Book review: Culture Shock by M.G. Herron

I believe I saw this book pop up in one of my social media feeds - perhaps facebook, but I can't really remember.  The artwork was immediately appealing, and the story sounded kind of neat.  Advertised as "A First Contact Mystery Thriller".  I believe I've seen that combination of words put together like that before.  It's also recommended for fans of Men in Black and The X-Files.  This book was on sale for $0.99 on Amazon, so I took a chance on it.

The story kept me interested - there's lots to like here.  I don't know about The X-Files - I wasn't a major fan, and only saw a handful of episodes - but there are definitely elements of Men in Black here.  In this case, rather than a cop, we have a bounty hunter chasing an alien wearing the skin of a human.  Sound familiar?  And, the alien jumps off a building at some point to escape.  This story also shares some elements in common with The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher - rather than a down-on-his luck wizard, struggling to make enough money to pay rent for home/office, we have a down-on-his luck bounty hunter who has gotten himself in a deep hole of debt.

Anyway, just like in Men in Black, there are aliens on Earth.  They live right among us, and we have no idea they are there.  But, this story isn't about an organization that monitors and polices aliens that are on Earth.  Not that there isn't an organization that maintains galactic order, but said organization is not here, active in everyday life.  Most of the aliens are nice enough, and just want to be left alone - man are here for a better life than where they originated - but there are some who have become a criminal element, and some of them play a part in this story.

The main character, Anderson Gunn, finds his debt spiraling out of control and  he does what he must to try an dig himself out and make his situation better.  As he goes along, he learns more an more about what's really going on in the world, and who this alien is that he's been unknowingly tracking down.

There are some interesting twists and turns.  Unlike Men in Black, the aliens in this story have more than weapons.  Some of them have various mental abilities, or physical abilities that would make them seem like they belong on Professor Xavier's team of X-Men.

While there are many concepts that are borrowed from other sources, for the most part the author places a new skin on it.  The protagonist finds himself in a situation that he doesn't like, and will only involve himself far enough to help his situation - nothing crazy, like actually getting on the payroll of an organization that could loosely be referred to as a galactic police force.  That being said, there are echos of DC's Green Lantern Core here, and perhaps a "buddy system" reminiscent of R.I.P.D. and the TV show Heroes from 2006.

While Culture Shock doesn't break a large amount of new ground, this is a series introduction to take note of, and I'm interested in what the future volumes may bring (from what I can see, volumes 2 and 3 are more highly rated than the first one).  I'm a huge fan of The Dresden Files, which in my opinion, started off in a similar way.  The original story, while not one of the greatest first novels I've read, did lead to a series continued to improve and get more exciting and interesting as the volumes kept coming.  Essentially, the first volume introduced the main character, and some of his problems, while on a fairly short case.  I don't want to give away much of the new ground that is broken, as it takes away from the enjoyment of the story.  Although, I will hint that one of my favorite moments involves pizza

At the current price on Amazon, Culture Shock is definitely worth a look, and it's an easy, quick read, so check it out.

As always, I like to hear from my readers.  If you've read this book/series, I'm interested in what you thought about it.