It's a great premise: humans taken from the earth thousands of years ago send out a small spaceship to investigate the most likely of possible home worlds. The sole astronaut, after observing earth from the moon for many years, is informed by her computerized navigator/adviser that earth's orbit will overlap within 4 years with debris from two meteors and will suffer terrible damage. Against orders, the astronaut uses her escape pod to travel to earth to contact an American astronomer and warn humanity. The astronomer doesn't believe her, the army captures her, and chaos ensues (along with romance).

The writing is somewhat YA, and, in fact, I recommended the book to my 18-year old niece. It's a quick read, though, probably great beach material, but there are large sections I skimmed. The middle is a sleepy domestic interlude (which could have been much shorter) and as a result the book doesn't maintain the grip of the adventure it promises to be in the beginning and returns to at the end. There are at least two sequels, so perhaps in the story's entirety the slower sections would fit more easily into a rhythm. ( )

What if our First Contact from another planet was a human? What if the first real alien to visit Earth from another solar system was a human woman on a mission to find the distantly related cousins of her own people? What if she brought with her a warning of an impending disaster of apocalyptic proportions? And what if nobody believed her?

Al Past’s novel Distant Cousin is a most unusual science fiction story with a most unusual heroine. Ana Darcy has jeopardized her mission and cut herself off from her own people to bring a desperate warning to Earth authorities. Astronomers at a Texas observatory don’t believe her, but the US military is willing to interrogate her – under custody of course. Her astonishing escape from Army detainment is our first hint that she may be more than she first appears and capable of more than we imagine. (Memorable quote from the Army Air Defense: “Barbie’s baby sister from outer space is in our custody and you let her get away! If the mother ship beamed her up, you better pray they get you next!”)

Befriended by ordinary people as varied as the family owners of a Texas dude ranch, a mild-mannered reporter, and an Olympic contender from Barbados, Darcy conceives a daring plan to evade government capture while hiding in plain sight and deliver her warning in a manner which cannot possibly be ignored. And afterward, she might just fall in love … if she can trust her own feelings … and trust her boyfriend with the truth about her origins. By the end of this most original novel, I knew two things for certain. The first was not to underestimate this diminutive and seemingly harmless protagonist. And the second was that the sequel, DC Repatriation, was going on my “buy-it-soon” list so that I could learn more about Ana Darcy and her mysterious people. ( )