Prodigals by Alan Dean Foster

 

Prodigals by Alan Dean Foster
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First contact is here and arrangements are made for a number for groups of people (with certain skills and capabilities) to meet the "aliens" in specific places across the globe. Devali Mukherjee is chosen to be part of the American group who meet the alien craft near Lake Surprise in Texas. The aliens make demands hand in hand with some threats but during a subsequent meeting the humans are allowed to visit the alien mothership but with no explanation the aliens declare an emergency and their ship leaves orbit and accelerates out of the solar system. Devali and his companions are now faced with understanding multiple aliens species who inhabit the ship as well as trying to understand the situation they are in with little help it seems for returning to Earth their survival may depend upon them being useful to the ship.
Prodigals is not a large and complex novel, the story is pretty compact but the scope is almost limitless. We are introduced to a good group of central characters which sets the narrative on a solid footing and offsets the fantastical nature of first contact and aliens who like humans are not all cut from the same cloth. A solid novel with a few surprising twists and revelations which are most satisfying.


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