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Katherine "Kitty" Katt #5
Alien Diplomacy
Being newlyweds and new parents is challenging enough. But Jeff and Kitty Martini are also giving up their roles as super-being exterminators and Commanders in Centaurion Division while mastering the political landscape as the new heads of Centaurion's Diplomatic Corps. Enter a shadowy assassination plot and a new set of anti-alien conspirators, and nothing will ever be the same...
425 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 3, 2012
50 people are currently reading
888 people want to read
About the author
Gini Koch
80 books911 followersGini Koch lives in Phoenix, Arizona and writes the bestselling fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series. Alien in the House, Book 7 in her long-running Alien series, won the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award as the Best Futuristic Romance of 2013. Book 14, Alien Nation, won the Preditors and Editors Reader's Choice Award for Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Novel of 2016. Alien Education releases May 2, 2017, and DAW Books has just contracted through Book 20 in the Alien series.
As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she’s made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch.
In addition to her upcoming Alien Series releases, she has stories featured in a variety of anthologies available now and coming soon, writing as Gini Koch, Anita Ensal, J.C. Koch, and Jemma Chase. Writing as A.E. Stanton she will have an audiobook release in 2017, Natural Born Outlaws (The Legend of Belladonna Part 1) coming from Graphic Audio.
For full details on all releases, all the news about Gini's books, signings, events, excerpts, and more, visit her website: http://www.ginikoch.com.
As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she’s made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch.
In addition to her upcoming Alien Series releases, she has stories featured in a variety of anthologies available now and coming soon, writing as Gini Koch, Anita Ensal, J.C. Koch, and Jemma Chase. Writing as A.E. Stanton she will have an audiobook release in 2017, Natural Born Outlaws (The Legend of Belladonna Part 1) coming from Graphic Audio.
For full details on all releases, all the news about Gini's books, signings, events, excerpts, and more, visit her website: http://www.ginikoch.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 149 reviews
May 5, 2017
So far this series had been great until this one.
Don't get me wrong, still good, Kitty still a kickass heroine with bonkers minds and Jeff still an adorable jealous guy, lol:))
The thing is, despite the bombs, car chasing, killings spree or things like that, there were too much political conflict or conspiracy theory in here and I'm not in the mood to read those at the moment!
I will continue reading this series because the changes happening in this series simply awesome but I need a little break and perhaps find something without too many characters like in this series:)
Ah, what can I say? It's a Political Stupid!
Don't get me wrong, still good, Kitty still a kickass heroine with bonkers minds and Jeff still an adorable jealous guy, lol:))
The thing is, despite the bombs, car chasing, killings spree or things like that, there were too much political conflict or conspiracy theory in here and I'm not in the mood to read those at the moment!
I will continue reading this series because the changes happening in this series simply awesome but I need a little break and perhaps find something without too many characters like in this series:)
Ah, what can I say? It's a Political Stupid!
April 10, 2012
First, this is a horrible cover... Kitty looks like her back is broken and she's missing a leg. WTF?
Edit: While the cover makes a little more sense now that I've read the book, she still looks messed up.
This is the 5th book in the series and unfortunately, my least favorite so far. When I say I love this series, you really have no idea how much of an understatement that is. But I just...wasn't impressed this time around. There are too many unresolved issues and plot holes. And while I call them "plot holes", they may actually be addressed in subsequent books. At the moment, though, they are plot holes.
So, this is going to be a little rant. Spoiler warning! Continue reading at your own risk.
We still don't discuss Kitty dying while giving birth. It's mentioned when the Dazzler's start going into labor, but we still don't address the issue at all and that's pissing me off. She friggin' DIED and all kinds of crazy shit happened! Regardless of whether or not Kitty remembers what happened (remember, Reader doesn't remember what he learned while dead and they both forgot what they spoke about after he was brought back), the situation needs to be resolved. I have a hard time believing Gini Koch would give us the dying scene and not wrap it up by the next book. But nope, you can pretty much forget that Kitty died because it means nothing in this book. Fingers crossed for a resolution in the next book.
Less action. Lots of running away, though, and I was a little let down. I know Washington DC is a place where your enemies are right in front of you pretending to be your friend. I expected some serious backstabbing, political maneuvering, etc. Instead, we got some slightly annoying characters from the Washington Wives class that didn't do much of anything besides insult Kitty and make her feel uncomfortable. Their nonsense could have been taken out entirely. Also, I'm totally confused about who is married to who, who was pretending to be straight, who was having threesomes, etc. Those Washington spouses are freakin' kinky!
At the end of the last book, it's revealed that some weird shit is happening around Alpha Four, but nothing of that was mentioned in this book. Hopefully, the 6th book will cover it. I was excited when the Earth A-Cs and humans went to Alpha Four and I had hoped they'd go back for a visit in this novel. No such luck. Alpha Four is mentioned only once, I believe. Alexander isn't mentioned at all.
We usually have numerous different diabolical plans happening at once and that doesn't seem to be the case here. However, there was enough confusion that it felt similar to the other books. This is the first book in which the A-Cs don't really know what's going on. It was a new concept, since usually Kitty can figure out what's going on with a little bit of verbal thinking. In the previous books, I really liked that Kitty would catch on before anyone else. In this book, she kept her mouth shut and I kinda missed the way she worked things out by discussing them. It happened a couple times, but never to the extent that the previous books did.
Now, it sounds like I didn't like this book but I did! I promise! I just didn't get the answers I was hoping for and things were much different in this book. It's not a bad thing, just different. I really hope the plot holes are filled in the next book. Otherwise, I'm going to have to write a strongly worded letter to my Congressman and take this shit to the hill.
I definitely recommend this book, but you can't start here. You have to start with Touched by an Alien or nothing will make sense.
Edit: While the cover makes a little more sense now that I've read the book, she still looks messed up.
This is the 5th book in the series and unfortunately, my least favorite so far. When I say I love this series, you really have no idea how much of an understatement that is. But I just...wasn't impressed this time around. There are too many unresolved issues and plot holes. And while I call them "plot holes", they may actually be addressed in subsequent books. At the moment, though, they are plot holes.
So, this is going to be a little rant. Spoiler warning! Continue reading at your own risk.
We still don't discuss Kitty dying while giving birth. It's mentioned when the Dazzler's start going into labor, but we still don't address the issue at all and that's pissing me off. She friggin' DIED and all kinds of crazy shit happened! Regardless of whether or not Kitty remembers what happened (remember, Reader doesn't remember what he learned while dead and they both forgot what they spoke about after he was brought back), the situation needs to be resolved. I have a hard time believing Gini Koch would give us the dying scene and not wrap it up by the next book. But nope, you can pretty much forget that Kitty died because it means nothing in this book. Fingers crossed for a resolution in the next book.
Less action. Lots of running away, though, and I was a little let down. I know Washington DC is a place where your enemies are right in front of you pretending to be your friend. I expected some serious backstabbing, political maneuvering, etc. Instead, we got some slightly annoying characters from the Washington Wives class that didn't do much of anything besides insult Kitty and make her feel uncomfortable. Their nonsense could have been taken out entirely. Also, I'm totally confused about who is married to who, who was pretending to be straight, who was having threesomes, etc. Those Washington spouses are freakin' kinky!
At the end of the last book, it's revealed that some weird shit is happening around Alpha Four, but nothing of that was mentioned in this book. Hopefully, the 6th book will cover it. I was excited when the Earth A-Cs and humans went to Alpha Four and I had hoped they'd go back for a visit in this novel. No such luck. Alpha Four is mentioned only once, I believe. Alexander isn't mentioned at all.
We usually have numerous different diabolical plans happening at once and that doesn't seem to be the case here. However, there was enough confusion that it felt similar to the other books. This is the first book in which the A-Cs don't really know what's going on. It was a new concept, since usually Kitty can figure out what's going on with a little bit of verbal thinking. In the previous books, I really liked that Kitty would catch on before anyone else. In this book, she kept her mouth shut and I kinda missed the way she worked things out by discussing them. It happened a couple times, but never to the extent that the previous books did.
Now, it sounds like I didn't like this book but I did! I promise! I just didn't get the answers I was hoping for and things were much different in this book. It's not a bad thing, just different. I really hope the plot holes are filled in the next book. Otherwise, I'm going to have to write a strongly worded letter to my Congressman and take this shit to the hill.
I definitely recommend this book, but you can't start here. You have to start with Touched by an Alien or nothing will make sense.
January 10, 2017
Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: Politics just aren’t for everyone.
Opening Sentence: “They call boxing the sweet science.”
The Review:
Kitty is back in the fifth novel in the series. She is attending classes on how to be a Washington Wife, which really are just fancy etiquette classes and apparently she is horrible at them. She is trying to get her skills up to par in time for the President’s Ball. Sadly, she has to deal with sycophants and a teacher that is embarrassed of her all while they doubt the fact that she is actually an Ambassador too.
Kitty hates this new scenery and hates the new people and desperately misses kicking superbeing’s butt. Jeff is doing much better in the new environment, but when Kitty stumbles across new anti-alien conspirators and a possible assassination plot things really begin to heat up. All of the AC’s are having babies, and everyone must outwit the conspiracy in order to keep the kids safe and everyone else as well.
When a member of Kitty’s class commits suicide Kitty suspects that this might hit closer to home than she wants it too. Now she has to do everything in her power to keep Jamie safe as well. Plus, another one of her sorority sisters finds out she is married to an alien, and well she took it better than Amy did. Although now Amy seems to be with Christopher so maybe she is over the whole alien thing as well. As the President’s Ball begins will Kitty and the others be able to foil the plot? Are they the target? Will Kitty and Jamie get out alive?
This series is solid and good, I think my problem is they are a little long and filled with all kinds of things that don’t always hold my attention. I love Kitty’s wit, and the relationship with her and Jeff is great. I love the majority of the characters in the books. I just wish it was a tad more focused. I find myself very interested and then I lose interest and then I am back again. I also have to say that I like my aliens to be aliens, not just be better humans. I mean they are prettier, smarter, faster, and have talents so they are like super humans basically.
The parasite aspect in the first book was really interesting, but now they are moving away from all of that heading into the political realm. I mean there are still superbeings around, but Kitty isn’t the one dealing with them anymore. Plus, Kitty agrees with me, she wants to go back to kicking superbeings’ butt too! Of course, now that Kitty is an enhanced human thanks to her daughter, things do continue to get interesting.
Notable Scene:
I heard the bullets hit, however. Along with with Vance screaming his head off. The sound of screeching tires was pretty loud. Things happened fast, as White rolled us into the streets to avoid a stream of bullets. As my perspective went over and over, I saw Vance run into the Romanian Embassy, as Len and Kyle ran out. Which coincided with a taxi pulling up next to us.
FTC Advisory: DAW/Penguin provided me with a copy of Alien Diplomacy. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Quick & Dirty: Politics just aren’t for everyone.
Opening Sentence: “They call boxing the sweet science.”
The Review:
Kitty is back in the fifth novel in the series. She is attending classes on how to be a Washington Wife, which really are just fancy etiquette classes and apparently she is horrible at them. She is trying to get her skills up to par in time for the President’s Ball. Sadly, she has to deal with sycophants and a teacher that is embarrassed of her all while they doubt the fact that she is actually an Ambassador too.
Kitty hates this new scenery and hates the new people and desperately misses kicking superbeing’s butt. Jeff is doing much better in the new environment, but when Kitty stumbles across new anti-alien conspirators and a possible assassination plot things really begin to heat up. All of the AC’s are having babies, and everyone must outwit the conspiracy in order to keep the kids safe and everyone else as well.
When a member of Kitty’s class commits suicide Kitty suspects that this might hit closer to home than she wants it too. Now she has to do everything in her power to keep Jamie safe as well. Plus, another one of her sorority sisters finds out she is married to an alien, and well she took it better than Amy did. Although now Amy seems to be with Christopher so maybe she is over the whole alien thing as well. As the President’s Ball begins will Kitty and the others be able to foil the plot? Are they the target? Will Kitty and Jamie get out alive?
This series is solid and good, I think my problem is they are a little long and filled with all kinds of things that don’t always hold my attention. I love Kitty’s wit, and the relationship with her and Jeff is great. I love the majority of the characters in the books. I just wish it was a tad more focused. I find myself very interested and then I lose interest and then I am back again. I also have to say that I like my aliens to be aliens, not just be better humans. I mean they are prettier, smarter, faster, and have talents so they are like super humans basically.
The parasite aspect in the first book was really interesting, but now they are moving away from all of that heading into the political realm. I mean there are still superbeings around, but Kitty isn’t the one dealing with them anymore. Plus, Kitty agrees with me, she wants to go back to kicking superbeings’ butt too! Of course, now that Kitty is an enhanced human thanks to her daughter, things do continue to get interesting.
Notable Scene:
I heard the bullets hit, however. Along with with Vance screaming his head off. The sound of screeching tires was pretty loud. Things happened fast, as White rolled us into the streets to avoid a stream of bullets. As my perspective went over and over, I saw Vance run into the Romanian Embassy, as Len and Kyle ran out. Which coincided with a taxi pulling up next to us.
FTC Advisory: DAW/Penguin provided me with a copy of Alien Diplomacy. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
January 18, 2018
3.5 Stars
Super accurate representation of politics, diplomacy & lobbyists in a literary fiction while actually staying light & fluffy book I've seen so far. Confusing as fuck *rubs forehead*
Super accurate representation of politics, diplomacy & lobbyists in a literary fiction while actually staying light & fluffy book I've seen so far. Confusing as fuck *rubs forehead*
April 20, 2025
It's been three months since Operation Confusion and since Kitty and Jeff have been installed as the new Diplomatic Corps for American Centaurion. Instead of fighting against the evil, Kitty now has to behave and be diplomatic which works.. not so much. After a disastrous dinner party, she now has to attend the "Washington Wife" class which is like Highschool all over again. Her only friend in the class is Eugene, the husband of a new junior senator from New York who is as clumsy and unpopular as Kitty and hates the class as much as she does.
The President's Ball is the next big event and just days before, there is a rumor of an attack which is to happen at the ball. Kitty's guys are on high alert and right after Mister Joel Oliver tells them, strange and dangerous things happen. While the countdown for the ball has started, Kitty discovers new allies, has encounters with weird taxi drivers and tries to find out who is the enemy this time around. Something strange happens in Washington and the life of everybody is at stake again. Time is ticking.. Can Kitty again save the world?
This is just getting better and better. Gini's imagination is incredible and I simply love this series. Who would have thought that Kitty will end in Washington? Kitty is tough - but she is not a diplomatic person. And this is why she ends in the course for the spouses of influential people in Washington. Her instructor has already given up on her and the other people in the course seems to hate her. I liked Guy and Vance and even Natalie but the others were just snobs. What Kitty saw in Eugene was beyond me. In the beginning I thought he was playing her.
