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The Stargazer's Embassy
The Stargazer’s Embassy explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view: in this story, it is the aliens who seem fearful of Julia Glazer, the woman they are desperately trying to make contact with. Violent and despairing after the murder of the one person she loved, a psychiatrist who was studying abductees, Julia continues to rebuff the aliens until her relationships with others who have met “the things,” as she calls them, including a tattoo artist, a strange man who can take photographs with the power of his mind, and an abductee locked up in a mental hospital, force Julia deeper into direct alien contact and a confrontation about what death means to humans and aliens alike.
306 pages, Paperback
First published July 18, 2017
About the author
Eleanor Lerman
25 books36 followersEleanor Lerman is a writer who lives in New York. Her first book of poetry, Armed Love (Wesleyan University Press, 1973), published when she was twenty-one, was nominated for a National Book Award. She has since published four other award-winning collections of poetry—Come the Sweet By and By (University of Massachusetts Press, 1975); The Mystery of Meteors (Sarabande Books, 2001); Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds (Sarabande Books, 2005); and The Sensual World Re-Emerges (Sarabande Books, 2010), along with The Blonde on the Train (Mayapple Press, 2009) a collection of short stories. She was awarded the 2006 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Nation magazine for the year's most outstanding book of poetry for Our Post-Soviet History Unfolds and received a 2007 Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2011 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her first novel, Janet Planet, based on the life of Carlos Castaneda, was published by Mayapple Press in 2011. Her latest collection of poetry, Strange Life,was published by Mayapple in 2015. Since then, her novel, Radiomen (The Permanent Press, 2016) was awarded the John W. Campbell Prize for the Best Book of Science Fiction. Her next novel, The Stargazer's Embassy, was released in July 2017. Her most recent novel, Satellite Street, will be released in October 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
July 14, 2017
In depth review at: https://1000yearplan.com/2017/07/14/r...
In Eleanor Lerman’s novel The Stargazer’s Embassy, stories of alien abductions are true, but that isn’t quite the problem protagonist Julia Glazer is having. To her, they’ve been more of a nuisance than anything. Aliens hang around the periphery of her life, dressed in weird costumes and never quite trying to make contact. They seem wary of her, though weirdly protective. She tries to shoo them away like stray cats but they keep popping up, loitering around her house, her job, her social sphere.
Things get complicated when Julia becomes enmeshed in alien “experiencer” culture. She is romanced by a psychologist who is trying to examine the culture respectfully and seriously, but most of the experiencers – particularly the abduction victims – view her with distrust. Since Julia’s encounters are so unlike theirs, they assume she must be lying, or hiding something.
Ostensibly a work of science fiction, the thematic schema of The Stargazer’s Embassy hews closer to contemporary literary fiction than genre work. Julia is the sort of wistful, melancholy archetype that has become something of a cliché in literary novels, the sort of hero whose journey is more about taking stock of her life and working through her own failings and anxieties than, say, uncovering and thwarting the invaders’ plans. In genre fiction those priorities would be reversed, with the inner struggle supplementing a heroic problem-solving narrative rather than dominating it.
Regardless of where the novel’s priorities lie, it is the SFnal element of The Stargazer’s Embassy that distinguishes it from the literary pack, more so than its literariness distinguishes it from genre work. The dramatic core of the novel is Julia’s relationship with her late mother, Laura – who was connected to the alien visitors, and whose unsuccessful attempt to ingratiate them to Julia as a child seems to have been the impetus for their stalking of her as an adult. Julia has spent most of her adult life trying to avoid coming to terms with her difficult relationship with Laura. More than simply a projection of her internal conflicts, the presence of the uncanny in Julia’s life – and the casual acceptance of its existence in the novel’s framework – is what gives her experience, and her journey, a deeper meaning. Aliens and alien-ness do not function as a fanciful allegory or a quirky satirical angle; they are the reality of this novel, and Julia’s story cannot be told without them.
The cast of characters ring true to me, particularly in the conflicting prerogatives of the different experiencers and how they relate to Julia. The Stargazer’s Embassy itself (a bar owned by Julia’s stepfather) is a memorable setting, and so much more than the kitschy tourist trap it pretends to be. Like the novel that bears its name it is both ordinary and transcendent, and carves its own little niche in the world.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mayapple Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.
In Eleanor Lerman’s novel The Stargazer’s Embassy, stories of alien abductions are true, but that isn’t quite the problem protagonist Julia Glazer is having. To her, they’ve been more of a nuisance than anything. Aliens hang around the periphery of her life, dressed in weird costumes and never quite trying to make contact. They seem wary of her, though weirdly protective. She tries to shoo them away like stray cats but they keep popping up, loitering around her house, her job, her social sphere.
Things get complicated when Julia becomes enmeshed in alien “experiencer” culture. She is romanced by a psychologist who is trying to examine the culture respectfully and seriously, but most of the experiencers – particularly the abduction victims – view her with distrust. Since Julia’s encounters are so unlike theirs, they assume she must be lying, or hiding something.
Ostensibly a work of science fiction, the thematic schema of The Stargazer’s Embassy hews closer to contemporary literary fiction than genre work. Julia is the sort of wistful, melancholy archetype that has become something of a cliché in literary novels, the sort of hero whose journey is more about taking stock of her life and working through her own failings and anxieties than, say, uncovering and thwarting the invaders’ plans. In genre fiction those priorities would be reversed, with the inner struggle supplementing a heroic problem-solving narrative rather than dominating it.
Regardless of where the novel’s priorities lie, it is the SFnal element of The Stargazer’s Embassy that distinguishes it from the literary pack, more so than its literariness distinguishes it from genre work. The dramatic core of the novel is Julia’s relationship with her late mother, Laura – who was connected to the alien visitors, and whose unsuccessful attempt to ingratiate them to Julia as a child seems to have been the impetus for their stalking of her as an adult. Julia has spent most of her adult life trying to avoid coming to terms with her difficult relationship with Laura. More than simply a projection of her internal conflicts, the presence of the uncanny in Julia’s life – and the casual acceptance of its existence in the novel’s framework – is what gives her experience, and her journey, a deeper meaning. Aliens and alien-ness do not function as a fanciful allegory or a quirky satirical angle; they are the reality of this novel, and Julia’s story cannot be told without them.
The cast of characters ring true to me, particularly in the conflicting prerogatives of the different experiencers and how they relate to Julia. The Stargazer’s Embassy itself (a bar owned by Julia’s stepfather) is a memorable setting, and so much more than the kitschy tourist trap it pretends to be. Like the novel that bears its name it is both ordinary and transcendent, and carves its own little niche in the world.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mayapple Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.
March 29, 2017
Thanks to Netgalley for this Arc!
I honestly thought this was going to be a tongue-in-cheek novel based on the cover and even more so because the author is a poet and is pushing this title within literary SF.
What I read was nothing of the sort.
Instead, we get a very grounded and realistic rendition of the alien abduction world from a very strange member within it. She wants nothing to do with any of it. And, oddly enough, she was never abducted, just visited. A lot. There's a mystery here, of course, and Julia is utterly focused on living a perfectly normal life despite her upbringing, submerging herself in distractions and cleaning houses and businesses in the most mindless job she can and endlessly diving into all kinds of music to push the rest of the world away. No close friends or relatives, no desire for anything more... but of course everything changes.
I'm very impressed by this novel more because of its invested realism and honest reactions and the way its skeptical of sensationalism. Instead, we've got a novel that takes everything very seriously and backs it up with deep character development, wonderful details, and genuine outrage, antagonism, and fear.
In the respect that it writes clearly and fascinatingly about a sensational subject while always remaining firmly grounded and thoughtful, this is a literary novel. Only the subject itself is SF, but that's happening all the time, nowadays, as ideas become super-mainstream.
I totally recommend this for everyone in the mood for an extended and deeply explored X-File or that wonderful Spielberg adventure, Taken. This book is all about turning the alien legend on its head and giving the other side a chance to develop as much more than a conspiracy or a joke.
And even more importantly, it was a simple delight to read. :)
I honestly thought this was going to be a tongue-in-cheek novel based on the cover and even more so because the author is a poet and is pushing this title within literary SF.
What I read was nothing of the sort.
Instead, we get a very grounded and realistic rendition of the alien abduction world from a very strange member within it. She wants nothing to do with any of it. And, oddly enough, she was never abducted, just visited. A lot. There's a mystery here, of course, and Julia is utterly focused on living a perfectly normal life despite her upbringing, submerging herself in distractions and cleaning houses and businesses in the most mindless job she can and endlessly diving into all kinds of music to push the rest of the world away. No close friends or relatives, no desire for anything more... but of course everything changes.
I'm very impressed by this novel more because of its invested realism and honest reactions and the way its skeptical of sensationalism. Instead, we've got a novel that takes everything very seriously and backs it up with deep character development, wonderful details, and genuine outrage, antagonism, and fear.
In the respect that it writes clearly and fascinatingly about a sensational subject while always remaining firmly grounded and thoughtful, this is a literary novel. Only the subject itself is SF, but that's happening all the time, nowadays, as ideas become super-mainstream.
I totally recommend this for everyone in the mood for an extended and deeply explored X-File or that wonderful Spielberg adventure, Taken. This book is all about turning the alien legend on its head and giving the other side a chance to develop as much more than a conspiracy or a joke.
