Alien Morning

Peter Holman is a freelance sweeper. The year 2030 sees a new era in social media. Sweepcasting, a multisensory interface that can convey every thought, touch, smell, sight, and sound, can immerse the audience in another person’s experience.

By fate, chance, or some darker design, Peter is perfectly positioned to be the one human to document the arrival of the aliens, the S’hudonni.

The S’hudonni offer advanced science in exchange for various trade goods from Earth, but nothing is as simple as it seems. Peter finds himself falling for Heather Newsome, a scientist chosen by the S’hudonni to act as their liaison. Engaged to his brilliant marine biologist brother, Tom, Heather is not what she appears to be, but Peter has bigger problems. While he and his brother fight over longstanding family troubles, another issue looms: a secret war among the aliens, who are neither as benevolent nor as unified as they first seemed.

Peter slowly learns secrets he was never meant to know, about both the S’hudonni and his own family. Realizing that he has been used, he can only try to turn his situation around, to save what he can of his life and of the future of Earth.

Shortlisted for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2016.

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The start to a great trilogy and an enjoyable read for any lover of first-contact sf.

Booklist

An intriguing look at colonization from the viewpoint of those being taken over.

Publishers Weekly

Brilliantly crafted, fiercely real, Alien Morning is first contact as it may very well happen. Relentless and original.

Julie Czerneda

author of The Clan Chronicles

A first-contact story like no other. Once I started it I couldn't put it down.

Elizabeth Hand

author of Generation Loss, Available Dark, and Hard Light

Deeply human, eerily alien, and altogether an exciting, moving, and thought-provoking novel.

Ben Bova

six-time Hugo Award–winning author

The best first-contact story I’ve seen in decades.

Ben Bova

six-time Hugo Award–winning author

A startlingly credible reflection of how our society copes—or doesn’t cope—with its own strangeness.

Stephen R. Donaldson

author of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

What happens when journalists use senses, not just words? This nifty look at an eye-opening future is well worth your time.

Gregory Benford

Nebula Award–winning author of Timescape