Customer Reviews

Human by Choice

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a sci-fi book that takes many chances and could have failed on many levels, but didn't.
The premise is that a retired army man has a lifeboat from a failed interstellor liner deposit an alien in his back yard. here it takes off into left field. The non humanoid alien evolves itself into a playboy playmate who then falls in love with the human. Unbelievable sounding but written in a believable manner.
The story then becomes an exciting chase to round up the other suvivors while fighting off Russian Mafia, Arab terrorists, rogue CIA agents with the help of the US government. The stolid aliens are from a ancient race who respond to human society like a starving hound to a bowl of alpo.
My only real complant is that it is about 50 pages too short. The final sections are rushed and would benifiet from expansion. Buy the book, don't let my inept review put you off from a good book. It is just very hard too catorgorize.

This was a disappointing book. Although the ideas were nothing novel, if done well it could a been a good read. Other reviews have outlined the story. Among my main problems was it seem like too much of a rush/causal writing job. Too much happened too quickly, especially at the end where it almost seemed like the writer was tired of the story (or had a deadline) and just STOPPED in the last few pages. Another hundred pages just fleshing out the characters and story would have been a major improvement. Among other problems: the lead character accepting the alien so quickly, an alien that just "happens" to change into a beautiful woman who can't wait to have sex the the hero (written for 14 year old boys?), evil government agencies, and just about no suspense as to where the story was going. I would only recommend this book if you have a plane ride and have nothing else to read. Otherwise there are hundreds of better books available.

Human By Choice (2008) is a standalone SF novel. It is set in the near future after an alien starship capsizes in the vicinity of Earth.

In this novel, Kyle Leverson is a science writer living in Arkansas. He is a former warrant officer in Military Intelligence who had been retired for his combat wounds. He has lost his twin brother and his pregnant wife recently and is very depressed over these losses.

Jeri is an alien from the wrecked starship. She managed to get out of the ship in a lifepod, but it also sustained damage.

In this story, The lifepod fails just above the trees on Kyle's land. It knocks limbs off the trees and digs into the ground. Kyle hears the crash and goes out to investigate. As he watches, the lifepod starts to disintegrate.

Kyle finds an alien within the rapidly vanishing lifepod. He drags the alien out of the craft, but its legs also begin to disintegrate. Once it is free of the pod, Kyle carries the alien within the house.

Two cases follow the alien into the house. One opens and a tentacle protrudes. It starts dividing until the smallest limbs are too small to see. Two of the limb complexes cover the stumps on its legs.

As the missing pieces are regenerated, the alien scans the room and looks at Kyle. He speaks his name and hears the term "Cresperian" in return. Then they discover that he had spoken his name, but the alien had replied with the species name. Along the way, he discovers that she is female and he names her "Jeri".

Then Kyle introduces her to the internet. Since Jeri doesn't sleep, she reads books and accesses web sites whenever he is not available. She learns basic English within a day and becomes proficient within a week. Naturally, there are still holes in her knowledge, but she has eidetic memory and high intelligence, so she learns fast.

Jeri doesn't stay alien. She has a special perceptive sense that can manipulate things at the molecular and -- with additional effort -- the atomic level. She can use this sense to control her own body and turns it into that of a human woman. This takes several weeks, so she learns other things during that time, including karate and shooting.

Naturally they fall in love with each other and get married. They fool the local sheriff and even the FBI, so Kyle assumes that they can just settle into matrimony. Jeri learns a bit more about being human every day.

Then the outside world come looking for an alien. They usually ignore Jeri, who is obviously just a woman. So they are often quite surprised when she takes advantage of their ignorance.

This tale reinforces Kyle's thoughts about assumptions. The newcomers searching for Jeri are a surprise to him. He interrogates prisoners and finds that classified information about the aliens is being leaked by two Congressmen. Kyle starts calling in favors.

