Tag Archives: aliens

What’s with all the blue aliens?

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OK, so this may not be something you know about me, but I have a weakness for the Mars Needs Women trope. It goes against so many of my ideals, often involving dub or non-con, the woman invariably learns love ‘submitting,’ women are valued for their sex and ability to breed and for little else, and the males are overbearing and frequently violent. I shouldn’t like the trope, but I do. I do, in a snicker-at-the-cheese sort of way, but still I enjoy it.

And earlier today, I was looking into a couple of books involving this trope and noticed a pattern. I know aliens are often referred to as ‘little green men,’ but what’s with all the big blue men lately? Seriously, a casual scroll through Google netted these. It literally took me about five minutes to copy them all. Imagine how many I’d find if I really went looking or included those with blue-toned covers, and not just blue aliens. And, yes, I do realize some of them are series. That’s totally fair, but a lot of these aren’t. So, my question stands.

Honestly, it’s not even that I have anything against ripped, blueish alien beings. I like Avatar, after all.  But this seems a tad homogenized. A whole universe out there and all the planets needing females are populated by humanoid, blue males? What’s up with that?

Yeah, this is the sort of thing you find yourself thinking when you are a visual person with a tendency to pick out patterns, but where’s my chartreuse alien, or mauve, or red? They can’t possibly all be blue.

Just a thought really.

Edit: Since I wrote this, I’ve seen blue aliens everywhere and I’ve added a couple covers to the original list. Plus, I’m noticing Aliens all seem to be warriors and Alien Princes seem to do a lot of claiming. LOL

Illegal Alien

Book Review of Illegal Alien, by Carrie Harris

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Illegal AlienAuthor, Carrie Harris sent me a copy of her novel Illegal Alien.

Description from Goodreads:
Toledo police detective Audrey Vorkink has a rep for getting things done. She might look like a middle-aged soccer mom (complete with bobbed hair), but she works hard and unwinds even harder. One night, as she’s meeting with her edgier-than-it-sounds knitting group, a hit-and-run accident turns deadly right outside the building. But something’s fishy about the missing driver, something positively…inhuman.

Audrey can run down any criminal, but what if this one’s from another planet? Can she bring the bad guy to justice? Is she going insane? Will she ever manage to get a decent haircut?

Review:
This was almost a four star book. Almost. It was a snarky, fun read. I loved that the main character was a full adult, with an adult child. You just don’t see 40ish-year-old women as leads all that often. She’s a cop and good at her job. She had female and platonic male friends. And she was appropriately skeptical when aliens came onto the scene. It’s really a great set up.

For most of the book I was leaning toward a four star rating. Four, not five, because it felt a bit too slow. I just kept waiting for the pace to pick up and it didn’t, until the very end. And it’s that ending that lost it the further half a star. The book kind of ends where you’d expect the real story to begin, leaving the reader feeling abandoned. And while that’s a great hook to pick up the next book, it feels manipulative to readers (or this reader). We’ve all become familiar with this technique, as we see it all the time in free prequel novellas to series and, though a bit too long to be a novella, it has that same not-a-stand-alone feel to it.

It’s well-written and fun. So, I don’t consider my time wasted. I do have a major gripe about the over though. I know it’s a small thing, but it annoys me. The book started with the main character being mocked for her soccer-mom bob and this became a bit of a running gag. It’s a thing in the book until she got it cut even shorter. It’s even in the blurb………So, the long ponytail on the cover is wrong. And the ship too…

Decoy

Book Review of Decoy, by Michaela Debelius

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DecoyI grabbed a copy of Michaela Debelius‘ book, Decoy (Noel Casey, #1), from the KDP free list.

Description from Goodreads:
Lieutenant Noel Casey is taken aback by her newest military assignment. Her usual routine of vaccine development is interrupted when she’s assigned to analyze Killian, a genetically engineered soldier designed for exceptional strength and intelligence. She’s not accustomed to working with human subjects, especially a person created for warfare, and Killian’s indifference is making it difficult to see past his robotic demeanor.

When Noel is attacked outside Killian’s containment quarters, he is forced to intervene. The altruistic act instantly transforms their relationship, though neither will admit to the shift in sentiment. The predator is now the protector in Noel’s eyes, and she’s thrown off by her growing captivation.

As if her infatuation with a virtual stranger isn’t enough of a distraction, she begins having terrifying nightmares. Her cryptic dreams appear to harbor an elusive warning as she watches them materialize into existence, proving the nightly visions foretelling. She begins to suspect the military base is concealing far more than an experimental soldier, and she can’t shake the feeling Killian is the axis of the chaos. Noel must decide whether she’ll accept the unconvincing explanations offered by her peers, or reject her comfortable environment for an unimaginable truth. With her premonitions pointing towards a violent outcome and her irrational draw to Killian becoming impossible to ignore, she realizes the choice has already been made for her. Noel’s understanding of science is about to be shattered

Review:
This book was not at all what I expected from reading the blurb. That’s not always a bad thing, but I wanted to read the story described. The one I got wasn’t a bad story; it just wasn’t the one I set out to read. Having said that I did like quite a few aspects of it.

I liked that even when frightened, confused, lied to, exhausted and overwhelmed Noel still held her own. Yes, she got pushed around by the men a bit, but she was still strong willed and determined. I liked Killian as the intimidating super-soldier. I also liked him as the gentle lover and considerate brother. I liked Taylor and his relationship with the rest of the guys. I liked the basic writing style and the occasional vocabulary that forced me to utilise my Kindle’s dictionary capabilities. And I am amused to have encountered what must have been the most ethereal sex scene ever. Heck, I’m not sure that first one ever even happened.

What I didn’t like were the things left unexplained. What was up with the tickers? How exactly did people live right there among them, since they have an obvious tendency to attack people at random? (Unless it wasn’t supposed to be random, but that’s never addressed so I’m left to assume it was.) Why did everyone keep the deception up even after they had verified Noel’s identity and why, for god’s sake, why didn’t they call in any help once it was apparent Quinn was homicidal. If she’s supposed to be so darned important you would think people would help the group out a little. Half the base was supposed to be Eneathian after all. (I’m not swearing I spelled that right.)

There were also simply a few aspects of the story that irked me. How was I not supposed to get tired of the attempted rapes? I swear every time Noel turned around someone was trying to rape her. How am I not supposed to feel bad for poor Taylor? I was actually hoping this would turn into a ménage à trois just so he wouldn’t be left out. Lastly, while it was lovely that the Russo’s took her into their home, having so many men about made it feel very much like she was living in a co-ed dorm. Being essentially newlyweds didn’t they deserve their own space?

All-in-all not a bad read, just one that wasn’t what I expected and then left me with a few questions. I’m hoping book two comes up on the free list. I’d be glad to give it a read…even if it does start out with a tentacle monster. Seriously, I read the preview. It begins with the quintessential cheesy, late night sic-fi movie cliché, the tentacle monster. LOL