The Waypoint by Ben Haskett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked quite a few things about this novella:

The descriptions of being abducted, the characterizations of the greys and the hybrids, and the clear-remembering of the whole event. All of these things are quite good.

However, I was trying to place what *kind* of story this was for quite some time. It's a pretty standard alien abduction story with the standard depictions, but the tale itself is pure adventure. Once I got my head around that, things moved quite fast for me.

My only complaint is the main character, Gil. His establishing moments on earth before the big abduction could have been longer and more defining for him. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd have liked to have less action so soon. I wanted to get to know him, see how he resolves problems and issues on Earth, give him a solid foundation here before we see his character all revved up for redneck-in-space action. :) I just wanted to feel more invested in him before he got into big trouble. ;)

Other than that, though, I had a good time. It wasn't scary, but it was a pretty fine adventure. I especially liked the resolution with the whole explanations about why the aliens were doing what they were doing. I only wish that I'd had all that backstory BEFORE the inexplicable and odd behavior by the greys. :) A little third person omniscience would have been perfectly welcome even before we got to know Gil on Earth. That way our expectations are set up and we can lord over all that information as Gil flounders about trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Again, this is an adventure tale. I didn't get any sense of a mystery or a horror going on. :) It would have been just fine getting that infodump right at the get-go. :)

Good stuff, all told! :)

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