Light Years from Home

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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For Jakob, it meant days where time had no meaning, one lifechanging revelation after another. Were there aliens? Yes, there were so many aliens, a number so overwhelming that even now he still didn't know the name of every species working under the Seven Bells flag. Were there bad aliens? Yes, and it turned out that Dad's sci-fi shows got some of those traits right—plus mechs from the few years when he indulged in anime—along with holographic displays, faster-than-light speed, smart communication tech that quickly adapted to English, and other things.

It was all of that mashed into one overwhelming reality, something that made him question if he hadn't taken the best/worst drugs of all time.

LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME

Light Years from Home

This is a modern day family drama sci-fi with some light alien war aspects and it is my first book by Chen. At the end of the day, I needed the first 70% to be no longer than 25% - to me the main plot drivers are [IMO annoying] family drama, and not executed in a successful way like in the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee. I was satisfied with the last 30% though. I think those who have strained family relationships or who like to read interpersonal conflict might want to try this book.

Space Opera Scifi For The Women's Fiction Crowd. This is one of those books where you go into it expecting a lot of scifi... something. Drama, action, maybe comedy, whatever. Instead you get scifi as setup for more women's fiction type family drama. Which is actually an interesting spin, but which will leave both crowds a bit perplexed. Overall though, Chen actually serves both crowds quite well, with enough of an off-screen hint of a backstory that he could come back to this world and give it the full-on Richard Phillips' Rho Agenda-style trilogy of trilogies exploring just the stuff he left off the page in this book - and yet what he does put on the page is truly solid women's fiction where brother and father's disappearances set in motion chains of events that mother nor either daughter could have ever dreamed of. Most of the actual tale here is more about the two sisters and how their lives have changed since that moment 15 years ago - and how they can move forward. The climax, with the FBI hot on the siblings' tails as they race toward brother's ultimate redemption, is as taught as anything in scifi and is reminescent of both X-Files (the author's stated inspiration) and even ET: The Extra Terrestrial. Truly an excellent tale strongly told, and very much recommended.