Although Kitty has her best friends around her, she is quite upset and unhappy in Washington. She misses her old life and has problems to adapt to her new lifestyle. Jeff still loves Kitty very much and tries to help but it's difficult.
The fifth book starts slowly and is funny and entertaining until they find a huge amount of bugs on Kitty, somebody places a bomb on her limousine and then professional assassins turn up and try to kill them all. Nobody has a clue what's going to happen and who's behind this new attempt to get rid of Kitty and/or her people. It takes them until the President's Ball to figure out the masterminds behind the whole thing and what they plan to do.
What I love most about the series is the writing itself and the development of the characters. Not only Jeff and Kitty but even the smaller character getting Gini's attention. New members join Kitty's group and some are really interesting, such as Olga and Adriana or new babies. Can't wait to see what happens next. I really love when Kitty and Richard form a team and enjoy the "catsuit time" - I believe Richard even more than Kitty. Probably to rile his son Christopher who is quite protective of his father and hates when he does something dangerous.
Entertaining and funny series which deserves all 5 stars.
The President's Ball is the next big event and just days before, there is a rumor of an attack which is to happen at the ball. Kitty's guys are on high alert and right after Mister Joel Oliver tells them, strange and dangerous things happen. While the countdown for the ball has started, Kitty discovers new allies, has encounters with weird taxi drivers and tries to find out who is the enemy this time around. Something strange happens in Washington and the life of everybody is at stake again. Time is ticking.. Can Kitty again save the world?
This is just getting better and better. Gini's imagination is incredible and I simply love this series. Who would have thought that Kitty will end in Washington? Kitty is tough - but she is not a diplomatic person. And this is why she ends in the course for the spouses of influential people in Washington. Her instructor has already given up on her and the other people in the course seems to hate her. I liked Guy and Vance and even Natalie but the others were just snobs. What Kitty saw in Eugene was beyond me. In the beginning I thought he was playing her.
Although Kitty has her best friends around her, she is quite upset and unhappy in Washington. She misses her old life and has problems to adapt to her new lifestyle. Jeff still loves Kitty very much and tries to help but it's difficult.
The fifth book starts slowly and is funny and entertaining until they find a huge amount of bugs on Kitty, somebody places a bomb on her limousine and then professional assassins turn up and try to kill them all. Nobody has a clue what's going to happen and who's behind this new attempt to get rid of Kitty and/or her people. It takes them until the President's Ball to figure out the masterminds behind the whole thing and what they plan to do.
What I love most about the series is the writing itself and the development of the characters. Not only Jeff and Kitty but even the smaller character getting Gini's attention. New members join Kitty's group and some are really interesting, such as Olga and Adriana or new babies. Can't wait to see what happens next. I really love when Kitty and Richard form a team and enjoy the "catsuit time" - I believe Richard even more than Kitty. Probably to rile his son Christopher who is quite protective of his father and hates when he does something dangerous.
Entertaining and funny series which deserves all 5 stars.
February 7, 2012
Katherine ‘Kitty’ Katt isn’t fitting too comfortably into her new role as Mrs. Martini. Ever since Jeff became an ambassador, Kitty has had to swap her favourite band t-shirts for frocks, and learn how to host dignified soirees instead of her much preferred rock-fests. But Kitty is trying – she is attending a ‘Washington Wife’ class and learning the proper way to meet and greet Russian dignitaries without embarrassing Jeff or her fellow countrymen.
As hard as being a perfect little wifey is for Kitty, she and Jeff have both found their feet as parents to little Jamie (affectionately known as Jamie-Kat). Baby Jamie is doted on by the whole of the Centaurion Division, not to mention her friends in the C.I.A. and her powerful royal (and deadly) grandparents.
But all is not well in Washington. The President’s Ball looms, and on top of learning how to dance, avoid enraging the Koreans and needing to pick out a killer (but classy) dress, Kitty and Martini are hearing rumours that there’s going to be violence at the Ball, against an unknown target.
Assassins are swarming Washington, and already Kitty and Jamie have been caught in the crosshairs . . . but are they the targets?
‘Alien Diplomacy’ is the fifth book in Gini Koch’s explosive space opera ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’ series.
Gini Koch’s beloved sci-fi series has hit so many high-notes in recent books that fans could be forgiven for thinking that things might calm down in this fifth instalment . . . after all, how could Ms Koch possibly compete with some of the jaw-dropping, pedal-to-the-metal helter-skletering plots of yesteryear? ‘Alien in the Family’ included a wild wedding, while ‘Alien Proliferation’ welcomed the birth of a much-anticipated alien-human bubs. Some may think that ‘Alien Diplomacy’ is the come down, if you like, from all those larger-than-life plots and story thrill rides. But fans should not be deterred or concerned, because Jeff and Kitty are not settling into sedate family life just yet . . . not when assassins are descending on Washington and Jamie-Kat is showing every sign of being an above-average A-C baby.
I got the Long-Suffering Doctor look. "You, Jamie, and Jeff are scheduled for tests today."
We were? "Tests? What tests?"
He gave the Long-Suffering Doctor sigh. "The standard tests we do monthly to ensure the three of you are ... progressing properly."
"Oh, you mean the ones where we make sure we're still more like the X-Men than the Thing?"
The central focus of ‘Diplomacy’ is on the rumour of an assassination attempt, planned for the President’s Ball against an unknown target (though common sense points to the president. . . ) but when Jamie and Kitty get caught up in the assassination plot, everybody starts second-guessing the original targets.
This central ‘whodunit’ storyline is pretty intense, and will keep you guessing. But as well as offering up an adrenaline shot, the plot also serves to introduce readers to Jeff and Kitty’s new Washington setting (what with Jeff being an ambassador and all). We learn just how badly Kitty is fitting into her post-pregnancy time off . . . floating between ‘Washington Wife’ and a ‘Mummy and Me’ class. It’s safe to say that our girl Kitty is missing the good old days of screaming Aerosmith while pumping some fuglies full of lead (and hairspray). I loved the fact that just because our heroine got her happily-ever-after (complete with handsome hubby and sweet baby girl) it doesn’t mean she wants to stop kicking ass. And ‘Diplomacy’ is really about Kitty’s push-and-pull, between her duties as a wife and mother, and her urge to be out in the field watching Jeff’s back and saving the world.
‘Diplomacy’ continues to expand on Koch’s fantastical world. We meet a great cast of new characters like the mysterious Malcolm Buchanan, and we revisit some old favourites (including Kyle and Len, reformed football players, now bodyguards). We also meet someone from Kitty’s past, her old sorority sister Caroline Chase, who has some hilarious stories to share about Kitty’s college years;
Caroline stared at me. "You married a space alien?" she asked finally.
I gave her a bright smile. "Jeff was born on Earth. He's a legal U.S. resident with all the rights thereof. And he's a prince." Hey, it had mattered to my other sorority sisters.
Caroline shook her head. "You never change."
"I didn't date aliens before!"
"Or royalty. However, if there was a way to work in the bizarre naturally, you were always our go-to girl."
And for those of you who were cheering and fist-pumping at the revelations in ‘Proliferation’, concerning Christopher’s character . . . rest assured, Amy is sticking around and there’s a very sweet scene towards the end of ‘Diplomacy’ – I love these two!
Gini Koch’s fifth ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’ is a wonderful instalment in this kick-butt series. Our girl Kitty may be happily settled down with a (sexy) ball and chain, she may be loving motherhood and ‘Mummy and Me’ time. . . but that doesn’t mean she isn’t hankering for an ass-kickin’, and ‘Diplomacy’ is really all about her conflicting emotions between being a mother and being a hero. Another awesome instalment in an incredible series, and proof-positive that even when the story includes diaper-changes and poof baby bodyguards, Koch still has plenty of action and adventure for Jeff and Kitty!
As hard as being a perfect little wifey is for Kitty, she and Jeff have both found their feet as parents to little Jamie (affectionately known as Jamie-Kat). Baby Jamie is doted on by the whole of the Centaurion Division, not to mention her friends in the C.I.A. and her powerful royal (and deadly) grandparents.
But all is not well in Washington. The President’s Ball looms, and on top of learning how to dance, avoid enraging the Koreans and needing to pick out a killer (but classy) dress, Kitty and Martini are hearing rumours that there’s going to be violence at the Ball, against an unknown target.
Assassins are swarming Washington, and already Kitty and Jamie have been caught in the crosshairs . . . but are they the targets?
‘Alien Diplomacy’ is the fifth book in Gini Koch’s explosive space opera ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’ series.
Gini Koch’s beloved sci-fi series has hit so many high-notes in recent books that fans could be forgiven for thinking that things might calm down in this fifth instalment . . . after all, how could Ms Koch possibly compete with some of the jaw-dropping, pedal-to-the-metal helter-skletering plots of yesteryear? ‘Alien in the Family’ included a wild wedding, while ‘Alien Proliferation’ welcomed the birth of a much-anticipated alien-human bubs. Some may think that ‘Alien Diplomacy’ is the come down, if you like, from all those larger-than-life plots and story thrill rides. But fans should not be deterred or concerned, because Jeff and Kitty are not settling into sedate family life just yet . . . not when assassins are descending on Washington and Jamie-Kat is showing every sign of being an above-average A-C baby.
I got the Long-Suffering Doctor look. "You, Jamie, and Jeff are scheduled for tests today."
We were? "Tests? What tests?"
He gave the Long-Suffering Doctor sigh. "The standard tests we do monthly to ensure the three of you are ... progressing properly."
"Oh, you mean the ones where we make sure we're still more like the X-Men than the Thing?"
The central focus of ‘Diplomacy’ is on the rumour of an assassination attempt, planned for the President’s Ball against an unknown target (though common sense points to the president. . . ) but when Jamie and Kitty get caught up in the assassination plot, everybody starts second-guessing the original targets.
This central ‘whodunit’ storyline is pretty intense, and will keep you guessing. But as well as offering up an adrenaline shot, the plot also serves to introduce readers to Jeff and Kitty’s new Washington setting (what with Jeff being an ambassador and all). We learn just how badly Kitty is fitting into her post-pregnancy time off . . . floating between ‘Washington Wife’ and a ‘Mummy and Me’ class. It’s safe to say that our girl Kitty is missing the good old days of screaming Aerosmith while pumping some fuglies full of lead (and hairspray). I loved the fact that just because our heroine got her happily-ever-after (complete with handsome hubby and sweet baby girl) it doesn’t mean she wants to stop kicking ass. And ‘Diplomacy’ is really about Kitty’s push-and-pull, between her duties as a wife and mother, and her urge to be out in the field watching Jeff’s back and saving the world.
‘Diplomacy’ continues to expand on Koch’s fantastical world. We meet a great cast of new characters like the mysterious Malcolm Buchanan, and we revisit some old favourites (including Kyle and Len, reformed football players, now bodyguards). We also meet someone from Kitty’s past, her old sorority sister Caroline Chase, who has some hilarious stories to share about Kitty’s college years;
Caroline stared at me. "You married a space alien?" she asked finally.
I gave her a bright smile. "Jeff was born on Earth. He's a legal U.S. resident with all the rights thereof. And he's a prince." Hey, it had mattered to my other sorority sisters.
Caroline shook her head. "You never change."
"I didn't date aliens before!"
"Or royalty. However, if there was a way to work in the bizarre naturally, you were always our go-to girl."
And for those of you who were cheering and fist-pumping at the revelations in ‘Proliferation’, concerning Christopher’s character . . . rest assured, Amy is sticking around and there’s a very sweet scene towards the end of ‘Diplomacy’ – I love these two!
Gini Koch’s fifth ‘Katherine “Kitty” Katt’ is a wonderful instalment in this kick-butt series. Our girl Kitty may be happily settled down with a (sexy) ball and chain, she may be loving motherhood and ‘Mummy and Me’ time. . . but that doesn’t mean she isn’t hankering for an ass-kickin’, and ‘Diplomacy’ is really all about her conflicting emotions between being a mother and being a hero. Another awesome instalment in an incredible series, and proof-positive that even when the story includes diaper-changes and poof baby bodyguards, Koch still has plenty of action and adventure for Jeff and Kitty!
January 12, 2021
Crazy pandemonium like all novels featuring Miss Katt.
June 25, 2013
*Genre* Science Fiction-y
*Rating* 4.0
*Thoughts*
"Welcome to My Super Secret Life, where people try to kill us on a regular basis, and we thwart bad guy schemes for breakfast. We're almost like a reality show, only without the alcohol and hot tubs." Pg 201
Alien Diplomacy is once again filled with Kitty-ism and trouble at each and every turn for Kitty and her group of rag tag friends and family which seems to grow by the story. Things have definitely changed over the course of this series for Kitty and her husband Jeff Martini, but not in the way that they love each other deeply, especially in the smexy arena. Yes, there's still a bit of jealously still on Jeff's part, but, he's come a long way baby from when he was first introduced.
In less than 3 months, they've become head diplomats for the Centurion Divisions Diplomatic Corp in Washington, DC, while Kitty is being "forced" into taking classes like Washington Wife Training, Diplomacy for Beginners, and Mommy and Me while also dealing with the constant threats on her, and Jamie Katherine (Jamie Kat) her 3 month old baby. Not everyone is trustworthy. Not everyone is an enemy. The one thing that hasn't changed is that the CIA still wants the Alpha Centaurion's (A-C's) to be part of their War Division and only Kitty's best friend Chuckie stands in the way from that happening.
Embassy life is different change of pace for Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher. They've each stepped away from their previous positions of saving the world from super-beings & solders, and moving into the Alpha Centaurion's embassy where life is supposed to be a much slower pace. Yet, it's not all that boring or uninteresting because there are still people out there who very much want Kitty & her baby dead because of Kitty's own actions against the super bugs and megalomaniacs who wanted to take over the world.
Kitty is still coming to gripes with her own mutated changes as well since having Jamie-Kat. She now has hyper-speed, faster healing & regeneration, improved vision, and super strength which all come in handy at one time or another. The one thing that hasn't changed for Kitty is her partnership with Richard White, the former Pontifex of the A-C's. I love the way Kathy and Rick work together.
In the end, I would definitely say that you should take things with a grain of salt when reading this book and DON'T expect it to sudden wrap things up without a bit of a surprise ending, especially when the revelation of who the actual bad guys really are. This is a book that is filled with action, suspense, humor, danger, some interesting song choices by Kitty, and above all, the realization by Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher that sometimes it's necessary to have others to rely on you and support you and back you up without having to do everything all by yourselves.
Onward and upward to the next book!
