(Reviewed by Dorothy Rendon)
Colin Brayton is an old-book expert in a failing book store. Maddy Prentice is an expert linguist, still reeling from the defection of her fiancé. Both are hired by the mysterious billionaire, Asher Bradford, to live in an 18th century manor buried in rural Virginia, wearing the clothes, eating the food, no modern conveniences. Except, as they soon realize, the manor isn’t exactly 18th century. What they find there, what startling events unfold, and what they ultimately learn about the strange Mr. Bradford is all revealed in an engrossing tale. The story is science-fiction, with some standard romance novel tropes as well.
The diaries are those of a young girl, age sixteen in 1778. Part of the story is present-day, and part are the pages of her diary, telling her perspective on meeting alien technology. This brings to mind the famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The story pulled me in and kept me turning pages to see what happens next. The basic concept is intriguing and well-presented. And the human characters, while somewhat predictable, are enjoyable. But the aliens (This is called “Alien Diaries” and extra-terrestrials do appear) are two-dimensional and their motivation is not clearly presented. I ended up wondering why they behaved so irrationally, not what you would expect of a so-called “advanced” civilization.
It’s not the best sci-fi book I’ve read, and the ideas presented are not new. But anyone who likes speculative fiction would enjoy how a fundamental sci-fi trope is presented here.
All that being said, the ending was ultimately not very satisfying. The story seems to just stop. There were two or three threads that were never explained. For example, Mr. Bradford insists repeatedly that Colin and Maddy must dress in 18th-century clothes, down to their underwear, but he never says why that is so important. The aliens don’t seem to care, and the 21st-century peripheral characters are just amused. Maybe I missed something. I definitely got the feeling that a lot of stuff has been left for a sequel.
All in all, The Alien Diaries is a light amusing read, as long as you don’t dig too deep.