And even more importantly, it was a simple delight to read. :)
April 4, 2017
Well, I must say that was better than I thought it would be. Not that I thought I wouldn't like it, but the synopsis makes it sound a bit oddball. I'm good with reading strange stories but this wasn't strange at all. In fact, I would say aside from our protagonist having a long history of alien contact, this could almost read as plain fiction regarding alien abduction stories. And then there was the writing. It was descriptive and vivid. I really felt like I was watching, rather than reading, the story unfold.
This is the story of Julia, a seemingly quiet girl - keeps to herself, has no friends, works as a cleaner. What we soon learn is that Julia has been keeping a secret for most of her life. She and her mother have both been visited by aliens. The difference between them is that her mother actively sought out the aliens. She would walk out into the forest and fields in the middle of the night to meet with them. Julia, however fought against it, them and her mother for the rest or her life at least up to the end of the story. She wanted nothing to do with them but even though they kept coming around, she made it known to them that she hated them.
One day, even though she seems to actively avoid people, she meets a man named John. They take a liking to each other, start dating and eventually they move in together. She's known from the day they met that he was a psychiatrist but she later learns that he actively tries to help people who believe they have been abducted. It's only through this coincidence of meeting and then falling in love with John that she learns more than she ever thought she wanted to about the aliens, the abductees and eventually her late mother.
I would recommend this to anyone. It's not as much about science fiction/aliens as it is about a girl who has built walls around herself emotionally and mentally, and is only now starting to take them down.
This is the story of Julia, a seemingly quiet girl - keeps to herself, has no friends, works as a cleaner. What we soon learn is that Julia has been keeping a secret for most of her life. She and her mother have both been visited by aliens. The difference between them is that her mother actively sought out the aliens. She would walk out into the forest and fields in the middle of the night to meet with them. Julia, however fought against it, them and her mother for the rest or her life at least up to the end of the story. She wanted nothing to do with them but even though they kept coming around, she made it known to them that she hated them.
One day, even though she seems to actively avoid people, she meets a man named John. They take a liking to each other, start dating and eventually they move in together. She's known from the day they met that he was a psychiatrist but she later learns that he actively tries to help people who believe they have been abducted. It's only through this coincidence of meeting and then falling in love with John that she learns more than she ever thought she wanted to about the aliens, the abductees and eventually her late mother.
I would recommend this to anyone. It's not as much about science fiction/aliens as it is about a girl who has built walls around herself emotionally and mentally, and is only now starting to take them down.
July 10, 2017
I was attracted to this book by the title.
Now that is a strange concept I must admit and it was the writing that sustained me. That is equally surprising as it is set in a genre I don't normally read.
I guess where the writing is so good is the establishment of brilliant characters that sustain the story and propel it forward into a page turner.
Julia Glazer is an enigma who has secrets she rarely reveals based on her mother and the disconnect she feels still long after her death. Her mother Laura seemed to have made friends with aliens and this not only has damaged Julia but she still sees them from time to time. Her experiences even recall a time when her mother took her to meet her alien 'friends' and we root for Julia as she recalls the experience as calm and spooky but life changing as a child she had sunk her teeth into alien flesh.
Over time her experience of extra terrestrial beings, is unlike a growing trend of alien abductions which seem much more frightening as physical experiments seem to be conducted on those taken.
Julia falls for John a professor who has taken time out to explore these sightings and abductees. Julia can't bring herself to tell him the truth of her own experiences but in the world of alien encounters she meets some antagonism seemingly centred on her tattoo which is the sign above her mother's bar now run by her 'step-father' Nicky. Opposition grows as some notice her tattoo as a mark of the aliens themselves and brings Julia to question all her mother ever told her.
Story telling at its best, it draws you into a world you want to remain sceptical about. It is thought-provoking and unsettling as you question the role of the alien life forms, their intentions and pre-occupation with Julia.
I like the fact that the aliens are so limited in their abilities to communicate and their analysis of the human race as a whole.
It is a wonderful book about more questions than there are answers, how all life has a quest for information and that concepts such as love can not be bottled or quantified. That life ultimately is about quality not quantity and ideas perhaps should be open and changeable rather than closed and inert.
Julia spends her life shutting things out rather than seeing and believing. How she reaches her own answers mirrors the quest for information the aliens seek, perhaps that is way their lives seem so intertwined. But this is science fiction so all bets are off. There can be a malevolence to these bug like creatures, their purposes dark and against the future of our way of life.
That the authors maintains the tension throughout without corny interjections like take me to your leader ensures this is a thoughtful examination of this subject. That raises the questions about what if we are not alone in our universe and what happens if we are visited first.
Now that is a strange concept I must admit and it was the writing that sustained me. That is equally surprising as it is set in a genre I don't normally read.
I guess where the writing is so good is the establishment of brilliant characters that sustain the story and propel it forward into a page turner.
Julia Glazer is an enigma who has secrets she rarely reveals based on her mother and the disconnect she feels still long after her death. Her mother Laura seemed to have made friends with aliens and this not only has damaged Julia but she still sees them from time to time. Her experiences even recall a time when her mother took her to meet her alien 'friends' and we root for Julia as she recalls the experience as calm and spooky but life changing as a child she had sunk her teeth into alien flesh.
Over time her experience of extra terrestrial beings, is unlike a growing trend of alien abductions which seem much more frightening as physical experiments seem to be conducted on those taken.
Julia falls for John a professor who has taken time out to explore these sightings and abductees. Julia can't bring herself to tell him the truth of her own experiences but in the world of alien encounters she meets some antagonism seemingly centred on her tattoo which is the sign above her mother's bar now run by her 'step-father' Nicky. Opposition grows as some notice her tattoo as a mark of the aliens themselves and brings Julia to question all her mother ever told her.
Story telling at its best, it draws you into a world you want to remain sceptical about. It is thought-provoking and unsettling as you question the role of the alien life forms, their intentions and pre-occupation with Julia.
I like the fact that the aliens are so limited in their abilities to communicate and their analysis of the human race as a whole.
It is a wonderful book about more questions than there are answers, how all life has a quest for information and that concepts such as love can not be bottled or quantified. That life ultimately is about quality not quantity and ideas perhaps should be open and changeable rather than closed and inert.
Julia spends her life shutting things out rather than seeing and believing. How she reaches her own answers mirrors the quest for information the aliens seek, perhaps that is way their lives seem so intertwined. But this is science fiction so all bets are off. There can be a malevolence to these bug like creatures, their purposes dark and against the future of our way of life.
That the authors maintains the tension throughout without corny interjections like take me to your leader ensures this is a thoughtful examination of this subject. That raises the questions about what if we are not alone in our universe and what happens if we are visited first.
March 11, 2017
I received a free copy of this ebook on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely loved this book! What a relief to read a so-called "literary" sci-fi novel that isn't ashamed of being speculative fiction. Lerman resists the hipster temptation so prevalent in literary sci-fi, of keeping an ironic distance. Instead, she dives in and actually takes seriously the question of what it would actually be like to live inside one of the sensational, even lurid, plots that detail encounters with alien beings. And the answer, of course, is that it would be a very difficult life indeed. The style and tone of the book is fairly straightforward psychological realism, and the reason that works is because the realist style ensures that we are not allowed to view Julia's story of lifelong, unwilling engagement with the "things", as she calls them, as a fable or an allegory of modern life or anything as pretentious as that (although it may very well have been the author's intention to make the plot metaphorical in some way). Instead, we are asked to take the plot at face value, to engage however seriously or non-seriously we like with the both profound and intensely fun question of "what would it really be like to be someone, for real, who normally we see just featured in an episode of the X-Files?"
I gave it five stars because it's so unusual, thoughtful and fluidly put together, and it really deserves all the attention it can get - but it's not perfect, of course. The ending felt a bit rushed and pat (after a slightly drawn out middle), and Lerman is a little too fond of certain repeated moments, like the heroine telling herself she's never felt worse than she feels in this very moment. But overall, if you like speculative fiction of all kinds, I urge you to try this book. Hopefully you won't regret it!
I absolutely loved this book! What a relief to read a so-called "literary" sci-fi novel that isn't ashamed of being speculative fiction. Lerman resists the hipster temptation so prevalent in literary sci-fi, of keeping an ironic distance. Instead, she dives in and actually takes seriously the question of what it would actually be like to live inside one of the sensational, even lurid, plots that detail encounters with alien beings. And the answer, of course, is that it would be a very difficult life indeed. The style and tone of the book is fairly straightforward psychological realism, and the reason that works is because the realist style ensures that we are not allowed to view Julia's story of lifelong, unwilling engagement with the "things", as she calls them, as a fable or an allegory of modern life or anything as pretentious as that (although it may very well have been the author's intention to make the plot metaphorical in some way). Instead, we are asked to take the plot at face value, to engage however seriously or non-seriously we like with the both profound and intensely fun question of "what would it really be like to be someone, for real, who normally we see just featured in an episode of the X-Files?"
I gave it five stars because it's so unusual, thoughtful and fluidly put together, and it really deserves all the attention it can get - but it's not perfect, of course. The ending felt a bit rushed and pat (after a slightly drawn out middle), and Lerman is a little too fond of certain repeated moments, like the heroine telling herself she's never felt worse than she feels in this very moment. But overall, if you like speculative fiction of all kinds, I urge you to try this book. Hopefully you won't regret it!
Read
July 4, 2017One of my Goodreads friends was reading a science fiction novel called The Stargazer's Embassy by Eleanor Lerman. I read the description and thought it had potential. So I requested it on Net Galley and received a digital review copy for free via the publisher.
