Maggie the Ranter

OK-the one sentence version of this book is that some aliens thousands of years ago altered our genes and kidnapped some humans and repopulated a few other planets with them in sort of a 'double-blind' study where some were left with the gene that allowed us to communicate with the recently deceased. Modern humans are sent there to 'witness' this firsthand, and the resulting news creates a lot of chaos.

Although I like the premise and the writing, I didnt connect to any of the characters, and couldnt get any suspense worked up about the whole 'what-if' question. Why would aliens want to remove that gene? and why would they come back to try and fix it so much later?

Also, there is a character, James, for whom there was no indication of motivation, which really bothered me. An epilogue shows two characters have married. While this makes sense, it would have been nice to see the realization of their attraction.
All in all, a solid 3 stars