The Test

Star City #0.2

by Edwin Peng

After decades of interstellar travel, the Ba’ren Exploratory Mission finally arrives at Earth’s solar system. Unlike most of his fellow Ba’ren, juvenile Sepporinen is not eager to learn more about humans. He prefers to work on his apprenticeship in the asteroid mining guild.

When tasked to learn more about human mining operations on Earth, Sepporinen is given a seemingly golden opportunity to clinch guild membership. But he soon finds himself entangled in a mysterious conspiracy—one threatening dire consequences for both Ba’ren and humans.

86 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2017

About the author

Edwin Peng lives in beautiful Lincoln, Nebraska with his beloved Pokémon buddy, Eevee. During the day, he indulges in super-villainy by performing high-power laser research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. At night, his secret identity is that of a literary superhero fighting to make the Young Adult Science Fiction genre less clichéd and more inclusive.

Edwin is the author of the Star City series, which features badass heroines and space aliens who love blueberry pies. The first novel is released by Evolved Publishing on December 4, 2017.

Reviews

[Mary Fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Asteroid mining apprentice Sepporinen, a member of the Ba'ren race of advanced, space-faring aliens, wants nothing more than to ace his tests and join the mining guild. His people's Exploratory Mission has recently arrived at Earth, but he's more interested in kicking off his career than learning about humans. But when he finds himself tasked with learning about Earth's mining operations, he realizes that not everything is as it seems... and there's a dangerous conspiracy afoot.

"The Test" is the second of three prequel short stories leading up to Edwin Peng's upcoming YA sci-fi novel, STAR CITY. Like the first prequel, "The Announcement," it offers a little taste of awesome things to come. While "The Announcement" introduced the reader to STAR CITY's Earthling protagonist, "The Test" offers a tantalizing glimpse at the alien culture she'll encounter in the novel.

There's a lot packed into "The Test," which is a quick little read that introduces the reader to the Ba'ren and their spacefaring ways. Peng does a lot of world-building in just a few pages, and it was a lot of fun to learn about this out-of-the-world civilization. Also, the aliens' observations of humans are absolutely delightful... a combo of fun quips and cutting social commentary. The story also teases the reader with dark conspiracies swirling behind what should be a peaceful first contact mission... Of course, this is a prequel, so it ends on an agonizing cliffhanger... Can't wait to read STAR CITY when it comes out and find out where it all goes!

[E.D. Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second pre-novel short story, this one is told from the aliens' POV. I'll admit I glossed over all the sciency jargon, but the plot is well set-up for massive political intrigue later in the series.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just a teaser of the conspiracy that I hope to find out more about.