Showgirls and Aliens by Darrell B. NelsonMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that, I assume, is meant to contain light-hearted humour throughout. Unfortunately, I found the majority of the “amusing” moments and puns un-funny and cliché-ridden. I got the impression that the whole novel was intended to be a film script, maybe aimed at the teen-aged or young adult market. The level of the drug-taking and erotic moments that occur in the novel tend to indicate the former.
I also found the novel’s many grammatical errors too tedious to keep count of after a while. There were commas and full stops liberally scattered in the wrong places or missing from appropriate phrases and the kindle version that I received for review had wrong formatting and line-spacing all the way through it, unless, maybe, it came from a script. Some of the fight scenes came across to this reader as too unbelievable and in some cases almost farcical. Though, when I thought about it, the flip comments exchanged between the attackers and assailants were so like the slick ones from James Bond just before he “disposed” of the villain, that I suppose they would probably fit in a movie for an audience much younger than this reader!
As a novel I found it lacking in almost every department. While Nomi, the main protagonist, was quite well drawn other characters lacked depth. As I stated previously, plenty of pace but there was such a lack of descriptive narrative about many scenes and settings the author must have been thinking about “the movie” to come, and forgetting that some (many?) readers require some exposition in a novel to add, even provide, some enjoyment to the overall story. I liked the central theme that Darrell Nelson provided of an alien race of reptiles controlling Earth and attempting to impregnate Nomi, but the book was so lacking in other areas (believable dialogue, use of language, correct English) that it only just scraped 2 stars from this reader.
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest, non-reciprocal review.
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