Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

Is it 42? Is it having thumbs? Is it a random configuration of atoms and neural connections? Is it writing cliche blurbs?

Join Allan on a quest to find what it means to be Human!

I've got one, it's a zombie apocalypse book which... yes you guessed it!.. teaches the protagonist What it Means to be Human

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human

Nice to have started an apart thread, Art!

And here's another one 😉

The Sparrow

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet that will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question what it means to be "human".

And what about this one?

The Warren

X doesn’t have a name. He thought he had one—or many—but that might be the result of the failing memories of the personalities imprinted within him. Or maybe he really is called X.

He’s also not as human as he believes himself to be.

But when he discovers the existence of another—above ground, outside the protection of the Warren—X must learn what it means to be human, or face the destruction of their two species.

Poor Allan!! Allan: I will not think any less of you if you end up reading *none* of these books and remain forever in the dark about how to be what you are, lol.

Reminds me of my dad, who used to always ask me deep questions when I was just 3 years old, such as "what does life feel like to you? how would you say your consciousness differs from others?" etc. He apparently really enjoyed my answers, none of which I remember.

Here is yet another one, Allan:

Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful

For fans of television shows Black Mirror and Westworld, this compelling, mind-bending novel is a twisted look into the future, exploring how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimen and what it means to be human at all.

Set in our world, spanning the near to distant futures, Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is a novel made up of six interconnected stories that ask how far we will go to remake ourselves into the perfect human specimens, and how hard that will push the definition of "human."

This extraordinary work explores the amazing possibilities of genetic manipulation and life extension, as well as the ethical quandaries that will arise with these advances. The results range from the heavenly to the monstrous. Deeply thoughtful, poignant, horrifying, and action-packed, Arwen Elys Dayton's Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful is groundbreaking in both form and substance.

We're on a roll, Allan.
Here's number five:

Perfected

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows… and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving… and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Kiera Cass’ Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

And here's number 6 already!

Genesis Earth

A BOY AND A GIRL ON A VOYAGE TO AN ALIEN STAR

Michael Anderson never thought he would set foot on a world like Earth. He only studied planetology to satisfy his parents, two of humanity's most brilliant scientists. But when they open a wormhole to an alien planet—one emitting a signal that can only be a sign of intelligent life—he soon becomes caught up in the mission to explore it.

His sole mission partner, Terra, doesn't care nearly as much about the science as he does, though. The child of a bitter divorce, she sees the mission as a chance to escape from the expectations of others.

Before they can work out their differences, a mysterious alien ship begins to hunt them down. Alone, twenty light-years from the nearest human being, they must learn to open up and trust each other—but how can they do that when they can't even agree why they're there?

As Michael struggles to keep the mission from falling apart, he is forced to reexamine his deepest, most unquestioned beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human.

GENESIS EARTH is a 70,000 word (200-250 page) Young Adult Science Fiction novel.

Here's lucky number 7 😉

Euphoria

It might take the arrival of an alien being to remind an isolated man what it means to be human.

With a stressful job, his boss breathing down his neck for profitable results, and an estranged wife and daughter, scientist Kurt Lomax doesn’t think life can get much harder. Until a nonbinary extraterrestrial with an otherworldly beauty, captivating elegance, and a wicked sense of humor inconveniently shows up at his apartment.

Vardam watched the destruction of their own world, and they don’t want to see the same thing happen on Earth. They are lonely, and feelings soon develop between them and the supposedly straight scientist—feelings Kurt reciprocates, much to his confusion.

The arrival of cheery interpreter Tom Soames—whose Goth appearance belies a gentle heart—is like a ray of sunshine in the somber lab. He acts as matchmaker for man and tentacled extraterrestrial, unwittingly instigating a national crisis when the news breaks out.

But will a misunderstanding ruin Kurt and Vardam’s chances for happiness together—along with the hope for peace between humanity and the Var?

A very famous one (although I only saw the movie).
My lucky number 8:

Never Let Me Go

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, comes an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat mystery that is at once heartbreakingly tender and morally courageous about what it means to be human.

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.

Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.

Here's number 9, Allan.
Okay, it's middle grade, but SFF nonetheless:

Tin

Christopher is 'Proper': a real boy with a real soul, orphaned in a fire. He works for an engineer, a maker of the eccentric, loyal and totally individual mechanicals who are Christopher's best friends. But after a devastating accident, a secret is revealed and Christopher's world is changed for ever... What follows is a remarkable adventure, as Christopher discovers who he really is, and what it means to be human.

