Well, this book could probably have been half as long as it was. I haven’t read this author before, and the writing isn’t bad, but he spends way to much time writing about stuff that should be done and over with.
Ok, so, two alien spacecraft are fighting over some remote area of Canada. Our main character, Greg Hamilton, is piloting his float plane in the area headed for a camping site near a lake. He’s going to meet with his sister and her husband for a week of remote camping. But, then he sees this “dogfight” going on and tries to figure who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy. He goes through this great dissertation on what each of the spaceships are doing trying to determine who the aggressor is and who’s just trying to get away. Here the writer chooses to make a story out of what should be one more reported UFO incident. Instead of just flying low and out of sight of either spaceship, Greg decides to try and help one of the combatants. He notices that when he keys his plane’s radio, it attracts one of the spaceships although nether actually fire on his small craft. So, he keys his mike once more and distracts the Harbok spaceship which allows the other ship to finally send in a death blow and the Harbok ship blows up.
The other spaceship comes along side him and no matter how he turns, it stays right on his side. Then it begins to fall behind. He believes it is also damaged and before long it crashes in the forest about a half mile from a small lake. Greg lands his plane on the lake and hikes to the crash site. He can’t believe how huge the spaceship is nor can he immediately find a way into it. He doesn’t know if it’s occupied or if all the crew were killed in the crash.
After messing around for a while, he does find an invisible lever/button that releases an opening into the ship. Greg can’t believe he’s actually going to board an alien space craft. But, he does and is surprised to find one single occupant who is badly burned. She’s still alive, but barely. Greg tries to tell her that he’s going to get her to a hospital, but she does speak English, to his surprise, and tells him, no hospital since she’s not of this Earth!
And now here where a lot of useless dialogue starts. Greg isn’t sure if he should be helping this alien. Even though she’s obviously helpless and in pain, he questions whether he should get involved. The Harbok, who she shot down, will obviously come looking for their missing ship and try to find who did the deed. They probably won’t appreciate that he’s helping here survive. He agonizes over this issue for about a chapter or two and that’s a comparatively short period considering what happens later.
Greg finally decides he’ll help this alien, who he later finds out is call, “Arlynn”. She tells him to get some medication from her ships stores and spay it on her burns. He does that and it seems to greatly ease her pains. She also shows him how to get a floating gurney operating so he can get her to his float plane. He then takes off to meet with this sister and husband to try and see if they can help this alien lady and what they should do next.
So now you have three humans and an alien in a remote part of the Canadian wilderness. For the next umpteen chapters, the three humans begin to agonize over whether to help this alien or not. They’re afraid what it might mean to the entire human race if they chose the wrong side of this war. It is a stupid waist of writing, because they have already chosen due to the fact they are helping her. She’s getting rest, food and water and getting better each day, but she still needs to get back to another hidden ship and then leave Earth to get back to her people at their base-ship.
I kept telling myself as I was reading several chapters, the author really needs to just get on with the story! There’s way too much philosophizing about what could happen instead of concentrating on what needs to happen. They need to get this alien to her other ship and help her leave Earth, simple as that. Yet, it winds up that Greg has to go with her and pilot her starship while being attacked by the Harbok. Oh, and this alien’s starship, is pretty dumb in that it doesn’t even have an AI capable of taking to its occupants.
The second book is already out so I’m going to read it, but I sure hope the next one doesn’t have to analyze everything in detail before something happens.