Book Review – The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking “Dave, your new haircut makes you look so good!”

And I would agree with you.

But you’re also thinking “a book review from Dave? How long has it been?”

And the answer would be quite a while.

I typically only do book reviews for books that really grab me, and sometimes not even then (he says, looking at the list of other wonderful books that he’s read but couldn’t muster the will to write about).

Last week, however, I hit a book that not only captivated me (I read it in one day, and that’s 400 pages worth, something that I just don’t do) but it also seemed really worth writing about.

The Road to Roswell, published in June 2023 and written by noted science fiction author Connie Willis, is a hilarious take on a number of SF subjects. Part road trip book, part UFO invasion story, part UFOs are nonsense, and part Romantic Comedy, this book is hilarious fun.

The main star of the book is Francie, a woman who has just flown into New Mexico to attend her old college roommate’s wedding in Roswell, and ostensibly maybe to make her friend see sense and not marry this bizarre UFOlogist.

(She’s helped her friend avoid these pitfalls before).

Sadly, she can’t get anybody to go with her to avoid her friend trying to fix her up, which is another thing that often happens.

Also unfortunately, the wedding is going to be UFO-themed and it’s going to take place during the biggest UFO festival of the year in Roswell.

She gets inundated with talk of UFOs, internally rolling her eyes at all of these people who believe in something that obviously doesn’t exist.

Until she gets abducted by one herself.

Not in the stereotypical way, but by a tumbleweed-like alien with extremely fast tentacles. An alien that insists (through a lot of motioning with tentacles) that she drive him somewhere.

Before long, they have acquired other people along for the ride. A con man named Wade, an elderly lady with a casino addiction, a guy who’s touring the southwest filming locations of all the old Western movies in his RV, and yes, a guy who insists that the alien is here trying to kill everyone.

But is the alien really hear to probe everybody as a precursor for invasion?

Or could it be something else?

Like any road trip movie, The Road to Roswell has its fair share of tourist traps, Elvis impersonators, unlikely detours, and people getting to know each other.

But are they really?

Everybody has secrets, except for maybe the nutjobs.

One of the best things about this book is that it will often keep you guessing, and that mystery just keeps you reading for one more chapter.

The relationships between the characters as they join this madcap escapade are wonderfully done too. Willis’ characters are always good, especially in books like To Say Nothing of the Dog (my first Willis book, many eons ago).

They brighten this book as well. Francie and Wade appear to have a good connection, but the other characters are marvelous as well. They all have some great moments in this book, and they all bond as a group.

Except the nutjob, who of course keeps spouting his theories loudly, sometimes to the detriment of the group.

The only character, unusually, that I feel got short shrift is actually Francie herself.

She’s not really defined as a character, but defined more in terms of her relationship to others.

There’s her college friend, the other characters that end up on the road trip, her two work friends who won’t go with her to the wedding because they don’t want to be around all of this UFO talk.

We don’t even know what this job is! Just that they are work friends.

People are more than their professions, of course, but we don’t really get any insight into who Francie is outside of that either. What does she like to do in her spare time? What are her goals? (Other than to escape from this situation, of course).

Sure, the rest of the characters don’t get in-depth exploration either, but they all have their secrets which make them more interesting, and flesh them out once they are revealed.

Francie, being the viewpoint character for everything, is just there.

Even with that criticism, though, Willis does a great job bringing them all together and making them entertaining despite that.

I snickered a lot in this book (mainly because I didn’t want to bother my wife with loud laughs). Willis’ dialogue is always funny.

Much like other road trip comedies, things go bad almost from the outset, and just when things appear to be looking up…they get worse.

Until the last 20% or so of the book, when things start wrapping up. The humour’s still there, but there is a lot more plot to explain at this point and you start wondering if there is some massive twist coming that will feed the rest of the book.

Nope. It’s just wrap-up.

It’s enjoyable wrap-up, of course, because it’s Willis and her writing is incredible.

It didn’t stop me in my tracks, or anything. However, it did challenge my “finish this book in one day” goal I made after I hit the 50% mark and decided I wasn’t going to stop.

I actually found the bond that developed between the alien and Francie to be quite touching and enjoyable.

Hell, the whole book is enjoyable (even the wrap-up).

There’s something to be said about renting an RV, stocking it up with tons of food and other supplies, making sure it has a TV room and a working DVD player, and just being able to watch old Western DVDs until the cows come home.

And funny how that became incredibly useful!

Yes, there are a few coincidences in the book.

But isn’t that the heart of many road trip movies?

The wacky misadventures as the characters go from one mishap to another?

The theme of the book seems to jump a bit too, which is not a bad thing.

It starts out being mainly a UFO comedy, but then the Western themes kick in and it becomes a book about camaraderie and friendship and how we form these relationships with the people around us.

What is friendship? What is family, or at least what does it truly mean?

The Road to Roswell, despite my complaints about Francie’s depth and the ending, is a book that will grip you and make you laugh, and is well worth an afternoon’s reading (I assume most people read faster than me).

Check it out if you get the chance.