Illegal Alien [Paperback]

Robert J. Sawyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

When a disabled spaceship enters the Earth's atmosphere, seven members of the Tosok race are welcomed by the world with open arms. But when a human scientist is found murdered, all evidence points to one of the Tosoks. For the first time, an alien must be put on trial before humans in a court of law--and there's far more at stake than accounting for one human life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aliens, Tosoks, have finally made contact with Earth, but there are only seven of them, and they've arrived in a disabled spaceship. The Tosoks are intelligent and surprisingly easy to communicate with, and are happy to tour Earth and see what humans have to offer. But during a stop in Los Angeles, one of the human scientists traveling with the Tosoks is gruesomely murdered, and all evidence points to the alien Hask. The Los Angeles Police Department is determined to indict Hask for the crime, even though the aliens have little concept of laws or crime as we understand them. The only thing the U.S. government can do is secretly procure the services of Dale Rice, a leading civil rights lawyer, and hope he can clear Hask of the charges. But as the trial progresses, evidence indicates a cover-up by one or more of the aliens. Humanity's survival--not just Hask's fate--might hinge on the jury's verdict. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Aliens-on-trial, from the author of Frameshift (p. 424), etc. When a spaceship containing nonhumanoid aliens splashes down in the Atlantic, the President's science advisor, Frank Nobilio, and astronomer Clete Calhoun are sent to make contact. The Tosok (four eyes, two mouths, one arm in front, another in back) hibernated through the 211-year voyage, but their ship was damaged entering the solar system and they need help with repairs. Then, however, Clete's body is found butchered in the dorm where the aliens are being housed. A Tosok, Hask, is arrested and charged, so Frank hires top civil-rights lawyer Dale Rice to defend him. During the trial it emerges that one of the aliens, Seltar, supposedly killed in the accident that damaged the ship, is still alive; not only that, but she's helping Hask (he did kill Clete, but only by accident) to save humanity from the other Tosok--whose paranoid orders are to wipe out Earth with the particle-beam weapon that Hask and Frank somehow must disable. A consistently plotted if not always persuasively motivated yarn, with ingeniously constructed aliens in a fairly routine courtroom melodrama. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Ace (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441005926
• ISBN-13: 978-0441005925
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #812,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert J. Sawyer -- called "the dean of Canadian science fiction" by the OTTAWA CITIZEN and "just about the best science-fiction writer out there" by the Denver ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS -- is one of eight authors in history to win all three of the science-fiction field's highest honors for best novel of the year: the Hugo Award (which he won for HOMINIDS), the Nebula Award (which he won for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT); and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won for MINDSCAN).

Rob has won Japan's Seiun Award for best foreign novel three times (for END OF AN ERA, FRAMESHIFT, and ILLEGAL ALIEN), and he's also won the world's largest cash-prize for SF writing -- the Polytechnic University of Catalonia's 6,000-euro Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficcion -- an unprecedented three times.

In 2007, he received China's Galaxy Award for most favorite foreign author. He's also won twelve Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards ("Auroras"), an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada, ANALOG magazine's Analytical Laboratory Award for Best Short Story of the Year, and the SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE Reader Award for Best Short Story of the Year.

Rob's novels have been top-ten national mainstream bestsellers in Canada, appearing on the GLOBE AND MAIL and MACLEAN'S bestsellers' lists, and they've hit number one on the bestsellers' list published by LOCUS, the U.S. trade journal of the SF field.

Rob is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, teaches SF writing occasionally, and edits his own line of Canadian science-fiction novels for Red Deer Press.

His novel FLASHFORWARD (Tor Books) was the basis for the ABC TV series of the same name. He enjoyed spending time on the set and wrote the script for episode 19 "Course Correction."

His WWW trilogy, WAKE, WATCH, and WONDER (Ace Books), is all about the World Wide Web gaining consciousness.

Next up is TRIGGERS, April 2012. Set in Washington D.C., TRIGGERS is a science fiction political thriller about the nature of memory.

