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SharTree is a trainee navigator onboard a spaceship. She took the job to earn some money since her good-for-nothing "contracted mate" (that is, husband) keeps blowing theirs. She's prepared for an uneventful space-travel experience. Instead, the ship she's on is on a special mission: to find a very special being on a little planet called Earth. What begins as an ordinary trip jump-starts something much bigger than SharTree ever anticipated. First Adult is the story of a powerful group of beings called Adults, whose sole purpose is to protect and guide their kind—and the story of the good and evil inherent throughout the universe.
Alomes tells a number of stories at once, spanning thousands of years, without losing track of the big picture. His skill as a storyteller displays itself in the unique setting and through the inversion of tropes (such as showing an alien abduction from the aliens' point of view). The book introduces us to key players in the Adult trilogy, and establishes their place in the pecking order. Although it's clearly the beginning of something larger, this first book is a self-contained history lesson about an alien landscape that's surprisingly human. Through the unique characters, readers discover what led to the creation of these enlightened Adults, what role an ancient supercomputer had in our existence, and how the world came to be as it is. First Adult is somewhere between an allegory for God and a cautionary tale about the dangers of giving in to vices. The ending of this introductory book will keep you waiting for the next installment.