published in 1996 but set in Northern Ireland in the 2000s decade, this novel marries a story about technologically-advanced aliens choosing to settle on Earth to a tale about Andy Gillespie, an ex-con from Belfast who is drawn into the aliens' orbit. human law and Shian law clash after violence ensues, Gillespie sets out as a kind of advocate to investigate, and the law charges after him trying to pin the crime on him. the result, fictionally speaking, is an entertaining mix of genres: detective sf. McDonald is an important writer of sf, and this is for him a very different and intriguing offering that considers what cross-cultural traits might be common to two distinct species of hunters disparate in chemistry and anatomy, sexuality and views on violence. ( )

Tiptree shortlist 1997. A bit rant-y and confusing in places but pretty good. ( )

This would be a fairly standard first contact story, save for one thing; the author has set it in his adoptive homeland of Northern Ireland, presciently in the time of the Good Friday Agreement (which wasn't actually signed until two years after the novel was written). All the features are there; an uneasy peace, dissident terrorist groups persuing their own agendas, and a non-sectarian police force with its own uneasy past. McDonald even almost gets the name right ('Northern Ireland Police Service' vs. 'Police Service of Northern Ireland' - though that wasn't going to be difficult, let's be honest.)

Using that backdrop adds to the human protagonists' motivations, conflicts and problems, and elevates what might have been an ordinary novel into something rather different. ( )