The Life of Riley

Book by Irvine, Alexander C.

Having reimagined the past (A Scattering of Jades; One King, One Soldier), Irving presents an intriguing near-future in which America has suffered devastating natural disasters and the government has welcomed supposedly benign aliens known as "Bettys," though some Christian fundamentalists regard them as bioengineered demons. When ex-Marine Gabriel "Bib" Riley, part of the U.S. president's protective team, is accused of shooting a squatter on the south lawn of the White House and thereby inciting a riot, he disappears. Four different characters—Bib's wife, Zena; religious fanatic Truman Throckmorton; a streetie named Nate Drinkwater; and an alien Betty—wonder what really happened. Zena is told her husband inadvertently carries a device that may doom humankind. Does he? Some of the aliens have evidently accepted Christianity, or have they? Why are the Bettys here? Why does Lawanda Riley think her son is the Messiah? Irvine untangles some of the plots and counterplots by the end of this kooky novella, but doesn't supply enough answers for the reader to feel completely rewarded.
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By 2034, ecological breakdown has raised water levels and temperatures and even induced earthquakes. Moreover, aliens, whom Americans call Bettys, have arrived. They are even-tempered, rational, and pacific, though capable of meeting force with force. They are popular and imitated, but some distrust them, fearing that they have a hidden agenda. They do. They are humanity's superior relations, come to put their "cousins" back on track. Although that project remains largely secret, Christian survivalists have their suspicions and now present a threat. So presidential guard Bib Riley goes missing, allegedly fleeing a murder rap. His wife is kidnapped trying to find him; the principal adviser to the Betty guiding the project needs to contact him; the last man in Davenport, Iowa, is speed-biking east to meet him; and a homeless guy encounters him in a Manhattan-to-D.C. tunnel. Irvine's ingenious, action-packed thriller so cunningly recounts those four characters' convergence that the ending precedes the last page without impairing the suspense a bit. Ray Olson
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