Alien Hunters: Discovery / R.G. Cordiner

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Middle Grade/Science Fiction

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

An Australian teacher, this is R.G. Cordiner’s fifth book. For more, visit his blog.

Description:

“A lethal game of hide and seek ... with aliens. Want to play?

In 1968, an alien spacecraft crash landed on Earth. There were survivors. Today, they walk among us, invisible in plain sight. They could be your teacher, your friend, or even .... YOU. Everyone sees them as human. Everyone, except two children.”

Appraisal:

As with Cordiner’s other books, Alien Hunters: Discovery puts the main characters (always close in age to the target  audience) in an adventurous situation  and adds some fantastical elements to fuel the reader’s imagination. Although they take place in a contemporary setting, he has aliens (what kid doesn’t love a good alien story?) and some science fiction elements. It’s an entertaining adventure, which is something you’d expect a middle grade reader to want in a book.

Cordiner’s books also have something parents might be looking for in a book for their children, a subtle lesson. What that was (and whether it is even intended) wasn’t as clear for me in Alien Hunters: Discovery as it was in Cordiner’s previous books. However, when I thought about it, I realized his protagonists are always normal kids, in that they aren’t perfect, but they’re also good examples. They might stretch the rules at times, like most kids, but when there is a big decision with serious consequences, they make the right choice, and in that decision is often a lesson. For this book, the lesson I saw is that part of growing up is experiencing new things that might stretch our comfort zones and that sometimes a decision needs to be made based on altruistic reasons, on what is best for the most people rather than easiest for us.

FYI:

Uses Australian spelling and slang.

Format/Typo Issues:

As a beta reader I evaluated based on a pre-publication version and can’t evaluate the final version in this area.

Rating: **** Four stars