Alien

by Ali Raz

In a city infested with aliens, a haunted alien hunter sets out on a hazardous quest involving a secret radio station, a seemingly omniscient group called “The Syndicate,” and a host of either friends or foes. Laced with intergalactic paranoia, soft-boiled charisma, and the slick ambience of a horror show, these streets will permit only one outcome…

Genres: Science Fiction

104 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An alien hunter is on a return trip to hell. The earth no longer embraces humanity. There is no compassion for a solitary soul. The only comfort is the eerie static from an obscure radio station. There is a searing yearning surrounded by discarded bodies and blameless victims. Beware the color red.

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfolding as scraps of a desperate narrative, an alien hunter in a city under siege navigates a strange, distorted and deadly terrain. A surreal game is afoot in this hellish urban landscape. Our hero knows she’s a pawn, but does not fully understand how predetermined her movements are. Spare and wild this slender volume slips from one bad dream to another— hideous fun!
Longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2023/01/03/th...

[A.J. Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was not what I was expecting. I thought that I was getting a standard sci-fi tale about someone hunting aliens. What I got was so much better. Something original, full of creativity and innovation. Where the structure, prose, and formatting all work together to make the reader feel like they are a part of the story. Where there is some work to do, some detecting, to get to the bottom of this curious novella. On one level, it is a standard sci-fi tale about someone hunting aliens. A good one too, set in a potential dystopia, where the streets are hot and pungent, full of piss, suffering, death. But step away, consider things that you are reading, and there is so much more. Something that explores themes such identity. relationships, perception, psychosis. Something that by the end, leaves you questioning if anything is even real anymore.

[Egghead · Rating 5 out of 5]

not book everyone
else is reviewing- goodreads
has bungled entry

(this review is for
greenleaf reader written by
peter tuesday hughes)

surprised at how good
the sci-fi is in this book
ace double with dongs

[Douglass Gaking · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alien is a fragmented novella that is a wild ride through a society and a mind in crisis. The alien invasion is not going well for humanity, for the protagonist, or even seemingly for the aliens. It is creepy, vile, and mind-melting fiction. It gave me some vibes of of Ray Bradbury and Chuck Palahniuk, but Raz definitely has an original voice and is no copycat. Raz takes risks with style, formatting, themes, etc. that could all make a book like this feel forced or disappointing, but she has the writing chops to pull it off. It has an excellent flow and vibe to it. This is a perfect choice if you want a quick Halloween seasonal read or just want to enjoy something unapologetically disgusting at any time of year!

[Tony Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the top of Emily Dickinson’s head wrote a book after being taken off by a 21st century poem, it might look like this. And perhaps that’s what was broadcast by the poet’s radio that the narrator of Ali Raz’s Alien was listening to. This one is for people who ever stayed up late at night looking at the Wikipedia page for the Black Dahlia murder or stumbled upon the Jack the Ripper crime scene photos.

This is a funky little book with its passages arranged like one of those push-pin conspiracy boards. Bring your own red thread to connect the dots. Warning: this book has a high body count! Wear your butcher’s apron!

[erini · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 / 5

[Maryann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another book I had to read for my creative writing MFA and passionately disliked.

I do NOT want to have to think about this fragmentary, incoherent jumble of kinky lesbian sex, grotesque violence, random static, and weird little blue men any longer than I have to. It reads like Carmen Maria Machado if she made even less sense.

Then again ... maybe I just don't "get it."