Men in Black: The Green Saliva Blues

This is a fun little book, nothing to engaging, but fun none the less.

Set after the events of MEN IN BLACK but written before MEN IN BLACK II became available. J and L have been partners for almost a year, and up till now nothing has been as exciting as J's first adventure. Although L (formerly Dr. Laurel Weaver) hasn't been with MiB quite as long as J, she's devoted more time to studying the manuals, so she now knows some things he doesn't (for instance, there's a trick to handling a Noisy Cricket), and thus he's still presented as the more junior of the partners. J, L, and other carry-over characters from the film (such as Zed) don't grow or change much from the film. J's sense of humor is allowed to stray into silliness, though (he's developed a taste for suggesting cover stories that can grow into urban legends). The author has introduced new continuing characters within MiB, though: the containment team, although oddly enough they use normal nicknames rather than their official double-letter MiB identities (for example, everybody calls JE "Pro" because he used to be a golf pro). Unauthorized alien landings are MiB's most common problem, but the present case is unusual; someone found a gap in the orbiting platforms' monitoring system, and has been regularly slipping ships in and out without detection. When J and L head out to intercept the next projected landing, they naturally go after what appears to be the worst of the containment problem: they concentrate on the ship's crew, elephant-like Pseudolarix, rather than why they're busy loading what look like flowering plum trees onto a truck. Unfortunately, the Pseudolarix, who'd rather die than suffer the indignity of capture by humans, are the easy part. The treelike Zahurians - meat-eaters with a taste for almost anything that moves - are a danger so terrible that information on them is classified even within MiB: razor-sharp branches, corrosive green sap, and no skill or interest in communication, let alone negotiation. Worse, half the galaxy wants to kill a few Zahurians in revenge for their own losses if MiB can't catch them first. A good plot, but we don't learn many new things about MiB or its people.

Rookie MiB agents Jay and Elle are still drying off behind their ears when two hundred or so of the dreaded Zahurians (plum tree resembling carnivores) drop in for a snack. Not good. But Dean Wesley Smith's spin-off novel fot the hit movie is, more or less. The author captures the flavor and broad humor of the film fairly well, it's easy to hear Will Smith's voice saying lines like "Drop the shrubbery and come out with your trunks up." But the profanity and gore is of the R rated variety, so the novel may be a tad advanced for the film's younger (but still literate) fans. A fun way to pass the time between Mib 1 and 2. Recommended.

This book picks right up from where the movie left offfrom. "J" and "L" have developed a greatrelationship, almost as good as the one between "J" and "K". They are ultra cool agents with ultra cool weapons and an ultra cool sense of humor. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in this series (hopefully I won't have to wait too long). The correct way on how to use the cricket from "L" to "J" was very funny. Maybe we could have a guest return from "K" in the future. "J" and "L" blowing away the scum of the earth in this book shows these aliens what MIB is all about, which is that MIB does'nt take crap from anybody. No matter how big and technologically these aliens think they are above us. Did I say how great this book was? Thanks Dean, for giving me another great series to add to my sci-fi reading list.

While everybody's waiting for MEN IN BLACK 2 to be made (because that cartoon on The WB just don't cut it!), D.W. Smith's book will have to do. The story's decent, with nasty, killer alien trees (Zahurians) slicing and dicing humans up for snacks, with MiB agents Jay and Elle hot on their trails. Smith just didn't fully capture the hip, smart-ass flavor of the movie, and ythat's very important to us MIB fans. This might turn into a decent fiction series, given time.