Review by Amberlily -- Homecoming: The Unari Experiment ...

[Amberlily]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Homecoming: The Unari Experiment Book 1" by Brian L. Harad.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong in your own body? Have you ever wondered if you’re really human like the rest of us? The author Brian Harad played around with these questions in his science fiction novel Homecoming: The Unari Experiment.

In the future, the world is passing an unusual amount of time without war or conflict. While this is great news for the citizens of Earth, it has left the President of the United States a bit bored. Nothing exciting has happened so far during his presidency, that is, until his third year when the red phone on his desk started to ring. Two alien species wanted a meeting with him concerning a US citizen. One species was called the Thunerians, which were large Anubis-like creatures. The other species was the Unari, a race of large and muscular unicorns with wings. (There are other Unari that do not have wings or the horn, but they are not as important in the book.) The Unari queen, Jata, had an arrangement with a previous US president to hide her son on Earth as a human until it was safe for him to return home. Byron Hollington has lived his entire life believing he was human. Now he is faced with reality as he is kidnapped by the Unari and learns that he is one of them, and they need his help to repopulate.

What I loved the most about this book was the concept of it all. I’ve read a lot of science fiction, and I haven’t read anything like this story before. Byron’s emotions of confusion and shock felt very real and it didn’t take me long to start feeling for him. I was glad the book didn’t downplay his reaction as he woke up on a spaceship with the body of a Unari. The author did well to use Byron’s reactions to explain the differences between the species. It seemed that the Unari were more serious creatures and did not appreciate jokes or sarcasm. It was also fun to watch the progress of it all as Byron slowly learned how to use his new and unusual body.

There was only one negative trait of this book that I felt brought down my enjoyment. I want to say about 90% of this book is dialogue, and it is mostly delivered in massive paragraphs. There were a few times that I lost my place and had to reread through the section again just to find where I was. Many things were also repeated in dialogue, sometimes within the same paragraph. I think minimizing redundancy and adding more paragraph breaks would make this book a lot more friendly and attractive to readers. When you’re on a page that is mostly one chunk of text, it is so easy to get lost. Some more detail in the surroundings and atmosphere would have been nice as well, but I also think those parts of the book would stand out more if the dialogue took up less room.

This is a fun and unique science fiction adventure, and I think it is suited to anyone who would enjoy a new experience in the genre. I must warn, however, that this book is not for children and I’d even be cautious about a teen reading it. There is a good amount of swearing and one torture scene that is brutal and extremely detailed. I would not suggest reading this one if you have a weak stomach.

I give this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. Unfortunately, I removed one star because I did spy over ten spelling and grammar errors. This book would benefit from another round of editing. I also removed a star for the chunky dialogue because it did hinder my reading experience. However, I would like to note that the plot is wonderfully original. If you can get over the errors and the paragraphs, give it a shot.

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Homecoming: The Unari Experiment Book 1
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[kandscreeley]

It's too bad about the grammatical errors. I do enjoy a good science fiction, and the plot of this one sounds intriguing. The poor president is bored without a war? Too bad! Thanks.

[Amberlily]

It's too bad about the grammatical errors. I do enjoy a good science fiction, and the plot of this one sounds intriguing. The poor president is bored without a war? Too bad! Thanks.

I also found that pretty funny! Thanks for stopping by!