http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2014-12.html ( )

This is the first book of a series. It revolves around Earth finding aliens that are friendly and wanting to to engage in learning about each other. There are a few different types of aliens and the author does a really good job differentiating each type from the others. The Earth diplomat is put in a unique position and the story unfolds really well. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was slightly disappointed when it was over. The author does a really fantastic job of showing the different perspectives of situations for each of the aliens, the Earth diplomat, and the Diplomats guards. ( )

Fascinating. It's a very interesting first contact situation - with not just one race of aliens, but several. The thing I liked best about it (being a diplomat's daughter) is that the humans are a diplomat (the protagonist and title character, Philippe Trang) and a group of soldiers - and Trang is neither a helpless, bureaucratic-minded wimp hiding behind the soldiers nor a big, tough, clever guy out-soldiering the soldiers. He has his job and does it, and (after some personality and culture clashes) lets the soldiers do theirs. It's a big group - 14 soldiers - and we only get to know four or five of them in detail and the rest as sketches and personality quirks; however, all the characters are presented solidly and remain in character for what we know of them. Including the ones who reveal unexpected depths (or sometimes shallows...). The aliens are immensely varied - the different races are physically very different, and over the course of the book we learn that their cultural views are even more different. But they are also individuals; there are personality conflicts and cultural conflicts within individual alien races as well (Max, Moritz, and the trader, for example (yeah, well, their names are unpronounceable and untranslatable - so they let the humans label them...)). No great mass of interchangeable aliens here - the choices of individuals, of several races including human, make major changes in the flow of events. It's really well-done - the more I think about it, the more I like it - as well as an exciting story.
I did have major problems with how Trang handled his problems in the middle - despite the many mentions of Guantanamo, I didn't see why he was so determinedly ignoring the contact. It became clearer later, just before he manage to accept reality. More than a little annoying though - I stalled reading for quite a while, but I did still want to see what happened. And I was rewarded - it wasn't the obvious answer, through several times when I "knew" what the answer was. Good story, and I plan to read the rest of the series as well. ( )

We all know what aliens look like - cute little fellas like E.T. or powerful hunters like "Predator." Mary Sisson sets up a new world, populated by a wide variety of alien species that don't look, think, speak, or act like TV or movie aliens. And, that's the best part of "Trang." Sisson creates a universe of largely polite alien interaction on a space station created by the Hosts, as part of their religious heritage of protecting a space portal recently discovered by Earth. The DiploCorps, based in 2118 Beijing, sends Canadian diplomat Philippe Trang to establish contact with the alien races - the first human to visit the station. He is accompanied by a protective unit of Special Forces, hard-core, foul-mouthed soldiers led by Mission Commander Shanti, a cloned Amazon.

Trang begins a "standard" diplomatic mission, attempting to learn about the various alien races, eventually becoming embroiled in the usual areas of international (or interspecies) dispute - power, primacy, trade, space, history, the future, and religion. While Trang struggles to understand the alien races, he also struggles to deal with his Special Forces minders, particularly Shanti, who proves to be more than she seems. She and Trang become entangled in Host prophecy as they try to save the Host world from an ambitious competing race.

"Trang" was a fun read, nothing deep, probably offensive to those put off by abundant obscene language on the part of the Special Forces troops. Trang isn't a terribly interesting character, but the alien life forces are a fascinating group, from the eager-to-please, spiritual hosts to the hovering, silent White Spiders. A good airplane book. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed reading it, and I feel that Ms. Sisson did well at crafting believable characters and novel and interesting aliens. Yet I had no love or attachment to Trang, the title character himself. The story itself moved rather slowly up until the very end, where the action seemed to happen in the last chapter of the book. I am not sure if this would have been better off as a novella, or developed further and fleshed out as a full novel. I enjoyed some of the "side" characters more than the lead character himself (like Shanti, the CO of the Special Forces detail that accompany him, or "Creepy" the alien Messiah).

I do recommend this book if you are looking for a light read with interesting characters (and some rather foul language too, so be aware!) to pass the time. I also plan on reading the next book in the series, if only to see where the story goes. ( )