48 points/100 (2.5 stars/5).

Alien Collective starts with the announcement that Jeff has been nominated to be the Vice Presidential pick for the frontrunning Presidential pick, and there are some people very, very unhappy with that news. Yates offspring keep showing up, Chernobog is still out there, an immortal has shown up to try and bring ACE to justice, they nearly get killed by a combination of quicksand (in the desert??), javelinas, and a combine harvester, and everyone is still trying to cope with the events of Alien Research. What a very, very long book.

Perhaps it is my fault I didn't enjoy this as much because I'm reading it so soon after Alien Research. I just felt like the author stream of consciousnessed this book. It just rambles on and on from scene to scene. I felt like there was one point to the entire book (the vice presidency), and everything else was something to fill out to reach word counts.

In Alien Research, I praised the author for staying on task the whole book. This did not happen here. I'm not certain why 90% of this book happened at all. They seemed to be going places and doing things just to do them for half of this book. I'd be reading along for a while and then suddenly realise I had no idea what they were doing or why. This happened several times throughout the book.

I think the worst part is that though a bunch of things happened, she pulled a lot of the previous threads from other books into this book, nothing actually got solved. Not really. It just keeps getting pushed off. It is growing a bit wearisome. Koch brings up one thread, plays with it a bit, and then moves on to the next thread, dropping the first, before she plays with that one for a bit. It makes it hard for me to really care what is going on at any one time because why bother.

If you liked the previous books in this series, you would probably at least be content with this book. Everyone who has shown up before in the series shows up in this one, practically. Friends, allies, enemies, and poofs. Even Jaime is starting to take a bit of a role in the story! ( )

Lots of thinking going on in this one, slowly trying to figure it all out. Who are all the enemies? Who is the mastermind? Oh the riddles.

Right, Martini is running for VP. Kitty is trying to hold it all together, figure out who is attacking them and save the day (and the world).

The baddies are still bad, and they keep crawling forward from under rocks. But maybe this is all now, the master plan is in motion and perhaps we will get a conclusion soon...or not as more books are coming (goes to check the blurb for book 10, omg it sounds awesome!). But that is the next book, which I totally want at once now.

Anyway, action! Poofs! Dogs! Those damn Ronnie's kids! Smooching with her honey, figuring stuff out.

There have been 9 books, I have pretty much said it all by now.

Fun series, with the coolest heroine around. ( )

Lots of action and Kitty in top form! This is such a fun series. I've been recommending it to friends. ( )

This series always keep me laughing. If you are looking for a science fiction series that's not TOO serious, you need to read this book. There are lots of laughs, a bit of lusty romance and many, many, handsome aliens. ( )

Good entry in the series. Still collecting interesting friends and enemies. Political life is about to get interesting to watch and even more interesting to survive. ( )