"Fine space opera"
Chicago commodities traders Marcus Walker camps in an
isolated part of the California Sierra Nevadas when he
sees a bright light fall into the nearby woods. When he
goes into the nearest town for food and drunk, he
discusses what he saw with the patrons; they convince him
that a meteorite landed nearby. He goes to sleep at his
campsite, but wakes up to the same scenery except that he
is on a spaceship taking him away from earth. He meets George, who like him has a universal translator
in his brain. George's intelligence was also boosted so
he could talk with the Vilenjii, purple pointy-headed
giants who want to sell the various species to collectors
for a profit. Marcus and Roger join forces with an
octopus-like sentient species and the snake-like
Tuuq'alian to escape from their holding pens. Since they
don't know where they are, they depend on the escape pod
to flee the ship and the kindness of another sentient race
to help them out of their predicament. LOST AND FOUND, the first book in THE TAKEN TRILOGY, is
space opera at its finest. People who believe in alien
abductions will read what happens to the abductees and
hope that it is science fiction not science fact. The
four sentient beings take their situation very seriously
and constantly find ways of outwitting their captors.
When interacting with each other, their conversations
range from the ridiculous to the sublime. It will be hard
to wait for the next installment in this exciting series
to see what happens next to these homesick wanderers. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 5, 2004
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