The Network

by Cindy Zhang

Sabine is working on a mixed-species spaceship when it abruptly comes under attack by a strange monster. When she encounters Eirlys, a set, they manage to hide together and survive the assault.

They're soon rescued by Naomi, captain of a mercenary ship which was hired to kidnap the two survivors but at the last minute chose to rescue them instead—putting them, Naomi, and her crew in peril from the government who hired them.

And if being wanted wasn't enough, the monster is still out there.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Queer, LGBT, Aliens

106 pages, ebook

First published September 12, 2018

About the author

The Network is currently only available through https://ko-fi.com/cinderrain/shop

Reviews

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars for The Network (audiobook) by Cindy Zhang read by Cindy Kay.

There was a lot of great action and really interesting alien species in this story. The author packed a lot into this story. I’m looking forward to reading more by her.

[ten thousand bees · Rating 3 out of 5]

yeahhhh its a sci-fi novella alright. the plotline got rushed along, characters weren't really all there, ya know. standard stuff. it was fun, though

[Thomas Leavitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkably intricate and sophisticated exploration of the interaction between a human and an alien (but not totally so) species / consciousness unlike any I’ve encountered in 40 years of reading SF. Refreshingly different, all the way to the final resolution. Incredibly well done for a new author, I hope for and look forward to further work. The “sets” are too unique of a creation to be left without further exploration.

[KatlinE · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were many ideas, but not enough pages. The sci-fi world building was fighting with character development to a point where I didn’t really care about the characters and didn’t get enough world building.
In the “about author” section it was mentioned that she writes fantasy and that this is her first sci-fi and that can be felt in the writing. Fantasy does lend itself more to long form and this story was written in a “500-page book” style, just lacking the pages.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Network is such an interesting novella and packs a lot into only 106 pages. I listed to this wee gem on audiobook on Scribbed and thought it was great! There was lots of worldbuilding and some really well-developed characters. I would love a sequel to this story to learn more about these characters and what comes next for them.

[iam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and short SciFi novella that is a lot less scary than the description makes it sound (I admittedly only skimmed over it, but I expected much more of a horror aspect.)
I enjoyed the alien culture, the found family and patchwork crew aspects that came into play later, as well as the final reveal that ended up being surprisingly adorable.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely lovely. Intricately built for all its brevity.

[Eitan Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising. Confusing. Oddly touching.

[Amanda Taryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Don Jimmy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ll be quick. Not as quick as the book, but I feel the three hours I spent listening to it were long enough that I don’t want to think about it any more.

Didn’t find this one very interesting – very hard to distinguish who was who listening to the audiobook – felt a bit muddled – found it hard to connect with the characters, maybe I was having network difficulties

Wouldn’t recommend.