Released: April 3rd 2012 by DAW
*Rating* 4.0
*Thoughts*
"Welcome to My Super Secret Life, where people try to kill us on a regular basis, and we thwart bad guy schemes for breakfast. We're almost like a reality show, only without the alcohol and hot tubs." Pg 201
Alien Diplomacy is once again filled with Kitty-ism and trouble at each and every turn for Kitty and her group of rag tag friends and family which seems to grow by the story. Things have definitely changed over the course of this series for Kitty and her husband Jeff Martini, but not in the way that they love each other deeply, especially in the smexy arena. Yes, there's still a bit of jealously still on Jeff's part, but, he's come a long way baby from when he was first introduced.
In less than 3 months, they've become head diplomats for the Centurion Divisions Diplomatic Corp in Washington, DC, while Kitty is being "forced" into taking classes like Washington Wife Training, Diplomacy for Beginners, and Mommy and Me while also dealing with the constant threats on her, and Jamie Katherine (Jamie Kat) her 3 month old baby. Not everyone is trustworthy. Not everyone is an enemy. The one thing that hasn't changed is that the CIA still wants the Alpha Centaurion's (A-C's) to be part of their War Division and only Kitty's best friend Chuckie stands in the way from that happening.
Embassy life is different change of pace for Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher. They've each stepped away from their previous positions of saving the world from super-beings & solders, and moving into the Alpha Centaurion's embassy where life is supposed to be a much slower pace. Yet, it's not all that boring or uninteresting because there are still people out there who very much want Kitty & her baby dead because of Kitty's own actions against the super bugs and megalomaniacs who wanted to take over the world.
Kitty is still coming to gripes with her own mutated changes as well since having Jamie-Kat. She now has hyper-speed, faster healing & regeneration, improved vision, and super strength which all come in handy at one time or another. The one thing that hasn't changed for Kitty is her partnership with Richard White, the former Pontifex of the A-C's. I love the way Kathy and Rick work together.
In the end, I would definitely say that you should take things with a grain of salt when reading this book and DON'T expect it to sudden wrap things up without a bit of a surprise ending, especially when the revelation of who the actual bad guys really are. This is a book that is filled with action, suspense, humor, danger, some interesting song choices by Kitty, and above all, the realization by Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher that sometimes it's necessary to have others to rely on you and support you and back you up without having to do everything all by yourselves.
Onward and upward to the next book!
Released: April 3rd 2012 by DAW
April 13, 2022
Yum series. Kitty even tells scary with snark humor. Except names of dead, suspects. Lets crash on wilderness. No name lists. Add Joel Oliver, press.
Wash DC. Death at Pres. Ball rumors. Joel Oliver, press, helps. Cars chase, boom, crisp. Cold river. Typo 24 breach breech 37 though thought etc
Wash DC. Death at Pres. Ball rumors. Joel Oliver, press, helps. Cars chase, boom, crisp. Cold river. Typo 24 breach breech 37 though thought etc
September 27, 2021
Book 5 A Feminist Mythos of Autonomy and Revolutionary Struggle Against Patriarchy and Authorized Identities of Sex and Gender in Alien Diplomacy
What makes Kitty, Gini Koch’s protagonist in the Aliens series, a hero? Kitty has the power to see the truth of others, and to reveal to others their true selves, and models thereby an ideal of human relationships. We choose partners who can help us become the person we want to be, and who embody qualities we wish to assimilate to ourselves; a healthy relationship returns to us and helps us discover our true and best selves. Above all, Kitty is a feminist hero who transforms enemies into allies by the power of her vision to see who they truly are and set them free.
As a figure in a complex mythic pantheon Kitty subsumes elements of parrhesia, what Foucault called truth telling, as a sacred calling to pursue the truth like the Jester of King Lear, the androgynous Adam Kadmon who is a figure of unitary wholeness created both man and woman in the Kabbalah as well as a gender reversed Adam Ha-Rishon of Genesis who completes the work of creation by naming, and therefore claiming dominion over, the beasts, as well as being a prophetess who converses with the Infinite and becomes a Theotikos or God-Bearer, a title of Mary since the Council of Ephesus.
As with William Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary, Gini Koch’s multilayered mythos is also a reimagination of the myth of Persephone which monkeywrenches the patriarchy as a nexus of historical race, class, and gender power asymmetries, and depicts it as both Biblical sin and Freudian sexual terror, which for Faulkner became a template for all his subsequent work and a gateway novel to the great and darkly luminous Light in August.
But in the context of revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy, Kitty is both a Pythian seer of truths who like Michelangelo can free us as images captive within the stone of our social context, who in naming us like Adam defines our truth, and a figure of Medusa, goddess and monster, a victim cursed for the crimes of her abuser like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, and whose power to turn men to stone appropriates the dehumanizing and objectifying power of the Male Gaze.
Gini Koch carries her archetypes and mythic references forward through structures of images, motifs, and symbols, in this case mirrors, cameras, surfaces which reflect but may also capture, distort, and falsify, referential to those of Margaret Atwood in Cat’s Eye.
Like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, an immortal time traveler who changes gender at will, Kitty occupies a liminal space between the bounded realms of ideals of masculinity and femininity, able to negotiate the interface in her role as psychopomp or Guide of the Soul.
A major theme of Gini Koch’s Aliens series is membership and belonging as a primary means of exchange; in Alien Diplomacy this finds form in allegories and metaphors of becoming human as revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy, and echoes in themes of autonomy, normality, transgression, and the social use of force in the authorization of identities of sex and gender.
Herein we enter the arena of the Washington Wife Class, of which we may say as Buffy does of the Great Lesson in Season Eight, Episode Eleven; "I don't know what's coming next, but I do know it's gonna be just like this. Hard. Painful. But in the end it's gonna be us. If we all do our parts, believe it, we'll be the ones left standing. Here endeth the lesson."
Agents of the Patriarchy try to put our heroine in a box, and it’s a jolly old time watching her smash it to bits as a figure of Liberty seizing the gates of our prisons. Herein we have an interrogation of Margaret Atwood’s primary theme of internalized oppression as female on female violence, complete with a version of Atwood’s character of Serena in The Handmaid’s Tale, a fictionalization of the historical monster Phyllis Schlafly. As a primary intertext of Gini Koch’s Alien Diplomacy and her Aliens series in its entirety, The Handmaid’s Tale is useful in comparison of themes, motifs, and images.
The Handmaid's Tale gives a voice to Bilhah, the Biblical Handmaid, revisions Little Red Riding Hood as an extension of Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves, and tells the story of the Christian disempowerment of the Goddess as presented in the great film The Red Shoes.
Margaret Atwood's parodies of Grimm operate on three levels; thematic, images and motifs, and narrative structure. In The Handmaid's Tale, we have themes of family and especially female-female conflict, gender and sexual power asymmetries, and the initiation and heroic journey. Motifs and images include dismemberment, cannibalism, fertility, labyrinths and paths, and all manner of disturbing sexual violence. Plot devices include a variety of character foils, doppelgangers, disguises and trickery of stolen and falsified identity.
It depicts the brooding evil and vicious misogyny of Christianity and Fascism as two sides of the dynamic malaise of patriarchy and authority, as drawn directly from Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, but also from contemporary culture as it contains satires of identifiable public figures, organizations, and events. Serena is based on Phyllis Schlafly, and Gideon is the nation of Pat Robertson and the fundamentalists who seized control of the Republican Party around the time of the novel's writing; Margaret Atwood's motive in part was to sound an alarm at the dawn of the Fourth Reich and its threat to global democracy.
And this is the great lesson and insight of Margaret Atwood; each of us is both a Handmaid and a Serena, trapped within the skin of the other.
So we come to Gini Koch’s second model in her interrogation of authorized identities of sex and gender and the use of social force in the construction of normality and the boundaries of the Forbidden, Jeanette Winterson in her darkly luminous novel The Passion.
We may say of both Gini Koch and Jeanette Winterson that they possess a flair for producing apt quotations and bits of startling wisdom like Gertrude Stein and Oscar Wilde, for the humanism of Violette Leduc, the transgression of Angela Carter and Anais Nin, for the bizarre negotiations with the fallenness of the world of Flannery O’Connor, and for narratives of wild surrealism comparable to those of Leonora Carrington or Djuna Barnes.
Gender, sexuality, and love, and the differences between them; history as a shadow prison we may free ourselves from to become fully human in whatever way we choose, the struggle for self determination and the ownership of identity between self and others, and seizures of power as an act of creative revolt against patriarchal authority; these are the themes of Jeanette Winterson’s works.
The Passion is an Existentialist novel set in Napoleonic Europe which reimagines the Passion of Christ as an interrogation of the sacred and the profane, a reply to its model The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. Her main characters and much else are borrowed directly from Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; her narrator Henri is drawn from the simple Lennie, and both being types of the Holy Fool. The web-footed gondolier’s daughter Villanelle, his great love, embodies the mythic archetypes of the goddess and monster Melusine, trickster and initiator figures as a guide of the soul, and also elements of the role and character of George. Villanelle finds echoes and reflections in Kitty, Gini Koch’s heroine, in part modeled on Jeanette Winterson’s character and both drawing on an immense mythos as figures of the psychopomp or guide of the soul.
Herein we are immersed in a fallen world, reaching for rebirth and our humanity as in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood and Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away. Love and madness, desire and the futility of authentic connection in a world of falsification, the struggle between the Ideal and the Real, between fiction and history, for ownership of ourselves and dominion over creation; I have just reread it yet again, and as always am overcome with sadness at its brutal subtraction of meaning. As always, Jeanette Winterson intones her metronomic incantation; I’m telling stories, trust me. And we must not.
To read her Great Book of isolation and the pathology of disconnectedness which Heidegger called being-for-others is to submit to violation, which makes it sound more fun than it is. This is the great beauty of her art; to make her readers directly experience the Freudian horror of patriarchy as theft of the soul. At her finest, the works of Jeanette Winterson are a howl of protest and rebellion against authority in which we are paraded through a carnival of dehumanization, yet her stories compel with ritual force. Perhaps only Samuel Beckett has such power to enact the abandonment of ourselves, to steal meaning from our lives as a revelation and liberation. Hers is a feminism of Liberty storming the gates of the Bastille such as I treasure and dearly love; an Existentialism made of Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, and Camus, and shaded with Marxist themes, but also of negation which recalls that of Beckett and Kobo Abe, and in whom de Sade and Flannery O’Connor unhappily dance.
For me her great novel The Passion is a thing of existential dread, supernal in its darkness; I search within it for the transcendent and surreal Venice of phantasmagorical delights and beautiful illusions, masquerades and exchanges of identities, echoes of my youth roaring through chasms of night on a Ducati Scrambler, of glorious sins and a figure like that of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando through which we may be regenerated and transformed, but am served emptiness instead.
One recalls the lecture of Camus to the Jesuits, in which he said, “The difference between us is that you have hope, where I do not.” Much as I love the horror of Jeanette Winterson’s transgressive sadism, which bears forward the poetic vision of de Sade, Angela Carter, and Rikki Ducornet, the horror of her nihilism and denial of human meaning and value is greater still. I’m with Nietzsche and Christina Rossetti on this one; the abyss of nothingness is a toad which we must not swallow, for who knows what soil it fed on, its hungry, thirsty roots?
But here Gini Koch diverges from her model, for hers is an Absurdism of humor and not of terror, of Eugene Ionesco in Rhinoceroses rather than Beckett, and a Chaplinesque comedy. It is also an Absurdist-Existentialist faith which references that of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and Flannery O’Connor, but that line of analysis is a subject for another time.
Then there is Jeanette Winterson’s moral inversion of the figure of Napoleon, a Byronic hero and among the greatest Promethean rebels and champions of reason, freedom, and equality in history, who led a revolution against the system of aristocracy and class, who in her novel becomes the authority he rebelled against, symbol of a despotic god of malign Abrahamic patriarchy and totalitarian empire who bound us with his laws and then abandoned us to struggle against them, of capitalism as a machine of death and war.
Alas, no one understands my beautiful Napoleon, neither Anthony Burgess nor Winterson. Yet their Great Books Napoleon Symphony and The Passion compel me to read them yet again, as I am compelled to re-read the works of Gini Koch each year as a Rite of Spring beginning on May Day; for they are utterly ravishing, seduce and defile and exalt. And afterward leave me dreaming strange dreams and thinking wonderful, terrible thoughts.
Many of Gini Koch’s antagonists and Mastermind figures of Patriarchal sexual terror mirror Winterson’s figure of Napoleon; Idealists who like Victor Frankenstein in heroically attempting to transcend their limits by rebelling against authority become monsters and the tyrants they struggle to cast down from their thrones, which as Nabokov argued reflects real world revolutions which become tyrannies.
And these are the true romantic relationships of Gini Koch’s entire Aliens series; not the Kitty- Jeff- Charles love triangle as a central pantheon in her gender-reversed myth of Exile, but the coded transgressive relationships of Kitty and her adversaries as Jungian shadow work and a journey to wholeness.
In this her novels interrogate the project of Transhumanism as a form of Romantic Idealism, much as Mary Shelly does in Frankenstein or Philip K Dick in Blade Runner, reimaginations of a rich mythology and fairytale tradition of protean animal-machine-human-superbeing transformations and of Milton’s Rebel Angel.
Though I discuss Romantic Idealism as the third primary influence in the works of Gini Koch elsewhere, here I wish only to observe and signpost that her heroine’s adversaries are both fallen angels who were once heroes themselves and figures of Goya’s mad emperor in Saturn Devouring His Children; figures of Patriarchy who must be cast down from their thrones if we are to become free.
This brings us to our third comparative work and intertext in the ars poetica of Gini Koch as revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy and authorized identities of sex and gender; Kathy Acker’s magnificent Blood and Guts in High School.
All of Kathy Acker’s novels are fictionalized autobiographies, in which she inhabits a series of identities as performances, as did David Bowie, in her case literary ones.
She has cast herself as Hester Prynne in Blood and Guts in High School, as Rimbaud in In Memoriam to Identity, Pip in Great Expectations, Huckleberry Finn in Empire of the Senseless; her pluralities and transformations of identity are a major theme running through all her works.
The arc of her career is filled with great books, alarming, stunning, bizarre, evocations of Surrealist hallucinogenic strangeness and written with the wizardry of language of Gertrude Stein, the impish humor and love of chaos and pranks of Anais Nin, the stylistics of language of Marguerite Duras and the revolutionary intent and unlimited transgressiveness of Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood; characteristics also of the works of Gini Koch.
Kathy Acker’s works function as expositions of her theoretical models and sources, Helene Cixous and Gilles Deleuze among them, her stylistics of language are referential to Marguerite Duras and Charles Olson, and her compositional mechanics to Burroughs, Italo Calvino, and like Iris Murdoch to the French Surrealist Raymond Queneau, whose novel Zazie was a kind of toolkit and model of authorial techniques for her, like Da Vinci's Book of Secrets.
