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kenmooney's review against another edition
5.0
Interspecies is a fascinating anthology, one of those surprisingly effective collections of stories that challenge the way we think about real-life and life as we experience it in story-telling. Not many anthologies can pull this off: in my experience, there's often one weak link to the stories, one that perhaps proves to be stronger, out-shining all the others, or one that is significantly weaker. This is not the case with Interspecies, featuring four significantly different stories and allowing each one, and each writer, to develop their own flavour of a specific story.
Interspecies contains four different stories, all set in an earth of the not-too-distant future (the anthology includes a chronology, but removes them enough from the present-day to give them a true taste of the other.) Interspecies paints a world where humans are no longer the sole sentient inhabitants of the planet earth, but are joined by an alien race, the Inlari. But this is not an invasion: the Inlaris homeworlds have been destroyed, and the race are refugees, forced to search the universe for a new home. We join the story after the Inlari have found that new home in earth, after they have taken control of New Zealand, taken some humans as slaves and even having an all-out war against humanity. The four stories within Interspecies take place at slightly different moments of time, and there is no direct connection between them, but they all take place in this world where humans and Inlari share the same space.
I won't go into detail on each story, but each writer looks at a different element of life, touching on cultural facets that are either very different, or shared between the humans and the Inlari. Each story takes a different point of view, from human or alien, and each treating the relationship between them both with different respect. MJ Kelley's story, The Memoriam, looks at the history, faith and the religion of the Inlari; Elaine Chao's Underground Intelligence touches on the human resistance and an awkward scientific and cultural meeting of mines between humans and Inlari; Dana Leipold's Transmission Interrupted once again looks at the higher castes of the Ilari culture and the expectations on them in their place in the world; and Woelf Dietrich's Babylon's Song touches on the Inlari's handling of the humans as slaves, or at least that's what their culture expects them to do.
While each story takes an interesting element in and of itself, there is a much bigger storyline here that runs through all four stories, and is a tribute to the writers and editors that this comes across...or maybe I'm reading into this element where it doesn't exist...? These are not stories of humans vs aliens, but stories about culture, about language and cultures, about classes and expectations and skin colour. I feel that setting the story in New Zealand, a land-mass very aware of its own indigenous cultures and surrounded by so many others, calls attention to this fact, and with the media full of stories about refugees, about dodgy governments and disrespecting other cultures, Interspecies is a powerful way of addressing all of these real-life issues without looking at them closely enough to ask questions. This is a piece of fictional entertainment after all.
These stories work very well together, creating a very impressive, singular look at this new world, and it's clear that the writers (or the editors) have gotten the best from their stories to make this anthology work very well as one unit, one world and one message. From the title, my assumption is that this world will be revisited for a second book (perhaps more.) I look forward to reading more about the future, and the past of this world.
Interspecies contains four different stories, all set in an earth of the not-too-distant future (the anthology includes a chronology, but removes them enough from the present-day to give them a true taste of the other.) Interspecies paints a world where humans are no longer the sole sentient inhabitants of the planet earth, but are joined by an alien race, the Inlari. But this is not an invasion: the Inlaris homeworlds have been destroyed, and the race are refugees, forced to search the universe for a new home. We join the story after the Inlari have found that new home in earth, after they have taken control of New Zealand, taken some humans as slaves and even having an all-out war against humanity. The four stories within Interspecies take place at slightly different moments of time, and there is no direct connection between them, but they all take place in this world where humans and Inlari share the same space.
I won't go into detail on each story, but each writer looks at a different element of life, touching on cultural facets that are either very different, or shared between the humans and the Inlari. Each story takes a different point of view, from human or alien, and each treating the relationship between them both with different respect. MJ Kelley's story, The Memoriam, looks at the history, faith and the religion of the Inlari; Elaine Chao's Underground Intelligence touches on the human resistance and an awkward scientific and cultural meeting of mines between humans and Inlari; Dana Leipold's Transmission Interrupted once again looks at the higher castes of the Ilari culture and the expectations on them in their place in the world; and Woelf Dietrich's Babylon's Song touches on the Inlari's handling of the humans as slaves, or at least that's what their culture expects them to do.
While each story takes an interesting element in and of itself, there is a much bigger storyline here that runs through all four stories, and is a tribute to the writers and editors that this comes across...or maybe I'm reading into this element where it doesn't exist...? These are not stories of humans vs aliens, but stories about culture, about language and cultures, about classes and expectations and skin colour. I feel that setting the story in New Zealand, a land-mass very aware of its own indigenous cultures and surrounded by so many others, calls attention to this fact, and with the media full of stories about refugees, about dodgy governments and disrespecting other cultures, Interspecies is a powerful way of addressing all of these real-life issues without looking at them closely enough to ask questions. This is a piece of fictional entertainment after all.
