[shameless self-promotion] Dashiell Harrison Reviews Collaborators

 

Here's another rave review for Collaborators, this time from Dashiell Harrison:

Collaborators follows the social and political fallout of first contact between an alien spaceship crewed by powerful and technologically advanced spacefarers and the population of farmers, poets, book-sellers, and diplomats on whose politically volatile planet the spacefarers land. The twist: the spacecraft is crewed by Terran humans from our solar system, and the unsuspecting natives are the alien population of the planet Bandar. The Terrans try to remain neutral, but the political situation in Chacarre is especially unstable, and they soon transition from visitors to invaders. The occupation of Chacarre quickly spawns an insurgency that turns friends to foes and lovers to enemies, and threatens to wipe out the entirety of the Terran expedition.

Collaborators immediately sets itself apart from standard first contact type stories by focusing primarily on the alien perspective. Human characters feature heavily in the first few chapters, but no sooner have we come to know and like the Terran astronauts than Ross subverts our expectations by whisking us out of the relative familiarity of the Terran-crewed spaceship and drawing us into the rich and complex world of the Bandari aliens as they grapple with the effects of Terran occupation on their already fractious society.

It is in the interactions between the Bandaris that Ross reveals a mastery of world building which rests firmly on her background as a biologist and international traveler. The Bandari feel simultaneously alien and human, with single-sex bodies that exhibit sexual dimorphism only when they are pregnant or in heat and a single-gender culture that is as exotic as their urban, clan-based society is familiar.

Ross strikes a neat balance between humor and thoughtfulness in the scenes when the Chacarran diplomat Ferro first meets with the Terran landing crew. How does one read emotion on the face of a creature without a crest? He wonders. What kind of civilization crews a spacecraft with pregnant personnel?

The characters - both Chacarran and Terran - come through vividly and sympathetically, each the hero of their own story, each painfully ill-equipped to understand the needs and customs of the aliens with which they are suddenly forced to interact.

At its core, Collaborators is a tragic tale of cultural misunderstandings and a compelling journey into how they can be fixed.

Here's where to order the book (ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover editions):

Amazon (ebook and trade paperback)
B & N (ebook, trade paperback, and hardcover/laminated cover) 
From your local bookstore, order via Ingram:
     Trade paperback: 9781952589003
     Hardcover/dust jacket: 9781952589027

Kobo (and other ebook retailers)