Author: Walter Mosley

 ISBN: 0446533637

The following  review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's Reviews

For the past few nights, Errol Porter has been harassed by strange crank phone
calls. One night, the caller says that he is Errol's father. In the middle of
the night, Errol breaks into the cemetery where his father was buried several
years previously. There he finds GT, who looks, talks and acts like a younger,
healthier version of his father. Errol takes him home for a shower and a change
of clothes, if nothing else (Errol's girlfriend, Nella, thinks that is a bad
idea).

Along the way, GT tells Errol things about his family and about growing up that
no one else could know. Errol's first thought was that his father had another
family, and this is his illegitimate son. GT also points Errol to a handwritten
confession written many years previously. Errol's mother was having an affair
with a local man. Errol's father murdered the man, and buried him under their
garage, where his body is found. Slowly, but surely, Errol is convinced. One
night, GT disappears, and Errol thinks that this is the end of the story.

That is, until Errol is kidnapped by government agents and taken to a secret
facility. There, he is shown hundreds of people, risen from the dead, all with
amazing powers of recuperation. He watches as what looks like a six-year-old
girl regenerates an arm that has just been amputated. The head of the facility,
Dr Wheeler, is convinced that this is the beginning of some sort of alien
invasion. GT returns, and Errol learns that millions of years ago, a cellular
intelligence came to Earth via a meteor. It recently found a life form it can
use, dead people, and wants to peacefully coexist with the people of Earth. It
also wants to give humans a storehouse of ancient wisdom, which looks a lot like
a pool of black slime. But all Dr Wheeler can hear is Alien Invasion!

Mosley may be better known as a mystery writer than a science fiction writer,
but this is a really good science fiction story. It's a very contemporary tale,
with just enough Stephen King and Arthur C. Clarke in it. This is a pretty fast
read that will keep the reader's interest.