Kathy Acker’s novels are centered on primary traumas which are metaphors and allegories of political and social evils, similar to Milan Kundera’s use of sex as a symbol of death of the soul and loss of political faith in The Unbearable Lightness of Being; Great Expectations is a reimagination of Charles Dickens’s classic novel which interrogates her mother’s suicide brilliantly, Blood and Guts in High School confronts abuse and survivorship, and Don Quixote depicts a descent into madness resulting from guilt as internalized oppression in the wake of an abortion.
Blood and Guts in High School, her celebrated Great Book, reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in the context of her horrific relationship with her father. I’ve taught this book to actual high school students as a companion text to Hawthorne because of its value in provoking meaningful discussion of sexual terror as a means of repression, ownership, and control in a patriarchal society, and power asymmetries of sex and gender as they relate to identity. Be warned that it was banned as obscene in Germany, something of an achievement; it remains among the most transgressive and extreme chronicles of violence and sexuality in all of literature, and also among the finest and most insightful attacks on patriarchy and power as well as a luminous direct reply to Freud.
Such are among her great themes; the interrogation of boundaries through acts of transgression, the myth of Oedipus as a symbol of capitalism and patriarchy, and the Freudian horror of sexual terror and violence as consequences of unequal power and systemic Patriarchy.
To this ferocious engagement with Patriarchy we must add the impish humor and love of chaos and pranks of Gini Koch, which are wonderfully, uniquely hers.
What makes Kitty, Gini Koch’s protagonist in the Aliens series, a hero? Kitty has the power to see the truth of others, and to reveal to others their true selves, and models thereby an ideal of human relationships. We choose partners who can help us become the person we want to be, and who embody qualities we wish to assimilate to ourselves; a healthy relationship returns to us and helps us discover our true and best selves. Above all, Kitty is a feminist hero who transforms enemies into allies by the power of her vision to see who they truly are and set them free.
As a figure in a complex mythic pantheon Kitty subsumes elements of parrhesia, what Foucault called truth telling, as a sacred calling to pursue the truth like the Jester of King Lear, the androgynous Adam Kadmon who is a figure of unitary wholeness created both man and woman in the Kabbalah as well as a gender reversed Adam Ha-Rishon of Genesis who completes the work of creation by naming, and therefore claiming dominion over, the beasts, as well as being a prophetess who converses with the Infinite and becomes a Theotikos or God-Bearer, a title of Mary since the Council of Ephesus.
As with William Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary, Gini Koch’s multilayered mythos is also a reimagination of the myth of Persephone which monkeywrenches the patriarchy as a nexus of historical race, class, and gender power asymmetries, and depicts it as both Biblical sin and Freudian sexual terror, which for Faulkner became a template for all his subsequent work and a gateway novel to the great and darkly luminous Light in August.
But in the context of revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy, Kitty is both a Pythian seer of truths who like Michelangelo can free us as images captive within the stone of our social context, who in naming us like Adam defines our truth, and a figure of Medusa, goddess and monster, a victim cursed for the crimes of her abuser like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, and whose power to turn men to stone appropriates the dehumanizing and objectifying power of the Male Gaze.
Gini Koch carries her archetypes and mythic references forward through structures of images, motifs, and symbols, in this case mirrors, cameras, surfaces which reflect but may also capture, distort, and falsify, referential to those of Margaret Atwood in Cat’s Eye.
Like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, an immortal time traveler who changes gender at will, Kitty occupies a liminal space between the bounded realms of ideals of masculinity and femininity, able to negotiate the interface in her role as psychopomp or Guide of the Soul.
A major theme of Gini Koch’s Aliens series is membership and belonging as a primary means of exchange; in Alien Diplomacy this finds form in allegories and metaphors of becoming human as revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy, and echoes in themes of autonomy, normality, transgression, and the social use of force in the authorization of identities of sex and gender.
Herein we enter the arena of the Washington Wife Class, of which we may say as Buffy does of the Great Lesson in Season Eight, Episode Eleven; "I don't know what's coming next, but I do know it's gonna be just like this. Hard. Painful. But in the end it's gonna be us. If we all do our parts, believe it, we'll be the ones left standing. Here endeth the lesson."
Agents of the Patriarchy try to put our heroine in a box, and it’s a jolly old time watching her smash it to bits as a figure of Liberty seizing the gates of our prisons. Herein we have an interrogation of Margaret Atwood’s primary theme of internalized oppression as female on female violence, complete with a version of Atwood’s character of Serena in The Handmaid’s Tale, a fictionalization of the historical monster Phyllis Schlafly. As a primary intertext of Gini Koch’s Alien Diplomacy and her Aliens series in its entirety, The Handmaid’s Tale is useful in comparison of themes, motifs, and images.
The Handmaid's Tale gives a voice to Bilhah, the Biblical Handmaid, revisions Little Red Riding Hood as an extension of Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves, and tells the story of the Christian disempowerment of the Goddess as presented in the great film The Red Shoes.
Margaret Atwood's parodies of Grimm operate on three levels; thematic, images and motifs, and narrative structure. In The Handmaid's Tale, we have themes of family and especially female-female conflict, gender and sexual power asymmetries, and the initiation and heroic journey. Motifs and images include dismemberment, cannibalism, fertility, labyrinths and paths, and all manner of disturbing sexual violence. Plot devices include a variety of character foils, doppelgangers, disguises and trickery of stolen and falsified identity.
It depicts the brooding evil and vicious misogyny of Christianity and Fascism as two sides of the dynamic malaise of patriarchy and authority, as drawn directly from Arthur Miller's The Crucible and Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, but also from contemporary culture as it contains satires of identifiable public figures, organizations, and events. Serena is based on Phyllis Schlafly, and Gideon is the nation of Pat Robertson and the fundamentalists who seized control of the Republican Party around the time of the novel's writing; Margaret Atwood's motive in part was to sound an alarm at the dawn of the Fourth Reich and its threat to global democracy.
And this is the great lesson and insight of Margaret Atwood; each of us is both a Handmaid and a Serena, trapped within the skin of the other.
So we come to Gini Koch’s second model in her interrogation of authorized identities of sex and gender and the use of social force in the construction of normality and the boundaries of the Forbidden, Jeanette Winterson in her darkly luminous novel The Passion.
We may say of both Gini Koch and Jeanette Winterson that they possess a flair for producing apt quotations and bits of startling wisdom like Gertrude Stein and Oscar Wilde, for the humanism of Violette Leduc, the transgression of Angela Carter and Anais Nin, for the bizarre negotiations with the fallenness of the world of Flannery O’Connor, and for narratives of wild surrealism comparable to those of Leonora Carrington or Djuna Barnes.
Gender, sexuality, and love, and the differences between them; history as a shadow prison we may free ourselves from to become fully human in whatever way we choose, the struggle for self determination and the ownership of identity between self and others, and seizures of power as an act of creative revolt against patriarchal authority; these are the themes of Jeanette Winterson’s works.
The Passion is an Existentialist novel set in Napoleonic Europe which reimagines the Passion of Christ as an interrogation of the sacred and the profane, a reply to its model The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. Her main characters and much else are borrowed directly from Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; her narrator Henri is drawn from the simple Lennie, and both being types of the Holy Fool. The web-footed gondolier’s daughter Villanelle, his great love, embodies the mythic archetypes of the goddess and monster Melusine, trickster and initiator figures as a guide of the soul, and also elements of the role and character of George. Villanelle finds echoes and reflections in Kitty, Gini Koch’s heroine, in part modeled on Jeanette Winterson’s character and both drawing on an immense mythos as figures of the psychopomp or guide of the soul.
Herein we are immersed in a fallen world, reaching for rebirth and our humanity as in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood and Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away. Love and madness, desire and the futility of authentic connection in a world of falsification, the struggle between the Ideal and the Real, between fiction and history, for ownership of ourselves and dominion over creation; I have just reread it yet again, and as always am overcome with sadness at its brutal subtraction of meaning. As always, Jeanette Winterson intones her metronomic incantation; I’m telling stories, trust me. And we must not.
To read her Great Book of isolation and the pathology of disconnectedness which Heidegger called being-for-others is to submit to violation, which makes it sound more fun than it is. This is the great beauty of her art; to make her readers directly experience the Freudian horror of patriarchy as theft of the soul. At her finest, the works of Jeanette Winterson are a howl of protest and rebellion against authority in which we are paraded through a carnival of dehumanization, yet her stories compel with ritual force. Perhaps only Samuel Beckett has such power to enact the abandonment of ourselves, to steal meaning from our lives as a revelation and liberation. Hers is a feminism of Liberty storming the gates of the Bastille such as I treasure and dearly love; an Existentialism made of Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, and Camus, and shaded with Marxist themes, but also of negation which recalls that of Beckett and Kobo Abe, and in whom de Sade and Flannery O’Connor unhappily dance.
For me her great novel The Passion is a thing of existential dread, supernal in its darkness; I search within it for the transcendent and surreal Venice of phantasmagorical delights and beautiful illusions, masquerades and exchanges of identities, echoes of my youth roaring through chasms of night on a Ducati Scrambler, of glorious sins and a figure like that of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando through which we may be regenerated and transformed, but am served emptiness instead.
One recalls the lecture of Camus to the Jesuits, in which he said, “The difference between us is that you have hope, where I do not.” Much as I love the horror of Jeanette Winterson’s transgressive sadism, which bears forward the poetic vision of de Sade, Angela Carter, and Rikki Ducornet, the horror of her nihilism and denial of human meaning and value is greater still. I’m with Nietzsche and Christina Rossetti on this one; the abyss of nothingness is a toad which we must not swallow, for who knows what soil it fed on, its hungry, thirsty roots?
But here Gini Koch diverges from her model, for hers is an Absurdism of humor and not of terror, of Eugene Ionesco in Rhinoceroses rather than Beckett, and a Chaplinesque comedy. It is also an Absurdist-Existentialist faith which references that of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Søren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and Flannery O’Connor, but that line of analysis is a subject for another time.
Then there is Jeanette Winterson’s moral inversion of the figure of Napoleon, a Byronic hero and among the greatest Promethean rebels and champions of reason, freedom, and equality in history, who led a revolution against the system of aristocracy and class, who in her novel becomes the authority he rebelled against, symbol of a despotic god of malign Abrahamic patriarchy and totalitarian empire who bound us with his laws and then abandoned us to struggle against them, of capitalism as a machine of death and war.
Alas, no one understands my beautiful Napoleon, neither Anthony Burgess nor Winterson. Yet their Great Books Napoleon Symphony and The Passion compel me to read them yet again, as I am compelled to re-read the works of Gini Koch each year as a Rite of Spring beginning on May Day; for they are utterly ravishing, seduce and defile and exalt. And afterward leave me dreaming strange dreams and thinking wonderful, terrible thoughts.
Many of Gini Koch’s antagonists and Mastermind figures of Patriarchal sexual terror mirror Winterson’s figure of Napoleon; Idealists who like Victor Frankenstein in heroically attempting to transcend their limits by rebelling against authority become monsters and the tyrants they struggle to cast down from their thrones, which as Nabokov argued reflects real world revolutions which become tyrannies.
And these are the true romantic relationships of Gini Koch’s entire Aliens series; not the Kitty- Jeff- Charles love triangle as a central pantheon in her gender-reversed myth of Exile, but the coded transgressive relationships of Kitty and her adversaries as Jungian shadow work and a journey to wholeness.
In this her novels interrogate the project of Transhumanism as a form of Romantic Idealism, much as Mary Shelly does in Frankenstein or Philip K Dick in Blade Runner, reimaginations of a rich mythology and fairytale tradition of protean animal-machine-human-superbeing transformations and of Milton’s Rebel Angel.
Though I discuss Romantic Idealism as the third primary influence in the works of Gini Koch elsewhere, here I wish only to observe and signpost that her heroine’s adversaries are both fallen angels who were once heroes themselves and figures of Goya’s mad emperor in Saturn Devouring His Children; figures of Patriarchy who must be cast down from their thrones if we are to become free.
This brings us to our third comparative work and intertext in the ars poetica of Gini Koch as revolutionary struggle against Patriarchy and authorized identities of sex and gender; Kathy Acker’s magnificent Blood and Guts in High School.
All of Kathy Acker’s novels are fictionalized autobiographies, in which she inhabits a series of identities as performances, as did David Bowie, in her case literary ones.
She has cast herself as Hester Prynne in Blood and Guts in High School, as Rimbaud in In Memoriam to Identity, Pip in Great Expectations, Huckleberry Finn in Empire of the Senseless; her pluralities and transformations of identity are a major theme running through all her works.
The arc of her career is filled with great books, alarming, stunning, bizarre, evocations of Surrealist hallucinogenic strangeness and written with the wizardry of language of Gertrude Stein, the impish humor and love of chaos and pranks of Anais Nin, the stylistics of language of Marguerite Duras and the revolutionary intent and unlimited transgressiveness of Jeanette Winterson, Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood; characteristics also of the works of Gini Koch.
Kathy Acker’s works function as expositions of her theoretical models and sources, Helene Cixous and Gilles Deleuze among them, her stylistics of language are referential to Marguerite Duras and Charles Olson, and her compositional mechanics to Burroughs, Italo Calvino, and like Iris Murdoch to the French Surrealist Raymond Queneau, whose novel Zazie was a kind of toolkit and model of authorial techniques for her, like Da Vinci's Book of Secrets.
Kathy Acker’s novels are centered on primary traumas which are metaphors and allegories of political and social evils, similar to Milan Kundera’s use of sex as a symbol of death of the soul and loss of political faith in The Unbearable Lightness of Being; Great Expectations is a reimagination of Charles Dickens’s classic novel which interrogates her mother’s suicide brilliantly, Blood and Guts in High School confronts abuse and survivorship, and Don Quixote depicts a descent into madness resulting from guilt as internalized oppression in the wake of an abortion.
Blood and Guts in High School, her celebrated Great Book, reimagines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in the context of her horrific relationship with her father. I’ve taught this book to actual high school students as a companion text to Hawthorne because of its value in provoking meaningful discussion of sexual terror as a means of repression, ownership, and control in a patriarchal society, and power asymmetries of sex and gender as they relate to identity. Be warned that it was banned as obscene in Germany, something of an achievement; it remains among the most transgressive and extreme chronicles of violence and sexuality in all of literature, and also among the finest and most insightful attacks on patriarchy and power as well as a luminous direct reply to Freud.
Such are among her great themes; the interrogation of boundaries through acts of transgression, the myth of Oedipus as a symbol of capitalism and patriarchy, and the Freudian horror of sexual terror and violence as consequences of unequal power and systemic Patriarchy.
To this ferocious engagement with Patriarchy we must add the impish humor and love of chaos and pranks of Gini Koch, which are wonderfully, uniquely hers.