I want to make it clear that the focus of this novel, alien abductions, is normally a theme that doesn't interest me. I don't believe they happen in the real world and I wouldn't have thought that alien abductions could make a good basis for a science fiction novel. Yet I wondered if Campbell Award winner Eleanor Lerman had done some fresh thinking on this topic.
I have to admit that I initially found protagonist Julia Glazer tiresome and unengaging. I might well have abandoned the book fairly early if I hadn't agreed to review it. Yet over the course of the narrative Julia became more interesting and the decision she made at the end of the book was totally unexpected.
Toward the end of this book, I considered Lerman's concept flawed. Yet it eventually occurred to me that she was portraying the aliens as being mistaken. A species can be very advanced and still be in error about how to attain their goals. I confess that I thought Julia was as mistaken as the aliens had been. My reaction when I finished the book was a sarcastic "Good luck with that." Other readers may feel more connected to Julia than I did, and have a totally different perception of this book.
For my complete review see http://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/20...
I want to make it clear that the focus of this novel, alien abductions, is normally a theme that doesn't interest me. I don't believe they happen in the real world and I wouldn't have thought that alien abductions could make a good basis for a science fiction novel. Yet I wondered if Campbell Award winner Eleanor Lerman had done some fresh thinking on this topic.
I have to admit that I initially found protagonist Julia Glazer tiresome and unengaging. I might well have abandoned the book fairly early if I hadn't agreed to review it. Yet over the course of the narrative Julia became more interesting and the decision she made at the end of the book was totally unexpected.
Toward the end of this book, I considered Lerman's concept flawed. Yet it eventually occurred to me that she was portraying the aliens as being mistaken. A species can be very advanced and still be in error about how to attain their goals. I confess that I thought Julia was as mistaken as the aliens had been. My reaction when I finished the book was a sarcastic "Good luck with that." Other readers may feel more connected to Julia than I did, and have a totally different perception of this book.
For my complete review see http://shomeretmasked.blogspot.com/20...
June 21, 2017
Having read in the blurb that this sci-fi novel "explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view" I was intrigued. Not least because otherwise I would never willingly pick up a novel about alien abduction in the first place. I was surprised, then, to find that The Stargazer's Embassy seemed to offer little but the most tired and obvious of clichés, juxtaposing both now-common contradictory opinion about alien contact: the benign alien race bringing aid and hoping for fellowship and the ruthless, hostile enemies carrying out lurid and traumatic experiments. I read on in the hope that at some point these would be turned on their heads in some kind of interesting and original way but this failed to emerge beyond the idea that Julia, our narrator, represents an attraction and a fear the aliens (or "Things" as Julia rather unpleasantly christens them). They hover on the margins of her life but other than a rather mild encounter as a child and a bitter resentment aimed at her eccentric mother there is very little real explanation for her intense hostility. She doesn't appear to fear them she just hates them, virulently and completely.
The pacing is excruciatingly slow, drip-feeding minuscule amounts of information in a way that did little to disguise the fact that the plot was far from complex or innovative and the characterisation was poor. Julia's constant snappy attitude and sniping made her irritating as well as unlikable and despite her apparently significant position with the "Things" and amongst the abductees/experiencers she lacked any convincing depth. As the story is told entirely in her voice this damages several aspects of the narrative, preventing any of the supporting characters or relationships from being portrayed with any real complexity. The slow pace squandered any opportunity for tension and suspense and when events (finally) came to a head the climax it was with a disappointing and rather painful pseudo-philosophical metaphor on the nature of humanity and loneliness which managed to miss profundity and poignancy by quite a margin.
I received a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest, unbiased review.
The pacing is excruciatingly slow, drip-feeding minuscule amounts of information in a way that did little to disguise the fact that the plot was far from complex or innovative and the characterisation was poor. Julia's constant snappy attitude and sniping made her irritating as well as unlikable and despite her apparently significant position with the "Things" and amongst the abductees/experiencers she lacked any convincing depth. As the story is told entirely in her voice this damages several aspects of the narrative, preventing any of the supporting characters or relationships from being portrayed with any real complexity. The slow pace squandered any opportunity for tension and suspense and when events (finally) came to a head the climax it was with a disappointing and rather painful pseudo-philosophical metaphor on the nature of humanity and loneliness which managed to miss profundity and poignancy by quite a margin.
I received a free advance copy of this book in return for an honest, unbiased review.
August 16, 2017
Hello all, afraid I fell off the planet for a bit due to a combination of processing the news of the day, extra hours at work, and the inescapable feeling that I did not possess enough time to put words together adequately. Tonight isn't really especially different, but I have to stay awake to do a couple loads of laundry and this seems like a good place to focus my attention. Anywho, onto a review!
Eleanor Lerman's The Stargazer's Embassy puts an intriguing tilt on the usual alien encounter narrative. Though here I must admit that apart from a couple Last Podcast on the Left episodes, the X-Files, and Nicole Cliffe's tweeted account of reading Whitley Streiber's Communion: A True Story at a perhaps(?) inappropriately young age, I don't have a significant amount of experience therein. That having been said, rather than a narrative that casts believers against the skeptical norm, the aliens are an accepted fact.
Instead the narrative follows Julia Glazer, a young woman intensely focused on containing herself, controlling her reactions, and moving on predictable auto pilot, whether lifting a wine stain off a celebrity's couch during work or having a conversation with a striking older man while waiting for a meteor shower to begin. We learn she began maintaining this guarded distance with the world growing up, to keep everyone from learning too much of the truth as to why her late mother was so often found wandering through fields at night.
Occasionally, aliens show up, usually dressed slightly outrageously since they don't quite grasp the true reasons behind human norms. Julia immediately chases them away, ignoring their piteous moaning. Yet, due to her determination to prevent anyone from touching her, Julia is almost more alien than the extraterrestrials; referring to her work clothes as her "cleaning lady costume" and inhabiting a fairly isolated apartment in an otherwise commercial district. Still, one day she lets her guard down and, in spite of herself, is too interesting--with a strange tattoo and stories of crystal clear skies from her hometown in upstate New York--and too interested. And, well, the rest of the story follows from there--I'd hate to ruin anything.
I really, really enjoyed this book. It's a compelling, absorbing read that provides a intriguing escape from the rush of the day-to-day. Julia's closely-held secrets kept me curious and the language was quite lovely as well. I'll probably reread this at some point, as there are certainly clues, details, and moments I missed the first time through. I suspect this is probably, like Ursula K. Le Guin, speculative fiction for those of us who don't always love traditional science fiction tropes, and in many ways, it's a story more concerned with Julia's relationships to other earthlings than any of the little gray men.
I received a copy of this work from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Eleanor Lerman's The Stargazer's Embassy puts an intriguing tilt on the usual alien encounter narrative. Though here I must admit that apart from a couple Last Podcast on the Left episodes, the X-Files, and Nicole Cliffe's tweeted account of reading Whitley Streiber's Communion: A True Story at a perhaps(?) inappropriately young age, I don't have a significant amount of experience therein. That having been said, rather than a narrative that casts believers against the skeptical norm, the aliens are an accepted fact.
Instead the narrative follows Julia Glazer, a young woman intensely focused on containing herself, controlling her reactions, and moving on predictable auto pilot, whether lifting a wine stain off a celebrity's couch during work or having a conversation with a striking older man while waiting for a meteor shower to begin. We learn she began maintaining this guarded distance with the world growing up, to keep everyone from learning too much of the truth as to why her late mother was so often found wandering through fields at night.
Occasionally, aliens show up, usually dressed slightly outrageously since they don't quite grasp the true reasons behind human norms. Julia immediately chases them away, ignoring their piteous moaning. Yet, due to her determination to prevent anyone from touching her, Julia is almost more alien than the extraterrestrials; referring to her work clothes as her "cleaning lady costume" and inhabiting a fairly isolated apartment in an otherwise commercial district. Still, one day she lets her guard down and, in spite of herself, is too interesting--with a strange tattoo and stories of crystal clear skies from her hometown in upstate New York--and too interested. And, well, the rest of the story follows from there--I'd hate to ruin anything.
I really, really enjoyed this book. It's a compelling, absorbing read that provides a intriguing escape from the rush of the day-to-day. Julia's closely-held secrets kept me curious and the language was quite lovely as well. I'll probably reread this at some point, as there are certainly clues, details, and moments I missed the first time through. I suspect this is probably, like Ursula K. Le Guin, speculative fiction for those of us who don't always love traditional science fiction tropes, and in many ways, it's a story more concerned with Julia's relationships to other earthlings than any of the little gray men.
I received a copy of this work from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
May 22, 2018
I received this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Before I had even read this book I cycled through an array of reactions.
I love almost anything about space so I was attracted to title but after reading the blurb "explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view" I got the sinking feeling that this might be a tale of woe involving probes and UFOs and evidence for why we must believe abductees' stories. Then finally I saw the author was an award winning poet and feared this was just another 'literary' writer aiming to show everyone else how to write sci-fi 'properly'.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was none of those things.
The first third introduces Julia our main protagonist and her developing relationship with John, the kind gentle professor of psychiatry. We learn about the 'things' - aliens who pay her silent visits, wearing comical disguises and staying only until she acknowledges their presence. And then there is Julia's resentment towards her mother who she feels neglected her daughter preferring to spend her time with her 'visitors', the same aliens that now visit Julia.
The situation becomes more complicated when Julia discovers that John's research and therapy work centres on 'experiencers' – people who believe they have been abducted by aliens. Julia still does not reveal to John her connection with aliens but their interaction with the slight cultish group of 'experiencers' lead to a melodramatic crisis and at that point I thought 'Where do we go from here?"
