Book Review: Relic - Alan Dean Foster

This is a decent slice of sci-fi. It's the sort of story that probably could have been written any time in the last 100 years. The sole survivor of the human race is picked up by friendly aliens and spends his life as a specimen of scientific and cultural curiosity.

And then... events occur!

It's all rather silly fun. The aliens are all pacifists and spend more time negotiating rather than blasting. We bounce from world to world looking for remnants of civilisation. There's mild peril and even milder sexual politics.

There are a couple of weird plot holes (for example, he keeps getting lost, but it is later revealed he has an implanted tracker). There's nothing particularly new or innovative in terms of sci-fi concepts. There are a few Chekhov's guns which are never fired (I have a third lung! My alien keeper might want to be my girlfriend!). There's a panoply of alien species, but we barely meet any.

It is a cosy read. There's some lovely archaic language in there. And, thankfully, there's a satisfying resolution. It is a self-contained story which isn't trying to set up a trilogy of increasingly worse quality.