March 20, 2017
I will be taking a break from this series for a while. In small doses, this series is fun. Three books back to back was too much, though. The mystery side of the writing is always a bit too convenient, the heroine is always a bit too lucky, and you know that the characters are bulletproof - nothing will happen to any of Kitty's friends. And it's a little corny. Enjoyable, though.
This one was about Kitty, Jeff, and the gang going to Washington to be ambassadors. Someone's planning an assassination, and Kitty is getting shot at every other chapter. You know, the usual.
This one was about Kitty, Jeff, and the gang going to Washington to be ambassadors. Someone's planning an assassination, and Kitty is getting shot at every other chapter. You know, the usual.
April 5, 2012
After everything she’s been through, Kitty would love nothing more then a bit of down time. Sadly that just ins’t in the cards. She’s a new parent, she has a new job and with that job comes a responsibility that she become the face of a nation. No one is who they seem and if Kitty and Jeff have any chance of being successful at their new jobs, they will need to find out who is behind the attacks, what they want, and look fabulous and laid back while doing it. After all, important government figures don’t kick ass….much.
Alien Diplomacy is Gini Koch’s 5th forray into the world of Kitty Katt’s (AKA Kitty Martini) world. Up to this point we have had many steamy scenes, hilarious one liners, tons of shady government conspiracies and way to many hot aliens dressed in Armani. I have rode this train since the beginning and wow what a ride it has been! This is definitely one of my favorite series and I have shouted to anyone that would listen that they needed to check this series out. Simply put, I love this series. Which is why is pains me to type the next paragraph.
I didn’t like this one nearly as much as the past books. Kitty has a distinct personality. She’s direct. She’s an acquired taste. While I appreciated her awesome one liners again in A.D, her constant stream of questions seemed to grate on my nerves quite quickly. It appears that once again Kitty always seems to be the one that pulls that string that has all the ideas neatly falling into place. I wish Martini or Christopher got to unravel something on their own. Even Chuckie seems to always count on Kitty to get the ball rolling. After four books of this I was hoping Koch would change it up a bit and let someone else shine. A.D. is also slower then past books. I wasn’t pulled in right off the bat and so the first 150 pages were more a struggle for me then I’d like. The slowness coupled with the growing length of these books just felt like to much to me. The lengths of these books is my main concern. There seems to be way to much filler as the books get longer. As much as I appreciate the wit and the way in which the team works through the issues, it’s just becoming a chore to read all of it as the books get more complex. I don’t need to know every single thing Kitty is thinking at every single second of the book. I love snark but I don’t want every single page filled to the brim with it. I also think that while adding a baby (Jaime) to the mix was a unevitable evolution to the series, I think it was done to soon as some of the slowness revolves around Kitty and Martini being parents and not able to kick ass as often as they’d like.
The story line in A.D. with the shady stalkers and the blowing up of…well…a lot, was interesting and I enjoyed Mister Joel Oliver being more of a good guy this time around. In fact there are several characters that may have appaeared in previous books that hold a bigger role in A.D. I liked that. Even though there are a TON (and I mean that) of characters in these books, I find that I enjoy when more come in. Not to say it can’t get confusing. It can. In fact I feel like having a manual with all the characters and who they like or don’t like, abilities and personalities would be a good idea.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still CRAZY in love with this series.I still have the hots for Martini and still enjoy Kitty’s personality. Even best friends get annoyed at each other occasionally. I just think AD fell a bit short for me and it makes me incredibly sad to say that. I also think that lovers of this series need to read the book regardless because of the ever evolving story arc. I find that at least once in a series something doesn’t sit well with me…and unfortunately that’s this book. I am looking forward to the next book and will approach it with a fresh attitude and outlook.
I give Alien Diplomacy by Gini Koch 3 stars!
Alien Diplomacy is Gini Koch’s 5th forray into the world of Kitty Katt’s (AKA Kitty Martini) world. Up to this point we have had many steamy scenes, hilarious one liners, tons of shady government conspiracies and way to many hot aliens dressed in Armani. I have rode this train since the beginning and wow what a ride it has been! This is definitely one of my favorite series and I have shouted to anyone that would listen that they needed to check this series out. Simply put, I love this series. Which is why is pains me to type the next paragraph.
I didn’t like this one nearly as much as the past books. Kitty has a distinct personality. She’s direct. She’s an acquired taste. While I appreciated her awesome one liners again in A.D, her constant stream of questions seemed to grate on my nerves quite quickly. It appears that once again Kitty always seems to be the one that pulls that string that has all the ideas neatly falling into place. I wish Martini or Christopher got to unravel something on their own. Even Chuckie seems to always count on Kitty to get the ball rolling. After four books of this I was hoping Koch would change it up a bit and let someone else shine. A.D. is also slower then past books. I wasn’t pulled in right off the bat and so the first 150 pages were more a struggle for me then I’d like. The slowness coupled with the growing length of these books just felt like to much to me. The lengths of these books is my main concern. There seems to be way to much filler as the books get longer. As much as I appreciate the wit and the way in which the team works through the issues, it’s just becoming a chore to read all of it as the books get more complex. I don’t need to know every single thing Kitty is thinking at every single second of the book. I love snark but I don’t want every single page filled to the brim with it. I also think that while adding a baby (Jaime) to the mix was a unevitable evolution to the series, I think it was done to soon as some of the slowness revolves around Kitty and Martini being parents and not able to kick ass as often as they’d like.
The story line in A.D. with the shady stalkers and the blowing up of…well…a lot, was interesting and I enjoyed Mister Joel Oliver being more of a good guy this time around. In fact there are several characters that may have appaeared in previous books that hold a bigger role in A.D. I liked that. Even though there are a TON (and I mean that) of characters in these books, I find that I enjoy when more come in. Not to say it can’t get confusing. It can. In fact I feel like having a manual with all the characters and who they like or don’t like, abilities and personalities would be a good idea.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still CRAZY in love with this series.I still have the hots for Martini and still enjoy Kitty’s personality. Even best friends get annoyed at each other occasionally. I just think AD fell a bit short for me and it makes me incredibly sad to say that. I also think that lovers of this series need to read the book regardless because of the ever evolving story arc. I find that at least once in a series something doesn’t sit well with me…and unfortunately that’s this book. I am looking forward to the next book and will approach it with a fresh attitude and outlook.
I give Alien Diplomacy by Gini Koch 3 stars!
August 7, 2018
Well. I liked this book least out of the series so far. To the point where ... honestly, even giving it 3 stars feels like a stretch to me.
My main problems.
1. Jeff. I honestly hate him now.
The jealousy and over-protective crap are just too much. There has been no progression in their relationship, and it's a problem. Furthermore, the plotline of him constantly trying to sideline Kitty "for her protection" is so stupid, at this point, that it makes him TSTL. Look. Kitty is ALWAYS the ONLY one to figure out what is going on. Keeping her in the dark about stuff has ALWAYS put her in more danger, because at best it means she has to swoop in to save everyone (putting her in serious danger because she's left handling a threat that has already taken down the entire rest of the team), while at worst it leaves her open to an attack she couldn't anticipate.
2. The job changes.
I have a couple problems with this. Firstly, I was alright with the transition as it was presented in the last book - that Kitty, Jeff and Christopher would be fighting the same fight, but attacking it from the political arena... which seems to be the source of most of their issues now anyway.
However, it just didn't work. Alpha team treated them as if they were now... I don't know, some of the tone of their encounters made it sound like "run along now children and let the adults handle things." Reader was even condescending, at more than one point.
At the end of the day, none of this makes sense. They've succeed because they ARE a team. The way this book played out, it was as if they'd taken their power pieces and demoted them, and now expected them to run around using only half their brains, because gods-forbid they deal with a problem they figured out before Alpha. It makes no sense for Jeff, Kitty and Christopher to have taken a step backwards in authority. Literally zero sense. This should have been an expansion of their roles, and a delegation of some things to Reader, Tim and Serene. Not a surrender of all leadership to them. Frankly, Alpha was such assholes in this book that I would be okay with the three of them offing the whole lot and taking both jobs over again.
It also makes no sense in terms of how the world has been set up. In previous books - where the Diplomatic Corps WAS the problem - Alpha team was powerless to stop them, because we were told that they were essentially a separate branch of A-C government, serving as checks and balances. So WHY does Alpha act as though they have primary authority? Jeff and Christopher didn't get to do that in earlier books. Why don't the three of them - Jeff, Christopher and Kitty - tell them to fuck straight off? And if they are going to get hassled about trying to use a team when they are in a critical situation - dude, at one point in this book, they are told by Gladys that she won't even give them a gate unless Reader approves it - then why doesn't the Diplomatic Corp have their own full team?
Why is it structured this way? This division of power and assets and resources seems like a mess designed to cause problems, rather than something set up to help them survive the dangerous atmosphere they are trying to work through.
There is a lot that I like about this series. But these things that were annoyances previously - Jeff's douchey behavior and the constant sidelining of Kitty - have become dominant plot threads. And now it isn't just Kitty being sidelined, it is also Christopher and Jeff. This makes no sense, and is utterly stupid.
My main problems.
1. Jeff. I honestly hate him now.
The jealousy and over-protective crap are just too much. There has been no progression in their relationship, and it's a problem. Furthermore, the plotline of him constantly trying to sideline Kitty "for her protection" is so stupid, at this point, that it makes him TSTL. Look. Kitty is ALWAYS the ONLY one to figure out what is going on. Keeping her in the dark about stuff has ALWAYS put her in more danger, because at best it means she has to swoop in to save everyone (putting her in serious danger because she's left handling a threat that has already taken down the entire rest of the team), while at worst it leaves her open to an attack she couldn't anticipate.
2. The job changes.
I have a couple problems with this. Firstly, I was alright with the transition as it was presented in the last book - that Kitty, Jeff and Christopher would be fighting the same fight, but attacking it from the political arena... which seems to be the source of most of their issues now anyway.
However, it just didn't work. Alpha team treated them as if they were now... I don't know, some of the tone of their encounters made it sound like "run along now children and let the adults handle things." Reader was even condescending, at more than one point.
At the end of the day, none of this makes sense. They've succeed because they ARE a team. The way this book played out, it was as if they'd taken their power pieces and demoted them, and now expected them to run around using only half their brains, because gods-forbid they deal with a problem they figured out before Alpha. It makes no sense for Jeff, Kitty and Christopher to have taken a step backwards in authority. Literally zero sense. This should have been an expansion of their roles, and a delegation of some things to Reader, Tim and Serene. Not a surrender of all leadership to them. Frankly, Alpha was such assholes in this book that I would be okay with the three of them offing the whole lot and taking both jobs over again.
It also makes no sense in terms of how the world has been set up. In previous books - where the Diplomatic Corps WAS the problem - Alpha team was powerless to stop them, because we were told that they were essentially a separate branch of A-C government, serving as checks and balances. So WHY does Alpha act as though they have primary authority? Jeff and Christopher didn't get to do that in earlier books. Why don't the three of them - Jeff, Christopher and Kitty - tell them to fuck straight off? And if they are going to get hassled about trying to use a team when they are in a critical situation - dude, at one point in this book, they are told by Gladys that she won't even give them a gate unless Reader approves it - then why doesn't the Diplomatic Corp have their own full team?
Why is it structured this way? This division of power and assets and resources seems like a mess designed to cause problems, rather than something set up to help them survive the dangerous atmosphere they are trying to work through.
There is a lot that I like about this series. But these things that were annoyances previously - Jeff's douchey behavior and the constant sidelining of Kitty - have become dominant plot threads. And now it isn't just Kitty being sidelined, it is also Christopher and Jeff. This makes no sense, and is utterly stupid.
April 2, 2012
Trouble seems to follow the main character in this series wherever she goes. Katherine "Kitty" Katt has gotten used to it. In the last 4 books she's seen and dealt trouble from just about everywhere. But now she's facing it head on in one of the scariest and weirdest places possible, our nations capital, Washington D.C. Kitty and Martini are now Ambassadors for American Centaurion and are trying their best to fit in with the DC crowd all while raising their baby. They have a lot of new responsibilities and it's a good thing that they are surrounded by so many family and friends that they love.
A lot is thrown at the reader in this book as the characters try to figure out just exactly who is planning on assassinating someone at the President's Ball. A party that a lot of important and high ranking people in town will be attending. Before the ball, there seems to be several groups of people trying to kill Kitty and no one can be trusted. At one point in the book there is nothing but action sequences as Kitty and company run for their lives. Heck I wasn't the one doing the running and even I was tired! Since I live so close to D.C. I felt like I was there with the gang as I'm familiar with a lot of the locations that they visited. From now on I will always think of Kitty as I pass by the Potomac River. Kitty as always was hilarious and kept me laughing throughout the book. She is truly unique and isn't afraid to be herself regardless of who she is dealing with. She has a way with words and uses her many "Kittyisms" throughout the book which I love! Some of the people that she has to deal with don't understand her, but that fans of this series sure do. Her hunky hubby Martini (I love you Martini!) is so supportive in this book and has matured in some ways. He does the best thing for the team when he has to and doesn't let his emotions get in the way. I like this new side of him and hope to see it in the upcoming books.
While I'm a huge fan of the series, I had some issues with Alien Diplomacy. There's a lot to digest as so many new characters are introduced. So many that I had a hard time keeping track of exactly who was who. I also had a small problem when the characters had to figure out The characters in this series always act as a team and with that there are lots of brainstorming sessions which end up with lots of questions being asked. This became a little tiring and due to them not knowing who was responsible for the evilness in this book, there were a couple of these sessions. Yet I knew that team had to have them to share information and get to the bottom of things. Other than that, I enjoyed the different setting in this book since everything is new to the characters. New town, new baby, new enemies. So many scenes, so much going on. I tell you, I don't know how Gini Koch manages to keep it all together in her head yet put it all in words! I like this new direction that the series has taken and can only imagine what the characters are going to have to deal with next. They are going to have enemies coming from all directions and if anyone can handle it, these characters can.
A lot is thrown at the reader in this book as the characters try to figure out just exactly who is planning on assassinating someone at the President's Ball. A party that a lot of important and high ranking people in town will be attending. Before the ball, there seems to be several groups of people trying to kill Kitty and no one can be trusted. At one point in the book there is nothing but action sequences as Kitty and company run for their lives. Heck I wasn't the one doing the running and even I was tired! Since I live so close to D.C. I felt like I was there with the gang as I'm familiar with a lot of the locations that they visited. From now on I will always think of Kitty as I pass by the Potomac River. Kitty as always was hilarious and kept me laughing throughout the book. She is truly unique and isn't afraid to be herself regardless of who she is dealing with. She has a way with words and uses her many "Kittyisms" throughout the book which I love! Some of the people that she has to deal with don't understand her, but that fans of this series sure do. Her hunky hubby Martini (I love you Martini!) is so supportive in this book and has matured in some ways. He does the best thing for the team when he has to and doesn't let his emotions get in the way. I like this new side of him and hope to see it in the upcoming books.