Kyle is mostly atheistic and Jeri's culture has proven that God is not possible. Then something like religious belief raises its head and they have to rethink this proof. This new belief system is much like that in The Science Behind the Secret.

This novel is just a little too pat. It rushes too much at the end. Maybe it should have been padded more to drag things out.

Just suspend your disbelief and read the book. Then consider the possibility of a sequel. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Taylor & Bain fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of armed combat, alien psychology, and a bewitching young human by choice.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I have read several other books by Travis Taylor, thoroughly enjoying them. This one is VERY much of a mixed bag. Light fiction, great story, fun plot, entertaining mix of characters. However, it seems like every time I'm really getting into the book, one of the authors heads off on yet another rant against organized religion, anyone who believes in anything, Christianity, Islam, churches, charities, governments, and more. The most vicious and unexplained vitriol seems to be aimed at Southern Baptists, who are all ignorant, stupid, hypocritical, unteachable, and like to kill aliens, puppies, and step on mamma's apple pie just for the fun of it. Some of the other rants, when logic and reason are used, are readable, even fun, and contribute to the story.
If it is Mr. Taylor, clearly Mr. Taylor had a very negative experience with a church or a Christian believer between his previous books and this, or else he felt he could get away with it now, since he's an experienced and published author.
If they could stick to writing excellent stories, and try to minimize the bizarre commentary attacking (in many cases) the reader, they will be readable again.

This one is great fun, and that is all that it is intended to be. Aliens are shipwrecked here on Earth, and must make the best of things. This is a hilarious and occasionally serious look at human-alien encounters, and what such might be like. The authors' prose is highly readable, the story moves along at a pretty good clip, and entertains the reader. I gave this one three stars because, let's face it, this is not great literature. On the other hand, it is a great beer-and-chips novel that most readers will appreciate and enjoy. Recommended for SF fans. RJB.

OK, this book was never in consideration for a Hugo or Nebula award. Nonetheless, it is well written and an enjoyable, although predictable read.

First, I love the book and the concept. It was well written, and the early character development was great. My only problem with the book is the further I got into it, the more the pace of the book increased. I really felt as if there were stories left to be told during the timeframe which were ignored. The three Crispies could each have had several chapters devoted to their experiences. I am looking forward to, and will read the next volume, but I hope the author is not in such a hurry to get to the end.

SPOILERS

Boy meets alien, alien becomes girl, boy gets girl. It seemed like a natural space opera concept, with a dash of post-cold war technothriller thrown in. Unfortunately, I found the execution weak. For my taste anyway, there was way too much superficial navel gazing in the guise of illustrating how hard it would be for an alien to become human (evolutionary genetics are the cause of all ills, and men can't know what women talk about in the powder room or what kind of toiletries they need, because we're practically different species don't ya know), and awkwardly self conscious narrator asides (I won't talk about our sex life, but ...). Shades of the climactic speech from It Conquered the World (He learned too late man was a feeling creature ...). It reminded me a lot of The Apocalypse Troll by David Weber (which was itself apparently an (originally) unpublished predecessor of his Mutineer's Moon (Dahak Series)), which I prefer to this book. The last half of the book also reminded me of The Puppet Masters, especially after reading the ending.

I liked this better than Travis Taylor's Mars series, and it really did feel a lot like one of Heinlein's shorter novels, all from the first person. it was a touch racy and rather whimsical, and I really enjoyed the protagonist's occassional streams-of-thought off into political incorrectness . . . I think along the same lines, where one item spawns into several tangentially-related topics, so that felt really real.

on the downside, the book could have used a bit more polish . . . IMHO more of an editorial thing . . . since it was a bit racy, probably none of the main-stream publishers wanted to run with it without copious cropping, and I'd imagine the authors wanted to keep it true to what they envisioned.

This is good entertaining Science Fiction story on alien-human relationship. I have really loved it. I was very happy to have been given the opportunity to read the book, and would give it 5/5 stars.