STEAL THE REAPER

A U.S. Air Force pilot is tapped to recover an alien spaceship in Hosea’s SF novel.

Captain Ava Tan, trained to extract people from dangerous and volatile environments, is one of the Air Force’s finest pilots. Despite her role as a rescuer and transporter, she regrets not taking the combat-aviator track. When her fiance—one of the other captains in her unit—is killed on a mission, Ava is left bereft and unsure about her future. Then, something truly out of this world happens: An alien spacecraft crash-lands on Earth. Specifically, it crashes in a remote region of North Korea, causing a worldwide panic over what might happen if advanced alien technology falls into the hands of the dictatorial Kim Sung-il. Luckily, the Americans have recovered the craft’s pilot, who jettisoned in an escape pod off the coast of Hawaii. From this alien, named Kypa, the authorities learn that within the larger crashed spacecraft is a smaller ship, a prototype (called the Reaper) capable of self-repair built to harvest the crystals that the aliens need to save their home planet. The U.S. government wants that ship—and definitely doesn’t want it to fall into the hands of the Russians or the Chinese. Fresh from her fiance’s funeral, Ava is recruited to sneak into North Korea under an assumed identity, steal the Reaper, pilot it (using alien technology), rescue any alien survivors, blow up the mothership, and make it back to friendly airspace. In short, it’s the mission Ava has been waiting for her entire life, and she has nothing left to lose. Hosea writes with imagination and humor, as here, when an astrophysicist-turned-alien-handler introduces Kypa to a human bathroom: “Kypa was fascinated with the toilet and sink, insisting that Neil show him how they operated. Neil turned on the faucet, then sat on the toilet and demonstrated how it worked. He had no idea how to potty train an alien, and hoped Kypa would figure the rest out for himself.” The author’s attempts to convey deeper emotions sometimes fall flat, but as pure escapism, the novel has much to offer.

An entertaining SF adventure with military and espionage elements.