Alien Nation: Extreme Prejudice by L.A. Graf
Apparently, Alien Nation was a TV show. I did not know that. Had I known, it's likely I wouldn't have purchased Extreme Prejudice due to significant prejudice about TV shows and, especially, books written on top of them.
Thankfully, L.A. Graf is a pen name for Julia Ecklar, author of Regenesis. I am dramatically disappointed that Ecklar doesn't have a more extensive catalog, so I was thrilled to find more.
Also, Extreme Prejudice takes place in my home city of Pittsburgh.
I clicked "order now" before finishing reading the back copy.
As this takes place in a ... what's the word for a shared fictional universe? I'll go with Franchise. Since this takes place in a Franchise, it seems expected that most readers will come into it knowing some things. Those things are:
Aliens crash-landed in the Mojave. Known to themselves as Tectonese and humans as "Newcomers," they've tried to assimilate into American life, though they almost exclusively live in Southern California.
This ship that crashed was a slaver ship. The majority of its inhabitants were slaves specially bred over generations to be strong, fast, etc. The brutal Overseers of the slaves were also Tectonese.
Matthew Silkes. He's a human LAPD cop and a bit of a loose cannon in that loveable wat where he'll throttle a bigot even when there are cameras on him.
George Francisco. He's Matthew's partner and Tectonese. He's calm and analytical and practical and nervous. And who can blame him? He and his family survived unspeakable horror on the slave ship (that it seems they lived on their whole lives?) only to end up on a strange planet where they now have to worry about both the Overseers and human bigots.
It's been a few years since the Tectonese got here.
The Tectonese, for the most part, are happy to assimilate into American culture. While they're mostly accepted around LA, the rest of the United States either hardly knows they exist or hates them on principle. To this end, the Tectonese decide it's time to put on a symposium and showcase both what they've done to enhance human society and how well they work together with humans in their home of LA.
Unfortunately for the Tectonese, who loathe the cold, this symposium takes place in Pittsburgh in the middle of winter.
Naturally, George will talk at this conference about his experiences as the only Tectonese cop and how he collaborates with his human partner. Cathy, a brilliant Tectonese scientist and Matthew's girlfriend, will be discussing the impact of her research.
With the two most important people in Matthew's life talking at this symposium, it's a given that he's going to be there, even if it's not really his thing. He expects a few dull days of talks, a few pleasant nights with his girlfriend, and to get back home to LA.
Then one of the Tectonese disappears and a ransom note comes in with outlandish demands about isolating the Tectonese in the Mojave desert. It looks like typical "Purist" bigotry ... until a Tectonese woman is found torn in pieces in her hotel room.
Matthew and George aren't cops in Pittsburgh. Yet, as they watch the local Pittsburgh police and the FBI struggle, mostly due to their lack of knowledge about the Tectonese and their "Purist" antagonists, they realize finding the killer is going to be up to them. So long as it doesn't kill them, first.
I wouldn't say I'm experienced with police procedurals*, but that seems to be what Extreme Prejudice is. We've got two cops—partners—out to solve the crime and save the day.
I'm not sure if it's common for police procedurals to take on horror vibes, but they show up here. Something rent that Tectonese woman limb from limb and left her scattered about her room. Even by murder standards, that ain't natural. And that niggling dread over what could have done that lingers...
Even after the murder, the symposium continues. The Tectonese, most of them previous slaves, are capable of handling extreme psychological pressure, and they refuse to cower before whoever wants them to shut up, go home, and hide.
So we've got a big, fancy hotel swirling with people. There are the Tectonese, of course, but there's also hotel staff, media, politicians, organizers, fans, hangers-on. They're all there, doing their thing, and you know that something is watching, waiting, and will strike again. It might even be among them already.
I liked this low-key horror vibe, but it did come with a problem. This isn't a horror book. It's not even a thriller; the tone can't be tension and fear non-stop. So it makes sense that, aside from heightened security, the symposium doesn't seem impacted by the murder. But at the same time, it was weird to have someone torn apart in one chapter and then have everyone acting more-or-less normal in the next. And as the danger mounts, this disconnect between tone and danger is felt more keenly. It's not absurd, mind you; it just occasionally makes it harder to suspend disbelief. Thankfully this doesn't last: once the shit hits the fan, the tone finds the right vibe and stays there through the ending.
Aside from this being the sort of book with a good balance of hints, hooks, and questions—which can be satisfying if done right—my favorite part about Extreme Prejudice is Matthew.
As established, he's a loose cannon. He's got way too much of a temper, and he's maybe a bit ego-centric in that way where he thinks he's taking care of others. Thing is, he wants to be doing weird random cop shit even if Cathy would rather he pay attention to her thing for, like, a few hours. That's kinda classic "fictional cop," and is not the reason I liked his character.
(BoJack Horseman is one of maybe 5 shows I watch, so… if there’s going to be a video clip, there’s a high probability it’ll be BoJack)
What I think escapes the trope is Matthew's racism.