While I'm a huge fan of the series, I had some issues with Alien Diplomacy. There's a lot to digest as so many new characters are introduced. So many that I had a hard time keeping track of exactly who was who. I also had a small problem when the characters had to figure out The characters in this series always act as a team and with that there are lots of brainstorming sessions which end up with lots of questions being asked. This became a little tiring and due to them not knowing who was responsible for the evilness in this book, there were a couple of these sessions. Yet I knew that team had to have them to share information and get to the bottom of things. Other than that, I enjoyed the different setting in this book since everything is new to the characters. New town, new baby, new enemies. So many scenes, so much going on. I tell you, I don't know how Gini Koch manages to keep it all together in her head yet put it all in words! I like this new direction that the series has taken and can only imagine what the characters are going to have to deal with next. They are going to have enemies coming from all directions and if anyone can handle it, these characters can.
April 26, 2012
Review originally posted at Book Lovers Inc.
In Alien Diplomacy we find our favorite well dressed Aliens and the fabulous Kitty as sharp and funny as always but the setting itself is changed. Jeff’s and Kitty’s new job as Diplomats for the ACs seems to change the game for them but they still don’t get to miss the parties. One big problem is hovering in the near future and there are again evil maniacs out there to ruin the fun. Question is who and if i’St only one fugly planning to ruin the dancing?
This new job is by far not what Kitty and Jeff want but our couple isn’t one to give up. Kitty is, as obediently as she can be, doing everything that is expected. She does her best but well she isn’t this uppity kind of gal and I loved her for that. More than once she bumps noses with the in crowd and she does that with style- at least her kind of style. *wink* She is adjusting well to being a mom but all the diplomatic facets of her new role are seriously trying her patience. She always was and still is a girl who says what she thinks and it seems society doesn’t agree with me for loving her for that. It’s one of the main reasons I love her. She’s not only fun but she also is an honest person.
Jeff is doing slightly better but he also misses being active on the field. I loved to see both of the grow into this new job but even more doing the same with their relationship and still quite new little family. Jeff is trying hard to get the jealousy factor under control and he really shocked me with his emotional maturity at times. He still is all alpha male need-to-protect-woman-and-kid-at-all-costs but I wouldn’t expect less of him. Even though I have to say I’m not sure I can forgive him for turning out the music while Iron Maiden was on. Seriously Jeff, what is wrong with you?
In Alien Diplomacy we meet all our favorite characters again and thanks to Kitty and her awesome people skills we meet some new ones who are as quirky and refreshing as we expect Koch’s characters to be.
The plot is multi-layered and interwoven. We know the problem nearly from the start but the search for the big bad is the main problem through the book. It kept me guessing with Kitty and I caught myself turning into a conspiracy queen at times. I loved discovering the varied themes and plots in bits and pieces. It constantly kept the suspense at a high level and urged me to read just one more chapter. The series plot is getting thicker and thicker and I desperately await the next book Alien vs. Alien to find out what happens next.
Alien Diplomacy has everything I love about this series- the jokes, pop culture references, the hot aliens and a clever, touch but still real heroine. I love how Koch gives her characters strength but never makes them seem untouchable. Kitty is definitely a gal I would love to call my friend- not only because her taste in music rocks.
If you want to try something new and refreshing I urge you to read this series- it will surprise you and won’t let you stop until you read them all.
I give Alien Diplomacy 4 stars
In Alien Diplomacy we find our favorite well dressed Aliens and the fabulous Kitty as sharp and funny as always but the setting itself is changed. Jeff’s and Kitty’s new job as Diplomats for the ACs seems to change the game for them but they still don’t get to miss the parties. One big problem is hovering in the near future and there are again evil maniacs out there to ruin the fun. Question is who and if i’St only one fugly planning to ruin the dancing?
This new job is by far not what Kitty and Jeff want but our couple isn’t one to give up. Kitty is, as obediently as she can be, doing everything that is expected. She does her best but well she isn’t this uppity kind of gal and I loved her for that. More than once she bumps noses with the in crowd and she does that with style- at least her kind of style. *wink* She is adjusting well to being a mom but all the diplomatic facets of her new role are seriously trying her patience. She always was and still is a girl who says what she thinks and it seems society doesn’t agree with me for loving her for that. It’s one of the main reasons I love her. She’s not only fun but she also is an honest person.
Jeff is doing slightly better but he also misses being active on the field. I loved to see both of the grow into this new job but even more doing the same with their relationship and still quite new little family. Jeff is trying hard to get the jealousy factor under control and he really shocked me with his emotional maturity at times. He still is all alpha male need-to-protect-woman-and-kid-at-all-costs but I wouldn’t expect less of him. Even though I have to say I’m not sure I can forgive him for turning out the music while Iron Maiden was on. Seriously Jeff, what is wrong with you?
In Alien Diplomacy we meet all our favorite characters again and thanks to Kitty and her awesome people skills we meet some new ones who are as quirky and refreshing as we expect Koch’s characters to be.
The plot is multi-layered and interwoven. We know the problem nearly from the start but the search for the big bad is the main problem through the book. It kept me guessing with Kitty and I caught myself turning into a conspiracy queen at times. I loved discovering the varied themes and plots in bits and pieces. It constantly kept the suspense at a high level and urged me to read just one more chapter. The series plot is getting thicker and thicker and I desperately await the next book Alien vs. Alien to find out what happens next.
Alien Diplomacy has everything I love about this series- the jokes, pop culture references, the hot aliens and a clever, touch but still real heroine. I love how Koch gives her characters strength but never makes them seem untouchable. Kitty is definitely a gal I would love to call my friend- not only because her taste in music rocks.
If you want to try something new and refreshing I urge you to read this series- it will surprise you and won’t let you stop until you read them all.
I give Alien Diplomacy 4 stars
April 26, 2013
I really enjoyed this book in the Alien series, more than the last few. This one had a little more focus for me, and the plot was a little less chaotic and the people easier to follow, which is a good thing. It was still a fast-paced, convoluted, wild story like the others . . . just more fun than the others because it was just that tiny bit calmer.
The main premise is that Martini and Kitty have now become the Alien diplomats, moving to DC where they are out to protect the rights of American Centaurians at the political level, leaving the fighting of supermonsters to others. Kitty is forced to take diplomacy classes, while the others struggle to fit in. But of course, no sooner do they reach DC than someone tries to kill Kitty . . . or are they really after her daughter? Or perhaps they're after Mr. Joel Oliver, their favorite paparazzi? Things move quickly from exploding limos to a connection to the recent rumors of supersoldiers being created down in Paraguay (mentioned in previous books) and some kind of assassination attempt to be made at the President's next big ball. Only no matter Kitty and Martini do, they can't seem to find out who the target is--whether it's Kitty, their daughter, or any one of the high-powered politicos who will be at the party, including the president himself. The race is on see if they can unravel the evil-doers plot before everything goes boom.
As I said, I enjoyed this book more than the past few in this series, mostly because the plot was less chaotic than the others, so a little easier to follow, and because the book was more focused. There were tons of people, but we weren't bouncing back and forth between them, so it was easier to keep track of everyone and remember who they all were. I really think it just came down to the focus--there was one main thread with mentions of a few tangential plots. Part of the reason this focus worked is because, unlike the previous books, the group was investigating an assassination. They were working off of something they knew was going to happen. In the past, they were always simply reacting to things and trying to catch up. Here, they knew what was going to happen, they just had to figure out who, what, why, and when. I also think the book worked better because it took some dangling plot threads we'd heard about in previous books and tied them together, so some of the chaos was resolved. So instead of making things more and more complicated by introducing more and more threads, this book took some of those and closed them off. So it felt like the book had better resolution.
At the same time, it was still the fast-paced rollercoaster ride of fun, humor, action, and sex that you expect from a Gini Koch novel. It's over-the-top antics with nice touches of humanity threaded throughout and the story itself evolves from book to book. The world changes, rather than having everyone back to normal and the status quo at the end, as happens in many urban fantasy series of this sort. I continue to enjoy the series and intend to read the next book from Gini Koch.
The main premise is that Martini and Kitty have now become the Alien diplomats, moving to DC where they are out to protect the rights of American Centaurians at the political level, leaving the fighting of supermonsters to others. Kitty is forced to take diplomacy classes, while the others struggle to fit in. But of course, no sooner do they reach DC than someone tries to kill Kitty . . . or are they really after her daughter? Or perhaps they're after Mr. Joel Oliver, their favorite paparazzi? Things move quickly from exploding limos to a connection to the recent rumors of supersoldiers being created down in Paraguay (mentioned in previous books) and some kind of assassination attempt to be made at the President's next big ball. Only no matter Kitty and Martini do, they can't seem to find out who the target is--whether it's Kitty, their daughter, or any one of the high-powered politicos who will be at the party, including the president himself. The race is on see if they can unravel the evil-doers plot before everything goes boom.
As I said, I enjoyed this book more than the past few in this series, mostly because the plot was less chaotic than the others, so a little easier to follow, and because the book was more focused. There were tons of people, but we weren't bouncing back and forth between them, so it was easier to keep track of everyone and remember who they all were. I really think it just came down to the focus--there was one main thread with mentions of a few tangential plots. Part of the reason this focus worked is because, unlike the previous books, the group was investigating an assassination. They were working off of something they knew was going to happen. In the past, they were always simply reacting to things and trying to catch up. Here, they knew what was going to happen, they just had to figure out who, what, why, and when. I also think the book worked better because it took some dangling plot threads we'd heard about in previous books and tied them together, so some of the chaos was resolved. So instead of making things more and more complicated by introducing more and more threads, this book took some of those and closed them off. So it felt like the book had better resolution.
At the same time, it was still the fast-paced rollercoaster ride of fun, humor, action, and sex that you expect from a Gini Koch novel. It's over-the-top antics with nice touches of humanity threaded throughout and the story itself evolves from book to book. The world changes, rather than having everyone back to normal and the status quo at the end, as happens in many urban fantasy series of this sort. I continue to enjoy the series and intend to read the next book from Gini Koch.
February 10, 2012
From My Blog: Welcome to Larissa's Bookish Life
YES! Gini does it again!
I have been such an avid fan of the Katherine “Kitty” Katt series from the get-go. Hilariously sweet, kick-ass, problem prone and sarcastic leading lady Kitty had me from her first right on the money comment and it has been a love affair ever since.
Of course, all the outrageously gorgeous Armani or non-Armani clad men in the series help a great deal, but it is definitely the combination an incredibly fast-paced storyline, interestingly appealing characters and Kick-ass action from different worlds that make this a must-read series.
Alien Diplomacy is the 5th installment in the series and I have to give cuddos to Gini Koch for not dropping the ball once in the series so far. I might get a bit lost sometimes with the addition of more and more characters with each and every single book, but Gini does a suberb job in helping me keep it all up.
In Alien Diplomacy, Kitty is back and even thought she is now married with a baby to take of and has just changed careers, she is far from getting complacent and forgoing all the action, or should I say that the action is not forgoing her? Hard to keep track, though Kitty is definitely a problem magnet to the n-th degree and being a Diplomat in DC will not change any of that one iota.
Alien Diplomacy gives us all of old and beloved characters like Christopher, who is now just as smitten as Martini once was, Amy, Reader, Gower, Ace, Richard (who has fallen into his new job quite awesomely) and so many more. We also get introduced to a host of new characters that will make all the Washington intrigue all that more, well... intriguing hehe.
If you are a fan of this amazing series, Alien Diplomacy is not only a must but essential to your reading health. However, if you have not read the series yet, that is just simply dangerous to your health in general, because I will kick your ass!
YES! Gini does it again!
I have been such an avid fan of the Katherine “Kitty” Katt series from the get-go. Hilariously sweet, kick-ass, problem prone and sarcastic leading lady Kitty had me from her first right on the money comment and it has been a love affair ever since.
Of course, all the outrageously gorgeous Armani or non-Armani clad men in the series help a great deal, but it is definitely the combination an incredibly fast-paced storyline, interestingly appealing characters and Kick-ass action from different worlds that make this a must-read series.
Alien Diplomacy is the 5th installment in the series and I have to give cuddos to Gini Koch for not dropping the ball once in the series so far. I might get a bit lost sometimes with the addition of more and more characters with each and every single book, but Gini does a suberb job in helping me keep it all up.
In Alien Diplomacy, Kitty is back and even thought she is now married with a baby to take of and has just changed careers, she is far from getting complacent and forgoing all the action, or should I say that the action is not forgoing her? Hard to keep track, though Kitty is definitely a problem magnet to the n-th degree and being a Diplomat in DC will not change any of that one iota.
Alien Diplomacy gives us all of old and beloved characters like Christopher, who is now just as smitten as Martini once was, Amy, Reader, Gower, Ace, Richard (who has fallen into his new job quite awesomely) and so many more. We also get introduced to a host of new characters that will make all the Washington intrigue all that more, well... intriguing hehe.
If you are a fan of this amazing series, Alien Diplomacy is not only a must but essential to your reading health. However, if you have not read the series yet, that is just simply dangerous to your health in general, because I will kick your ass!
March 23, 2012
And yet again Koch delivers a fun and action packed story.
Alien Diplomacy is a fast paced read, full of Koch's trademark wackiness and over the top (but oh so cool and fun) action.
There's lots of new characters introduced in this book and I have to confess that at times I had trouble remembering who was who, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment. I was glad that all my favorite characters were all still present and still kicking ass and taking names. I also hope that some of the new characters will return in future books as well.
I wouldn't advice to read this story if you haven't read previous books in this series though, it might be difficult to figure out what's going on and why. And the previous four books are way too cool to just skip them, so if you're new to this series: do yourself a favor and go buy 'Touched by an Alien'.
I'm impressed by how Koch manages to keep this series fresh and exciting and I'm looking forward to the next installment in this awesome series.
Alien Diplomacy is a fast paced read, full of Koch's trademark wackiness and over the top (but oh so cool and fun) action.
There's lots of new characters introduced in this book and I have to confess that at times I had trouble remembering who was who, but that didn't diminish my enjoyment. I was glad that all my favorite characters were all still present and still kicking ass and taking names. I also hope that some of the new characters will return in future books as well.
I wouldn't advice to read this story if you haven't read previous books in this series though, it might be difficult to figure out what's going on and why. And the previous four books are way too cool to just skip them, so if you're new to this series: do yourself a favor and go buy 'Touched by an Alien'.
I'm impressed by how Koch manages to keep this series fresh and exciting and I'm looking forward to the next installment in this awesome series.
June 10, 2012
Another great book in the series!! I read this one on my way to work and back home, and it was a really good way of starting and ending my day :)
It takes place a bunch of days prior to the Presidents Ball, and as usual someone wants to kill our fave ACs. Kitty and Jeff currently live in DC playing the diplomatic side instead of the on hands action they were used to.
