Ratings4
Average rating4.5
When a disabled starship enters the Earth's atmosphere, fear is quickly replaced with awe. The first contact ever between humans and aliens is made. Seven incredibly intelligent members of an advanced race are welcomed by the world. In exchange for the resources and help to repair their ship, they offer to share their knowledge and technology. But as the people of Earth put their best faces forward, the growing sense of trust is shattered. A popular scientist, part of the aliens' traveling entourage, is found dead — mutilated and dismembered by a mysterious weapon. All evidence points to one of them. Scrambling to avoid a planetary incident, the United States government acquires the country's leading civil rights lawyer to defend the alien. In the unprecedented trial, human and alien cultures clash. And when the search for justice threatens to overshadow the truth, there may be more at stake than accounting for one human life...
Reviews with the most likes.
The aliens and alien technology portrayed in this book were no disappointment, compared to Sawyer's other books. The book was the story of the trial of an alien who is arrested for committing murder. While I wish the story had more aliens and their technology in it, the legal proceedings in the LA court system were well written and made me reflect a lot on human civil rights.
Excellent book. The sciency parts (xenobiology and celestial mechanics) were intriguing and sounded possible to me. The legal parts were often dull (real trials are very dull compared to TV ones).
Can beings be perfectly normal in their own culture but insane (in a legal sense) in ours?
That's one of the questions discussed in the book along with how physiology is related to cultural values.