An alien abducts a busload of casino-bound tourists prior to revealing himself to humans at the Y2K celebration. A short novel of about 200 pages, written in Butler’s unmistakable first person style. I’m a big fan of his short stories. He did, after all, win a Pulitzer for “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,” but my favorite stories are those in “Had A Good Time.”

This novel falls short, though, of being engaging or satisfying. It doesn’t really work as science fiction or speculative fiction - it is not nearly original or creative enough for that. The alien is the extra-terresstial of popular imagination - cat eyes, skinny body, green blood. And he is doing what does in the sensational tabloids - abducting humans.

It doesn’t work as popular fiction either, for much the same reasons, and there is no “plot.” I would expect it to be judged as literary fiction, but even there, in my opinion, it falls short. The only interesting character is the spaceman, and once we learn about his reluctance to do his “work,” what else is there? The other characters all make cameo appearances in very short scenes.

The “theme,” of comparing the alien to Jesus, the twelve passengers on the bus to his disciples, and his wife to Mary Magdalene, is obvious and not carried through. Even the old movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” which has a similar theme, did a better job of carrying through with the ending. Butler simply fizzles out and resorts to a non-ending ending.

I read this because I wanted to read one of his novels, to see how he handles the longer form. It’s a very short novel. Perhaps he wrote it as a long short story? So I wasn’t very impressed. ( )