The Homecoming: First Contact

On a flight of the US space shuttle, co-pilot Bill Thomas and the rest of the crew are surprised by mysterious golden space ships that station themselves near the shuttle in orbit. These space ships turn out to be from a mother ship that carries a race of humanoids that are virtually identical physically to humans from Earth. The only differences are cosmetic and cultural. The aliens are totally without hair on their bodies, and very muscular and fit. Their culture encourages vigorous exercise and body-building, extreme cleanliness, and frequent sex with multiple partners of the opposite sex. Thomas volunteers to stay on the alien ship, to learn about their culture and to become an ambassador between the aliens and humans. Through total immersion in the life of the aliens, Thomas begins to understand what motivates them, and why they have come to Earth.

This book is a polemic wrapped within a science fiction plot. The author, through the aliens, comments upon virtually every aspect of Earth civilization, including religion, environmentalism, marriage, the military, physical fitness, and sex. Especially sex. This alien society believes that exclusive unions between two people are not healthy, and that sex with an opposite sex partner at least three times a day (but not necessarily the same one each time) is the way to promote physical and mental health. Sex between same-sex partners is unnatural, and oral and anal sex is dirty in this society – although the lower classes do perform such unhealthy acts. What puzzles me is that, although virtually every other page has a sexual encounter, the tone of the scenes seemed to be athletic, but mechanical, with very little emotion. For this reason, though I thought this book was interesting science fiction, it was very poor erotica. All in all, while this isn’t a sexy or satisfying romance, it is an interesting read in general.

Reviewed by: Jean