2024 SF/horror novella. New worlds are colonised, but resupply ships
are rare, and a world that's not paying its way will be cut off. Amari
and Vinh just want to get on with their lives, but…
This is a thoroughly dense novella, with many ideas pulling in
different directions. It apparently started as a short story, and I
could see it being expanded to full novel length if it hadn't stopped
here.
Mostly it's two things: there are two colonies on this world, and the
other one (Jacksonhaven) suddenly raided the viewpoint one (New
Belaforme) and destroyed a lot of their tech base. Since that included
their reproductive tech, they won't be able to reach the population
goals in time for the next ship visit, unless relationships are broken
up, everyone is paired off into heterosexual couples, and firmly
encouraged to breed. Which is mostly a setup for a dystopian story in
a setting which was already pretty dystopian… except that the other
thing is The Grey, something nanomachine-like that this planet
generates which wipes out species that are causing trouble. Oh, no,
no, it wouldn't go after humans, it never even goes after animals…
until, of course, suddenly it does.
So Amari and Vinh, who have already given up quite a lot to be a
couple here, are each assigned partners, and while those partners
aren't bad people and don't make sexual demands on them, there's a
slow grinding stress on them both. Meanwhile Amari is working on the
biology (or closest analogue) of the Grey, and Vinh is still head of
security for what's left of the colony.
I didn't love this the way I did The Splinter in the Sky, especially
since its core relationship feels like a version of two that came up
there: the lesbian couple getting together across and in spite of
serious class and privilege barriers. There's a lot more arguing and
deliberate hurtfulness here, though. The Grey story is more
interesting, but it presents its core conceit as horror more than as
science fiction, and I'm not much of a horror fan.
Glad I read it, but not recommended for readers who share my tastes.