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David Silver #2
Alien Eyes
The electrifying new novel by the author of Alien Blues. When pouchlings of the stingray-shaped, lime-scented Elaki are found murdered in their beds, Detective David Silver immediately fixes his attention on Angel Eyes, who claims to have been a victim of persecution on her homeworld, and who's achieved almost saintly status in the eyes of both human and Elaki.
- GenresAliensScience Fiction
245 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 1993
About the author
Lynn Hightower
42 books87 followersLynn Hightower grew up in Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Kentucky, where she studied creative writing with Wendell Berry and earned a degree in Journalism. She also teaches novel writing in the Writer’s Program at UCLA. Survival jobs include writing television commercials, catering waitress, and bartender for one day.
Her books have been included in the New York Times List of Notable Books, the London Times Bestseller List, and the W.H. Smith Fresh Talent Awards. She has received the Shamus Award, and been nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award, the Kentucky Librarians First Choice Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Hightower’s books have been published in numerous foreign countries, including Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Israel and The Netherlands.
Hightower spends ridiculous amounts of time curled up reading, but also enjoys small sports cars and tame horses. She is married to The Frenchman, writes full time, shares an office with her Belgian Shepherd, Leo the Lion, plays bad but fierce tennis, loves to dance and is learning to Tango.
Hightower enjoys canoeing and is witty after two glasses of wine. She has studied French and Italian, but is only fluent in Southern.
Hightower is a Kentucky native, and lives in a small Victorian cottage with a writing parlor.
Her books have been included in the New York Times List of Notable Books, the London Times Bestseller List, and the W.H. Smith Fresh Talent Awards. She has received the Shamus Award, and been nominated for the Kentucky Literary Award, the Kentucky Librarians First Choice Award, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Hightower’s books have been published in numerous foreign countries, including Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Israel and The Netherlands.
Hightower spends ridiculous amounts of time curled up reading, but also enjoys small sports cars and tame horses. She is married to The Frenchman, writes full time, shares an office with her Belgian Shepherd, Leo the Lion, plays bad but fierce tennis, loves to dance and is learning to Tango.
Hightower enjoys canoeing and is witty after two glasses of wine. She has studied French and Italian, but is only fluent in Southern.
Hightower is a Kentucky native, and lives in a small Victorian cottage with a writing parlor.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 14, 2017
Ecrit dans les années 90, un récit qui mixte agréablement deux espèces dans une enquête policière sur des meurtres particulièrement cruels
J'ai aimé, les détails qui semblent à la fois "ordinaires" et pourtant futuristes ; j'ai aimé ces aliens - Elaki- un peu difficiles à visualiser physiquement mais qui, ayant leur propre histoire, ajoutent une forte impression d'étrangeté sans pour autant en devenir incompréhensibles
Nota : pour ce qui est des aliens, les mêmes sensations qu'en lisant les premiers tomes de The Retrieval Artist par KK RUSCH ou encore ceux avec jani KILIAN (Code of Conduct) de Kristine SMITH même si les contextes sont différents...
à aucun moment, l'auteur ne tombe dans le piège des infos-dumps aussi on regarde le monde avec les yeux de David Silver et de ses coéquipiers que ce soit au bureau ou sur le terrain avec - en bonus- tout ce que cela comporte de manigances politiques ou autres rivalités ... de même, la vie privée et les petits travers des principaux personnages sont évoqués sans lourdeur et les rendent uniques et attachants
Bref, même si l'enquête est résolue, en tant que lecteur, ma soif d'en savoir plus sur les Elaki et leur venue sur Terre me fera lire les 3 autres tomes ...
J'ai aimé, les détails qui semblent à la fois "ordinaires" et pourtant futuristes ; j'ai aimé ces aliens - Elaki- un peu difficiles à visualiser physiquement mais qui, ayant leur propre histoire, ajoutent une forte impression d'étrangeté sans pour autant en devenir incompréhensibles
Nota : pour ce qui est des aliens, les mêmes sensations qu'en lisant les premiers tomes de The Retrieval Artist par KK RUSCH ou encore ceux avec jani KILIAN (Code of Conduct) de Kristine SMITH même si les contextes sont différents...
