The action-packed sequel to the magical Distant Cousin is here! Matt Mendez and Ana Darcy try to continue to lead normal lives, even after Darcy's relatives from the planet Thomo have arrived on Earth. The pursuit of a normal lifestyle may have been successful if another nosy reporter, the FBI, the Mafia, and a conglomerate with scruples learned from Enron had not gotten involved. About the only normalcy Matt and Darcy can achieve is the discovery that if peppers are added to their toddler's green vegetables, she will actually eat something green. The whole affair hardly leaves time for Darcy to teach Matt how to drive her spaceship!
Al Past carries the story of Darcy, the ex-princess of Thomo, deeper into the realm of reality on Earth. Considerably more concise than Distant Cousin, the sequel carries the adventure into a believable sequence of events. The brevity of the descriptions of both characters and scenes does hamper the magic a bit, but the pace has picked up considerably from that of the predecessor, and that seems to have been the author's intent.
Yes, I highly recommend this sequel to anyone who has already read Distant Cousin. Any reader who is approaching Mr. Past's saga of The Barbie from Outer Space for the first time with Repatriation in hand will miss a lot. Although the key background elements of the plot of Distant Cousin are mentioned in all the right places for those readers who may be meeting Darcy for the first time, there is absolutely no substitute for a careful reading of Distant Cousin first. Standing alone, I can only give Repatriation four stars, but as a sequel, it easily earns the full set of five. I do not wish to mention any further plot elements here. Just open your mind's eye and imagine Spielberg directing the movie. Would he combine the two books into one movie? Maybe he would because the plotlines are seamless; or maybe he wouldn't because you have to slow down the action to capture the real magic of a starchild. I just want to feel the delight of seeing Matt drive that space pod! (PODBRAM)
In "Distant Cousin: Repatriation," the second of what one hopes will be a continuing series, the same petite blonde heroine, the much loved Darcy, is kidnapped by thugs you will love to hate and long to throtle. With more characters and new, amazingly diverse milieus and locales, the plot thickens. In fact, it gets so think you wonder how it can ever be untangled! Ah, but there is a hero too, striaght out of West Texas, valiant and true blue.
The chiefest thing about both of Al's books...is not only their chair-gripping suspense but their wonderful happiness.... I'm still smiling when I think of number one and I've been giving this second book a big hug every day since I finished it. God bless heroines like Darcy! We need to see how virtue, clever, intelligent and creative, can attract good and loving allies and find a way to outwit a pack of black-hearted villains. Take my word for it, Darcy leaves them in the deep West Texas Dust.
Margaret Moser, Beeville Bee-Picayune, Sep. 6, 2006
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