I didn't really care about believing

Light Years From Home by Mike Chen

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

Genre: science fiction

Review: What happens to your family when you're abducted by aliens?  For Jakob, it turns out that his younger sister and father dedicate their lives to proving the existance of extraterrestrials, while his twin sister becomes a hardened cynic, and his mother descends into dementia.  When Jakob returns to Earth after 15 years of being an inter-galactic soldier and engineer, he must navigate all the family dynamics that he missed, and convince his family that he's not the ne'er-do-well they always thought he was if he's going to be able to save the galaxy.

The best science fiction is as much a story about characters as it is about science, which means that the characters have to read as real, 3-dimensional people (human or otherwise).  Unfortunately, Chen's characters don't live up to that standard.  We're supposed to believe that working together to save the universe changes their relationship, but none of the siblings changes much as an individual.  The tone of book veers between sentimentality and harshness, with one sister repeatedly mentally berating the other for not being present throughout their mother's decline, and Jakob continuously displaying a facial expression that apparently tells his family everything they need to know about him.  This is how we're supposed to understand the familial tensions.

Not being able to give Chen many points on characters, I hoped that at least the science fiction aspect of the book would redeem it.  Unfortunately, not so.  The science fiction parts almost seem just grafted on to give something to hold the story together.  Jakob tells us about this vast, horrible inter-galactic war, but it's really just stage setting.  Fortunately for Jakob, though, the aliens who abduct him are the good guys in this very black-and-white, good-vs-evil struggle.  I would have hated for him to be captured by the bad guys, but it might have made for a more compelling story.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.