These stories work very well together, creating a very impressive, singular look at this new world, and it's clear that the writers (or the editors) have gotten the best from their stories to make this anthology work very well as one unit, one world and one message. From the title, my assumption is that this world will be revisited for a second book (perhaps more.) I look forward to reading more about the future, and the past of this world.
tnagumo's review against another edition
4.0
An Excellent Anthology of Single-Universe Stories
Overall, an excellent anthology of single-universe stories. The universe itself is new (or at least, it was new to me), so initially I had to keep flipping back and forth between the timeline at the beginning and the story I was reading, but eventually it became relatively irrelevant to the understanding of each story.
THE MEMORIAM (M .J. Kelley) - The story starts with a scene that made me a bit squeamish (needle!). While the premise of the Memoriams was reminiscent of that in David Weber's Honor Harrington series as well as in Lois Lowry's The Giver, the twist at the end was unique, and certainly the characters were drawn well. I enjoyed in particular the character of Alta; while minor, I felt she was the most real character of those in this story.
UNDERGROUND INTELLIGENCE (Elaine Chao) - An-ting was certainly a compelling character, and I wish we had more time with the other characters, especially Nate and Opkith but also some of the other comrades in the Anchu. Short story conventions may have prevented a slightly longer work, but just a bit more in the An-ting-Opkith dialogue would have been fulfilling (at least, hear his response to her question on Lamasha Cries). I also thought that her reaction to Nate's reappearance at the end was substantially more subdued than I expected, considering how high her anxiety was as she awaited news of the extraction mission.
TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED (Dana Leipold) - Inlari version of Romeo & Juliet! I wish I could have liked this story more, and the plot itself was well-thought out, but the narrative wasn't as clear as it could be with the different threads (the romance, the resistance, the significance of the technology), and characters weren't quite as filled out as in the first two stories. Quinette just seemed weepy and helpless until the end, and I didn't get to know Zet, which resulted in me wondering how they fell in love with each other. The villainness of the piece, Valnia Alteiri, struck me as rather one-note.
BABYLON'S SONG (Woelf Dietrich) - What a great story. and Samantha was a great character, as was Master Zocht. I only wished that more emphasis - and text - was placed on what happened in that middle section when she was in Zocht's house and less on how she and her sister were initially captured. That part was the meat of the story, when she undergoes character growth, and within the limited length of a short story it may have been more effective to spend more time there - and certainly we would have gotten to know both the main characters more.
Now that I have finished the anthology, I may look into the other collection, These Broken Worlds, in the same universe, one that clearly deserves exploring.
I was given a free advance review copy in exchange for an honest review, though I also bought a copy once published.
Overall, an excellent anthology of single-universe stories. The universe itself is new (or at least, it was new to me), so initially I had to keep flipping back and forth between the timeline at the beginning and the story I was reading, but eventually it became relatively irrelevant to the understanding of each story.
THE MEMORIAM (M .J. Kelley) - The story starts with a scene that made me a bit squeamish (needle!). While the premise of the Memoriams was reminiscent of that in David Weber's Honor Harrington series as well as in Lois Lowry's The Giver, the twist at the end was unique, and certainly the characters were drawn well. I enjoyed in particular the character of Alta; while minor, I felt she was the most real character of those in this story.
UNDERGROUND INTELLIGENCE (Elaine Chao) - An-ting was certainly a compelling character, and I wish we had more time with the other characters, especially Nate and Opkith but also some of the other comrades in the Anchu. Short story conventions may have prevented a slightly longer work, but just a bit more in the An-ting-Opkith dialogue would have been fulfilling (at least, hear his response to her question on Lamasha Cries). I also thought that her reaction to Nate's reappearance at the end was substantially more subdued than I expected, considering how high her anxiety was as she awaited news of the extraction mission.
TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED (Dana Leipold) - Inlari version of Romeo & Juliet! I wish I could have liked this story more, and the plot itself was well-thought out, but the narrative wasn't as clear as it could be with the different threads (the romance, the resistance, the significance of the technology), and characters weren't quite as filled out as in the first two stories. Quinette just seemed weepy and helpless until the end, and I didn't get to know Zet, which resulted in me wondering how they fell in love with each other. The villainness of the piece, Valnia Alteiri, struck me as rather one-note.
BABYLON'S SONG (Woelf Dietrich) - What a great story. and Samantha was a great character, as was Master Zocht. I only wished that more emphasis - and text - was placed on what happened in that middle section when she was in Zocht's house and less on how she and her sister were initially captured. That part was the meat of the story, when she undergoes character growth, and within the limited length of a short story it may have been more effective to spend more time there - and certainly we would have gotten to know both the main characters more.
Now that I have finished the anthology, I may look into the other collection, These Broken Worlds, in the same universe, one that clearly deserves exploring.
I was given a free advance review copy in exchange for an honest review, though I also bought a copy once published.
thistlechaser's review against another edition
5.0
Set on Earth in the future, some war between multiple alien races basically destroyed our planet. One alien race (the Inlari) were fleeing a different very aggressive race, and came to Earth to hide. The aggressive race found them here and left the planet in ruins, killing most humans, most Inlari, and leaving most of the planet poisoned and unlivable. New Zealand and Australia were the only two livable places left, the former in control of the Inlari, the latter of the humans.