Where the book goes is to follow Julia back into isolation as she recovers from previous events and tries to unravel not just her past but her future. She eventually realizes that running away from life is not the solution and confronts her human detractors and the alien visitors in an effort to gain a better understanding of the situation.
I was surprised at how much enjoyed this book.
While the subject matter of aliens and abductions is controversial and a little 'out there' the author avoided hysteria and outlandish extravagance. Although the characters became angry and sometimes violent they behaved in ways that were logical and realistic, believable. Even the aliens had a certain logic to their behaviour.
The first third was solid storytelling and through clever portrayal of characters and situations the author manages turn the narrative from a sensationalist account of alien abductions to a sensitive examination of the relationship between Julia and her step-father, the developing relationship between Julia and John and the interactions of the abductees within their own group and with Julia.
But I felt the story was strongest when Julia was on her own. The inner monologues were subtle and restrained and while Julia was sad and lonely she was never became a pathetic or tragic character. In particular the scene between Julia and Agnes seemed realistic and understated with the characters behaving as they would have to in such a situation.
Before I had even read this book I cycled through an array of reactions.
I love almost anything about space so I was attracted to title but after reading the blurb "explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view" I got the sinking feeling that this might be a tale of woe involving probes and UFOs and evidence for why we must believe abductees' stories. Then finally I saw the author was an award winning poet and feared this was just another 'literary' writer aiming to show everyone else how to write sci-fi 'properly'.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was none of those things.
The first third introduces Julia our main protagonist and her developing relationship with John, the kind gentle professor of psychiatry. We learn about the 'things' - aliens who pay her silent visits, wearing comical disguises and staying only until she acknowledges their presence. And then there is Julia's resentment towards her mother who she feels neglected her daughter preferring to spend her time with her 'visitors', the same aliens that now visit Julia.
The situation becomes more complicated when Julia discovers that John's research and therapy work centres on 'experiencers' – people who believe they have been abducted by aliens. Julia still does not reveal to John her connection with aliens but their interaction with the slight cultish group of 'experiencers' lead to a melodramatic crisis and at that point I thought 'Where do we go from here?"
Where the book goes is to follow Julia back into isolation as she recovers from previous events and tries to unravel not just her past but her future. She eventually realizes that running away from life is not the solution and confronts her human detractors and the alien visitors in an effort to gain a better understanding of the situation.
I was surprised at how much enjoyed this book.
While the subject matter of aliens and abductions is controversial and a little 'out there' the author avoided hysteria and outlandish extravagance. Although the characters became angry and sometimes violent they behaved in ways that were logical and realistic, believable. Even the aliens had a certain logic to their behaviour.
The first third was solid storytelling and through clever portrayal of characters and situations the author manages turn the narrative from a sensationalist account of alien abductions to a sensitive examination of the relationship between Julia and her step-father, the developing relationship between Julia and John and the interactions of the abductees within their own group and with Julia.
But I felt the story was strongest when Julia was on her own. The inner monologues were subtle and restrained and while Julia was sad and lonely she was never became a pathetic or tragic character. In particular the scene between Julia and Agnes seemed realistic and understated with the characters behaving as they would have to in such a situation.
April 23, 2018
I don't doubt that this is competently written, by a poet no less.
And it takes a somewhat new direction that should be acknowledged.
But it's not really SF, and I wonder if the completely generic "grays" are a signal of that.
It's really a moody, slow, philosophical piece about death and acceptance, the sort of thing
I wouldn't touch with a barge pole if it were presented as mainstream.
There is so much that isn't explained, not least of which is that only a few people can see the grays even though they appear to be capable of physical agency. And Nicky's commitment to the process isn't really believable as described. John's exclusion from academia isn't plausible either, although it could have been sold with more effort. Again, I get the sense that the author would say that these little things don't matter. Well, they do to me.
No one ever wonders how the greys got here. Oh yeah, invisible starships, cool, hey d'ya wanna samwich? At least some people believe in abductions, but no one seems to think they are a big deal.
I'm sure there are Jungian metaphors and Adlerian archetypes and all sorts of cool stuff, poetically inserted for readers in the know, as Victorian poets used to refer to Grek mythology because they knew all their readers were throughly familiar with it.
By the end I was in full speed-reading mode because I just wanted it to end. Which it did, in a quite predictable way much like the slow deflation of a not-very-interesting balloon.
SF readers: this is an SF book the way ice cream with pickles is a sundae.
Mainstream readers: don't fear the SF here, it's not really any more than a variation on seeing ghosts.
And it takes a somewhat new direction that should be acknowledged.
But it's not really SF, and I wonder if the completely generic "grays" are a signal of that.
It's really a moody, slow, philosophical piece about death and acceptance, the sort of thing
I wouldn't touch with a barge pole if it were presented as mainstream.
There is so much that isn't explained, not least of which is that only a few people can see the grays even though they appear to be capable of physical agency. And Nicky's commitment to the process isn't really believable as described. John's exclusion from academia isn't plausible either, although it could have been sold with more effort. Again, I get the sense that the author would say that these little things don't matter. Well, they do to me.
No one ever wonders how the greys got here. Oh yeah, invisible starships, cool, hey d'ya wanna samwich? At least some people believe in abductions, but no one seems to think they are a big deal.
I'm sure there are Jungian metaphors and Adlerian archetypes and all sorts of cool stuff, poetically inserted for readers in the know, as Victorian poets used to refer to Grek mythology because they knew all their readers were throughly familiar with it.
By the end I was in full speed-reading mode because I just wanted it to end. Which it did, in a quite predictable way much like the slow deflation of a not-very-interesting balloon.
SF readers: this is an SF book the way ice cream with pickles is a sundae.
Mainstream readers: don't fear the SF here, it's not really any more than a variation on seeing ghosts.
July 26, 2017
This is one of the most unique sci-fi novels I've read! It's about aliens but reads like literary fiction. I hate the description here on Goodreads because it spoils things that happen only halfway through the book! It sounds super weird, and it is kind of weird, but the writing is so beautiful that it doesn't feel weird at all. I really liked it, thanks to the publisher for sending it to me!
March 10, 2017
The Stargazer's Embassy is a book about Julia Glazer a seemingly normal house cleaner who likes to keep to her self read books and listen to her music. Looks can be very deceiving. Until she meets and starts dating John Benton a Pulitzer Prize winning psychiatrist who's career has taken a beating just recently when he starts focusing his career on treating patients who are victims of alien abductions and UFO sightings. Although there relationship seemingly seems well there seems to be an awful lot of secrets being kept in the relationship.
Julia tries to keep her past as private as possible from everyone including John but gradually things start coming out and she can't hide them any longer.
With the help of John and some of his patients Julia faces her demons head on that have been following her all her life. This book is about love and loss, it makes you think could there be more than just us out there and what would they be like and how would they feel.
I don't read a lot of books about aliens but I found this captivating it only had a few spots that felt slow.
Julia tries to keep her past as private as possible from everyone including John but gradually things start coming out and she can't hide them any longer.
With the help of John and some of his patients Julia faces her demons head on that have been following her all her life. This book is about love and loss, it makes you think could there be more than just us out there and what would they be like and how would they feel.
I don't read a lot of books about aliens but I found this captivating it only had a few spots that felt slow.
July 12, 2017
An overall enjoyable, well-written book. Not what I expected, but a unique and at times, hard-to-put-down story. I did have some issues with the slow pace and I was thrown off at the end of the first section and the jump forward in time. I enjoyed reading the story arc in the first section and had trouble getting interested in the story again in the second section. The character development was excellent and I loved the writing. I'll be watching for other books by Eleanor Lerman. Thanks to NetGalley and Mayapple Press for the ARC.
June 17, 2020
The Stargazer's Embassy is a rather intriguing read, it's pacing is slow in places but the subject matter is unique and compelling enough to overcome such an obstacle. The most interesting characters have to be the Aliens or "things" as by the end of the novel you're left wondering about what their fate could potentially be and if they ever will find what they are looking for. Ultimately, it's the spiritual and complex philosophical thought system that is explored that makes The Stargazer's Embassy such a fresh book to read because you will be questioning it's meaning long after you read the last page.
Check out the rest of my review on my blog: Charlotte & Cate
Check out the rest of my review on my blog: Charlotte & Cate
July 9, 2017
Parts of this review sound a little harsh, but overall I liked the vibe and conclusion of Eleanor Lerman's The Stargazer's Embassy.
What attracted me to this book is that it promises a new angle on the classic alien-abduction tale. I picked it up to learn why aliens—typically otherworldly and powerful—are so frightened of Julia Glazer. For much of the book, her apparent lack of curiosity and deep loathing strike an odd chord. The aliens are creepy when they show up unexpectedly, but they seem sad, even a little pathetic:
Other characters, the abductees studied by Julia's psychiatrist boyfriend, John, report terrifying and disturbing encounters. That The Stargazer's Embassy features two types of aliens (creepy experimenters and lousy dressers) widens the mystery of why Julia is special. Despite the range, most of the mythology centers around the story of Barney and Betty Hill and Betty's infamous star map. (If you're not familiar with this particular tale, I recommend looking it up. It'll grab your imagination whether or not you think the truth is out there.)
