The Road to Roswell, by science fiction legend Connie Willis, kept me up way past my bedtime on a work night. Readers, you have been warned.
Francie was only going to Roswell, New Mexico, to help her friend. This friend has a long history of picking weirdos to marry and Francie has always been here for her when, at the last minute, Serena realizes that she shouldn’t marry the dude. The current dude is a UFO nut who has badgered Serena into getting married at Roswell’s (real) annual UFO Festival at the (real) International UFO Museum. Francie is very much not into UFOs; she cringes at the mere thought of UFO nuts before her plane even lands. None of her friends are either, so Francie can’t get anyone to be her plus-one at the wedding. A plus-one would’ve been really helpful because Francie manages to get abducted by an actual alien on her very first night in Roswell.
What follows is a madcap adventure across New Mexico and Nevada as the alien—nicknamed Indy for its speed and dexterity with its whiplike tentacles—kidnaps increasing numbers of people in an effort to do something. Within days, Indy kidnaps a con man (ironically selling alien abduction insurance), a UFO conspiracist, a surprisingly lucky gambling granny, and Western movie-obsessed businessman who finally managed to take to the open road in his western trail wagon (definitely not an RV).
Language is a huge barrier for much of the book, as Indy can’t speak and can only communicate with tentacle-sign language until Francie works out a way to teach Indy how to read English. (Subtitles to Westerns turn out to be hilariously useful.) For all that Larry the UFO nut is terrified of aliens and is more than willing to witter on about cattle mutilations and probing at the drop of a hat, Francie starts to change her mind about the little tumbleweed-looking alien, especially after he saves her life from a rattlesnake. Before long, Francie and her unlikely cohort of kidnappers are doing their utmost to help Indy with whatever it’s trying to do.
The Road to Roswell is a hilarious and tense ride, packed with running jokes, clueless UFOlogists, Men in Black, casinos, applications of the Code of the West, and discussions of what we owe to each other. You’ll laugh; you’ll get misty-eyed; you’ll cheer the heroes. Seriously, I can’t praise this book highly enough, but then, you’re always in good hands with Connie Willis.