Amusing Old-School Middle Grade Space/Alien Adventure

This is a re-issue, after twentyfive years, of the second volume in the Stinker (Space Alien) series. It seems an alien ended up on Earth, in volume 1, took on the form of a skunk, liked it, and kept the form for his return to Earth in this volume 2. This time around alien agent Tsynq Yr, (aka "Stinker"), has been sent to collect something special and unique Earthly to return as a souvenir to the nutty King of a threatening planetary system.

We are reunited with Earth kids Jonathan and Karen, and have another adventure. As before, the kids' parents believe them, but the U.S. government is in denial and would like the whole alien episode to go away. So it's an undercover, hide from the government, adventure, which is the best kind.

The kids are solid and decent, if a bit bland, and "Stinker" starts out as a bit of a lost soul, being not really cut out for the intrepid adventurer role. That the makes the whole book sort of mellow and low-key, with some nice touches and chuckles. Lots of chasing and hiding and escaping and fast talking and the like. This feels like it would be a fine early reader intro to space-ish type adventures. The writing style is crisp and direct. There is a lot of monologuing and explanatory dialogue, so the tale is easy enough to get into and follow. The book is twentyfive years old and you can sort of feel it in its "Boys Life" gee whiz sort of style. (On the other hand, when the kids play Space Raiders Karen calls dibs on being the male space raider hero, and declares that girls can be the commander too, so maybe Service was ahead of her time.)

The upshot is that this is fun and high energy, with a few sly throwaway lines for older readers and plenty to entertain younger readers. A nice addition to the younger end of the family sci-fi shelf.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of the new issue of this book, but without a review requirement or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)