Monday, June 16, 2008

New Stephenie Meyers -- no vampires this time


The Host / Stephenie Meyers



Stephenie Meyers, wildly popular with teens and adults alike for her Twilight vampire series for Young Adults, has made her first foray into general adult fiction with The Host.

This book belongs to the science fiction genre, but it also has a strong romantic element. On her website, Meyers, calls it, "science fiction for people who don't like science fiction." She's right -- despite the fact that she uses an alien invasion of earth as a major plot point, the romance, the character development and Meyers' exploration of what it means to be human take precedence over the over the science fiction elements of the novel.

The setting is Arizona, sometime in the near future, after body-snatching aliens have taken over the human race. The main character is Wanderer, one of said aliens, who inhabits the former body of a lovely young woman named Melanie, whose consciousness inconveniently refuses to disappear. Instead, she lives in the back of her former brain -- now mostly controlled by Wanderer -- and periodically provides a commmentary on Wanderer's actions in her former body. Melanie is understandably frustrated with her new situation. She has an orphaned 13-year-old brother and a lover who've managed to avoid capture by the souls, and she misses and worries desperately about both. Wanderer, a soul unused to the intensity of human emotions, becomes caught up in the swirl of Melanie's love and pathos, and sets out on a dangerous journey to find them.

If you're a fan of Sharon Shinn, Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy, the Battlestar Galactica t.v. series, or if you just have a penchant for unusual love stories, check this one out.

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