à aucun moment, l'auteur ne tombe dans le piège des infos-dumps aussi on regarde le monde avec les yeux de David Silver et de ses coéquipiers que ce soit au bureau ou sur le terrain avec - en bonus- tout ce que cela comporte de manigances politiques ou autres rivalités ... de même, la vie privée et les petits travers des principaux personnages sont évoqués sans lourdeur et les rendent uniques et attachants
Bref, même si l'enquête est résolue, en tant que lecteur, ma soif d'en savoir plus sur les Elaki et leur venue sur Terre me fera lire les 3 autres tomes ...
October 27, 2019
The idea seems like a natural. Why hasn’t it been done before?
A police procedural that also incorporates aliens.
It stands to reason that after first contact, an alien race would in some way become a part of our society and culture. Humans would probably continue as they have since the beginning. Crime would continue as it has since the beginning. Police would investigate and attempt to solve the crimes as they have since the beginning. The wild card is how humans and aliens would interact in this context.
Lynn Hightower, however, in ALIEN EYES has done a credible job in an attempt to combine police procedural and science fiction. The alien - Elaki - and human characters each have his or her own personality, problems, and challenges. The cultures are different enough to provide some friction but are similar enough to provide the basis of understanding. All this is to the good.
Also to the good is that the police – mainly human with a few Elaki – use age-old investigative techniques – observation, interviewing witnesses, trying to get in the minds of the criminals – with the added complexities of understand beings far different from us.
The setting is an Earth city in the near future, with only some changes in technology, which allows the characters and the investigation to be emphasized.
It has been noted in the science fiction world that it is extremely difficult to come up with a truly alien being that we as readers can identify with. As a result, many aliens may seem more like humans in non-human shape.
The Elaki are provided with no origin story (that may have been provided in an earlier book in the series I have not yet read) but I kept being distracted as I tried to figure out the world from which they came that shaped their biology and culture.
The Elaki, for example, seemed to not even be familiar with very idea of criminal investigation. One has to speculate about life on their home world. Did it have crime? Were crimes investigated? What was the legal system like?
The distraction, however, was not enough to keep me from enjoying the book.
A police procedural that also incorporates aliens.
It stands to reason that after first contact, an alien race would in some way become a part of our society and culture. Humans would probably continue as they have since the beginning. Crime would continue as it has since the beginning. Police would investigate and attempt to solve the crimes as they have since the beginning. The wild card is how humans and aliens would interact in this context.
Lynn Hightower, however, in ALIEN EYES has done a credible job in an attempt to combine police procedural and science fiction. The alien - Elaki - and human characters each have his or her own personality, problems, and challenges. The cultures are different enough to provide some friction but are similar enough to provide the basis of understanding. All this is to the good.
Also to the good is that the police – mainly human with a few Elaki – use age-old investigative techniques – observation, interviewing witnesses, trying to get in the minds of the criminals – with the added complexities of understand beings far different from us.
The setting is an Earth city in the near future, with only some changes in technology, which allows the characters and the investigation to be emphasized.
It has been noted in the science fiction world that it is extremely difficult to come up with a truly alien being that we as readers can identify with. As a result, many aliens may seem more like humans in non-human shape.
The Elaki are provided with no origin story (that may have been provided in an earlier book in the series I have not yet read) but I kept being distracted as I tried to figure out the world from which they came that shaped their biology and culture.
The Elaki, for example, seemed to not even be familiar with very idea of criminal investigation. One has to speculate about life on their home world. Did it have crime? Were crimes investigated? What was the legal system like?
The distraction, however, was not enough to keep me from enjoying the book.
May 19, 2020
Not as good as the first one. Certainly need to read Alien Blues to understand humans relationship with aliens. Its novel length but story needed more to flesh it out. This one also shows its age. Some of the technologies of this future are funny. I got through it and will probably read other two, just because I do that and this is just a tad original enough to go on.
May 10, 2023
The Elaki came from the stars to offer humankind a helping hand. But they should have left a few things at home. Like politics.
Saigo City was never what Detective David Silver would have called a peaceful place.