For more information about Rob and his award-winning books, check out his web page: http://sfwriter.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Adept genre-mixing, but not as good as it could have been, December 13, 1997

By 

R. B. Bernstein "R. B. Bernstein, Adjunct Pro... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Illegal Alien (Hardcover)

Robert J. Sawyer has written some of the best and most imaginative science-fiction novels of recent years, so I read ILLEGAL ALIEN almost as soon as I found out about it. Sawyer adeptly mixes genres -- in particular, the first-contact subgenre of science-fiction and the trial subgenre of murder mystery -- and his wry and sardonic comments about the O.J. Simpson case and the problems of conducting and reporting celebrity trials are some of the best things in this book. The whole, however, turned out to be less than the sum of its parts. Without giving away key plot secrets, my major complaint was that we learned almost nothing of the aliens' ideas about law or their culture's legal institutions, which I had expected to hear about in a novel in which an alien is tried for murdering a human being. Also, there is a big contradiction between the book's early assertion that the aliens do not share humans' concepts of "good" and "bad" or "right" and "wrong" and some late but vital plot developments. In sum, even second-level Robert J. Sawyer is several cuts above the normal level of most science-fiction, but ILLEGAL ALIEN was not as good as it could have been. -- Richard B. Bernstein

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clever combination of two of my favourite genres!, June 6, 2010

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Illegal Alien (Hardcover)

Editor John Campbell once challenged his writers, "Write me a story about an organism that thinks as well as a man, but not like a man". In "Illegal Alien", celebrated Canadian sci-fi author Robert J Sawyer has risen to the challenge and created the Tosoks, a technologically advanced non-humanoid alien species complete with personal foibles, taboos, culture, language and religious beliefs, even thinking patterns and behaviour that reflect both that culture and the physical constraints of their original planet.

When the disabled Tosok spaceship lands on Earth, first contact, initially tinged with fear and awe is actually surprisingly well handled and peaceful. Earth graciously welcomes the newcomers and humanity seeks to put its best foot forward recognizing the mutual advantages of peaceful co-existence and the enormous opportunities to be had by assimilating such advanced technology. Then Clete Calhoun, a popular astronomer and, to all appearances, the first human friend of Hask, one of the Tosok aliens, is found brutally murdered in a manner that clearly indicates one of the aliens as the perpetrator. When Hask is put on trial for capital murder, it's clear that the implications of the outcome are far greater than the innocence or guilt of one individual alien.

For the most part, "Illegal Alien" ignores the hard side of the sci-fi spectrum. There is some interesting discussion of orbital mechanics in multiple star systems but other than that, Sawyer is content to let such miscellaneous factors as faster-than-light interstellar propulsion or an ultra-fine monofilament that can be used as a razor sharp cutting wire creep into the story in Star Trek fashion with no explanation or attempt to explore the scientific underpinnings. Instead, "Illegal Alien" focuses on the softer issues of first contact, alien diplomacy and inter-cultural communication.

Not a deep story but an interesting one that blends soft sci-fi with intriguing courtroom drama and a very clever, warm twist ending that dovetailed beautifully with my personal hopes for what I am convinced is inevitable contact with an intelligent extraterrestrial species.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Aliens and Murder Trials..., July 13, 2001

By 

Jonathan Burgoine "bookseller" (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Illegal Alien (Paperback)

This is likely the Sawyer book that I enjoyed the least. Now, by that, I don't mean I didn't like it. In fact, it had some of the best written aliens to come from his pen, and had great human characters that I found well characterized and plausible.

The concept is fairly simple: Aliens land on earth, they tour around, become celebrities, and then someone who had close contact with the aliens is found murdered, and prime suspect number one is one of the aliens. Hence, a trial.

The notion of putting aliens on trial was very good, and the idea was kept rather sound. The science of the alien physiology was very well crafted into the story (especially the concept of using alien DNA typing in the trial).

Then, enter OJ Simpson. No, not as a character, obviously, but as reference after reference. This book got bogged down in the OJ references, which, given when the book was written, would have been fine, but reading it now made it clunky and a little bit out-of-date. Making a contemporary reference or two is usually fair play, but the reliance on OJ metaphors was just overdone, and this book will likely suffer more from it as time goes by.

Still, in and of itself, there is a good plot here - not just for those of you interested in the legalities, but of alien cultures and physiologies - not to mention a good ol' fashioned murder mystery! The twist at the end is another Sawyer great, and as long as you can get past the OJ stuff, it's worth your while.

'Nathan