BEING HUMAN. HUMAN BEING.

Black’s masterfully constructed SF novel begins as a quirky story about a man dating an extraterrestrial and expands into a grand-scale narrative of alien invasion and intergalactic war.

Dallas web designer Cameron Harrison’s dating experiences after the death of his beloved wife haven’t exactly been promising. Close to giving up on the dating scene entirely, he tries one last (“verging on desperate”) move by joining an online dating site. His first date with Toni Morgan seems to be going well until she offhandedly remarks, “It’s just weird being on another planet.” She informs Harrison that she’s from the planet Cala and that she’s vacationing on Earth in a cloned human body that she calls her “ride” (“‘When one of your people dies, we use the DNA from the body to build,’ she gestured to herself, ‘one of these. We only use people who have chosen to be burned’”). Evidently, Calaians have been coming to Earth for centuries to experience the human condition in all its glory—the impressive range of emotions and the sensory experiences, including the “provocative” sex. Harrison finds himself falling in love with the seductive alien, but on a trip to Rome, the couple is attacked and almost killed. Harrison begins to realize that Morgan’s story about being on vacation is just the beginning of a much more complex personal history: Morgan’s family is prominent on her home world and involved in some sort of contentious social and political upheaval. Her father was murdered because of his beliefs, and now a group of radicals have followed Morgan to Earth and are attempting to kill her as well. Matters become even more complicated when Harrison’s body and mind are essentially upgraded with highly advanced alien tech (“I’m fricking Superman!”) and he discovers that the Calaians aren’t the only visitors on the planet.

Many praiseworthy literary elements power this story—including deep character development, a great initial hook, relentless pacing, and an intricate plot—but it’s the witty narrative voice that makes the novel so readable: “Just two weeks ago I was a nobody web designer, making a decent living doing sites for start-ups. My biggest concern had been where to have dinner. Now, I was up to my ass in an intergalactic political war with alien tech shoehorned into my skull.” Additionally, the utilization of humor—especially when focusing on the language barrier between Harrison and Morgan—is laugh-out-loud funny in places. When Harrison tells Morgan that he thinks she’s hot, she feels her forehead and replies, “I am? I don’t feel warm.” The prose is fluid and clean, making for an undeniable page-turner of a read. Black’s subtle use of imagery makes a simple description memorable: “A silver cocktail dress hugged her athletic body like foil on a chocolate bar.” The thematic resonances are profound, with the fascinating dynamic between a human and an alien connecting on a deeper level exemplifying the values of love (compassion, forgiveness, kindness), regardless of corporeal form.

A wildly entertaining SF adventure about the life-changing (and world-altering) power of love.