Book Review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight, it's not. It's significantly better.

The Host refers to an invasion of the body snatchers-type scenario. Aliens invade earth stealthily, taking over human bodies. Some of the human minds don't go away, though, and therein lies the rub. What do you do when a parasite and its host become friends, and belong in both an alien society and a rebel human society?

] The book starts out slowly, or rather, too early in the story. The first hundred pages are essentially back story. We meet a whole cast of characters we won't ever meet again. The idea seems to be to help the reader understand the alien culture better before our hero gets put in with a bunch of humans scrounging for their survival. I am used to reading books that take a while to get going, and I love SF, but this was still a little bit of a slog for me.

The next 500 pages, however, are paced well, deeply charactered, and have a satisfying plot line. It's not hard SF - those looking for some biological way for this to be plausible will have to look elsewhere. Meyer raises some significant questions - is humanity a matter of biology, or a matter of character? Can love be biologically limited? If an alien were to invade earth, stop war and crime completely, solve all of our health problems, and ensure the biological salvation of homo sapiens and the earth's other species, would that necessarily be a bad thing?

I will admit, the ending was a little unsatisfying. Too pat, not powerful enough. I think of the first ending of the book as the end. You'll know it when you get there. It's more powerful. The 2nd ending is for the readers who have to have a Disney-happy ending to their fiction. Nothing wrong with that, just not my preference.

We loved this book - highly recommended.

My son is baptized

Today was a special day at for our family. Christian turned 8 last month, and April 10 was the day set for his baptism. I've always wanted my kids to get baptized. And I've always wanted it to be their choice - I didn't want them to feel forced, or that it was just expected of them. Someone who is baptized and makes that commitment - to stand as a witness of God at all time, and in all places - has to understand what that means. If you leave that understanding out, you miss the meaning of the covenant completely.

Over the past few weeks, Christian and I have had a lot of talks. Meaningful and deep talks, the kind that kids don't often seek out, and that some parents are afraid to have with their kids. We've talked about the birds and the bees, the meaning of baptism, the Holy Ghost and how it speaks to us. What it means to bear another's burden, to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort. The importance of repentance and getting a clean start.

To Christian's credit, he put serious thought into the decision on whether to be baptized or not. He wasn't sure if he was ready, and he was nervous about this big step. I'm so glad he thought of it that way. In the end, he decided to do it, even though he was nervous. It was a good day for him, I think. The gathering afterward at our house was kinda busy for him; he got in his jammies and konked out without saying goodnight. The guy was tired.

It was also a good day for family. There are ties of blood and ties of love, and the love was running thick around here today. Some childhood friends of my mom's who have been part of my life since I was conceived were here, Grandma Joyce flew up from San Francisco to be with us, Sean and MyLiege and 2 of their 4 kids came (the other 2 were excused absences), Katrina's parents and mine, and sister Avery came, too. Aria gave an excellent talk that she wrote herself and delivered like a pro in front of 100 adults.

A great day. 1 more for God's kingdom. He has entered in at the gate, now we get to help him along the path home.