Book Beginnings and The Friday 56

I'm linking up with Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings and Freda's Voice for Page 56. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Pick the closest book on your book stack and join the fun.

The Beginning:

"When Alex Benedict graduated high school, his uncle Gabe, the only parent he'd ever known, provided the ultimate gift: a flight to Earth, the home world, the place where everything had started."

Page 56:

"Whether Kolchevsky was going up or coming down, this would have been a difficult patch of ground to navigate. He had apparently staggered off into the shrubbery and collapsed."

From Coming Home by Jack McDevitt. This is the latest book in the Alex Benedict series. I have followed Alex and his adventures from book one. Coming Home is book #7. These can be read as a stand-alone so if you are a SciFi fan pick this one up.