The book is packed with the action Koch got us used to and it´s really entertaining, though there were some parts where i felt the book was a bit slow paced but the ending was totally worth the read.
I really look forward to Alien VS. Alien!
It takes place a bunch of days prior to the Presidents Ball, and as usual someone wants to kill our fave ACs. Kitty and Jeff currently live in DC playing the diplomatic side instead of the on hands action they were used to.
The book is packed with the action Koch got us used to and it´s really entertaining, though there were some parts where i felt the book was a bit slow paced but the ending was totally worth the read.
I really look forward to Alien VS. Alien!
January 25, 2013
This book is better then all the first ones in the series, though they have been getting better as the series goes on. I think the reason is that the first one I had a hard time getting off the "seriously, they are taking orders from her?" to just enjoying the wacky conspiracy and how it unfolded. At this point I can rest on the disbelief ( not that there is less to disbelieve) but concentrate more on how the conspiracy plays out. I also enjoyed watching how they are going from the active leaders to more the powers behind the active leaders, I think the author is doing a good job portraying how difficult that is as well has a successful (fiction) path to that.
July 8, 2015
I finished the previous book in the series and then thought I'd read a chapter of this book before bed.
The only reason I didn't read it in one sitting is because I passed out and had to take my son to drivers ed. I'd happily read the whole series, from start to finish, in one sitting if I was physically able.
So much fun and I love these characters.
I immediately jumped into the next in the series. I'm so tired.
The only reason I didn't read it in one sitting is because I passed out and had to take my son to drivers ed. I'd happily read the whole series, from start to finish, in one sitting if I was physically able.
So much fun and I love these characters.
I immediately jumped into the next in the series. I'm so tired.
April 2, 2015
Fifth in the Katherine "Kitty" Katt science-fiction romance revolving around Kitty Katt, one of several new ambassadors in Washington, D.C.
My Take
I think Kitty's right. It's safer out on the frontlines battling aliens and horrible monsters than navigating Washington politics! This one is klutzy compared to the earlier ones. Sure, all the previous stories have been about some evil being/organization wanting to take over the world, but Koch has given the previous stories interesting twists. This one? Not so much.
Although, I suppose one could consider politicians evil beings who want to take over the world…?
It feels more as if Koch is getting a bit tired and just couldn't think of a good twist or she was in a hurry. There were also all the little oddities that kept adding up, that didn't make sense. Kitty just trusts anyone who wants to be friends with her. She's clueless about the limo. Has no sense of security. She's supposed to so handy to have around because she thinks like the bad guys, and yet she helps her enemy set her up. Even I could see all the clues clanging away! Kitty's so tuned in to Jamie-Kat's likes and dislikes, and she just ignores her in this incident? C'mon… You'd think she was just an average human wife when you look at all the things she misses. The security screw-ups that you'd think a group of guys practically brought up in security wouldn't be making.
And what's with the taxi drivers? If they're legit, why not come out with it? Talk about a dumb approach to people who are already feeling skittish. I did like the bus chase.
It took awhile before the primary conflict was introduced, although, when I think about it, all the small annoyances, glitches, bombs, and attacks did spring from the main bad guys. It just takes so long that I forgot about the connection. Whoops.
You know, I just don't get the prohibitions about leaving the Poofies behind. They're so useful.
I'm torn between rolling my eyeballs at Kitty's almost-purposeful diplomatic blunders and the irritating instructor. A nice touch, giving Kitty her mom's support in this; and I did enjoy that bit of "revenge" Kitty got in the end. A minor touch, but, oh so satisfying. Of course, Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher are going nuts with their "promotions" to the diplomatic corps; all three are sorely missing the action. Then Papa Sol pops the news that he and Mom are moving to D.C. So much for Kitty easing the Martinis out.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a really funny story, just too full of stupid mistakes on the part of the A-Cs.
The Story
Kitty is failing diplomacy class and it seems as if everyone is out to get her, her hubby, Jamie-Kat, and everyone else in the embassy. God knows they keep finding more and more bugs every time they turn around!
The politics and the backstabbing that goes on...well...all I can say is, I can't wait to tuck into Alien vs Alien .
The Characters
Missus Ambassador Kitty Katt Martini is a mommy! An enhanced mommy right along with daddy. She and the Alpha-Centurion (A-C) Ambassador Jeff Martini, the new head of the A-C Diplomatic Corps, are the very proud parents of the very powerful Jamie Katherine, their new baby girl—Kitty named her for Reader. Daddy is still very jealous and possessive—times two now. The Poofs still adore Kitty and have expanded their circle of love to include Jamie Kat; Poofikins is Kitty's and Harlie is Jeff's Poof. Richard White was the Supreme Pontifex and still Christopher's dad; now he's enjoying the retired life with occasional forays into action with his new partner, Kitty.
Commander Christopher White is Jeff's cousin, an Imageer. Toby is his Poof. Through some, um, misadventures, he's enhanced too. He's also hooked up with Amy Gaultier ( Alien Proliferation , 4), one of Kitty's best friends from high school, a lawyer. Amy breezed through diplomacy class...bitch. Paul Gower is a half-A-C/half-human and can read dreams and memories; he's ACE's habitat and the new Supreme Pontifex. Commander James Reader is a gorgeous former supermodel, who is in a relationship with Paul and promoted to Head of the Field for Centaurion Division; Kitty considers him one of her best guy friends. Gatita is Reader's Poof. ACE is an alien entity, who thinks Kitty walks on water, and lives inside Paul.
Embassy support includes (they all showed up in Alien in the Family, 3):
Kitty gets new drivers in this: Len and Kyle from the Trojan football team are now CIA agents. Walter is a surviving brother with no A-C powers who is now in charge of security at the embassy; his brother William has imageering powers and is the assigned liaison between Imageering and the embassy. Dr. Tito Hernandez is Kitty and Jamie-Kat's doctor and has moved to the embassy with the Martinis. Pierre, a.k.a., MC Peterman, is a fabulous hairdresser and a friend of James' who will be joining the embassy team as their Majordomo Concierge. Thank god! Kitty needs all the help she can get.
The various human government types include:
Charles "Chuckie" Reynolds, a.k.a., Conspiracy Chuck, has been Kitty's best guy friend since high school when he was a geeky brainiac. He's the head of the CIA's ET Division, working to keep the A-Cs from being forcibly turned into a War Division and starting to accept that Kitty loves Jeff. The poof, Fluffy, has adopted Chuck.
Angela Katt is Kitty's mother, head of the Presidential Terrorism Control Unit (PTCU), and the first non-Jew, non-Israeli in the Mossad. Sol Katt, Kitty's dad, is taking a sabbatical and working on their move to D.C. Kevin Lewis is Angela's second-in-command and has been reassigned to the embassy with his family; Denise Lewis is his very hot wife with their equally gorgeous young son. Aunt Emily is Angela's best friend and willing to come out of retirement to "train the entire A-C Diplomatic Corps" in etiquette.
Alpha Team members include:
Reader; the pregnant Serene (Ronald Yates' daughter and a full-A-C), the new head of Imageering, married to Brian Dwyer (Kitty's old boyfriend); Captain Tim Crawford, who has been promoted to Kitty's old position as head of Airborne; Paul; and, Kitty.
Airborne members include:
All five of the Top Gun Navy pilots—Captain Jerry Tucker, Hughes, Walker, Joe Billings (married to the very-pregnant Captain Lorraine), and Randy Muir (married to the about-to-pop Captain Claudia). Both girls got promoted into Reader and Tim's old positions.
Michael Gower is Paul's younger—player—brother with no A-C powers and is a NASA astronaut (we met him, Brian, and Serene in Alien Tango , 2). Fuzzball is Michael's Poof. Their sisters are Abigail and Naomi with expanded powers too. Melanie and Emily are Lorraine and Claudia's Dazzling moms who keep popping in to help on the medical end of things. Gladys Gower—she's Richard's half-sister married to Stanley's brother, Harold—is Head of Security with a high level of sarcasm. Doreen (she's not concerned about her parents' disappearance at all) and Irving Weisman attend the President's Ball as well.
Alpha Centaurions from A-C include:
Alexander, the king of Alpha Four and Jeff's cousin, and Leyton Leonidas, his chief councillor, are leery of some very odd humans they believe Chuck has sent over. Victoria is Alexander's mother, the Queen Mother.
Other humans who are involved include:
Nurse Magdalena Rijos-Carter is very curious as to what is going on. Especially when she recognizes Peter Keller the would-be assassin as the Dingo, who usually hangs with his cousin, Vic Keller. Antony Marling is the head of Titan Security which has pretty much sealed up the contract to take over policing from the Washington, D.C. police department. Typical politicians.
Amy's father's second wife, LaRue Demorte Gaultier, was the brains behind it all Alien Proliferation , 4; she's fled Earth orbit. Mister Joel Oliver is their pet paparrazo from World Weekly News with some useful contacts whom we met in Alien in the Family . Darcy Lockwood is the instructor for the Washington Wife class.
Olga Dalca is the MS-suffering wife of the Romanian ambassador, Andrei. Adriana is her granddaughter. Caroline Chase is Kitty's sorority roommate who works for Arizona's senior senator, McMillan; his wife Kelly is a sorority sister. The McMillans attend the President's Ball as does Caro with Michael.
Fellow students (and their significant others in the Cabal of Evil) at the Washington Wives' class include:
Eugene is the only other classmate not doing well; he's the husband of the new Senator Lydia Montgomery. The snotty classmates who seem to be stuck in the bullying phase from high school include: Abner (married to Lillian Culver, a "top lobbyist for some major defense contractors"); Marcia Kramer (a bimbo married to Illinois Senator Zachary Kramer); Jack Ryan who even looks like a car salesman but thinks he's the prototype for Tom Clancy's political thriller character is married to Pia, a CIA agent; Vance Beaumont is in a secret relationship with Guy Gadoire, a tobacco lobbyist; Nathalie Gagnon-Brewer is a model too absorbed in playing Angry Birds, but still managed to marry a rich vintner, Edmund Brewster, the newly elected California representative; Malcolm Buchanan is a bit standoffish, but always seems to be around; and, Leslie Manning pretends to be in a relationship with Bryce Taylor—in truth, she's in the closet with Marion Villanova, the Chief Aide for the Secretary of State and he's "supposedly only the personal assistant to Langston Whitemore, secretary of transportation. Vincent Armstrong is the senior senator from Florida. Madeline Cartwright is the Pentagon liaison. Esteban Cantu is the head of Antiterrorism.
Bernie is bringing Jordan to the Mommy and Me class where she befriends Kitty. Raul is her husband. Moe (just call me Ishmael, a.k.a., Officer "Melville") and his dog Prince, Larry, and Curly keep showing up everywhere.
Ronaldo Al Dejahl is Yates' son and bent on revenge. The Pontifex, Gladys, Alfred, and Serene are all Ronaldo's siblings.
Dazzlers are how Kitty collectively refers to the A-C females because that's what they do, they dazzle everyone with their beauty, intelligence, and compassion. Imageers manipulate images electronically and in front of you and can learn all about a person simply by touching an image. Empaths feel emotions. Poofs look like "tiny, fluffy kittens with no ears or tails, but with shiny black button eyes", who can morph into Jeff-sized, very, very protective critters. Once you name one, they're yours for life. Since Jamie-Kat's birth and Christopher hooking up with Amy, there's been a lot of procreating going on—the Poofs only reproduce during royal events.
The Cover
The cover is consistent with earlier covers in that it's a collage of the disasters that Kitty and Jeff meet throughout the story in our nation's capital. It's interesting that such an over-the-top comics-type story has such subdued covers...
The title is straightforward. The team has been "promoted" and expected to practice Alien Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., a concept that is alien to all of 'em, LOL.
My Take
I think Kitty's right. It's safer out on the frontlines battling aliens and horrible monsters than navigating Washington politics! This one is klutzy compared to the earlier ones. Sure, all the previous stories have been about some evil being/organization wanting to take over the world, but Koch has given the previous stories interesting twists. This one? Not so much.
Although, I suppose one could consider politicians evil beings who want to take over the world…?
It feels more as if Koch is getting a bit tired and just couldn't think of a good twist or she was in a hurry. There were also all the little oddities that kept adding up, that didn't make sense. Kitty just trusts anyone who wants to be friends with her. She's clueless about the limo. Has no sense of security. She's supposed to so handy to have around because she thinks like the bad guys, and yet she helps her enemy set her up. Even I could see all the clues clanging away! Kitty's so tuned in to Jamie-Kat's likes and dislikes, and she just ignores her in this incident? C'mon… You'd think she was just an average human wife when you look at all the things she misses. The security screw-ups that you'd think a group of guys practically brought up in security wouldn't be making.
And what's with the taxi drivers? If they're legit, why not come out with it? Talk about a dumb approach to people who are already feeling skittish. I did like the bus chase.
It took awhile before the primary conflict was introduced, although, when I think about it, all the small annoyances, glitches, bombs, and attacks did spring from the main bad guys. It just takes so long that I forgot about the connection. Whoops.
"I did like Senator McMillan's assessment as to why he's serving in government:
'I know my own mind, my own heart. I know that what I'm doing, I'm doing for the right reasons, to protect and serve my constituents, this country, the world at large. But I don't know and can't know my opponents' hearts and minds...haven't yet found someone I trust with the job more than I trust myself.'
That as long as he's needed where he is and there is no one to step up, he'll continue to serve."
You know, I just don't get the prohibitions about leaving the Poofies behind. They're so useful.
I'm torn between rolling my eyeballs at Kitty's almost-purposeful diplomatic blunders and the irritating instructor. A nice touch, giving Kitty her mom's support in this; and I did enjoy that bit of "revenge" Kitty got in the end. A minor touch, but, oh so satisfying. Of course, Kitty, Jeff, and Christopher are going nuts with their "promotions" to the diplomatic corps; all three are sorely missing the action. Then Papa Sol pops the news that he and Mom are moving to D.C. So much for Kitty easing the Martinis out.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a really funny story, just too full of stupid mistakes on the part of the A-Cs.
The Story
Kitty is failing diplomacy class and it seems as if everyone is out to get her, her hubby, Jamie-Kat, and everyone else in the embassy. God knows they keep finding more and more bugs every time they turn around!
The politics and the backstabbing that goes on...well...all I can say is, I can't wait to tuck into Alien vs Alien .
The Characters
Missus Ambassador Kitty Katt Martini is a mommy! An enhanced mommy right along with daddy. She and the Alpha-Centurion (A-C) Ambassador Jeff Martini, the new head of the A-C Diplomatic Corps, are the very proud parents of the very powerful Jamie Katherine, their new baby girl—Kitty named her for Reader. Daddy is still very jealous and possessive—times two now. The Poofs still adore Kitty and have expanded their circle of love to include Jamie Kat; Poofikins is Kitty's and Harlie is Jeff's Poof. Richard White was the Supreme Pontifex and still Christopher's dad; now he's enjoying the retired life with occasional forays into action with his new partner, Kitty.
