Being Alien

Tom Red-Clay was a teenaged parole violator when he was plucked from the mountains of Virginia to live among the 100 sapient species that make up the Karst Federation. Within a few years time he has found his place among the First Contact crews who handle bringing new species into the federation, but his liaison with a Tibetan woman descended from a tribe brought to Karst 500 years ago has not turned out well. As this second volume of Ore's Alien Trilogy opens, Tom is detailed to a party sent back to reconnoiter earth, check out both how close the planet is coming to the gate technology that makes intergalactic travel possible, and find Tom a suitable mate in Berkeley, California. (Where but in Berkeley might aliens who despite surgery and costuming do not look all that human on close examination still be expected to pass as the real thing?) The group that returns to Karst includes Tom's future mate, another couple who are, no matter how you finesse it, been more or less kidnapped for the journey, and Tom's older brother, who's brain has been addled by drugs and years of incarceration.

Ore is something of a miniaturist when it comes to plot. She opts out on the opportunity for grand, interplanetary adventure in favor of political maneuvering and mating rituals, but human and alien. And yes, there is some interspecies hanky panky. This second volume teeters on the edge of being nothing more than pleasantly boring, but the characters are engaging as they face the real life challenges of living among 100 alien species. Humans will be humans, just as Barcons and will be Barcons, and Gwyngs will be Gwyngs.