Mockingbird is the perfect spiritual sequel to The Man Who Fell to Earth. (spoilers for each ahead) Both books present a humanity in desperate need of salvation. Both present saviors in different forms. Alien and android- science fiction's favorite messiahs- but in both novels these cliches are re-examined and dissected. Thrown into contrast with the darkness even the most sheltered humans face every day, these would-be saviors pale- and they know it. In Man Who Fell, the titular character falls into despair. In Mockingbird, it's the humans who take center stage, playing their own saviors as Ian Anderson wrote in 1971. For better or worse, it is the ultimate fulfillment of Tevis' humanist philosophy.