- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; 1st Edition edition (28 Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0575068949
- ISBN-13: 978-0575068940
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,671,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
James Lovegrove's Days (1997) was well received and shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The Foreigners is a more traditional blend of SF and police procedural thriller; well written, inventive and with an exotically detailed "New Venice" setting.
The Foreigners are enigmatic, seven-foot alien tourists whose presence has halted ecological collapse and transformed Earth. They come with gifts, including free, non-polluting power and a new structural material which--coaxed by music--grows into buildings of glittering crystal. No one knows what's inside their golden robes and masks.
All the Foreigners ask is music and song... though there is something worrying about their shuddering, ecstatic response to the highly paid human "Sirens" who compete to sing for them. No physical contact, but somehow it reeks of prostitution. Lovegrove says he was inspired by the Thai sex-tourism industry that sees Westerners as "walking cashpoints, there to be milked and bilked".
When a dead Siren and a Foreigner's emptied robes are found in a plush hotel, it suggests something sordid--maybe a suicide pact? The investigator is London detective Jack Parry, transferred to the Foreign Policy Police that struggles to prevent anti-alien fanatics from scaring our benefactors away. As FPP publicity disasters follow thick and fast, Parry finds himself more personally entangled in the case than he could have imagined.
Connoisseurs of SF detective puzzles will probably be ahead of Parry by the halfway mark, but Lovegrove has extra surprises up his sleeve. A grippingly told story of an ingeniously imagined future. --David Langford
Product Description
It was a bizarre and beautiful invasion. Suddenly the Foreigners were everywhere: walking the streets of 21st century earth as if they had been there all along; their inscrutable golden masks floating above the crowds on top of their seven foot robe clad bodies. They brought with them the technological marvel of Crystech at once a power source and a building material; it banished all our worries and heralded a new utopia. All they asked of us was that we sing to them. All they threatened was that one day they might leave and take Crystech with them throwing us back into the dark ages. And now, in a hotel room on one of the gleaming white streets of New Venice, one of the Foreigners has been murdered. And if we cannot find out who killed it before another dies then the Foreigners will go giving us back disharmony and, perhaps, freedom.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
i bought the hardback version for a quid the other week, and while the 'twist' at the end is sadly obvious and the writing a wee bit pedestrian, its not a bad holiday read.
i did find the authors habit of using similar words together, as though showing off his wordpower incredibly tedious and annoying, athough again, there are good points in the book.
the general premise, for example, is great.
dont expect a classic here, just make sure you buy it for less than say, £2 to ensure you get your moneys worth. having said that, i would like to give the guy a chance and read 'Day's' too.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I must say, I was quite taken with various positive comments and reviews on the jacket of the book. Something new, thought provoking and ground-breaking perhaps. I was very, very wrong. This is a poorly written Agatha Christie Novel which is only nominally Sci-fi in terms of genre. Do not believe anyone who tells you there is a brilliant twist at the end because there just isn't. The world the author describes is painfully boring and these tall golden giants contribute hardly at all to the benefit of the story.
I am extremely disappointed and wish I could have my money back.
I am extremely disappointed and wish I could have my money back.
Format:Paperback
Although I quite enjoyed the detective elements in this novel, I was most taken with the observations made as to how the human race would react to the sudden appearance of extra terrestrials in our midst. The ensuing ethical questions regarding the desirability of us being able to fulfil our 'human' destiny whether for good or ill were raised with some care and the author was at pains not to ram any particular conclusion down our throats. Although with the image of humanity, effectively, whoring itself for the alien dollar there is probably not too much doubt as to the direction in which we are being nudged.
This was a thought provoking book wrapped around a competent police thriller and really shows the flexibility that SF can enjoy in asking us to think about our own natures. Good science fiction has never been about science in the future it has always been about ourselves in the here and now. This is an excellent contribution to the genre.
This was a thought provoking book wrapped around a competent police thriller and really shows the flexibility that SF can enjoy in asking us to think about our own natures. Good science fiction has never been about science in the future it has always been about ourselves in the here and now. This is an excellent contribution to the genre.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Cloak & dagger & crystech
Picking and choosing elements of detective thriller and soft sci-fi, "The Foreigners" is the best of both worlds. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2002
SF? More a detective/thriller
Although this novel has an sf element, to be honest, it is a classic detective/thriller novel.
This is an extremely difficult novel to review - the final twist is wonderful. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2001
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