And then there's this one too.
Will look up other books in the days to come, Allan.
But I think you've already made a good start now 😉

Let's Play White

White brings with it dreams of respect, of wealth, of simply being treated as a human being. It's the one thing Walter will never be. But what if he could play white, the way so many others seem to do? Would it bring him privilege or simply deny the pain? The title story in this collection asks those questions, and then moves on to challenge notions of race, privilege, personal choice, and even life and death with equal vigor. From the spectrum spanning despair and hope in "What She Saw When They Flew Away" to the stark weave of personal struggles in "Chocolate Park," Let's Play White speaks with the voices of the overlooked and unheard. "I Make People Do Bad Things" shines a metaphysical light on Harlem's most notorious historical madame, and then, with a deft twist into melancholic humor, "Cue: Change" brings a zombie-esque apocalypse, possibly for the betterment of all mankind.

Gritty and sublime, the stories of Let's Play White feature real people facing the worlds they're given, bringing out the best and the worst of what it means to be human. If you're ready to slip into someone else's skin for a while, then it's time to come play white.

Cover Artist:
Jordan Casteel

About the Author:
Chesya Burke has published over forty short stories in various venues including Dark Dreams: Horror and Suspense by Black Writers, Voices From the Other Side, and Whispers in the Night, each published by Kensington Publishing Corp. as well as the historical, science, and speculative fiction magazine, Would That It Were, and many more. Several of her articles appeared in the African American National Biography, published by Harvard and Oxford University Press, and she won the 2004 Twilight Tales award for short fiction. Chesya attends Agnes Scott College, where she studies creative writing and the African diaspora as it relates to race, class and gender. Many of these themes find themselves appearing in her fiction.

Mmm ... just one more.

Speak

A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence — illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding

In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.

Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps — to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human — shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances — echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.

Almost the same sentence 😉

Set My Heart to Five

For fans of Fredrik Backman and Gail Honeyman, a delightfully entertaining, deceptively poignant debut novel about a humanlike bot named Jared, whose emotional awakening leads him on an unforgettable quest for connection, belonging and possibly even true love

Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person.

One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can’t feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he’s crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what’s happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel.

Overcome with a full range of emotions, and facing an imminent reset, Jared heads west, determined to forge real connections. He yearns to find his mother, the programmer who created him. He dreams of writing a screenplay that will change the world. Along the way, he might even fall in love. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins.

Delectably entertaining and deceptively moving, Set My Heart to Five is a profound exploration of what makes us human and a love letter to outsiders everywhere.

PS: Allan, I hope you won't have nightmares tonight!
If so, I apologize 😉

But you know what?
Maybe you'll learn what it means to be human by having nightmares 😋

If you really want the answer, shouldn't you read non-fiction?

This title comes close The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive , and the blurb takes it all the way:

"This playful, profound book is not only a testament to his efforts to be deemed more human than a computer, but also a rollicking exploration of what it means to be human in the first place."

I'm not sure why anyone wants to be human anyway. May I recommend The Trouble with Being Born? Or maybe The Conspiracy Against the Human Race?

Ed wrote: "If you really want the answer, shouldn't you read non-fiction?"

We're just fooling around, Ed 😄
Your tip seems interesting though! Another book on my TBR-mountain 😉

LOL, this is freaking hilarious. Keep ‘em coming!

I found a couple in my Read pile:
Exhalation by Ted Chaing
A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg

I feel so special haha

There's a quote I really like, which fits very well within this theme.

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
(Elbert Hubbard)

I tried google and couldn't find a single hit for "what it means to be a horse" (in quotation marks). Seems we just don't worry about that.

(Yes, there are some hits, but only for "what it means to be a horse girl" or something like that. Nothing about actually being a horse.)

Maybe to know what it is to be a human, you need to become a goat first. That is the premise of GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human.

"Do Thwaites and his readers discover what it truly means to be human?".

I feel like that phrase should be followed by "The answer may surprise you!". Honestly it is an interesting book, though!

*Tau* wrote: "A very famous one (although I only saw the movie).
My lucky number 8:

Never Let Me Go

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day a..."

