Review – The Humans by Matt Haig (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Humor
Length: 304 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: July 2, 2013
ASIN: B00A27X972
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“When an extra-terrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a prominent mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor is eager to complete the gruesome task assigned him and hurry home to his own utopian planet, where everyone is omniscient and immortal.

He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, their capacity for murder and war, and is equally baffled by the concepts of love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this strange species than he had thought. Disguised as Martin, he drinks wine, reads poetry, develops an ear for rock music, and a taste for peanut butter. Slowly, unexpectedly, he forges bonds with Martin’s family. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfection, and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: This starts out somewhat humorous and then kind of devolves into the classic “humans are heathens but just have something special about them” message. The humor tapers off very quickly as we are plunged into an emotional read about an alien infiltrating a human’s family. This is the first Matt Haig book I have read and it was okay.

An alien from the collective is sent to Earth to prevent the spread of mathematical knowledge that would enable humans to travel throughout the universe. This alien is sent into the body of Professor Andrew Martin, the mathematician who discovers this mathematical knowledge. Alien Andrew is supposed to snuff out any knowledge of this new math and the humans that have it. However, as he integrates into the family of Andrew he finds that humans have their own special ways of doing things; he grows to care for them, and his objectives start to shift.

This starts off fairly humorous with an alien trying to quickly integrate into a human’s life. However, things get much more serious as you find out that the original Andrew Martin was a jerk and a very flawed individually who left behind a broken marriage and a scarred teenage son. Ironically, alien Andrew is better at both being a husband and father than human Andrew ever was.

This really concentrates on how an alien from a collective emotionless existence finds value in both emotion and individuality. There is also discussion of the concept of death (which is well…alien to this alien) and how humans cope with the ever looming prospect of dying. In addition to that, this talks a lot about finding joy and peace in small things like peanut butter, dogs, poetry, and music. Some of these things at first seem frivolous but end up having a special place in the emotions alien Andrew is developing.

I felt especially bad for Andrew’s wife throughout this book and think she is one of the most awesome people ever for getting through what she deals with here. She puts up with more than anyone else in this book and has given up a lot to help Andrew move his career forward.

This was a fairly quick and easy read, but was very heart-wrenching. I was looking for a humorous read, and what I ended up with was more depressing and emotionally taxing than expected. I was a bit disappointed in the outcome of the story; it just ends up being very predictable. The whole sentiment of humans being primitive but special for their individualism is something that has been a bit overdone in sci-fi literature, in my humble opinion.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I read this quickly and was engaged in the story from beginning to end. I liked the humorous beginning but was less thrilled with the emotional roller-coaster you get put through in the second half of the book. I was a bit disappointed at how predictable this all was and how the message about humanity being “special” mimics a lot of other stories out there. I found this fairly depressing and would not recommend it if you are looking for a humorous and light-hearted read. This didn’t really make me want to pick up more books by Haig. This book just took itself way too seriously without having the meat to be taken seriously.