Welcome To Iconocast |
How to add a URL link from your web site to the Iconocast web sites |
|
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||
Stephenie Meyer, reigning queen of young-adult novels about teenage vampires, turns her gaze skyward in her first adult novel, The Host.
Result: a startling and addictive Invasion of the Body Snatchers alien fest for the 21st century. Unlike the classic human-vs.-alien stories in which ghastly looking creatures (think Alien) are the norm, Meyer offers aliens so docile you wonder how they managed to take over Earth. Still, the effect is frightening.
EXCERPT: Get to the soul of 'The Host'
In the opening scene, an incision is made in the neck of a human, and a soul — "a small glistening creature" — that has traveled millions of miles through space in a cryotank is placed in the wound, then weaves its way through the host body. Alien-infested humans have a silver cast to their eyes. Most earthlings have received these new souls. But the host for this particular soul is scrappy Melanie Stryder, who threw herself down an elevator shaft while trying to avoid capture. But Melanie doesn't die, and her own spirit, to the surprise of the soul that now lives in and controls her body, is alive and kicking — and there's no way to get her out. What follows is an epic story of love, family and loyalty. The novel has that element required of all human-vs.-predator dramas — a ragtag group of rebels who have somehow evaded the aliens. As luck would have it, the soul placed in Melanie's body is impressionable, and soon Melanie is on the run. The Host turns into a soap opera as Melanie persuades Wanderer (the soul's name) to flee into the desert, where Melanie hopes to find her brother, Jake, and her boyfriend, Jared. Melanie/Wanderer discover them with the rebels, but Wanderer becomes attracted to Ian, another rebel. That's right: one body, two souls inside, each in love with a different man. It's hard to figure out what makes The Host any more "mature" in content than Meyer's Twilight series. There's no adult language, no graphic sex scenes or acts of violence. The closest it comes to gore is when the rebels' resident physician pulls a Dr. Frankenstein and attempts to cut the rogue souls out of human lab rats. The Host is The X-Files meets Days of Our Lives. Despite some sticky-sweet dialogue, Meyer's story and characters will stoke fans of both sci fi and romance.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||
| Continue News With: News9A | |||
Iconocast Home PageContact Iconocast |
| © 2003-07. ICONOCAST is a trademark of iconocast.com. |
Enlarge