http://www.amazon.com/review/R2Y... ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a... ( )

A woman that wants to be a dancer finds she is not suited to do so in the usual arena, but more than finds her niche when contact with aliens is made.

Close Encounters, but using the legs, instead, as her dancer skills adapt well to gravity, and apparently is a language that the aliens can understand.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/01... ( )

...[T]he Robinsons show that all people are not created equal, and they imply that not all people are. or even should be, valued by humanity equally. Some - artists in particular - are definitely more precious to humanity, for they remind us of what it is to be human, and inspire us as to what it might be to grow beyond our present achievements. -- Elizabeth Anne Hull

Spider Robinson has a very unique writing style and quite a sense of humor. In this book he spends a lot of time assigning meaning and emotion to dance moves, compelling some reviewers to accuse him of being "artsy". Indeed, the dance moves become the only way to communicate with an extra-terrestrial force which proves to be the link to the evolution of humankind. Here's one sentence as an example of how he describes a dance: "It spoke of the cruel humor of limitless ambition yoked to limited ability, of eternal hope invested in an ephemeral lifetime, of the driving need to try to create an inexorably predetermined future..." This is played against his blunt humor: "You got tits like both halves of a prize honeydew melon and an ass that any actress in Hollywood would sell her parents for and in Modern dance that makes you d-e-d dead, you haven't got a chance." And his wisecracks: "Where I come from we use that stuff for methane power", refering to someone's statement. This mixture of profound and profane works pretty well if you like Spider's style, and the theme of the book is refreshingly uplifting in the end without being too maudlin. There's a few references to recreational drugs, sex, and homosexuality so some parents may not want their pre-teens reading it, but really there is nothign offensive. There's only a little bit of hard science, which to me seemed more like mumbo jumbo and was thankfully minimal. Certainly not perfect, but an enjoyable read. ( )