Collaborators shows how a non-terrestrial culture interacts with a stranded human starship whose crew, bolstered by its formidable technology, forgets that they are not gods and interfere heavily in the politics of two adversarial nations. The major conflict is nuanced by ambiguities and dilemmas on all sides and at many levels.
Wheeler’s Quaker beliefs are visible (including the refusal to indulge in charismatic saviors) and the parallels to the havoc wrought by imperial-nation interventions on earth are clear. The alien biology and first-contact dynamics are handled unusually deftly; the narrative polyphony weaves complex melodies and harmonies. Wheeler’s world is effortlessly immersive and teems with fully realized characters.
(For those of you new to this blog, Deborah Wheeler was my former name and I still use it for novel-length science fiction. Although I am married to a Quaker and attend Meeting, I am myself not a member.)
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