie to himself and his surroundings. It is unclear if there is an actual storyline.

Only to be recommended for people with lots of time on their hands and a desire to critize a poorly written book.