The Search for Snout

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The Search for Snout is the third Rod Albright Alien Adventures book by Bruce Coville, published in 1995. In the UK it’s called Aliens Stole My Dad. The audiobook is read by Vincent Marzello.

Plot in simple terms:
- Rod joins the Galactic Patrol to find his partly alien father. Trouble starts when the villain BKR escapes and takes over the patrol ship Merkel, so the Ferkel crew must chase him.
- They learn more from Smorkus Flinders and from Snout, who connects with Rod mentally.
- Grakker heads to the Mentat, a school where Snout trained, hoping to find clues. Along the way, Smorkus captures the crew, but Rod’s cousin Elspeth hides aboard and helps rescue everyone.
- Rod’s tiny pet chibling ends up split into two beings, Seymour and Edgar; Seymour is the sentient one with control of their shared brain.
- At the Mentat, the Head Council can’t directly help, but explains that many messages from Snout come from a brain link with Rod that started in the first book. They also contact BKR and try to help Smorkus.
- Later, Mentat security arrests Rod and friends, but Selima Khan, who knows Snout, helps them escape. Rod learns that BKR and Smorkus plan to use a black hole to stop time and need Rod’s brain to finish the plan.
- Rod, along with Seymour and Edgar, ends up in the belly of a giant stone beast and finds Snout fading away. Rod is reunited with his father Ah-Rit Alber Ite (Art Albright), who explains Atlantis origins and his past with BKR.
- In a final battle, BKR has Ah-Rit in his grasp and threatens Rod. Ah-Rit is released to the Ferkel, Rod is handed to BKR, and Snout transfers Rod’s mind into Seymour, so two minds now live in one body.
- BKR leaves with Rod’s body. Snout recovers and explains what happened after he vanished: he was exploring the dimension and may have run into something hostile, possibly Smorkus Flinders.