The conclusion of the book is surprisingly nuanced and thoughtful, but the first half has its weaknesses. The back cover names John the "one person [Julia] loved," but their connection is thin. John is a poorly drawn character. His only dialogue is exposition: theories about alien abductions, his work with the abductees, and vague details about his past. His dialogue advances the plot and story, but does nothing to make him three-dimensional. Julia might as well date a Wikipedia article. Scenes that don't include one of his lectures are typically summarized:
When I read this scene, it struck me that John had spoken so few non-expository lines that I had no idea how he might joke with Julia or make small talk with Nick. I had to take Julia's word that she cared about him because there was so little warmth or emotion between them. Part of this is due to the closed-off nature of her character, but the other part comes from not having a clear image of John. Once he's gone, Julia relies more on herself, and the side characters are kept to the side. It's okay that she doesn't have deep relationships with them because she doesn't claim to.
I was pleasantly surprised that the story I delayed reading in case it was too frightening or unsettling turned out to be clever and imaginative. There's a lot of potential here, but the poor characterization of John kept me from investing in the first half of the book. The second half redeems it just because it is such a different take on why aliens might want or need to contact humans. It is thought-provoking and eerie in all the best ways.
Overall: 3.6 The first half is comparatively weak and Julia is one of few fully-articulated characters. The book gets points for originality and creativity even though it's flat in places.
NB: This book was provided for review by the publisher, Mayapple Press (via NetGalley).
https://www.efsunland.com
The Stargazer's Embassy explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view: in this story, it is the aliens who seem fearful of Julia Glazer, the woman they are desperately trying to make contact with. Violent and despairing after the murder of the one person she loved, a psychiatrist who was studying abductees, Julia continues to rebuff the aliens until her relationships with others who have met "the things," as she calls them, including a tattoo artist, a strange man who can take photographs with the power of his mind, and an abductee locked up in a mental hospital, force her deeper into direct alien contact and a confrontation about what death means to humans and aliens alike. (blurb from Goodreads)
What attracted me to this book is that it promises a new angle on the classic alien-abduction tale. I picked it up to learn why aliens—typically otherworldly and powerful—are so frightened of Julia Glazer. For much of the book, her apparent lack of curiosity and deep loathing strike an odd chord. The aliens are creepy when they show up unexpectedly, but they seem sad, even a little pathetic:
It was wearing a long, ill-fitting tan raincoat with prominent epaulets and a pair of what looked like white go-go boots. On its head was a baseball cap pulled low over its face, and it had completed this ridiculous outfit with a pair of oversize sunglasses that might have been worn by some would-be glam rocker a decade ago.
"Is this what you think people look like now?" I snapped at the thing. (Loc 250)
Other characters, the abductees studied by Julia's psychiatrist boyfriend, John, report terrifying and disturbing encounters. That The Stargazer's Embassy features two types of aliens (creepy experimenters and lousy dressers) widens the mystery of why Julia is special. Despite the range, most of the mythology centers around the story of Barney and Betty Hill and Betty's infamous star map. (If you're not familiar with this particular tale, I recommend looking it up. It'll grab your imagination whether or not you think the truth is out there.)
The conclusion of the book is surprisingly nuanced and thoughtful, but the first half has its weaknesses. The back cover names John the "one person [Julia] loved," but their connection is thin. John is a poorly drawn character. His only dialogue is exposition: theories about alien abductions, his work with the abductees, and vague details about his past. His dialogue advances the plot and story, but does nothing to make him three-dimensional. Julia might as well date a Wikipedia article. Scenes that don't include one of his lectures are typically summarized:
I found [John] drinking coffee with Nicky. They both teased me about sleeping late, but they could probably tell I wasn't in the mood to be joked with, so they let that go. I poured myself some coffee and devoted myself to reading a copy of the local paper that was lying on the kitchen table while the two men talked about the traffic that John and I might encounter on the drive home, since we planned to leave soon. After a while, John said he would go pack up our things so we could get going. (Loc 1430)
When I read this scene, it struck me that John had spoken so few non-expository lines that I had no idea how he might joke with Julia or make small talk with Nick. I had to take Julia's word that she cared about him because there was so little warmth or emotion between them. Part of this is due to the closed-off nature of her character, but the other part comes from not having a clear image of John. Once he's gone, Julia relies more on herself, and the side characters are kept to the side. It's okay that she doesn't have deep relationships with them because she doesn't claim to.
I was pleasantly surprised that the story I delayed reading in case it was too frightening or unsettling turned out to be clever and imaginative. There's a lot of potential here, but the poor characterization of John kept me from investing in the first half of the book. The second half redeems it just because it is such a different take on why aliens might want or need to contact humans. It is thought-provoking and eerie in all the best ways.
Overall: 3.6 The first half is comparatively weak and Julia is one of few fully-articulated characters. The book gets points for originality and creativity even though it's flat in places.
NB: This book was provided for review by the publisher, Mayapple Press (via NetGalley).
https://www.efsunland.com
June 16, 2017
I received an Advanced Reader Copy of The Stargazer’s Embassy by Eleanor Lerman from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Stargazer’s Embassy is unlike any alien novel written before. Thought provoking and addictive, this is a must read and should be on everyone’s e-reader and book shelf. Judging by the title, what appears to be a quirky cosmic sci-fi novel is actually a rich metaphysical novel that ponders some important existential questions. What really happens after death? What are aliens’ intentions? Can we ever truly escape our past?
The story follows a woman named Julia who finds herself part of an alien conspiracy and wants no part of it. She’s a house-cleaner who is trying to move on from her new-agey childhood and mommy issues. All she has is a tattoo, and a place called The Stargazer’s Embassy, where people come and go, like life itself. We find her at various points in her life struggling with this issue, and trying to make a life for herself. Along the way we are introduced to some interesting characters who find themselves implicated in the very same alien problems she’s trying to escape from.
Julia’s defiance of involving herself in this haunting issue is what makes this a stand out novel. We don’t see Julia enthusiastically throwing herself into the unknown. We see a truly scared, annoyed, and assertive character who becomes the anti-hero. There is a will she or won’t she anticipation that hooks the reader and offers a certain emotional and psychological realism. There are plenty of alien encounters in the novel to satisfy traditional science fiction lovers, but it takes it a step further by offering a multitude of spiritual questions. It is because of this, that The Stargazer’s Embassy becomes an exploration of the meaning of life.
Suffering from emotional abandonment issues, the aliens become a metaphor for Julia’s strange childhood. In essence, she herself is an alien- trying to create a life for herself that she’s never known. Losing her mother with many unanswered questions, Julia hopes her encounters with the aliens, or “things” as she likes to call them, will provide her with the answers she needs. The aliens themselves are not exactly sure what they’re looking for and this in turn becomes a mirror for Julia and other “experiencers” encounters. If we all had the chance to travel throughout the cosmos like the aliens- would any of our questions be answered, or would we be even more confused? Julia spends most of her life searching for answers, but it is the very place she is running away from that provides her with the comfort she seeks- The Stargazer’s Embassy. The aliens have just as many questions as Julia and her friends do, but appreciating life for the journey it is, is all that counts in the end. Everything has a beginning and an end, so rather than spend lifetimes dissecting what it all means, it is important to treasure every waking moment, because it is those moments that stitch the fabric of our lives. There are two things we must do in our lifetime, be born and die. Everything in between is alien compared to the certainty of those two things.
I appreciated the humour associated with the aliens and their un-friendly demeanors. Once again they did not come across as stereotypical menacing superior beings, but relatable drifters who seemed genuinely lost. The story was perfectly paced and the first person narrative was a great way to keep the reader invested in Julia’s journey.
In essence, each of us have our own Stargazer’s Embassy- a place, either imagined or real where we are able to go to find comfort and peace- knowing that the answers we seek, are in fact seeking us. The Stargazer’s Embassy is a place where people- human and inhuman come and go, like life itself.
*A big thank you to Sarah Miniaci at Smith Publicity Inc. for being kind enough to send me a paperback copy to review. You’re friendly correspondence and enthusiasm for this book has me looking forward to reviewing other Smith Publicity Inc. books!
The Stargazer’s Embassy is unlike any alien novel written before. Thought provoking and addictive, this is a must read and should be on everyone’s e-reader and book shelf. Judging by the title, what appears to be a quirky cosmic sci-fi novel is actually a rich metaphysical novel that ponders some important existential questions. What really happens after death? What are aliens’ intentions? Can we ever truly escape our past?
The story follows a woman named Julia who finds herself part of an alien conspiracy and wants no part of it. She’s a house-cleaner who is trying to move on from her new-agey childhood and mommy issues. All she has is a tattoo, and a place called The Stargazer’s Embassy, where people come and go, like life itself. We find her at various points in her life struggling with this issue, and trying to make a life for herself. Along the way we are introduced to some interesting characters who find themselves implicated in the very same alien problems she’s trying to escape from.
Julia’s defiance of involving herself in this haunting issue is what makes this a stand out novel. We don’t see Julia enthusiastically throwing herself into the unknown. We see a truly scared, annoyed, and assertive character who becomes the anti-hero. There is a will she or won’t she anticipation that hooks the reader and offers a certain emotional and psychological realism. There are plenty of alien encounters in the novel to satisfy traditional science fiction lovers, but it takes it a step further by offering a multitude of spiritual questions. It is because of this, that The Stargazer’s Embassy becomes an exploration of the meaning of life.
