First Contact: Or, It's Later Than You Think, by Evan Mandery

I was drawn to this novel because of the blurb on the cover, comparing it to works of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams.  I like Vonnegut OK, but I think Douglas Adams is one of the greatest writers EVER!  So of course I had to check out someone following in Adams's footsteps.  I've read Douglas Adams, and Mandery is no Douglas Adams.  Now that we've gotten that clarification out of the way, I'll say that I did enjoy Mandery's book.

More than Vonnegut and Adams, Mandery reminded me of Christopher Buckley's brand of political satire.  In First Contact, aliens make contact with Earth, announcing their arrival on YouTube.  The story revolves around an aide to the president and his relationship with the Rigelian ambassador.  Their superiors, especially a bumbling, exercise-obsessed, hyper-religious U.S. President (Mandery's clear lampooning of George W. Bush was a little too mean to be funny. . . . But still kind of funny.), end up in a series of misunderstandings and ultimately a nuclear show-down (the American President's fault, of course). 

First Contact is an entertaining trifle, but little more.  Mandery is a funny writer, but his attempts to channel Adams fall short.  Like Adams, Mandery uses lots of asides and digressions, Hitchhiker's Guide style, but somehow doesn't keep it all together like Adams did.  If you ever liked Douglas Adams, Monty Python, or science fiction with a rowdy sense of humor, pick up First Contact for a laugh.