Nomads

by Dave Hutchinson

Award-winning author Dave Hutchinson delivers one of his finest tales yet. A story that starts out firmly in the mundane world we know but slides steadily into the bizarre and unsettling. Are there really refugees from ‘elsewhere’ living among us? If so, what cataclysmic event are they fleeing from? When a high speed car chase leads Police Sergeant Frank Grant to Dronfield Farm, he finds himself the focus of unwanted attention from Internal Affairs and is faced with the prospect of things being unearthed that he would far rather stayed buried. One of four independent novellas by four different authors that form NewCon Novella Set 5: The Alien Among Us

Genres: Science Fiction, Novella

77 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 9, 2019

About the author

UK writer who published four volumes of stories by the age of twenty-one – Thumbprints, which is mostly fantasy, Fools' Gold, Torn Air and The Paradise Equation, all as David Hutchinson – and then moved into journalism. The deftness and quiet humaneness of his work was better than precocious, though the deracinatedness of the worlds depicted in the later stories may have derived in part from the author's apparent isolation from normal publishing channels.

After a decade of nonfiction, Hutchinson returned to the field as Dave Hutchinson, assembling later work in As the Crow Flies; tales like "The Pavement Artist" use sf devices to represent, far more fully than in his early work, a sense of the world as inherently and tragically not a platform for Transcendence. His first novel, The Villages, is Fantasy; The Push, an sf tale set in the Human Space sector of the home galaxy, describes the inception of Faster Than Light travel and some consequent complications when expanding humanity settles on a planet full of Alien life. Europe in Autumn (2014), an sf thriller involving espionage, takes place in a highly fragmented and still fragmenting Near-Future Europe, one of whose sovereign mini-nations is a transcontinental railway line; over the course of the central plot – which seems to reflect some aspects of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 – the protagonist becomes involved in the Paranoia-inducing Les Coureurs des Bois, a mysterious postal service which also delivers humans across innumerable borders.

- See more at: http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hutc...

Works
* The Villages (Holicong, Pennsylvania: Cosmos Books, 2001)
* Europe in Autumn (Oxford, Oxfordshire: Rebellion/Solaris, 2014)

Collections and Stories
* Thumbprints (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Fools' Gold (London: Abelard, 1978)
* Torn Air (London: Abelard, 1980)
* The Paradise Equation (London: Abelard, 1981)
* As the Crow Flies (Wigan, Lancashire: BeWrite Books, 2004)
* The Push (Alconbury Weston, Cambridgeshire: NewCon Press, 2009)

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the signed copies I was lucky enough to get form Newcon press the publisher (great publishing house well work the look out) and I have to say I wasnt sure what I was letting myself in for (that is actually a lot of the fun - you just never know what is going to happen)

It has a great twist on quite a well used trope and I have to say the whole story really played it perfectly - I would say so much so I wish that the author decides to return to this world again although I have no idea how (and I guess that is also part of the magic - where will you go next with it.)

So yes it is a short book but the action is fast and clever and I particularly loved the dialogue it was quick and witty and with certain sense of humour that appeals to me. So yes great fun and well worth the read, just wish there was more

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science fiction with a plausible scenario, plain language, and some humour. it is vanishingly rare lately for me to finish a book and feel angry that it wasn't longer.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stars for the first half and five stars for the second. I’m also frustrated that we learn very little about what the actual motivations/plans are of the people in the story: we get the big picture, sure (and the big picture is an AWESOME premise that I loved and would love to read more of) but there are an extreme number of open questions.

Again, awesome premise, would love to read a full length novel in this world.

[Tomasz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, short read, with weakly godlike, functionally immortal (not) time-travelers doing things in modern England. Also, rural law enforcement. Could almost work as part of the Cornetto Trilogy. Yep, the middle part.

[zunggg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written time-travel (except not actually time travel 'cause that's impossible) novella that imo should have been a novel. Just as we start to get a handle on things, it ends. 3.5 stars.

[Peter Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...

This is a novella-length story that will be hard to describe without spoilers, and I don't intend to provide spoilers.

I will start with my reaction: I enjoyed the story. The story started very mundanely. If it wasn't for the description of the book, I wouldn't have thought it was science fiction. The story starts with British constable Frank Grant chasing a stolen car, then segues into his visit to a couple claiming that they had a trespasser on their property who looked like Cary Grant.

Cary Grant?

Author David Hutchinson drops hints thereafter indicating that there may be more to Frank Grant than we initially suspected. Then, the story grows into a dimension that blows the mind together with some spycraft elements that might have fit into Hutchinson's "Europe Sequence."

Stick with the story, There's a payoff.

On a speculative note, I wonder if there isn't a larger novel lurking out there set in the same world as this novella. The novella leaves questions open, but the answers may not be as satisfying as the questions.

[John Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The style of this novella will feel very familiar to anyone who has read Dave Hutchinson's books. He writes what I'd describe as science fiction spy dramas, and he does it very well. I thoroughly enjoyed Nomads. I like novellas anyway and I think this is an excellent example of the genre. It starts off innocently enough, then morphs into a drama involving some unidentified branch of the British secret service, then morphs again for a finale, but you'll have to read it to find out how - no spoilers!

Dave Hutchinson is an excellent writer and it shows in this novella. Everything about it is well done. The plotting, the pacing, the twist ending and soon. The story flows along nicely and quickly sucked me in. I read the whole thing at one sitting, though since it's only a novella that didn't take long. If you like this sort of story I strongly recommend you read this. Then read Hutchinson's novels as they're just as good.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’m empowered, on behalf of Her Majesty’s government, to welcome you to Earth,” she went on, “but first I need to know how long you’ve been here and where your home solar system is.”
Pep burst out laughing. [loc. 986]

A novella of two halves: in the first part, we meet Sergeant Frank Grant, comfortably policing a rural area somewhere in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, his report on an intruder at a remote farmhouse attracts the attention of Internal Affairs, and Frank has to abandon some long-range plans. The second half of the story makes it obvious that he's not going back to his flat above the police station -- though it's not at all clear what he'll be doing instead.

It's hard to write much about Nomads without giving the plot away (the quotation at the top of this review doesn't spoil anything), but there are hints and allusions scattered through the opening chapters that combine to produce a sense of oddness, and make complete sense after the Big Reveal. I did feel, though, that the final few chapters were rushed: there's a lot more story to tell, and I'd love to read it.

Like all of Hutchinson's work, there's a low-key comfortable cynicism and some dry wit here. The everyday business of subterfuge -- safe houses, minders, decoys and press releases -- is sometimes reminiscent of Le Carre: no glamour here. Frank is a pragmatic protagonist, not given to bemoaning his lot, and possibly not as wholesome as his narrative suggests. I would like to see more of him.

[Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I enjoyed this in a similar way that I enjoyed the Fractured Europe series. A grounded story that has a very intriguing sci-fi element running through it. I would love to read a full-length version of this.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does a good job on maintaining a sense of mundanity before delivering a nice SFnal twist. Interesting but felt like it had more ideas than it could fit into the length, and the end was rather inconclusive.