Saturday, November 28, 2015

"Alien in Chief"

Gini Koch writes the fast, fresh and funny Alien/Katherine "Kitty" Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series. Touched by an Alien, Book 1 in the Alien series, was named by Booklist as one of the Top Ten Adult SF/F novels of 2010. Alien in the House, Book 7 in the Alien series, won the RT Book Reviews Reviewer's Choice Award as the Best Futuristic Romance of 2013. The latest novel in the series, Alien in Chief, has been nominated for the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award as Best Urban Fantasy of 2015.

As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she's made the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch.

Koch applied the Page 69 Test to Alien in Chief and reported the following:
Alien in Chief is the 12th book in my Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series. A lot has gone on for Kitty since she discovered that aliens were on the planet and, as a side benefit, that the A-Cs, as they call themselves, were all drop dead gorgeous.

Kitty’s learned how to save the day with her knowledge of comics and pop culture, hairspray, and rock ‘n’ roll, not necessarily in that order. She thinks so far outside the box as to give those she’s working for and against the idea that she doesn’t actually know the box exists.

Page 69 of Alien in Chief is the start of a chapter:
Chapter 13

There were only a handful of people who liked to hold meetings on my roof, and all of them were trained assassins. And when the trained assassins who’ve got your back tell you to go to the roof, you go to the roof.

“Denise, as I said, you win. I need to take care of some things, like starting to figure out how to tell Jeff you’ve won and how Kevin isn’t going and all that, so I’m going to leave you, Amy, and the kids and get back to this business we call show.”

“I’ll give you that politics is a lot like acting,” Denise said with a laugh, as Coldplay’s “Trouble” came on. “I plan to have agents here while you’re gone, so it won’t be just Kevin, but he’s staying, and if you can convince any of the others to stay, that would be good, too.”

“Gotcha. I’ll do what I can. Though I think that you’re going to have the best success with that, Mother Superior, so feel free to give that look to whomever you think needs to stay and just keep me advised.”

With that, I gave Jamie and Charlie quick kisses, then trotted out of the daycare center and to the stairs.

Used hyperspeed to get up onto the roof. Telling no one I was going up here wasn’t a problem – Walter monitored all the public areas of the Embassy and while the likelihood that he already knew we had rooftop visitors was slim because they were the best of the best, the chance that he’d see me go out onto the roof was high. And any time I could go somewhere without the Secret Service tagging along I went for it, and an anonymous text telling me to come alone was a good reason to continue ditching them. At least in my opinion.
This is pretty much Kitty’s life – clandestine meetings at weird locations, fighting evil while trying to be a good wife and, these days, mother, getting dragged into situations, countries, and even planets against her will in order to save the day, and doing it all with a quirky outlook and a sarcasm knob that goes to eleven.

A lot has also gone on in Kitty’s life since Book 1/Touched by an Alien, and since the series builds and follows Kitty’s adventures, I strongly recommend that readers start at the beginning and read the books in order. Just think of all the fun you have awaiting you!
Learn more about the book and author at Gini Koch's website.

The Page 69 Test: Touched by an Alien.

--Marshal Zeringue