The Green and the Gray

Rating:
Summary: Zahn never fails to please
Review: Granted, Zahn's books are a bit formulaic - the oncoming conflict that will destroy wherever the book is set or kill many innocents, the inability to stop it until the very end when a surprise twist occurs that fixes it all - but that doesn't mean it's bad. Most mystery stories follow much the same plot, but without the feeling of impending doom. The point is not that you already know how its going to end, the point is how he gets there.

And, in this case just as in all the others, it's one amazing ride. The two cultures and upwards of 30 main characters are all fascinating and vibrant, keeping the reading flowing through all 450-odd pages. The plot twists come with the usual Zahn rapidity, each being totally plausible and usually just as totally unexpected (though, in hindsight, you should have seen it coming). I buy every Zahn book as soon as I realize it's out, and I haven't once been dissappointed. It's not the deepest reading ever, but it's always fun, and it might make you think more than you expect.

Highly reccomended.

Rating:
Summary: very exciting speculative fiction
Review: In 1928, extraterrestrials that looked human went through Riker's Island to become citizens of their new home. The Greens were chased off their home world by the Grays in a war that started over a simple misunderstanding. The Greens did not know that the Grays, in order to escape the Others, followed the Greens to earth. For decades neither group knew of the other's existence until a boy from one group and a girl from the other became friends.

Their elders found out since both live in New York City; the Grays try to shove the Greens off the island until they agree to a truce if the Greens kill Melantha Green who can destroy the city with her mental powers. Innocent bystanders Roger and Caroline Whittier take Melantha try to hide her when someone from the group hands her to them but she disappears and they don't know which group got her. The Whittiers are determined to save Melantha and their city yet also somehow forge a truce between the opposing camps.

There are many aliens who live among us in science fiction stories such as the Men in Black, but Timothy Zahn has a unique and original way of taking a tribe plot and turning it into a fantastic storyline. This is an action oriented story where it is almost impossible to figure out the characters motives and nobody knows who is a friend or an enemy. This makes for a lot of suspense and the onus is on the reader to figure out who is friend or foe. There's a surprise twist at the end of the story that makes THE GREEN AND THE GRAY a very exciting work of speculative fiction.

Harriet Klausner



Rating:
Summary: Limp
Review: West Side Story with aliens instead of working class whites and Puerto Ricans. The idea of alien refugees living among us covertly comes from Zenna Henderson. Shallow characters, strained plotting, pedestrian writing, little originality, and not an ounce of wit.