Suffering from emotional abandonment issues, the aliens become a metaphor for Julia’s strange childhood. In essence, she herself is an alien- trying to create a life for herself that she’s never known. Losing her mother with many unanswered questions, Julia hopes her encounters with the aliens, or “things” as she likes to call them, will provide her with the answers she needs. The aliens themselves are not exactly sure what they’re looking for and this in turn becomes a mirror for Julia and other “experiencers” encounters. If we all had the chance to travel throughout the cosmos like the aliens- would any of our questions be answered, or would we be even more confused? Julia spends most of her life searching for answers, but it is the very place she is running away from that provides her with the comfort she seeks- The Stargazer’s Embassy. The aliens have just as many questions as Julia and her friends do, but appreciating life for the journey it is, is all that counts in the end. Everything has a beginning and an end, so rather than spend lifetimes dissecting what it all means, it is important to treasure every waking moment, because it is those moments that stitch the fabric of our lives. There are two things we must do in our lifetime, be born and die. Everything in between is alien compared to the certainty of those two things.
I appreciated the humour associated with the aliens and their un-friendly demeanors. Once again they did not come across as stereotypical menacing superior beings, but relatable drifters who seemed genuinely lost. The story was perfectly paced and the first person narrative was a great way to keep the reader invested in Julia’s journey.
In essence, each of us have our own Stargazer’s Embassy- a place, either imagined or real where we are able to go to find comfort and peace- knowing that the answers we seek, are in fact seeking us. The Stargazer’s Embassy is a place where people- human and inhuman come and go, like life itself.
*A big thank you to Sarah Miniaci at Smith Publicity Inc. for being kind enough to send me a paperback copy to review. You’re friendly correspondence and enthusiasm for this book has me looking forward to reviewing other Smith Publicity Inc. books!
July 13, 2017
Julia is the edgy protagonist who immediately gripped me and pulled me into the start of this one, which pings off the page with tension as we begin to get to know her. The tale slowly unspools as we learn her backstory and why she is constantly alert. Lerman’s depiction of a damaged character whose trust was destroyed during her childhood is very effective. Julia, suspicious and closed off, finds it difficult to bond with anyone and prefers to work as a cleaner alone, so she is able to react quickly whenever she is visited by the things. I found her relationship with John very moving, particularly when she begins to drop her guard and strive for normality. The twist where she discovers what it is he actually does is nicely handled.
However the trouble with her attitude in denying and pushing away the peculiar beings that constantly invade her life, is that the reader is left hanging without any further information about what is actually going on until relatively near the end, which then felt a tad rushed. Julia’s attitude also means that she refuses to discuss situation until she absolutely has to – and even then the conversations are so overlaid with her hostility that she manages to shut down any meaningful discourse, other than the one with Alice, which even then poses more questions than it answers. This means that we don’t have an opportunity to fully engage with the subject on a deeper level, other than as a prop for the story. And initially, this book seemed to promise more.
I love the premise. I thought the setup regarding The Stargazer’s Embassy bar was both plausible and quirky. However the catch in beginning a book with such a strong hook is that it has to keep delivering. If the tension and narrative pace falls away, the reader is left feeling short-changed.
Don’t get me wrong – this is a good book. There is much going for it in the description, the detailed characterisation, the strong supporting cast and atmospheric writing. But after that storming start, I was expecting a great book and because of the story structure, the pacing was too uneven and there wasn’t sufficient opportunity to fully explore the issues raised surrounding the alien abductions. That said, I am still glad I read it and I do recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this subject.
8/10
However the trouble with her attitude in denying and pushing away the peculiar beings that constantly invade her life, is that the reader is left hanging without any further information about what is actually going on until relatively near the end, which then felt a tad rushed. Julia’s attitude also means that she refuses to discuss situation until she absolutely has to – and even then the conversations are so overlaid with her hostility that she manages to shut down any meaningful discourse, other than the one with Alice, which even then poses more questions than it answers. This means that we don’t have an opportunity to fully engage with the subject on a deeper level, other than as a prop for the story. And initially, this book seemed to promise more.
I love the premise. I thought the setup regarding The Stargazer’s Embassy bar was both plausible and quirky. However the catch in beginning a book with such a strong hook is that it has to keep delivering. If the tension and narrative pace falls away, the reader is left feeling short-changed.
Don’t get me wrong – this is a good book. There is much going for it in the description, the detailed characterisation, the strong supporting cast and atmospheric writing. But after that storming start, I was expecting a great book and because of the story structure, the pacing was too uneven and there wasn’t sufficient opportunity to fully explore the issues raised surrounding the alien abductions. That said, I am still glad I read it and I do recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this subject.
8/10
August 19, 2017
I thought the title of this sounded interesting, so I requested it from NetGalley. I'm a real sci fi fan. I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a touching tale of Julia, who has been plagued by alien experiences, whether she's at work or wherever and I get the feeling early on in the book that she just wants a normal life.
Things start to change when she goes to a gathering to see shooting stars...
Before I read the synopsis, I assumed from the title that this would be a book based at some kind of stargazer HQ deep in the galaxy. It was a refreshing change though, to find out that it was very different to other scifi books.
The fact that The Stargazer's Embassy actually turns out to be Julia's grandfather's bar was a nice, if unexpected, touch. The book is peppered with personal touches like this, and that's what increased its appeal for me. The Stargazer's Embassy has a touch of romance in its plot, as Julia meets John, and they begin to hit it off despite their dfferent backgrounds, experiences and opinions.
John is not just any psychiatrist- he says that his patients, or "experiencers," are always talking about alien abduction experiences.
Julia has had her fill of aliens and related experiences through her mother Laura who was barely around for her as a child, instead wandering off and always talking about aliens. This caused a rift and deep-seated anger in Julia, which is still there years after her mother's death. She is very sceptical of anything to do with aliens, She busies herself cleaning houses and listening to any kind of music she can while putting up with a job that pays the bills but that she is less than happy in.
Throughout the book, we are introduced to a cast of varied and well-fleshed-out characters which makes The Stargazer's Embassy an enjoyable read and a very unteresting take on the subject of alien abduction.
The Trekkie in me was impressed with this-it's not often I find a scifi book I enjoy that is not a Star Trek The Next Generation or Voyager book.
The Stargazer's Embassy has great character development and an unusual plot that captured my attention. I really liked Julia as a character in that she seemed determined to live life as she wanted in spite of her upbringing.
That said, The Stargazer's Embassy is a quick, fun read. Thanks to Eleanor Lerman and Mayapple Press for a copy of my ARC.
Things start to change when she goes to a gathering to see shooting stars...
Before I read the synopsis, I assumed from the title that this would be a book based at some kind of stargazer HQ deep in the galaxy. It was a refreshing change though, to find out that it was very different to other scifi books.
The fact that The Stargazer's Embassy actually turns out to be Julia's grandfather's bar was a nice, if unexpected, touch. The book is peppered with personal touches like this, and that's what increased its appeal for me. The Stargazer's Embassy has a touch of romance in its plot, as Julia meets John, and they begin to hit it off despite their dfferent backgrounds, experiences and opinions.
John is not just any psychiatrist- he says that his patients, or "experiencers," are always talking about alien abduction experiences.
Julia has had her fill of aliens and related experiences through her mother Laura who was barely around for her as a child, instead wandering off and always talking about aliens. This caused a rift and deep-seated anger in Julia, which is still there years after her mother's death. She is very sceptical of anything to do with aliens, She busies herself cleaning houses and listening to any kind of music she can while putting up with a job that pays the bills but that she is less than happy in.
Throughout the book, we are introduced to a cast of varied and well-fleshed-out characters which makes The Stargazer's Embassy an enjoyable read and a very unteresting take on the subject of alien abduction.
The Trekkie in me was impressed with this-it's not often I find a scifi book I enjoy that is not a Star Trek The Next Generation or Voyager book.
The Stargazer's Embassy has great character development and an unusual plot that captured my attention. I really liked Julia as a character in that she seemed determined to live life as she wanted in spite of her upbringing.
That said, The Stargazer's Embassy is a quick, fun read. Thanks to Eleanor Lerman and Mayapple Press for a copy of my ARC.
May 7, 2017
Another Netgalley approved early copy, another wonderful author and another unique experience for me.
Let me say I don't usually read science fiction books, let alone alien abduction books, but I requested it anyway and I'm happy I did.
First of all, the plot is tightly woven, though its two parts are split in two, separated by a decade. Or, I could say a ten years cool-off period. Each part builts up to its own resolution, it's fast paced and alert. The second part is deeper, I think, trynig to give a meaning to Julia's life, and to all of our lives as we only have one chance, or because Julia matured.
There are two conflicting stories about aliens (the abductees' ordeal and the exeriencers' mysterious encountes), two leading theories (inter-tribal communication or hybrid population) - both proved true, two realities... At least Julia struggles with all her strengh to remain anchored into the palpable one, but it seems that once you know about "things", you can't stop seeing them everywhere. You can either feel terrorized like Alice, or enraged like Julia.
What I liked the most was the fact that Julia chooses to confront her past, the memory of her mother, the "travelers", to make sense of all that had happened to her. Maybe because her loss is almost painless after so much time, or because she is "alien" to human suffering, her conclusion is that death is nothing, people disappear into nothing, we only have this one chance to make it right. But even if we had infinite chances and keep transgressing, like the travelers, we might feel as lost as they feel, not knowing where they come from and where to go. Her lifelong experience with the travelers prepared her for her mission: to make sure that whoever might come next to Stargazer's Embassy she'll be there, no more running.
Let me say I don't usually read science fiction books, let alone alien abduction books, but I requested it anyway and I'm happy I did.
First of all, the plot is tightly woven, though its two parts are split in two, separated by a decade. Or, I could say a ten years cool-off period. Each part builts up to its own resolution, it's fast paced and alert. The second part is deeper, I think, trynig to give a meaning to Julia's life, and to all of our lives as we only have one chance, or because Julia matured.
