This book was a disappointment, I’m sorry to say. It’s an excellent set-up - the blurb had me very excited - but it’s not handled well in my opinion.
The premise: humanity sent out sleeper ships a few centuries back to find colonies, and (as expected) haven’t heard from them since. In the time since, they’ve made contact with aliens called the Kmet, who possess the ability to travel instantaneously. Understanding the Kmet is difficult, but it’s clear they want some kind of partnership with the humans (what they call “the Duality”) and they’ve formed a cordial arms-length partnership. But then a message arrives from the first of the sleeper ships, telling Earth that they’ve reached their destination and started their colony, and the Humans approach the Kmet to ask if they’d mind giving them a lift to say hello to their long-lost cousins.
The Kmet go into an absolute panic. There is something out there that the Kmet will only call “the Divider.” Only on Earth, protected by the Kmet, can humans be safe, and it is imperative that the colonists are gathered up and brought back to Earth as soon as possible.
Here’s where I think this book fails. Some (not all) of the sleeper ships founded successful, thriving colonies, and they’ve been established for centuries. They’ve developed in isolation; they have their own cultures and customs. These worlds have been their home for generations. And suddenly someone shows up from Earth and says “you all have to pack up and leave right now on my say-so.” It’s going to be one hell of a challenge to convince them to leave, and an incredibly traumatic experience as well.
Yet this isn’t what the book is about. It’s only barely touched on. What the book is about is the Kmet, and trying to understand their motivations and what the threat is. Which is fine, as a story, and interesting enough … but I simply didn’t care because I was aware of all this incredibly massive, generationally traumatic event happening to literally millions of people that’s just … ignored.
It is perhaps unfair to judge a book for what it isn’t rather than what it is. But in the end the most important question in reviewing a book is “did I enjoy this?” In this case, the answer, sadly, is no.
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