Commander Christopher White is Jeff's cousin, an Imageer. Toby is his Poof. Through some, um, misadventures, he's enhanced too. He's also hooked up with Amy Gaultier ( Alien Proliferation , 4), one of Kitty's best friends from high school, a lawyer. Amy breezed through diplomacy class...bitch. Paul Gower is a half-A-C/half-human and can read dreams and memories; he's ACE's habitat and the new Supreme Pontifex. Commander James Reader is a gorgeous former supermodel, who is in a relationship with Paul and promoted to Head of the Field for Centaurion Division; Kitty considers him one of her best guy friends. Gatita is Reader's Poof. ACE is an alien entity, who thinks Kitty walks on water, and lives inside Paul.
Embassy support includes (they all showed up in Alien in the Family, 3):
Kitty gets new drivers in this: Len and Kyle from the Trojan football team are now CIA agents. Walter is a surviving brother with no A-C powers who is now in charge of security at the embassy; his brother William has imageering powers and is the assigned liaison between Imageering and the embassy. Dr. Tito Hernandez is Kitty and Jamie-Kat's doctor and has moved to the embassy with the Martinis. Pierre, a.k.a., MC Peterman, is a fabulous hairdresser and a friend of James' who will be joining the embassy team as their Majordomo Concierge. Thank god! Kitty needs all the help she can get.
The various human government types include:
Charles "Chuckie" Reynolds, a.k.a., Conspiracy Chuck, has been Kitty's best guy friend since high school when he was a geeky brainiac. He's the head of the CIA's ET Division, working to keep the A-Cs from being forcibly turned into a War Division and starting to accept that Kitty loves Jeff. The poof, Fluffy, has adopted Chuck.
Angela Katt is Kitty's mother, head of the Presidential Terrorism Control Unit (PTCU), and the first non-Jew, non-Israeli in the Mossad. Sol Katt, Kitty's dad, is taking a sabbatical and working on their move to D.C. Kevin Lewis is Angela's second-in-command and has been reassigned to the embassy with his family; Denise Lewis is his very hot wife with their equally gorgeous young son. Aunt Emily is Angela's best friend and willing to come out of retirement to "train the entire A-C Diplomatic Corps" in etiquette.
Alpha Team members include:
Reader; the pregnant Serene (Ronald Yates' daughter and a full-A-C), the new head of Imageering, married to Brian Dwyer (Kitty's old boyfriend); Captain Tim Crawford, who has been promoted to Kitty's old position as head of Airborne; Paul; and, Kitty.
Airborne members include:
All five of the Top Gun Navy pilots—Captain Jerry Tucker, Hughes, Walker, Joe Billings (married to the very-pregnant Captain Lorraine), and Randy Muir (married to the about-to-pop Captain Claudia). Both girls got promoted into Reader and Tim's old positions.
Michael Gower is Paul's younger—player—brother with no A-C powers and is a NASA astronaut (we met him, Brian, and Serene in Alien Tango , 2). Fuzzball is Michael's Poof. Their sisters are Abigail and Naomi with expanded powers too. Melanie and Emily are Lorraine and Claudia's Dazzling moms who keep popping in to help on the medical end of things. Gladys Gower—she's Richard's half-sister married to Stanley's brother, Harold—is Head of Security with a high level of sarcasm. Doreen (she's not concerned about her parents' disappearance at all) and Irving Weisman attend the President's Ball as well.
Alpha Centaurions from A-C include:
Alexander, the king of Alpha Four and Jeff's cousin, and Leyton Leonidas, his chief councillor, are leery of some very odd humans they believe Chuck has sent over. Victoria is Alexander's mother, the Queen Mother.
Other humans who are involved include:
Nurse Magdalena Rijos-Carter is very curious as to what is going on. Especially when she recognizes Peter Keller the would-be assassin as the Dingo, who usually hangs with his cousin, Vic Keller. Antony Marling is the head of Titan Security which has pretty much sealed up the contract to take over policing from the Washington, D.C. police department. Typical politicians.
Amy's father's second wife, LaRue Demorte Gaultier, was the brains behind it all Alien Proliferation , 4; she's fled Earth orbit. Mister Joel Oliver is their pet paparrazo from World Weekly News with some useful contacts whom we met in Alien in the Family . Darcy Lockwood is the instructor for the Washington Wife class.
Olga Dalca is the MS-suffering wife of the Romanian ambassador, Andrei. Adriana is her granddaughter. Caroline Chase is Kitty's sorority roommate who works for Arizona's senior senator, McMillan; his wife Kelly is a sorority sister. The McMillans attend the President's Ball as does Caro with Michael.
Fellow students (and their significant others in the Cabal of Evil) at the Washington Wives' class include:
Eugene is the only other classmate not doing well; he's the husband of the new Senator Lydia Montgomery. The snotty classmates who seem to be stuck in the bullying phase from high school include: Abner (married to Lillian Culver, a "top lobbyist for some major defense contractors"); Marcia Kramer (a bimbo married to Illinois Senator Zachary Kramer); Jack Ryan who even looks like a car salesman but thinks he's the prototype for Tom Clancy's political thriller character is married to Pia, a CIA agent; Vance Beaumont is in a secret relationship with Guy Gadoire, a tobacco lobbyist; Nathalie Gagnon-Brewer is a model too absorbed in playing Angry Birds, but still managed to marry a rich vintner, Edmund Brewster, the newly elected California representative; Malcolm Buchanan is a bit standoffish, but always seems to be around; and, Leslie Manning pretends to be in a relationship with Bryce Taylor—in truth, she's in the closet with Marion Villanova, the Chief Aide for the Secretary of State and he's "supposedly only the personal assistant to Langston Whitemore, secretary of transportation. Vincent Armstrong is the senior senator from Florida. Madeline Cartwright is the Pentagon liaison. Esteban Cantu is the head of Antiterrorism.
Bernie is bringing Jordan to the Mommy and Me class where she befriends Kitty. Raul is her husband. Moe (just call me Ishmael, a.k.a., Officer "Melville") and his dog Prince, Larry, and Curly keep showing up everywhere.
Ronaldo Al Dejahl is Yates' son and bent on revenge. The Pontifex, Gladys, Alfred, and Serene are all Ronaldo's siblings.
Dazzlers are how Kitty collectively refers to the A-C females because that's what they do, they dazzle everyone with their beauty, intelligence, and compassion. Imageers manipulate images electronically and in front of you and can learn all about a person simply by touching an image. Empaths feel emotions. Poofs look like "tiny, fluffy kittens with no ears or tails, but with shiny black button eyes", who can morph into Jeff-sized, very, very protective critters. Once you name one, they're yours for life. Since Jamie-Kat's birth and Christopher hooking up with Amy, there's been a lot of procreating going on—the Poofs only reproduce during royal events.
The Cover
The cover is consistent with earlier covers in that it's a collage of the disasters that Kitty and Jeff meet throughout the story in our nation's capital. It's interesting that such an over-the-top comics-type story has such subdued covers...
The title is straightforward. The team has been "promoted" and expected to practice Alien Diplomacy in Washington, D.C., a concept that is alien to all of 'em, LOL.
May 13, 2018
Alien Diplomacy (Alien 5)
Author: Gini Koch
Publisher: DAW
Page count: 425pp
Release date: 3rd April 2012
Reviewer: Theresa Derwin
This fifth book in the ‘Alien’ series starts off with a bang and doesn’t stop.
As a bit of spoiler free background, the
Surcenthumain drug from a previous book changes people into something more, and as Ambassador Jeff Martini and his cousin Christopher had been given it without their knowledge, they have no idea what the side effects might be. There’s a history of monsters, and this has made Katherine (Kitty) Martini, pretty nervous but also great at kicking arse. She’s also more than human, but not quite alien, like her husband, as yet.
Officially, the ambassadors are from ‘American Centaurion’ a non-exinstant country. They’re really aliens, and there’s a whole bunch of them living in the open.
ACE is benevolent super consciousness living ‘in’ or with Gower.
If you havent read the previous books, there are catch up moments, but it will be confusing. As it is, there are so many characters and arcs now, it’s a little structurally like Game of Thrones.
What you basically have though, is conspiracy theory comedy SF with a great strong female lead who also faces regular challenges like motherhood and etiquette at the Embassy. As well as how to carry her glock and identify killers.
I love these books oka, they’re fast entertaining reads but can get a little confusing as to who is who at times.
However, the second I finished this one I was desperate to read the next.
Author: Gini Koch
Publisher: DAW
Page count: 425pp
Release date: 3rd April 2012
Reviewer: Theresa Derwin
This fifth book in the ‘Alien’ series starts off with a bang and doesn’t stop.
As a bit of spoiler free background, the
Surcenthumain drug from a previous book changes people into something more, and as Ambassador Jeff Martini and his cousin Christopher had been given it without their knowledge, they have no idea what the side effects might be. There’s a history of monsters, and this has made Katherine (Kitty) Martini, pretty nervous but also great at kicking arse. She’s also more than human, but not quite alien, like her husband, as yet.
Officially, the ambassadors are from ‘American Centaurion’ a non-exinstant country. They’re really aliens, and there’s a whole bunch of them living in the open.
ACE is benevolent super consciousness living ‘in’ or with Gower.
If you havent read the previous books, there are catch up moments, but it will be confusing. As it is, there are so many characters and arcs now, it’s a little structurally like Game of Thrones.
What you basically have though, is conspiracy theory comedy SF with a great strong female lead who also faces regular challenges like motherhood and etiquette at the Embassy. As well as how to carry her glock and identify killers.
I love these books oka, they’re fast entertaining reads but can get a little confusing as to who is who at times.
However, the second I finished this one I was desperate to read the next.
May 25, 2021
This is the book where Kitty goes to DC to be a diplomat. Yeah, I"m just going to leave that there because if you've been paying attention so far, you know how that's going to go. Needless to say, Koch continues to deliver silly, kickass books that are a pleasure to read and I don't even mind all of the side eye I get when I'm laughing out loud to myself in public.
Kitty -- or should I say, Wolverine with Boobs--is struggling to adjust to Washington and life as diplomat (seriously, LOL at Kitty in Washington Wife class!), but lo and behold... she stumbles into a plot! Car chases, bombings, sexy times ensue.
Honestly had a blast. Will continue to read because, hey! It's fun and I can. Plus, you really gotta love the kittyisms.
4.5/5 stars
“Welcome to My Super Secret Life, where people try to kill us on a regular basis, and we thwart bad-guy schemes for breakfast. We’re almost like a reality show, only without the alcohol and hot tubs.”
Kitty -- or should I say, Wolverine with Boobs--is struggling to adjust to Washington and life as diplomat (seriously, LOL at Kitty in Washington Wife class!), but lo and behold... she stumbles into a plot! Car chases, bombings, sexy times ensue.
"My dress options were handed back to me. I had one white, one black, and one two-toned option. “Can I just say no to the all-white one right now?”
“No, darling. Let’s at least have a look.”
“Pierre, white and I don’t mix well.”
“You look lovely in white.”
“No argument. However, I will stain it in under an hour. An hour might be a generous estimate.”
“She’s not making that up,” Caroline said.
“I’d give it about thirty minutes,” Amy added.
“Less if there’s a punch bowl nearby,” Doreen shared.
My friends, there for me when I needed them."
Honestly had a blast. Will continue to read because, hey! It's fun and I can. Plus, you really gotta love the kittyisms.
4.5/5 stars
June 24, 2022
I really need to not have such a gap between reading the books in the series because I feel like I lose track of it… I’ll have to remember that for the next time I read the next novel. Anyway I felt like I spent a lot of the time remembering what it happened in previous books but that’s OK because it was still a trip down memory lane I enjoyed. The humor in the fun in the book still comes through even though you might need to refresh your memory a little bit about the characters and plot points. I love the authors humor and sense of fun. She also tells a good story so that’s a plus. It’s been very odd watching Jamie develop and watching Kat and Jeff evolve as a married couple. I have to admit that I hear more about their sex life than I really want but it’s worth it to get to the fun parts of the story.
April 16, 2019
Okaaay. Houston, I might have a problem.
I have loved the hell out of the first couple of books. They are action packed, funny as hell in places, and with a surprisingly complex ‘out there’ way of getting through the story. Yet, as fun as it has been, I was happier with the whole secret government agency in the middle of a desert backdrop than a political one in the heart of DC’s Embassies. There was so much packed into this book that I felt almost overwhelmed by how quickly things were happening, and how this move into the political world has changed the dynamics between the characters.
Having reservations, but I adore Kitty and the Poofs so much so I’ll try to keep an open mind and read on.
3.5 stars
I have loved the hell out of the first couple of books. They are action packed, funny as hell in places, and with a surprisingly complex ‘out there’ way of getting through the story. Yet, as fun as it has been, I was happier with the whole secret government agency in the middle of a desert backdrop than a political one in the heart of DC’s Embassies. There was so much packed into this book that I felt almost overwhelmed by how quickly things were happening, and how this move into the political world has changed the dynamics between the characters.
Having reservations, but I adore Kitty and the Poofs so much so I’ll try to keep an open mind and read on.
3.5 stars
July 15, 2021
A little disappointed in this one.
I loved the books thus far until now. It's just kind of bland in my opinion. I could most likely jump to another chapter and nothing of significance would of occurred that would be relevant to the development of the series or any of the characters. Maybe I'm also being critical because there are many holes in this novel that go unexplained.
I'm going to give the next book a try because I'm not giving up. Fingers crossed that there's an epic revelation 🤞🏼
I loved the books thus far until now. It's just kind of bland in my opinion. I could most likely jump to another chapter and nothing of significance would of occurred that would be relevant to the development of the series or any of the characters. Maybe I'm also being critical because there are many holes in this novel that go unexplained.
I'm going to give the next book a try because I'm not giving up. Fingers crossed that there's an epic revelation 🤞🏼
January 4, 2021
Coming into this series cold at number 5, was admittedly an advantage. Everything was still glistening and new. Enjoyed thoroughly as you can tell by the 2 day reading period. Love an ensemble cast where everyone is nice and sweet and good-looking to boot! I COULD go back and read those that came before, but it probably wouldn’t be the same. Recommended for fun!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2018
Fantastic series. I was worried when they went to the Embassy. And I have to admit that I spent a lot of time in this book longing for their old jobs just like Kitty, Jeff and all the others were doing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2019
A bit too much diplomacy for me. I’m rather struggling with this series I think... I really like them but also just a bit too much crosshair mystery, too much info evasion, I dunno. I like them a lot and I can get through them really fast but also some parts are just so long.
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