Status Updates From Alien Clay

Very much a slow burn but we seem to be finally going to interesting places, very intrigued by these aliens

Overall, I enjoyed this but not as much as Shroud b/c we got to see more character development and direct contact between Earlings and native creatures than in this book

The author clearly has a way with words and great ideas, this is just not their best work imo but I am glad to have read it, but once again, needs a good trimming

4*

POV being an academic made it more blunt in his tone but his dry humor did come out

I think the revolution ideas are there but as scaffolding, and the politics can slow down the thrills but the mystery persists

+writing
+creatures gave me the creeps
+dry humor
-ancillary characters could’ve used a litttttttle more impact
-can be bogged down by politics
-revolution Lite

There’s not a right/wrong distinction in turning on your friends but a humanistic approach like these ppl only did it after torture, starvation, abuse etc it was not ill will it was desperation and loss

I do think it wasn’t a strong character story and more of an idea story if that makes sense. It was a slower read but not dense and like a revolution lite

In a similar vein to mites on ants feet or some creature that eats a fish tongue, those two invaders must still perform the task of whatever they’re replacing or else their host dies and they do too

I like that Kiln collective is not a hive mind as we’ve seen before where they share a mind but actually just awareness subconsciously like if Arton looks at something the others would be vaguely aware of it now as well

Using prison labor when machines became too high maintenance

Notes that Earthlings try to figure them out intellectually and Kilnians try to figure them out biologically on the protein level

Some of these creature descriptions gives me the heebie jeebies

The Commandant both repels academics due to his Orthodoxy but also desperately wants Arton to validate his ideals

Arton thinks of what next, ships will keep coming and they will keep saving them and eventually the Mandate might even abandon Kiln as a lost cause orrrrr Dr. P, Ilmus or the engineer could go on the ship back to earth (their faces specifically would allow entry) and they could TAKE EARTH

Start with a waking and end with an awakening as the opening line says.

ELEPHANT DAD APPEARS slamming onto the building roof (it was a second elephant like creature that idk if I mentioned but it like stalked them for a bit) and it brought friends, Rasmussen also releases her spores into the air mummy style and is shot but all the Commandants men either die or are joined and it’s jsut him locked in his office and they leave him there not particularly wanting him to join anywho

The forces are closing in and all seems lost since yes they have knowledge and numbers and support but no guns and no supper power …..

There are warm/wet and dry/cold periods and during the former new structures are built and old structures altered, the builders are everything the whole planet and thru humans’ complex brain they were able to re-awaken early and remember themselves (so the builders ironically do look like humans this time)

he cuts Arton out of his cell and Arton says Rasmussen is coming too nonnegotiable and trusts that once she’s out she’ll sane up, she does

Vessikhan locks them in metal container so they can’t track implant in Arton’s neck, R takes cutter, slices it out of him and it’s kinda poetic he leans on her mentally and she supports him through the pain, and finally finallllllly Arton tells V the truth about the architects

He’s kept in a cell next to Rasmussen and realizes he understands her and she went “crazy” not from infection but loneliness, and they are separated by a wall so they cannot truly connect

The linguist researcher visits to tell him Commandant will kill him, Arton doesn’t beg for his life and the dude wishes he would jsut to confirm he’s still human

Commandant incorrectly thinks like a human that the Kiln hive will surrender in exchange for Arton and he’s like buddy that’s not how it works and reinforces the lie the Commandant’s orthodoxy requires him to believe: the architects are outside rn and they are more human than you know

Commandant says that the race of ppl on Kiln disappeared and only left behind writing and buildings, and he wanted a critical thinker and academic who would push the boundaries of thought enough to be sentenced to Kiln to study it

Kiev says there only demand us to give up, Arton changes tactics saying they know everything who the architects are and why and appeal to his genuine academic curiosity

They got at it and Kiln crew have the numbers and molotovs but Commandant crew have guns, Arton gets shot and they take him hostage

They’re going up against guns but this revolution is unlike any other they’ve been apart of before because now they have absolute certain trust in each other, the Mandate cannot weaponize their suspicions anymore

The guy in charge of deciphering the runes comes to treat w them and says like hey new recruits are coming and they’ll die and keep dying if no one welcomes them