Angel by Alton Gansky

Priscilla Simms only wants to be the next best reporter and perhaps win a Pultizer sometime in her career. She most definitely does not want to face and earthquake and an extra-terrestrial being in the same day. When an earthquake rocks her San Diego area, a strange spaceship is spotted around the area within the hour. Priscilla is on site when she sees Aster descend from the ship and raise a dead woman back to life. Aster eventually tells her that he has chosen her to help him unveil his plan for furtherment and advancement of mankind, as his people have learned on their own planet. However, the deeper the relationship becomes between human and alien, the more jaded Priscilla's outlook on life becomes and the more dangerous the game gets. Is Aster really a supernatural being sent to help planet earth, or does he have ulterior motives?
Once again, Alton Gansky crafts a fast-paced plot with a supernatural theme and packed with characters and "suspense." While Alton's alien elements are not as off-the-wall as they at first seem, the character department and the end of the plot serve to drag this book down.
Alton knows how to write a long book, yet his length is not a product of deep character development as it should be. Alton knows how to create characters, many characters, that is, but he does not know how or does not want to develop characters. Alton creates so many characters that the reader struggles to understand who is who. Many of these characters are given a shallow rundown yet are not used for more than five chapters. There are only about five characters who are nessecary in the end, yet none of them have personalities. Two of these have excuses for such disrepancies, but the other three do not, especially since one of them in Priscilla, the character Alton spends the most time showing. He obviously has some things to learn about character development.
Alton refrained from excess supernatural elements and scenes, a common mistake he has made in the past. Aster and his surrounding elements are more thought-out and well-developed than usual. However, Alton fell into other old vices such as unnessecary romantic subplots and cheesy showdowns. However, Alton did kill off a few expendable characters at this showdown. In the end, despite the book's length, the plot is quite shallow, which can only be blamed on the magnitude of the character base.
Alton Gansky has only hit on a few Elite ideas because his biggest problem is repetition. He seems to do the same thing in every book, yet not many critisize him for it. I believe that it is time for him to either find something new to write about or stop writing altogether.
3 stars