But he never saw pouchlings murdered in their beds. Until interstellar revolutionaries brought their fight to a new battlegroound: Earth
Saigo City was never what Detective David Silver would have called a peaceful place.
But he never saw pouchlings murdered in their beds. Until interstellar revolutionaries brought their fight to a new battlegroound: Earth
March 8, 2016
What do you get when you write a solid police procedural set in a universe where aliens live alongside earthlings? (Think Alien Nation and you have some semblance of an idea)-- If Michael Connelly wrote Science Fiction-- I think it would be a lot like this. Police bureaucracy--- partners you like and don't like... other officer you cannot trust.. and an alien culture to deal with-- a neatly thought up group of aliens with different biology, different culture, and yet, a desire to assimilate with humans.
I didn't read Alien Blues, but that didn't spoil jumping in at this point in this series. David Silver is an interesting character, a workaholic detective, with an empathy for the alien species he works among. I don't know how far in the future this is meant to be set, but it was written in 1993 and no inkling of cell phones apparently had touched the author's future vision-- which did make it seem kind of dated-- almost as if it wasn't meant to be very futuristic at all.
The aliens are very well written. They are really quite different from any I've ever read, except for the description of the eyestalks... They are tall, lightweight, and never sit. Really, they never sit down. I don't even know if they lay down at night to sleep.
This was a fun book to read, offered a complex enough mystery to be interesting and the alien beings described only serve to add to the setting and the complexity of the mystery. Though it might be semi-dated Science Fiction-- it was good.
Also, I feel like I might have read Alien Blues back in the 1990's, but I've been asleep since then.
I didn't read Alien Blues, but that didn't spoil jumping in at this point in this series. David Silver is an interesting character, a workaholic detective, with an empathy for the alien species he works among. I don't know how far in the future this is meant to be set, but it was written in 1993 and no inkling of cell phones apparently had touched the author's future vision-- which did make it seem kind of dated-- almost as if it wasn't meant to be very futuristic at all.
The aliens are very well written. They are really quite different from any I've ever read, except for the description of the eyestalks... They are tall, lightweight, and never sit. Really, they never sit down. I don't even know if they lay down at night to sleep.
This was a fun book to read, offered a complex enough mystery to be interesting and the alien beings described only serve to add to the setting and the complexity of the mystery. Though it might be semi-dated Science Fiction-- it was good.
Also, I feel like I might have read Alien Blues back in the 1990's, but I've been asleep since then.
August 6, 2014
Ah the joy of used book stores clearing out stock (you know those 5-6 books for $1 sales), because despite some frustration that I have with Hightower's Elaki/David Silver books they are a good mashup of science fiction/police procedural.
Events follow fairly closely on the heels of the first book. Elaki are being murdered in their homes in a manner that that was done on their homeworld during a time of significant political upheaval. These aren't just simple murders. These are brutal killings, and children are also targeted.
A subplot of another string of serial killings surfaces towards the end of the book, and (no spoilers) I think I would have liked more development of that portion of the story.
David Silver, the human homicide investigator, has started to really irritate me. I'm reading the third book right now, so maybe I'll hold more of my thoughts until I write that review because it is very fresh in my mind right now. In brief, my issue with Silver is for a man who wants to stay married he refuses to recognize his wife's PTSD issues and help her, have her seek help, or at least do something besides moan about it.
Events follow fairly closely on the heels of the first book. Elaki are being murdered in their homes in a manner that that was done on their homeworld during a time of significant political upheaval. These aren't just simple murders. These are brutal killings, and children are also targeted.
A subplot of another string of serial killings surfaces towards the end of the book, and (no spoilers) I think I would have liked more development of that portion of the story.
David Silver, the human homicide investigator, has started to really irritate me. I'm reading the third book right now, so maybe I'll hold more of my thoughts until I write that review because it is very fresh in my mind right now. In brief, my issue with Silver is for a man who wants to stay married he refuses to recognize his wife's PTSD issues and help her, have her seek help, or at least do something besides moan about it.
March 23, 2010
Not good science fiction, and not a good police procedural, either.
October 6, 2012
I absolutely loved this series about two detectives - one a truly alien alien - and the partnership they form fighting crime in a future time. I always wished there were more of these.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews