REVIEW SUMMARY: Surprising effort by newcomer Michael Jasper, the book brings together a very mature story, good characterization, and aliens that are alien.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Fleeing from a dying star after living underground for generations, the people of the Wannoshay crash to Earth looking for a new beginning. Unfortunately for them, the United States and Canada are already occupied. Quarantined by the military, the two species learn to communicate and surprisingly, the first request Wannoshay make is to meet with a religious man.

MY REVIEW:

PROS: The Wannoshay will never be mistaken for human – radial bilateral symmetry is about all we have in common – with inscruitable motivations; human characters are believable and dynamic; plot is mature and intelligent.

CONS: Sometimes depressing in a 1984 kind of way.

BOTTOM LINE: One of the best books I have read in the last 12 months, Jasper has produced a book that brings it all together – engaging story, realistic characters, and something that will stay with you after you have read it.


In many science fiction stories, arriving aliens are treated either like heroes or conquering armies. People get along famously with the aliens or end up in conflict. You can also instantly see the alien’s motivations and understand what the aliens want (our resources, our friendship, or even our whales). These kinds of stories feature humanoid aliens that speak, act, and behave exactly like humans. Certainly many of these stories (from Footfall to Star Trek to E.T.) are fun and interesting. But are they realistic? No – not even close.

I challenge you read The Wannoshay Cycle without being reminded of the Japanese internment camps of World War 2. That is how we would really treat aliens who crash-land on Earth. And while the mainstream of humanity would feel comforted by that approach, there would be some who seek something else. Those people are the heroes of Jasper’s story.

Father Joshua is a priest struggling with challenges to his faith. He is the first non-military person to interact with the aliens and the contact affects him to the core. Ally Tang is a drug-addled freelance journalist who is driven to get stories on the aliens to sell to feed her drug habit – at least at first. Contact changes her as well. Skin is a simple man who likes hunting with his buddies and even goes on a hunt for an escaped alien – until he meets the alien and he realizes there is more to situation than it appears. And finally there is Shontera – a blue-collar single mom who is trying to carve out a life for her and her daughter. At least until the aliens are brought in to work at the brewery alongside her in an attempt to assimilate them.

Each of these characters impact the Wannoshay and the Wannoshay impact them alike. Ally helps some of the aliens get high, for example, but then comes to lament the addiction she causes. Her emotional reaction is one we can all at least understand, if not truly empathize with. The same is true for all Jasper’s characters, but Father Joshua is the one we can identify with the most. He is honest and sincere in his attempt to understand the aliens. His frustration with their nearly unfathomable behavior is palpable. Jasper does a wonderful job conveying this and making the resulting actions natural and expected. When I found myself knowing that Father Joshua was going to do before he did it, I felt I really understood the man and his outlook and that is a credit to Jasper’s writing.

The story is largely character-driven and it works well on that level. However, there is a plot – the Wannoshay are sick and getting worse. How this plays out and how it impacts the humans is entertaining and helped keep me turning pages right up to the end. I won’t give anything away, except to say that the book has a satisfying ending.

The book is depressing in parts that made it hard to read in the beginning. Humans are often narrow-minded and petty. I know this, but that doesn’t mean I always want to be reminded of it. I mention this because after reading it I was reminded of George Orwell’s 1984 in some ways. I’m hard-pressed to call this a negative, really, but if this isn’t your kind of book you might not enjoy the story as much as I did. If your idea of science fiction is space action robots and ray guns, you might not enjoy this book either. But any fan looking for a mature read will appreciate this book.

I didn’t know it until recently, but Jasper has pieced his novel together from a series of short stories he wrote (some of them dating back years.) All I can say is that I certainly couldn’t tell this. The book doesn’t feel forced or hastily put together. This is a cohesive whole.

Michael Jasper has produced a good example of what realistic science fiction can be. Its soft sci-fi to be sure, but that doesn’t make the intriguing concepts of the human-alien interaction less meaningful.

Related posts:

  1. REVIEW: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
  2. REVIEW: “The Vaccinator” by Michael Marshall Smith and “Andy Warhol’s Dracula” by Kim Newman
  3. REVIEW: The Healer by Michael Blumlein
  4. REVIEW: Silverheart by Michael Moorcock and Storm Constantine
  5. Review – The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay, Michael Chabon

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