The Man Who Fell to Earth

A short and simple story about a humanoid from Mars who lands on Earth, with a plan to weave himself into human society, and find passage for the rest of his people. Of course, all things cannot go according to plan, and the alien finds himself becoming more and more like the humans he has studied, leading to the questioning of his own motives and values.

When I say simple, I'm mostly referring to the prose style, though there are occasional moments of real eloquence and beauty. Though the prose is typically short and to the point, that does not mean a lack of deeper meaning or theme. Tevis explores both addiction (specially alcohol addiction) and alienation in a sophisticated way. His message is crisp and clear within a lucid and fast moving plot. A lot of plates to juggle all at once, but Tevis does so with a certain amount of grace that I was captivated by. The characterization of Newton is excellent, and leads to an ending of his arc that is both believable and tragic. 

In terms of flaws, this future USA feels incredibly dated, to the point that I'm confused as to why Tevis didn't just set the novel in 1963, when it was written. All of the same critiques could've been made about current U.S. Values, and the Cold War. It seemed needless, especially since things have barely advanced in this reality. I also thought that the characters outside of Newton were fine at best, but could've been more thoroughly explored.

This is deeply emotional book, one that moved me greatly. It was excellently paced, outside of a slight sluggishness in the middle, and I found it quite engaging to read. I do have a hard time including this in the science fiction genre, because outside of the surface level veneer this is much more about people than anything else. It's a human story, even though the human is from another planet.