Book Review: Not Alone, by Craig A. Falconer

I came across this book in the Kindle store back when I first bought a Kindle - probably summer of 2016.  I was immediately interested in it, and purchased it.  It then got buried under a bunch of purchases of books my some of my favorite authors and I forgot about it.  I recently saw that a sequel has been published, which jogged my memory that I had this book on my reading list.  I also recently had a very busy period where I wasn't reading any novels at all, so I started it during a free moment.

Let me say that this book is not what I was expecting.  The back cover blurb indicates that Dan McCarthy discovers evidence of a government cover-up and his quest to force disclosure.  Given the books length, about 736 pages, I expected that this would be the smallest portion of the story - I expected the majority of it to deal with first contact.

This isn't the case - and that is not a bad thing.  This is a very different kind of first contact story - and it *is* a first contact story, sort of.  What do I mean by that?  Well, you'll just need to read the book - as I said, it is a very different treatment of the first contact theme.

The story is fast-paced.  Dan's accidental discovery of the evidence, his leak of of the information, and his path to forcing disclosure, unfolds over two weeks, and about 50% of the book.  The remainder of the book deals with the events that take place after disclosure, and this is where the plot becomes much more interesting (and it was already super engaging).

The chapters count down to disclosure, and then begin counting up once disclosure occurs (a mechanism you've probably seen in some other novels).  I'm not sure I understand the countdown measurement - it is not in days or hours, and there is no hint that I could find as to what the numbering stands for.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, but Not Alone is interesting and engaging from beginning to end, and it doesn't disappoint - quite the achievement when the story ended up being much different than I was expecting.  There are also some very unexpected surprises later in the story.  Remember the surprise in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle?   (What, you haven't read it?  Remedy that immediately - you are missing out!)  There is an equivalent element of surprise to be found in Not Alone.

Overall this is a very pleasing story of a young man with his head in the stars who stumbles onto the opportunity to prove that his belief in UFO's and aliens is real, and chooses to act on it.  Very highly recommended!  I can't wait to check out the sequel and see how things ultimately get resolved.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from others.  If you have read this book and enjoyed it I'd be interested in hearing from you.