The Green and the Gray

This is a great book. Clever storyline and interesting characters. I don't see how anyone could have failed to enjoy this book unless they skipped a few pages and got confused. Another great book from Zahn! I would like to see this as a movie..

Roger and Caroline Whittier, an ordinary New York City couple are caught in the middle of a feud between two alien races secretly living in New York. They must prevent a war that could kill millions of unsuspecting bystanders. What makes this story unique is that it is set in modern day New York. Most of Timothy Zahn's stories are set somewhere in the distant future. But as always his story telling ability makes this a wonderful read.

I've been a fan of Timothy Zahn's work ever since I picked up Heir to the Empire so many years ago. I really love his characters and their development/progression, it's easy for me to mesh with his characters and feel for them. In what I consider the traditional Zahn style, the book throws all of these pieces of information at you but doesn't connect them until the ending twist, which is always fun. It's almost like solving a puzzle. I couldn't put this book down until I finished it. If you've read Zahn before and liked his work, definitely read it. If this is a first Zahn for you, I highly recommend it, although if you're not opposed to Star Wars I would start with Heir to the Empire.

Granted, Zahn's books are a bit formulaic - the oncoming conflict that will destroy wherever the book is set or kill many innocents, the inability to stop it until the very end when a surprise twist occurs that fixes it all - but that doesn't mean it's bad. Most mystery stories follow much the same plot, but without the feeling of impending doom. The point is not that you already know how its going to end, the point is how he gets there. And, in this case just as in all the others, it's one amazing ride. The two cultures and upwards of 30 main characters are all fascinating and vibrant, keeping the reading flowing through all 450-odd pages. The plot twists come with the usual Zahn rapidity, each being totally plausible and usually just as totally unexpected (though, in hindsight, you should have seen it coming). I buy every Zahn book as soon as I realize it's out, and I haven't once been dissappointed. It's not the deepest reading ever, but it's always fun, and it might make you think more than you expect. Highly reccomended.

In 1928, extraterrestrials that looked human went through Riker's Island to become citizens of their new home. The Greens were chased off their home world by the Grays in a war that started over a simple misunderstanding. The Greens did not know that the Grays, in order to escape the Others, followed the Greens to earth. For decades neither group knew of the other's existence until a boy from one group and a girl from the other became friends. Their elders found out since both live in New York City; the Grays try to shove the Greens off the island until they agree to a truce if the Greens kill Melantha Green who can destroy the city with her mental powers. Innocent bystanders Roger and Caroline Whittier take Melantha try to hide her when someone from the group hands her to them but she disappears and they don't know which group got her. The Whittiers are determined to save Melantha and their city yet also somehow forge a truce between the opposing camps. There are many aliens who live among us in science fiction stories such as the Men in Black, but Timothy Zahn has a unique and original way of taking a tribe plot and turning it into a fantastic storyline. This is an action oriented story where it is almost impossible to figure out the characters motives and nobody knows who is a friend or an enemy. This makes for a lot of suspense and the onus is on the reader to figure out who is friend or foe. There's a surprise twist at the end of the story that makes THE GREEN AND THE GRAY a very exciting work of speculative fiction. Harriet Klausner