Interchange

Junction #2

by Daniel M. Bensen

The sequel to Junction, praised by Publishers Weekly, Cemetery Dance and more!A year ago, Anne Houlihan uncovered a wormhole to Junction, a patchwork planet of competing alien biomes. Now, she and Daisuke are going back to investigate "The Howling Mountain," the possible location of a wormhole into space. Her mission headed by an eccentric millionaire, Anne believes she will have a chance to learn more about the origin of Junction and its varied ecosystems. The mission has purposes beyond what she knows, however, and so does the planet. As the expedition tears its way across the alien landscape, Anne must fight to protect its lifeforms, herself, and the Earth.

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2021

About the author

Daniel M. Bensen writes alternate history, science fiction, and fantasy. He teaches English in Sofia Bulgaria, where he lives with his wife and daughters in the Balkan Tower of Matriarchy.

Reviews

[Neil Sharpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like any good sequel, Interchange (the followup to my friend and colleague Daniel Bensen's debut novel Junction) takes advantage of its established setting and characters to build something richer and deeper. That said, the novel works excellently as a standalone and should present few problems to a series newbie. It's a few years after the discovery of a wormhole in Indonesia connecting Earth to Junction, a bizarre, beautiful alien world that Bensen renders again with rich, detailed descriptions of the local flora and fauna. With depressing plausibility, Junction is already suffering badly from human encroachment and environmental damage and Anne Houlihan and her fianceé Daisuke Matsumori have returned to the alien world that so nearly killed them last time to try and put things to rights. Returning characters are joined by new ones including Moon, a misanthropic physicist who's racing his own mortality to discover Junction's secrets and Farhad, a mysterious millionaire with his own agenda. I was reminded a great deal of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park series with its jungle setting, cast of scientists and clear love for scientific detail. But Bensen tops Crichton in that he actually writes characters that feel genuine and appealing. Whether its Anne and Daisuke navigating the difficulties of a relationship where neither party speaks the other's language with great fluency or Moon's fear of losing his faculties to Alzheimer's, Bensen keeps hearts and smarts balanced. Indeed, the highlight of the book for me was a scene of the characters sitting around and getting drunk and bonding over painful memories. This is warm, humane science fiction that avoids the intellectual chilliness of so much of the genre while never failing to engage your brain.

Wholeheartedly recommended for people who want a book that feels like a journey to another world.

Many thanks to Daniel and NetGalley for the ARC.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fun of the Junction series by Daniel M. Bensen is exotic biology that somehow works and yet is nothing like anything on our Earth. That’s because the planet Junction is covered with portals to other worlds. The one on Earth has been hidden in the Indonesian jungle for at least 40,000 years. This time biologist Anne Houlihan and Daisuke are part of a trip to a howling mountain that may contain an Interchange (hard from Flame Tree Press) between the gates in orbit around Junction and the planet side. Financed by billionaire Farhad Irevani, and including physicist Dr. Moon both with their own agenda. Where Anne is concerned about the destruction of the unique ecologies, Dr. Moon starts by destroying one of the portals and things soon go from bad to worse. Lots of fun especialy when Anne and Daisuke use the space suits brought along to actually float in orbit.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press

[Trilby Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne is a biologist who is not having a good year. Having revealed the presence of a pristine alien environment to wider Earth society (see Junction, by Daniel Bensen), she feels overwhelmed by guilt and anger as the factions of Earth predictably move in to exploit and destroy that environment. Her TV star boyfriend Daisuke would like to help her, but instead, he gets her suckered into an expedition with a shady billionaire technocrat who is bent on exploitation and a jerk of a physicist who is bent on sheer destruction.

As the expedition lurches from ecosystem to ecosystem, wreaking havoc, Anne and Daisuke do their best to stop it from reaching the heart of the planet’s system and destroying it all.

This book does science fiction very well. I suspect Daniel Bensen built this planet riddled with wormholes (ahem, sorry, I mean portals) to other worlds so he would have an excuse to think up a whole bunch of different xenobiological systems in detail. For instance, we have "zippered keratin sheathing chalky skeletons rigged with protein puppet strings. The whole organism bathed in iron-doped brine..." and that’s just the Earth pigeons. There are also lands based on glass tiles and little worm-like creatures who live in blimps that row around with tiny oars (and many more).

But once Bensen thought all these xenobiologies up, he also asked why something like this would exist and what humans would do with it. The thoughtful, detailed answer is Interchange.

[Sherron Wahrheit · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this sequel to Junction, the key factor is mind-blowing world-building. Once again, our favorite Australian biological scientist and Japanese survivalist TV show host lead us, plus an entrepreneur and a physicist, through to Junction once again.

As before, the physical setting is so unique that I, being less than creative, have difficultly envisioning it. The wormholes into other worlds...oh excuse me, Dr Moon, I mean the “portals.” But I know you are mystify by them as I am!

As before, I enjoy the developing relationship between our main leads, and the er, rocky road they travel. Their relationship is relayed with humor, sensitivity and economy of words.

As a team, they fight to keep this land pristine.

Thank you NetGalley!

[Emil Minchev · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the sequel to the excellent Junction, Daniel M. Bensen focuses on my favorite character from the first novel, Anne Houlihan. It's a darker and more poignant novel and the author delves even deeper into the imaginative and quite original mechanics of the wonderful world he's created. A fascinating and very rewarding sci-fi read.

[Anthony Philosophos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sequel to the Junction and just as interesting as the first book. I really enjoyed the unexpected ending and felt that put the book in a whole different perspective.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

As strong as it’s predecessor, but tipped more towards SF, personalities, and conflict. There is less alien ecology and biology — like halfway through before it starts to show up.