Michael Drakich’s Reviews > Aliens: Recent Encounters > Status Update

COVENANT by Lavie Tidhar. Ancient civilizations, where did they go? Odd symbiosis aspect to this one. 4 stars
A VECTOR ALPHABET OF INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL by Yoon Ha Lee. Sorry. Nothing to this. 1 star

MY MOTHER DANCING by Nancy Kress. One segment of mankind visiting another when years and biological changes make them different. 3 stars
NATIVE ALIENS by Greg Van Eekhout. A parallel examination between 1945 and 2367 examining reaction to alien settling. 4 stars

NULLIPARA by Gitte Christensen. When a planet changes your children to aliens, how do you cope? 5 stars
MUO-KA'S CHILD by Indrapamit Das. A human crash victim adopted by an alien mother. 3 stars

THE BOY WHO LEARNED HOW TO SHUDDER by Sonya Taaffe. Nothing disappoints me more than awriter trying to prove her command of the English language by writing in such florid ways you can't understand what is going on. 1 star
KNACKSACK POEMS by Eleanor Arnason. A unique alien life form with many bodies and minds. A very enjoyable story that normally would earn five stars. Only problem, no alien encounter. 4 stars

HONORARY EARTHLING by Nisi Shawl. Not sure if this is science fiction or a political rant against racism. 1 star
SHALLOT by Samantha Henderson. A horror story with a hint of sci-fi. You need to guess the antagonist is an alien. If it were not in this book titled "Aliens: Recent Encounters" I would never have guessed. 2 stars

FOR THE AGES by Alastair Reynolds. How does mankind tell the future universe about all that was? Carve into onto a neutron star. 5 stars
SUN DOGS by Brooke Bolander. Cruel experiments on a dog lead to a transcendence. Could have used a few more details. 2 stars

THE FORGOTTEN ONES by Karin Lowachee. A human colony long forgotten on an alien world at war. Nicely done. 5 stars
THE GODFALL'S CHEMSONG by Jeremiah Tolbert. Squid people with a hint of biogenetic engineering to be there. 4 stars

THE DEATH OF TERRESTRIAL RADIO by Elizabeth Bear. The boring life of a SETI scientist is boring. 2 stars
HONEY BEAR by Sofia Samatar. Okay, I like stories to make some semblance of being understandable. Tall aliens won't harm families with vampire babies. Seriously? 1 star

THE BEEKEEPER by Jamie Barras. Humans land in this crater where humanoid life evolves from some seeding program. It felt like part of a novel. 3 stars
NOUMENON by Robert Reed. Not for the science theory challenged which is why I loved it. A host of theories are explored in this short. 5 stars

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST by Genevieve Valentine. And another I've seen before. A better grasp of the story third time around but still lacking depth. Waiting forever for an altruistic alien means no war while the wait is on. 3 stars
2 stars
I AM THE ABYSS AND I AM THE LIGHT by Caitlin R. Kiernan. A human going through with a merger (physically and mentally) with an alien. Lack of details made this boring. 2 stars