Note, in the book, they use the term "racism" to describe anti-alien sentiments as well as racial sentiments, so I'm going to use it in that context.
Matthew is dating a Tectonese woman. His partner is a Tectonese man. He's dedicated a lot of time, energy, sweat, and blood to fighting the "Purists" that would see the Tectonese, at best, exiled. He feels strongly about racial justice and can and will spot institutionalized racism.
And within the first chapter of the book, he looks at the plane full of Tectonese, and his skin crawls. He's the only human. The moment passes, and he feels guilt and revulsion over that split-second where something seeped out from his subconscious. He takes a second to confront the ugliness of his thought, discards it as unreasonable, then shakes it off and keeps moving.
I love the nuance here. All too often, racism is seen as binary. Either you're the sort who will throw racial slurs around, or you're not. Either you're the sort of person who would never hire a person of color, or you're not. But, of course, racism is on a spectrum with no definitive boundaries. And just because you're generally good about racial issues doesn't mean that there isn't any racism lurking in there, subconsciously steering you in unintentionally racist ways.
Matthew is a good guy and an interesting one because he notices those moments and doesn't let them get the best of him.
Another endearing part of Matthew's character is that he's not the machismo sort; Cathy, physically, exceeds him in pretty much every way. That doesn't seem so strange until she picks Matthew up during an intimate moment. I feel like the average man would feel that's emasculating. Matthew doesn't even think twice about it. His girlfriend is naturally strong. That doesn't affect him in any way.
In general, though, Extreme Prejudice ended up being more about racism than I expected. I'm not sure if it's a common theme across the books and TV show, but it's central to this novel. There's the intra-racial racism of the Tectonese Overseers and the Tectonese Slaves. Then, of course, there's the inter-racial racism of Americans against the Tectonese. It's not always where you'd expect it to be, but it's there.
I'm glad that these seemingly weird books that aren't High Literature and aren't purposefully pontificating on morality discuss topics such as racism. It would be inauthentic for this world not to suffer from Human-Tectonese racism. I was surprised, though, because I thought I was opting into something goofy/campy. Which I thought ForFemFan and I could use after my Treatise on the Unacceptable Conflation of Fetuses and the Disabled: Dissecting the Works of Sheri Tepper.
Instead, I contemplated the perverse and invasive nature of racism. Even as horrible motherfuckers in my country are stoking the flames and hate crimes against Asians have sky-rocketed, and we're having a ridiculous trial about whether a Black man the world watched be murdered was, in fact, murdered. So, this wasn't as chill as I had hoped. The message stands, though. And good on even goofy sci-fi and fantasy for pointing this shit out.
On the more light-hearted end of things, the showdown occurs in the Pittsburgh Zoo! Even better, the author did her research! At one point, Matthew scrambles onto a big ol' rock between the rhino pen and the lion's enclosure, and I squealed because I know that rock! It's technically a replica of a termite mound, but Matthew had better things to do than read the placard. I get it.
All-in-all, Extreme Prejudice was an interesting novel that, I suspect, would scratch a police procedural itch. The technical writing is solid. The characterization is surprisingly good given this isn't a character-driven sort of book. The plot holds up, and the creepy tension surrounding the murder has a nice heft. The end is a bit weird, but I didn't hate it. While far from my usual read, this was an enjoyable addition to ForFemFan and a good reminder of why my reading guidelines, outside of "old," "woman-authored," and "speculative," are so wide open.
*I'm not going to go off like I did last week, but I did want to mention the potentially harmful effect of police procedurals, specifically as they apply to the United States.
These procedurals often have Good Cops, much like Matthew, as the protagonist. The protagonist sacrifices and struggles to make the world a better place and typically only falters in sympathetic ways. I mean, who can blame Matthew for trying to throttle a guy who made a racist comment about his girlfriend?
Cops like Matthew may, occasionally, come across a Bad Cop, or even a Bad Department. In these instances/episodes, it's almost a given that the protagonist will go to great lengths to prove the cravenness of the Bad Cops and, once they expose this treachery, the cohort of Bad Cops will be punished. It might take an episode or a season, but it's most likely that they'll succeed.
Cops like Matthew aren't fired and permanently driven out of the profession for whistle-blowing on their peers. They don’t depict police officers using violence against a non-violent person and then leaving them bleeding and unconscious in the street. We don't watch police brutality victims or their families seek restitution only to be blocked by Qualified Immunity.
Basically, Police Procedurals show us what we wish our law enforcement were like rather than what it is. Unfortunately, many people can't, won't, or don't make this distinction. This is dangerous.
Take the current horror of the trial of Chauvin over George Floyd's death. If you've watched 100 episodes where the goodly protagonist cop only ever reacts with (excessive) violence to people who had off-the-record done something to "deserve" it... You see what I'm getting at here.
If you're interested in reading more, here's a great article that goes over it at a high level.
Police Procedurals: Harmless Entertainment or Propaganda? - Public Seminar