There are two conflicting stories about aliens (the abductees' ordeal and the exeriencers' mysterious encountes), two leading theories (inter-tribal communication or hybrid population) - both proved true, two realities... At least Julia struggles with all her strengh to remain anchored into the palpable one, but it seems that once you know about "things", you can't stop seeing them everywhere. You can either feel terrorized like Alice, or enraged like Julia.
What I liked the most was the fact that Julia chooses to confront her past, the memory of her mother, the "travelers", to make sense of all that had happened to her. Maybe because her loss is almost painless after so much time, or because she is "alien" to human suffering, her conclusion is that death is nothing, people disappear into nothing, we only have this one chance to make it right. But even if we had infinite chances and keep transgressing, like the travelers, we might feel as lost as they feel, not knowing where they come from and where to go. Her lifelong experience with the travelers prepared her for her mission: to make sure that whoever might come next to Stargazer's Embassy she'll be there, no more running.
June 19, 2017
As a child living at The Stargazer’s Embassy bar in upstate New York, Julia Glazer’s mother had tried to introduce her to a group of space aliens but she had refused. Even after her mother’s death, Julia continued to resent her for, as she saw it, choosing the aliens over her. Now she works as a cleaning woman in New York, working as many hours as she can get, always with her disc player on to ensure that she is not bothered by these aliens who still seem determined to contact her. But, despite all of her efforts, she finds herself involved first with a Psychologist who believes that aliens are real and whose patients are all abductees and then with the abductees themselves.
The Stargazer’s Embassy by Eleanor Lerman is a beautifully written novel told in the first person by Julia who does not always seem a reliable narrator. The story is divided into two parts. The first is about her efforts to avoid the aliens despite how her life seems to constantly intersect with them. The second part, which begins after a tragedy caused, at least indirectly, by her refusal to admit her relationship with the aliens, is about her efforts albeit very reluctantly to finally discover what it is they want from her.
The novel is certainly about aliens but also the complex relationships between parent and child and within relationships It is also perhaps about how we try to reject realities that don’t fit into our own chosen life narrative and how tragedy and refusal to face it can affect and shape every aspect of our lives…or perhaps not. But the thing about this novel –like all good speculative fiction, it’s the kind of story that raises questions beyond the narrative and makes the reader think long after they have finished reading it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mayapple Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
The Stargazer’s Embassy by Eleanor Lerman is a beautifully written novel told in the first person by Julia who does not always seem a reliable narrator. The story is divided into two parts. The first is about her efforts to avoid the aliens despite how her life seems to constantly intersect with them. The second part, which begins after a tragedy caused, at least indirectly, by her refusal to admit her relationship with the aliens, is about her efforts albeit very reluctantly to finally discover what it is they want from her.
The novel is certainly about aliens but also the complex relationships between parent and child and within relationships It is also perhaps about how we try to reject realities that don’t fit into our own chosen life narrative and how tragedy and refusal to face it can affect and shape every aspect of our lives…or perhaps not. But the thing about this novel –like all good speculative fiction, it’s the kind of story that raises questions beyond the narrative and makes the reader think long after they have finished reading it.
Thanks to Netgalley and Mayapple Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
January 6, 2020
I just finished this novel by Eleanor Lerman, who is probably best known in the SF genre for her pervious award-winning novel “Radiomen”
“The Stargazer’s Embassy” is another interesting work also told from the point of view of a single woman who is a resident of New York City. Ms. Lerman is a New Yorker herself, and her city is almost a character in her novels. The descriptions of place are very vivid.
Julia is a solitary woman who struggles to have a normal life, and works as a cleaning lady. She tries not to see the “things” that often gaze at her from a distance. They seem to want something from her, but she wants nothing to do with them. Her deceased mother had some type of relationship with these things, but Julia rejects them.
Julia meets a professor and psychiatrist whom she falls in love with, but is horrified to learn that he is researching and treating people who have experienced these beings. His murder begins a course of events that will force Julie to deal with these visitors, and answer questions that she has refused to ask since she first met them as a child.
I found this novel to be very literary for a work of SF, which might be expected from an author that is best known as a poet. Her characters are different, and are realized with a good bit of depth. They are interesting and odd people, who have been shaped by their experiences. This is refreshing, as is her take on the visitors which they encounter.
I found this novel a tiny bit difficult to buy in e-pub format. I eventually obtained it directly from the publisher Mayapple Press (mayapplepress.com). It is apparently readily available in Kindle format, and hardcopy from Amazon.
“The Stargazer’s Embassy” is another interesting work also told from the point of view of a single woman who is a resident of New York City. Ms. Lerman is a New Yorker herself, and her city is almost a character in her novels. The descriptions of place are very vivid.
Julia is a solitary woman who struggles to have a normal life, and works as a cleaning lady. She tries not to see the “things” that often gaze at her from a distance. They seem to want something from her, but she wants nothing to do with them. Her deceased mother had some type of relationship with these things, but Julia rejects them.
Julia meets a professor and psychiatrist whom she falls in love with, but is horrified to learn that he is researching and treating people who have experienced these beings. His murder begins a course of events that will force Julie to deal with these visitors, and answer questions that she has refused to ask since she first met them as a child.
I found this novel to be very literary for a work of SF, which might be expected from an author that is best known as a poet. Her characters are different, and are realized with a good bit of depth. They are interesting and odd people, who have been shaped by their experiences. This is refreshing, as is her take on the visitors which they encounter.
I found this novel a tiny bit difficult to buy in e-pub format. I eventually obtained it directly from the publisher Mayapple Press (mayapplepress.com). It is apparently readily available in Kindle format, and hardcopy from Amazon.
July 2, 2017
This well-written, thoughtful novel is not so much science fiction as it is a story of a mother's betrayal and the consequences of keeping secrets. Except for the aliens.
Julia feels betrayed by her mother ever since her mother took her into the woods to meet "things". Silent "things" in badly-fitting human clothes that Julia hates upon sight. Julia's step-father, who owns a bar called the Stargazer's Embassy, tell everyone his wife stargazes as she goes out into the woods nightly. Now that her mother has died of cancer, Julia is constantly watched by "things". Only she can see them. Julia works as a house cleaner, with loud rock music blasting from her earphones at work and home to keep her from thinking about the "things". Julia meets a psychiatry professor, John, and they fall in love. Julia keeps the story of her mother and the "things" from John; but John tells Julia nothing about his research. They lie to each other about what has the most importance in each of their lives. The results are tragic and heart-breaking. Themes of the pain and danger of keeping secrets, and how miscommunication can have shocking consequences, resonate throughout the novel, not only Julia and John's relationship.
Lerman's writing is full of beautiful imagery. The first time I read this book, I was saddened by the ending. The second time I read it, I found the ending oddly hopeful. I loved it both times.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Julia feels betrayed by her mother ever since her mother took her into the woods to meet "things". Silent "things" in badly-fitting human clothes that Julia hates upon sight. Julia's step-father, who owns a bar called the Stargazer's Embassy, tell everyone his wife stargazes as she goes out into the woods nightly. Now that her mother has died of cancer, Julia is constantly watched by "things". Only she can see them. Julia works as a house cleaner, with loud rock music blasting from her earphones at work and home to keep her from thinking about the "things". Julia meets a psychiatry professor, John, and they fall in love. Julia keeps the story of her mother and the "things" from John; but John tells Julia nothing about his research. They lie to each other about what has the most importance in each of their lives. The results are tragic and heart-breaking. Themes of the pain and danger of keeping secrets, and how miscommunication can have shocking consequences, resonate throughout the novel, not only Julia and John's relationship.
Lerman's writing is full of beautiful imagery. The first time I read this book, I was saddened by the ending. The second time I read it, I found the ending oddly hopeful. I loved it both times.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
July 12, 2017
I received a copy of this book through NetGalley.
I enjoy a good pulpy sci-fi story from time to time, and that's about all I expected from The Stargazer's Embassy. What I didn't expect was a very well-written and intelligent piece of speculative fiction that still managed to be a page-turner, much like the over-the-top alien story I had expected it to be.
There are moments when the sci-fi elements threaten to become ridiculous, even silly, but that never kept me from investing myself in the story. In fact, it's surprising to me that an alien abduction book didn't feel ridiculous more often. Eleanor Lerman's excellent writing makes it easy to take this story seriously when necessary, and the complex character of Julia keeps the emotional center of the book grounded, even in the midst of little gray invaders.
The Stargazer's Embassy seems keenly aware of the most important part (in my opinion) of good genre fiction: the authentic human element. A great main character, tone, and sense of pacing turns what could have been a silly, inconsequential alien story into something effective and capable of connecting on an emotional level.
I enjoy a good pulpy sci-fi story from time to time, and that's about all I expected from The Stargazer's Embassy. What I didn't expect was a very well-written and intelligent piece of speculative fiction that still managed to be a page-turner, much like the over-the-top alien story I had expected it to be.
There are moments when the sci-fi elements threaten to become ridiculous, even silly, but that never kept me from investing myself in the story. In fact, it's surprising to me that an alien abduction book didn't feel ridiculous more often. Eleanor Lerman's excellent writing makes it easy to take this story seriously when necessary, and the complex character of Julia keeps the emotional center of the book grounded, even in the midst of little gray invaders.
The Stargazer's Embassy seems keenly aware of the most important part (in my opinion) of good genre fiction: the authentic human element. A great main character, tone, and sense of pacing turns what could have been a silly, inconsequential alien story into something effective and capable of connecting on an emotional level.
