The Host

Stephenie Meyer has done it again - The Host is a great science fiction novel. For a fairly new writer she has started at the top, first with the Twilight series and now this.

Earth has been invaded by a species who call themselves
"souls." To humans they are like shiny metallic centipedes - small enough to look harmless. But when they are inserted into the human brain stem, the souls take over the human bodies - forcing the existing personality away.

Melanie Stryder is one of the humans who has hidden out and avoided getting caught by the seekers. When she sees her cousin in a news clip about Chicago, she is compelled to find out if she is alright. But once she gets to Chicago she is caught by a seeker. Seekers are the only aliens who show any aggression - their job is to find the remaining native species - humans on Earth - and uses the bodies as hosts for the souls.

Wanderer is a soul who has lived on more planets than any other soul, hence the name. Now that she has come to Earth, her request to be placed in an adult female has landed her in Melanie's body. But Melanie refuses to leave.

Can two beings exist in one body? How will the influence of Melanie and her human memories affect Wanderer? Melanie will never give up trying to find her brother Jamie and the love of her life, Jared. Wanderer will have to face a species that even she is not completely prepared for. Writen from the first persons of Melanie and Wanderer, this internal struggle within the larger human struggle for survival is a thought provoking look at what makes us human and where the soul fits in that dynamic.

The Host is the best science fiction I have read in a while. It reminds me of the genius of Nicola Griffith or Kelley Eskridge (without the lesbian parts).

Meyer, Stephenie. (2008). The Host. New York: Little, Brown and Co.