Planet Sickness

by Kat Giles

28 year old archivist Alexandra Lawrence always dreamed of spaceflight, but her chronic illness left her grounded working in an archive for a defunct space exploration company. After she has an unsettling encounter with an alien specimen from the Tereus expedition, Xandra digs into the mission records and learns some of the crew never made it home. Xandra is used to being sick, so she can't tell if the lingering effects of her exposure are something to worry about or one more way her body is letting her down. With multiple fatality notices in front of her, she needs to fine out--fast. As Xandra explores the records, she discovers more secrets buried in the archive: betrayal, violence, and crewmembers' growing suspicion that something about Tereus isn't right.

190 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Alex Niederberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm biased but I don't particularly care.

Planet Sickness is a fun little adventure novel through the lens of archiving. Or, more realistically, it's both a celebration and condemnation of archives, historical storytelling/revisionism, and various aspects of library politics masquerading as an adventure novel. Adding to this is a visceral eliding of historical trauma with chronic pain that crashes into the narration (both the idea of narration and story control and the literal narration of the book) in the final fourth of the novel thanks to some funky bugs.

There are some rough edges here and there, in part presumably due to the small team working on it and in part some things that could've potentially been reworked to lightly firm up our understanding of some of the more complex parts of the book, but it's very easy to move past those and enjoy a fun excursion into some very real-world library politics. Hell yeah.

[Jon Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book in paperback from the author at a local author fair at the the Woodneath Library Center in Kansas City, MO in November of last November. After finishing the book, I wanted to review in on Goodreads but found it wasn't in their listing, so I sent a request to the Librarians Group to get it added. Now that it's been added, I guess I'll get to provide the first review. It's a science fiction tale set somewhere in the future (I don't recall a date being given) when mankind has developed interstellar travel, and private space companies are sending out survey ships to explore habitable planets and identify those suitable for colonization. This surveying has been going on for decades, and some of the space companies sending out the ships have gone out of business or been purchased by others. Thus we find Xandra Lawrence, an Earthbound archivist working for a Hipplolyta Space Corporation, a space company that has bought out Outer Bounds, a defunct outfit that 70-some-odd years ago had sent a survey ship to planet Tereus. The records of this expedition are in the Hippolyta archives, and in the course of cataloging these records, Xandra is exposed to an alien lifeform from Tereus. This encounter causes some disturbing mental effects, and Xandra begins to go through the papers and recordings from the expedition to try to learn more about the source of the alien life form. A story begins to unfold - interpersonal conflict among the crew of the survey ship, strange occurrences once the ship reaches Tereus, and the eventual deaths of two crew members. To avoid spoilers I won't say more, but eventually the mystery leads Xandra to travel to Tereus, which now hosts a colony that harvests lumber, to get to the bottom of what happened. This is a fairly short book at 190 pages, and it made for a quick and enjoyable read. I liked that fact that most chapters begin with a set of archivist's notes about the records from the Tereus expedition. It's a nice touch. I also like the fact that, unlike so much sci-fi written in the 21st century, this book is not filled with foul language. I'm not squeamish about foul language; it just seems that way too much is used in today's writing. I do have a couple of minor quibbles; first, the records in the archive seem to contain a lot of paper. I know that a "paperless society" has been promised for at least 50 years now and has failed to arrive, but surely an interstellar civilization would have gotten to a mostly paperless state. Second, the export from the Tereus colony is wood, which is shipped to Earth. You'd think that if wood was so precious on Earth, even if the planet's climate had been wrecked, it would cost less to genetically engineer wood producing trees that could survive in the wrecked climate rather than shipping planks and plywood across light years of space. But these are just quibbles. Four out of five stars.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

i had a great time with this book! really fun development of the mystery and i liked how the idea of archives, history, storytelling, frames (and who doesn't fit in them), and personhood all come together in a world still controlled by corporations that repeatedly fail those people. without giving anything away, the climax was a lot of fun and left me with a lot to think about- i always enjoy making use of narrative tools like that and it was nice to read a story from someone who enjoys those same tools.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow to get started. Half way through the book Xandra finally leaves Earth for Tereus to solve the mystery she dug up in the Archives. The story finally speeds up and gets a bit interesting only to devolve into a mess of intertwined POVs and shared memories/experiences past and present. Then it ends with a bunch of introspection and a frustrated reader. Is the book bad? Not really. Is it good? No. Would I recommend others read it? Maybe, but I doubt anyone I know would like it.

[Ellison · Rating 5 out of 5]

a historian discovers data about a long ago space mind decides to make the trek herself to see if she can find out more if she can find out more information. quite a story.

[Casie Blevins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story lacks a definitive setting.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an original story, something that's hard to come by.