The Flowers of Aulit Prison

by Nancy Kress

A female alien whose culture has a vastly different view of reality from humans finds herself forced to be a prison informant. Engrossing story you won't soon forget.
Nebula Award Winner

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Novella, Fiction

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Nancy Kress is the author of thirty novels, four story collections, three books on writing fiction, and over a hundred short stories. Her work has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Her most recent novel, Observer, co-written with Dr. Robert Lanza, concerns the nature of consciousness, reality, and love. Forthcoming in 2026 is an historical fantasy, The Queen’s Witch, set in the court of Henry VIII. Nancy’s work has been translated into two dozen languages, none of which she can read. She has taught writing at various venues in the United States and abroad, including Leipzig, Beijing, both Clarions, and the annual SF-writing intensive workshop Taos Toolbox. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Pippin, the world’s cutest Chihuahua.

Reviews

[Liutauras Elkimavičius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nancy ateivė. Aš tikrai žinau. Ne veltui ji taip gerai išmano ET politinius ryšius, biologiją, mąstymo būdą ir papročius. Ji čia atskrido mūsų tyrinėti kaip jau yra dariusi daugelyje kitų planetų. Space antropologė tokia. Bet kaip ir visi mokslininkai, idėjų turi daug, bet sausoka. Soso. #LEBooks

[Shadow Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

the actual rating is somewhere between 2 and 3 stars depending on how generous I am feeling so let's just say 2.5.
read in "The Beaker's Dozen" (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...) because it shares the setting with the Probability trilogy (https://www.goodreads.com/series/6370...)
The story is prefaced by a blurb from the author that mentions reality maps, how their overlap shapes reality and how when they match almost exactly, you have the setting of the story, World. I got a little hung up on that and was distracted from the story because I kept trying to figure out if this was meant in the more mundane way or the more metaphysical one. Per an interview with the author, World is a consensus reality where having a different point of view is painful due to a combination of telepathy, pheromones and body language. (Source: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/no...)
Personally, I consider this a bit of a strike against the story as a fictional story, especially one set in a world fully of the author's making, should contain all the background information within the itself and readers should not have to resort to external sources for context. As it is, I had trouble grasping how the setting was supposed to work and was too distracted by trying to work out the logistics of the society to concentrate on the immediate plot. I thought the explanation of the event that set everything into motion was a bit of a cop out, too. Maybe it happened, maybe it was just an unethical science experiment. There is no way to tell for sure. Maybe there is a group of Terrans and World people running these experiments and another mixed group opposing them but maybe there is not, we are not given conclusive evidence and the main character decides to opt out of the whole dilemma to be a simple mine worker on a loosely regulated frontier somewhere. Interesting setting and initial premise but neither is developed in a satisfactory way. Perhaps the Probability trilogy will be a better read.

[Fabio R. Crespi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un pianeta alieno, Mondo, un popolo per cui la realtà è tale solo se "condivisa", una prigione per criminali che hanno smesso di essere parte della realtà condivisa e per alieni, come i terrestri, che non si sa se possano condividere la realtà. Una prigioniera con un incarico di delazione che porterebbe alla sua liberazione e alla liberazione della vittima, morta, del suo crimine.
È il confronto con un "guaritore" terrestre a indirizzare l'attenzione della protagonista verso una possibile diversa interpretazione di cosa sia effettivamente la realtà e di chi la possa manipolare. E perché. E quali conseguenze per sé possano derivare da questa nuova conoscenza.

Nancy Kress è al suo meglio con "I fiori della prigione di Aulit" ("The Flowers of Aulit Prison", 1996; Delos Digital, 2013; trad. di Marco Crosa).

[Luca Cresta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sempre interessanti le trame della Kress. Un'opera forse troppo breve per il l'idea che contiene.
Narrazione serrata e personaggi che lasciano il segno anche se nella brevità del formato.
Assolutamente consigliato.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely original and engrossing story. Kress is one of my favourite writers and she rarely disappoints and this story shines.

[Michael Kevane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the short story in a SciFi collection. Very impressive. A tad confusing for the reader, but the overwhelming sense of being immersed in a collective style culture is compelling.