June 25, 2017
I feel like this is the type of book that the less you know about it, the better it is. So if you haven't yet read the description then don't!! The story focuses on alien abduction/contact but in a slow-building, suspenseful way. The main character Julia could be anyone and her relatability is what grounds the story in Sci fi realism. The story is told from Julia's perspective. Her unreliability as a narrator and limited knowledge of why she is being followed by aliens (not giving anything away - we learn this very early on) is what drives the plot. We are never quite sure what is fact or fiction or what is really going on until the final chapters.
I enjoyed this book a lot! It was slower paced but kept me glued to the pages. I was never quite sure where it was going and I liked that. It explored alien contact from such an interesting perspective. Loved the author's writing style. Would definitely recommend if you enjoy this genre.
I enjoyed this book a lot! It was slower paced but kept me glued to the pages. I was never quite sure where it was going and I liked that. It explored alien contact from such an interesting perspective. Loved the author's writing style. Would definitely recommend if you enjoy this genre.
February 4, 2018
Took me a really, really long time to get into this one. If I hadn't enjoyed Radiomen so much I might not have finished it, in fact. But the second half made up for it.
It's an introspective, moody sort of book. Deep, even. Lots of gray areas.
The characters are well drawn, the plot as believable as a book that posits space aliens really are visiting earth is as likely to get. I found myself cheering for Julia Glazer. She's no Ellen Ripley, but she's human and honest and flawed and interesting. I would enjoy sitting down for a beer with her (not much of a Jack Daniels drinker).
A small flaw: Lerman describes the symbol as a triangle with a straight line on one side next to two stars. Triangles have three straight sides. Bugged me every time she described it. #Confusing.
It's an introspective, moody sort of book. Deep, even. Lots of gray areas.
The characters are well drawn, the plot as believable as a book that posits space aliens really are visiting earth is as likely to get. I found myself cheering for Julia Glazer. She's no Ellen Ripley, but she's human and honest and flawed and interesting. I would enjoy sitting down for a beer with her (not much of a Jack Daniels drinker).
A small flaw: Lerman describes the symbol as a triangle with a straight line on one side next to two stars. Triangles have three straight sides. Bugged me every time she described it. #Confusing.
October 30, 2023
Maybe I had a limited imagination; that quality had been necessary for me to cultivate in order to survive. That's what the music and headphones and books and TV were for: to limit what I did not wish to see, what I did not want to know. [p. 248]
The novel begins in 1990, in New York: Julia Glazer works as a cleaner, keeping her head down, going from work to home to work again. One evening, though, she decides to head to the river to watch a meteor shower. There, she meets John, who's a psychiatrist and former lecturer, a Pulitzer Prize winner. They fall in love well before Julia discovers that his area of interest is 'experiencers' -- people who have, or believe they have, experienced alien abductions. Julia is extremely unhappy with this development: she grew up with a mother who was obsessed with aliens. And Julia happens to know that they are real, and that they seem to be stalking Julia herself.
This is a slow, cerebral novel, focussed more on Julia's interior life and her anger towards her mother than on the aliens themselves. She moves passively through her life, refusing the aliens at every turn: refusing to interact with them, refusing to discuss them with others, refusing to think about what happened to her mother and to herself. Refusing to consider that the tattoo on her wrist, of five stars -- which is also the logo of the Stargazer's Embassy, her stepfather's bar in upstate New York -- might mark her as different.
Then everything changes: and the novel picks up ten years later, when reports of alien abductions are few and far between. Did Julia -- who's returned to her work as a cleaner, who has no friends and no close relationships, who's doing her best not to think about what she calls the things --have something to do with that? And have the aliens really, finally, given up on her, or do they have unresolved issues?
The Stargazer's Embassy is a world away from conventional 'alien abduction' novels. These aliens are unsettling, but not especially monstrous; their agenda remains, for the most part, mysterious; they are badly-dressed, having no understanding of fashion or costume, and some of them have a taste for Jack Daniels. They remember Julia's mother, and they are scared of Julia: but she is not scared of them.
Lerman's prose is full of vivid imagery -- 'The sky was streaky, blue on blue on blue, displaying a small moon ... rising as slowly as if it wasn’t sure it was really supposed to appear tonight' [p. 13] -- and she structures this story, with its deliberately isolated and introspective protagonist, with confidence and care. That said, I didn't find it as enjoyable as Still Alive or Satellite Street. At least on first reading: on a reread, I could appreciate the pacing and the few interactions that Julia allows herself.
July 19, 2017
Full review on camilleareads.wordpress.com
Let me begin by saying that this book was an EXTREMELY slow read. And I’m not interested in books about alien abductions or alien invasion. Ok, ok, so I usually stay away from any alien-related books. So why the heck did I even continue this book?
The main character, Julia Glazer is what many readers would consider the melancholy racked, predictable, and predictable character. This book reads more like a memoir, so don’t expect any space aliens or gory alien experimentation. Not what I expected from the cover.
The theme of The Stargazer’s Embassy borders close to a literary work of the human element, with its thought provoking conversations on aliens and psychology. In fact, the entire concept of aliens trying to invade Earth is given a little twist by the author.
In this novel, there is no what if. Aliens exist, alien abductions exists, and Julia’s trauma exists. You want to be skeptical but the novel draws you in. Fascinating you. Gripping you. Forcing you to face it and that, the realism and the author’s literary skills, impressed me throughout. By the end, the novel turned out to be better than what I had expected it to be.
We’re faced with two separate species disconnected but on common grounds. Both building walls yet desperately seeking a sense of normalcy. Neither is tragic, in fact, both characters – Julia and the aliens – seem to be facing their own existential questions.
Let me begin by saying that this book was an EXTREMELY slow read. And I’m not interested in books about alien abductions or alien invasion. Ok, ok, so I usually stay away from any alien-related books. So why the heck did I even continue this book?
The main character, Julia Glazer is what many readers would consider the melancholy racked, predictable, and predictable character. This book reads more like a memoir, so don’t expect any space aliens or gory alien experimentation. Not what I expected from the cover.
The theme of The Stargazer’s Embassy borders close to a literary work of the human element, with its thought provoking conversations on aliens and psychology. In fact, the entire concept of aliens trying to invade Earth is given a little twist by the author.
In this novel, there is no what if. Aliens exist, alien abductions exists, and Julia’s trauma exists. You want to be skeptical but the novel draws you in. Fascinating you. Gripping you. Forcing you to face it and that, the realism and the author’s literary skills, impressed me throughout. By the end, the novel turned out to be better than what I had expected it to be.
We’re faced with two separate species disconnected but on common grounds. Both building walls yet desperately seeking a sense of normalcy. Neither is tragic, in fact, both characters – Julia and the aliens – seem to be facing their own existential questions.
June 18, 2017
The Stargazer’s Embassy by Eleanor Lerman
Julia Glazer moved from a small town in upstate New York and now cleans offices and homes in New York City to maintain a solitary life. As she finishes work on one hot summer evening she joins a small crowd to watch the Perseid meteors where she meets psychiatrist John Benton. Slowly over time a relationship develops but begins to fall apart when Julia learns that John is involved in research about persons with UFO experiences. This upsets and angers Julia because of her childhood with her crazy mother's alien experiences. Slowly Julia's faces secrets of her past and images in her present.
Review courtesy of advanced reader's copy (ARC) from Net Galley.
Julia Glazer moved from a small town in upstate New York and now cleans offices and homes in New York City to maintain a solitary life. As she finishes work on one hot summer evening she joins a small crowd to watch the Perseid meteors where she meets psychiatrist John Benton. Slowly over time a relationship develops but begins to fall apart when Julia learns that John is involved in research about persons with UFO experiences. This upsets and angers Julia because of her childhood with her crazy mother's alien experiences. Slowly Julia's faces secrets of her past and images in her present.
Review courtesy of advanced reader's copy (ARC) from Net Galley.
July 16, 2017
Literary soft science fiction
I enjoyed this book. Eleanor Lerman is an excellent writer and the book was hard to put down. As literary fiction, it did a great job of portraying the human condition, but as science fiction it was disappointing. For most of the book, I could not tell if this was a book about alien experiences or psychiatry. But the question comes down to whether I enjoyed the book or not, and I did. I liked the first-person narrative and I thought the ending (no spoilers) was excellent. I recommend this book for readers who like soft science fiction, but fans of hard science fiction may be disappointed.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
I enjoyed this book. Eleanor Lerman is an excellent writer and the book was hard to put down. As literary fiction, it did a great job of portraying the human condition, but as science fiction it was disappointing. For most of the book, I could not tell if this was a book about alien experiences or psychiatry. But the question comes down to whether I enjoyed the book or not, and I did. I liked the first-person narrative and I thought the ending (no spoilers) was excellent. I recommend this book for readers who like soft science fiction, but fans of hard science fiction may be disappointed.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
September 21, 2017
I got this book from Net Galley in exchange of the honest review.
The book in itself presented a novel story which presented the alien and alien abduction. I won't call it completely the science fiction as it felt like the study of the mindset of the people. The characters and plots are well-developed, and they captured my attention well.
I only had a gripe with the ending which did not sit well with me.
Overall an interesting read which I will recommend.
The book in itself presented a novel story which presented the alien and alien abduction. I won't call it completely the science fiction as it felt like the study of the mindset of the people. The characters and plots are well-developed, and they captured my attention well.
I only had a gripe with the ending which did not sit well with me.
Overall an interesting read which I will recommend.
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