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Illegal Alien (Paperback)

~ (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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  Hardcover, November 30, 1997 -- $10.99 $2.20
  Paperback, December 31, 1998 -- $25.99 $2.20
  Mass Market Paperback, December 31, 1998 -- -- $17.99

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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.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Ace; 1st THUS edition (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 (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #775,003 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Robert J. Sawyer
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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5 of 5 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
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
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4 of 4 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 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

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Two genres collide wonderfully, November 13, 2001
By Jeffrey J. Lyons (Pembroke, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
If you're reading this review, you probably like science-fiction. But do you like mystery and court room drama too? Then you will very much enjoy "Illegal Alien." Sawyer takes a science-fiction concept and mingles it with a courtroom case. This Canadian author has done his research on the US Justice system. I felt that I was reading the transcripts from any one of the thousands of US court cases that occurs every day. The book holds your interest and twists just enough at the end to satisfy your desire for a good whodunnit. Highly recomemnded for both sci-fi and mystery fans.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sawyer meets Grisham
Yeah, I've said it. You either like Sawyer or you don't and I can understand why a bunch of reviewers were really turned off by this book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by John B. Goode

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked the book
I'm not usually into this kind of book or story but bought it on impulse and found I really enjoyed it. I did not find it "dated" nor did I find it unbelievable. Read more
Published 20 months ago by pammur

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good read
I tend to be a "big picture" reader, meaning that I do not pay significant attention to details... a story, for me, either flows or it doesn't. Read more
Published on August 26, 2007 by Charlie-Ann

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninspiring/Unbelievable Tale with a Catchy Title
I found ILLEGAL ALIEN(1997) to be unfinishable - mainly due to the fact that it is a contemporary SciFi story that was written ten years ago - so it simply doesn't hold up to... Read more
Published on December 5, 2006 by Stewart Teaze

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Science Fiction!
This just happens to be the first Sawyer book I read; and I can say without a doubt it will not be the last. Read more
Published on October 27, 2006 by Library Builder

4.0 out of 5 stars OK, but not Great
I am a big fan of Robert J. Sawyer and consider him the best scifi writer available right now. This book fall in his middle of the road efforts (I give it 3 1/2 stars). Read more
Published on February 17, 2006 by Michael A. Newman

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre at best
This book is social commentary thinly disguised as science-fiction/mystery. There's nothing wrong with that per se; combining sci-fi with social-political views goes back at least... Read more
Published on October 29, 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Quest for truth and justice
The characters were developed quite well. So well that I was saddened when one of the main ones died, so early in the story aswell. Read more
Published on July 30, 2002 by Kathleen Stetka

4.0 out of 5 stars Just discovered one of the best
With this book, bought while waiting in an airport, expecting nothing, I discovered a man that at once became one of my favorite authors. Read more
Published on July 25, 2002 by Yves-François Blanchet

3.0 out of 5 stars David Coliadis' report
This book was ok but I don't think it had enough action in it but the courtroom sequences were very detailed about the evidence they found and that was the only part I liked... Read more
Published on March 22, 2001 by david coliadis

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