"Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/

A standalone science fiction book, no sequel or prequel that I know of.
I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 1997. I
am slowly working my way through all of Robert Sawyer's books.

In 2009, a small alien space ship lands on Earth in the Atlantic ocean.
It is greeted by a Russian submarine, a USA aircraft carrier, and a
cruise ship. After exchanging signals, the alien space ship takes off
and lands on the aircraft carrier deck. An alien steps out of the space
ship which turns out to be a lander. There is a 300 meter long deep
space ship in a polar orbit that we had not seen previously. The
aircraft carrier then heads to New York City for the alien to meet with
the UN.

At the UN, various speeches are exchanged. Then the lander heads back
to the mother ship and brings down the rest of the crew of eight. But
one crew member died during the two hundred plus year journey. And then
a human dies and an alien is put on trial in Los Angeles for his murder.

The author has a website at:
https://sfwriter.com/

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (48 reviews)

Lynn

On 2022-09-04, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

> "Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
> https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/

That book put me off Sawyer.

It's clear the writer compulsively watched the O. J. Simpson trial
in 1995, instead of the ignoring the whole crazy circus, and it
deeply affected him. This novel is a book-length rant about
everything he, as a Canadian, considers wrong about the American
justice system, or at least the strawman version of it he presents
here.

My own review at the time was rather more positive than I remember:
http://home.pages.de/~naddy/reviews/IllegalAlien.html

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

On Wed, 7 Sep 2022 17:02:19 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber
<naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

>On 2022-09-04, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
>> https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/
>
>That book put me off Sawyer.
>
>It's clear the writer compulsively watched the O. J. Simpson trial
>in 1995, instead of the ignoring the whole crazy circus, and it
>deeply affected him. This novel is a book-length rant about
>everything he, as a Canadian, considers wrong about the American
>justice system, or at least the strawman version of it he presents
>here.

Well, the OJ 1995 trial was pretty much a disaster.

As was the McMartin Preschool case.

Both driven more by idiocy than by any known form of sanity.

>My own review at the time was rather more positive than I remember:
>http://home.pages.de/~naddy/reviews/IllegalAlien.html
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."

In article <uh4khhlk5d4if2l4m2jvm69hleq9iqq46u@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>On Wed, 7 Sep 2022 17:02:19 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber
><naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
>
>>On 2022-09-04, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> "Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
>>>
>https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/
>>
>>That book put me off Sawyer.
>>
>>It's clear the writer compulsively watched the O. J. Simpson trial
>>in 1995, instead of the ignoring the whole crazy circus, and it
>>deeply affected him. This novel is a book-length rant about
>>everything he, as a Canadian, considers wrong about the American
>>justice system, or at least the strawman version of it he presents
>>here.
>
>Well, the OJ 1995 trial was pretty much a disaster.
>
>As was the McMartin Preschool case.
>
Granted, but as a Canadian Sawyer is legally required under the
secret charter amendment to put as negative a spin as possible on
US matters.

I recall noticing with some amusement in ... the Neanderthal books?
I think? ... that pretty much everything asserted about the US was
either wrong or misleadingly correct (which is to say, New York
did have the death penalty at the time but had not actually applied
it in decades [1]).

1: TBF, a prosecuter procedural series the Mystery Guild used to
send me, one written by an American, starred a DA who always got
the death penalty in cases where the accused didn't die a karmic
death before the summation despite the notable handicap of working
in New York. In fact, even when NY dropped the death penalty
entirely, the DA still managed to get it applied.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

On 9/7/2022 12:02 PM, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
> On 2022-09-04, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
>> https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/
>
> That book put me off Sawyer.
>
> It's clear the writer compulsively watched the O. J. Simpson trial
> in 1995, instead of the ignoring the whole crazy circus, and it
> deeply affected him. This novel is a book-length rant about
> everything he, as a Canadian, considers wrong about the American
> justice system, or at least the strawman version of it he presents
> here.
>
> My own review at the time was rather more positive than I remember:
> http://home.pages.de/~naddy/reviews/IllegalAlien.html

I thought it was an excellent space opera book, well researched. I will
probably read it again so I gave it 5 stars. Actually, it reminded me
more of WWI with all of the actors at the end looking for the bad guys.

Lynn

On Thu, 8 Sep 2022 16:22:30 -0000 (UTC), jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:

>In article <uh4khhlk5d4if2l4m2jvm69hleq9iqq46u@4ax.com>,
>Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>>On Wed, 7 Sep 2022 17:02:19 -0000 (UTC), Christian Weisgerber
>><naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:
>>
>>>On 2022-09-04, Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Illegal Alien" by Robert J. Sawyer
>>>>
>>https://www.amazon.com/Illegal-Alien-Robert-J-Sawyer/dp/1937007219/
>>>
>>>That book put me off Sawyer.
>>>
>>>It's clear the writer compulsively watched the O. J. Simpson trial
>>>in 1995, instead of the ignoring the whole crazy circus, and it
>>>deeply affected him. This novel is a book-length rant about
>>>everything he, as a Canadian, considers wrong about the American
>>>justice system, or at least the strawman version of it he presents
>>>here.
>>
>>Well, the OJ 1995 trial was pretty much a disaster.
>>
>>As was the McMartin Preschool case.
>>
>Granted, but as a Canadian Sawyer is legally required under the
>secret charter amendment to put as negative a spin as possible on
>US matters.
>
>I recall noticing with some amusement in ... the Neanderthal books?
>I think? ... that pretty much everything asserted about the US was
>either wrong or misleadingly correct (which is to say, New York
>did have the death penalty at the time but had not actually applied
>it in decades [1]).
>
>1: TBF, a prosecuter procedural series the Mystery Guild used to
>send me, one written by an American, starred a DA who always got
>the death penalty in cases where the accused didn't die a karmic
>death before the summation despite the notable handicap of working
>in New York. In fact, even when NY dropped the death penalty
>entirely, the DA still managed to get it applied.

To paraphrase Hitchcock during the filming of /Marnie/:

"That, my dear, is why they call it /fiction/."
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."