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Sep 2014
8:18pm, 29 Sep 2014
9,989 posts
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Oysterboy
Maggie was boring and predictable I thought. It would have been better if she'd been made even slightly likeable.
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Sep 2014
8:25pm, 29 Sep 2014
7,462 posts
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Diogenes
The father/son relationship was one element I did think worked well, and mow I think about it, Andrew's "weird" swearing was a bit I did find funny.
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Sep 2014
8:27pm, 29 Sep 2014
5,713 posts
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becca7
I found Maggie interesting, if predictable. I liked that the alien compared her face to a death flower, whatever one of those is.
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Sep 2014
8:33pm, 29 Sep 2014
12,004 posts
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GimmeMedals
I really liked the book. It's not one I would have chosen as I don't have any interest in Sci-fi. I don't watch Dr Who.Ever.
I liked that this book was so easy to read - I didn't have to remember any complicated information or flick back to re-read or remind myself of stuff.
I like that I could follow it and I could tell that the alien was becoming humanised even without the author telling me explicitly (get me!)
I liked that the son finally got to have a proper dad for a while.
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Sep 2014
8:38pm, 29 Sep 2014
4,260 posts
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Cuddy
I gave it a 1. I've been trying to convince myself to read more and this book did nothing to encourage this.
It took a half decent idea and bashed it over the head with clichés, over and over again. None of it made any sense, supposedly being of supreme intelligence but for example not being able to deduct that yes, you do need to wear pants in public. This book stinks to high heaven of childish psychology. Looking arrogantly down one's (no way credible) alien nose at the human race, so that the author can then suddenly romanticise it, solely for the purpose of trying to make sense of the world and his existence in it...just downright pathetic. Oh, and after having sex, he's suddenly in love? Really??
I know what I've written above is appalling grammar but I can barely see from the steam coming out of my ears. How does this **** get published? Grrrrr.
The one point is for the existence of a dog in the story line.
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Sep 2014
8:48pm, 29 Sep 2014
720 posts
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JEB1974
I liked the dog much more that I liked Maggie.
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Sep 2014
8:50pm, 29 Sep 2014
7,382 posts
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Bazoaxe
GM, although I hated it, it did still draw me back ebvery niight to read it which is odd for something I didnt enjoy
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Sep 2014
8:53pm, 29 Sep 2014
12,007 posts
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GimmeMedals
Maybe you enjoyed it more than you realise, Bazoaxe - it's the alien's influence at work 
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Sep 2014
9:11pm, 29 Sep 2014
201 posts
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westmoors
Still can't decide if I liked this or not! I read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy so thought I would enjoy this. However, like many others here, I got annoyed that this so called intelligent race could be so naive. I was frustrated that it took ages for the protagonist to learn social skills but could pick up language in an instant and that he hadn't been properly prepared for his role. Surely anyone would research the person they were about to impersonate to ensure they behaved appropriately. As a consequence, I found the wife/son reactions to be strange. Surely they would question the sudden changes in behaviour and likes/dislikes.
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Sep 2014
9:50pm, 29 Sep 2014
12,695 posts
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McGoohan
First thought:
Starts like H2G2 so I can see why Dio – as a Douglas Adams fan – might recommend this. Unfortunately the book I’d read before The Humans was H2G2, so it suffered a bit by comparison.
Now, I started off *hating* it. It moved away from being Douglas Adamsy and I was thinking ‘this is just like that Kevin Spacey film, K-Pax’ (which was also based on a book). And then Haig, perhaps anticipating this, has the young woman in the psych ward refer to one of the other patients: ‘he’s gone the full K-Pax’. That won me over a bit. From that point on, I warmed to it and I was willing to allow a lot of leeway.
I accept that he had to make the original Andrew as thoroughly unlikeable as possible for the reader to get behind this alien and hope he does ‘the right thing’ before the end. But by the time we’re getting the showdown with the new doppelganger I felt the book had a momentum that dragged me to the conclusion.
Not that it was without flaws (which I’ll come to in a bit) but once I’d got to the last 50 or so pages I wanted to get to the end to find out what happened. I actually enjoyed quite a few things from the list. Not everything, but I thought there were some good ones in there.
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