The book contained four novellas, set in that world. As scifi-ish as this setup sounds, the stories were really about relationships, mostly interspecies relationships (as fitting the book's title).
Self-published, but both well-written and quite well (if not perfectly) edited. I would have 100% believed this was a traditionally published book (except for the fugly cover).
The Memoriam by M. J. Kelley A story of the Inlari and how they handle memories and forgetting. A young boy "passes a test" (sort of) to become one of his race's most important figures. The story follows his relationship with his mentor. Twist provided by a girl who failed in that same role.
Sad and dark. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it was my least favorite in the book.
Underground Intelligence by Elaine Chao In the alien-held New Zealand, the humans are kept as slaves. The last three novellas all deal with that. In this one, we learn of the human underground resistance in New Zealand, but more importantly is the relationship between one Inlari man and the human resistance fighter woman who came to steal tech from him. A story of how friendships and trust can start, and the effects they could have.
I really liked this one. I loved the Inlari character so much.
Transmission Interrupted by Dana Leipold Through this novella we learned of the Inlari's religion... but it was really about the relationship between a young Inlari girl and the human (slave) boy she loved. It had a nice twist to it, which was foreshadowed in the story, but I hadn't picked up on, so once it happened I had to laugh at myself for not realizing.
Though stories about religion of this type make me uncomfortable (the religion being an excuse to make one group feel superior and make it okay to hurt another group -- too realistic), I still enjoyed it a lot. The characters made the story. Unfortunately the ending wasn't believable, though the details of that are a spoiler.
Babylon’s Song by Woelf Dietrich Ugh, this story. Sad and dark and wonderful. In this novella we followed a very young girl. Her family murdered, she and her sister were stolen from their home in Australia by Inlari slavers. She was nine, her sister was four. The story followed through her training as they tried to break her, she and her sister sold to different people. She ended up in the hands of a very kind Inlari (such a lucky break for her, that's very uncommon, the Inlari think of humans as animals). Bad, spoiler things happen and the girl and her master are taken into custody by the Inlari police force.
I didn't completely like or buy the ending, I wish it had ended sooner (with an open ending), but still. I loved this story, it was my favorite in the book.
This book is currently $5 on Amazon, and well worth the price (so long as you're okay with dark stories). It's been a long time since I've enjoyed and been so impressed by a self-published book. I wish more of them were like this one.
The book contained four novellas, set in that world. As scifi-ish as this setup sounds, the stories were really about relationships, mostly interspecies relationships (as fitting the book's title).
Self-published, but both well-written and quite well (if not perfectly) edited. I would have 100% believed this was a traditionally published book (except for the fugly cover).
The Memoriam by M. J. Kelley A story of the Inlari and how they handle memories and forgetting. A young boy "passes a test" (sort of) to become one of his race's most important figures. The story follows his relationship with his mentor. Twist provided by a girl who failed in that same role.
Sad and dark. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though it was my least favorite in the book.
Underground Intelligence by Elaine Chao In the alien-held New Zealand, the humans are kept as slaves. The last three novellas all deal with that. In this one, we learn of the human underground resistance in New Zealand, but more importantly is the relationship between one Inlari man and the human resistance fighter woman who came to steal tech from him. A story of how friendships and trust can start, and the effects they could have.
I really liked this one. I loved the Inlari character so much.
Transmission Interrupted by Dana Leipold Through this novella we learned of the Inlari's religion... but it was really about the relationship between a young Inlari girl and the human (slave) boy she loved. It had a nice twist to it, which was foreshadowed in the story, but I hadn't picked up on, so once it happened I had to laugh at myself for not realizing.
Though stories about religion of this type make me uncomfortable (the religion being an excuse to make one group feel superior and make it okay to hurt another group -- too realistic), I still enjoyed it a lot. The characters made the story. Unfortunately the ending wasn't believable, though the details of that are a spoiler.
Babylon’s Song by Woelf Dietrich Ugh, this story. Sad and dark and wonderful. In this novella we followed a very young girl. Her family murdered, she and her sister were stolen from their home in Australia by Inlari slavers. She was nine, her sister was four. The story followed through her training as they tried to break her, she and her sister sold to different people. She ended up in the hands of a very kind Inlari (such a lucky break for her, that's very uncommon, the Inlari think of humans as animals). Bad, spoiler things happen and the girl and her master are taken into custody by the Inlari police force.
I didn't completely like or buy the ending, I wish it had ended sooner (with an open ending), but still. I loved this story, it was my favorite in the book.
This book is currently $5 on Amazon, and well worth the price (so long as you're okay with dark stories). It's been a long time since I've enjoyed and been so impressed by a self-published book. I wish more of them were like this one.
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