I've read that one and I can say that it does in fact explore it a bit. In a lateral way.

Ed wrote: "I tried google and couldn't find a single hit for "what it means to be a horse" (in quotation marks). Seems we just don't worry about that.

(Yes, there are some hits, but only for "what it means t..."

They are just smarter than humans, they know that philosophy's horse s***.

Let me add a little bit to the challenge: find books on the Hugo/Nebula list that have “what it means to be human” in the description! I named one already!

Always in for an extra challenge, Allan 😉

What do you think of the following one:

Literary Awards: Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1973), Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (1972), Locus Award Nominee for Best SF Novel (1973)

When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One: Release 2.0

When HARLIE Was One is a 1972 science fiction novel by David Gerrold. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972 & the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973. The novel is a fix-up of previously published short stories. A revised version, subtitled "Release 2.0", was published in 1988.
Central to the story is an Artificial Intelligence named H.A.R.L.I.E., also referred to by the proper name "HARLIE"--an acronym for Human Analog Replication, Lethetic Intelligence Engine (originally Human Analog Robot Life Input Equivalents).
HARLIE's story revolves around his relationship with David Auberson, the psychologist who is responsible for guiding HARLIE from childhood into adulthood. It's also the story of HARLIE's fight against being turned off, & the philosophical question whether or not HARLIE is human; for that matter, what it means to be human.
The HARLIE intelligence engine appears in a number of Gerrold's other works, including the Star Wolf series, where it is routinely installed as the administrating AI of Terran warships.

Maybe a little bit cheating, but in the end the sentence is in it 😋

Nebula: Andre Norton Award Nominee 2014 (Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy)

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.

That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.

First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human.

With this one I'm cheating even more.
The book itself didn't figure on a Hugo/Nebula-list, but it got a praise reference from James Patrick Kelly (Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award winner).

Nexhuman

‘Francesco Verso brings classic cyberpunk attitude to grand romantic obsession . . . a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human and an exciting peek into a world that is just around the corner.’ – James Patrick Kelly (Nebula, Locus and Hugo Award winner)

In a future where most of Earth into a junk heap, Peter Payne is a trashformer, a scavenger, a kid under the thumb of a world too brutal to stay human. When his chance to change his fate is violently torn away, he embarks on a quest to rebuild the object of his obsession.

Examining themes such as cybernetics, prosthetics, consumerism, robotics and transcendence, Nexhuman expands on classic science fiction to build a world as deep and searching as its main character.

First published in Italian by Delos Books in 2013. First English edition published in Fantastica 2014 as Livid, rereleased 2015 as Nexhuman.

And here it's the same case:
The book itself didn't figure on a Hugo/Nebula-list, but it got a praise reference from Michael Swanwick (Hugo award-winning author of Bones of the Earth).

Genetopia

"Let Keith Brooke tell his tale in its cogent fullness. It is beyond any facile summary, a minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers." Locus


The village: a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else. Here, houses can be grown out of the dirt; livestock and the sub-human mutts can be changed into something else, something other; and fleshy, drastically mutated Oracles guide humankind on the delicate path of survival.

The wildlands: the land between human settlements where animals that are not animals live among plants that are not plants, and people who might not be people live in fear of human intervention. Out here organic AIs grow in the wildlands, either worshiped or feared; trees sing to each other; and tempting, dark fruit hang from the branches. Out here nothing can be trusted, nothing is necessarily as it seems, and no sane human would ever want to set foot.

Out here is Flint's missing sister.

Genetopia is the story of a young man in search of his possibly abducted sister in a far future where nano- and biotechnology have transformed and accelerated the evolution of humans and their strangely altered surroundings. In this world, you can never take anything -- or anyone -- at face value. Illness and contact with the unknown are always to be feared, as viruses re-engineer genes and germ cells, migrating traits from species to species through plague and fever. Humankind lives in isolated communities, connected by trade routes, and always fighting to keep the unclean at arm's length.

But if Flint is to find his sister he must brave the fevers, the legendary beasts, the unknown. He must enter strange communities and seek help in the most unlikely places. He must confront both his own dark past and the future of his kind.

He must go into the wildlands.

Flint's story is the story of the last true humans, and of the struggles between those who want to defend their heritage and those who choose to embrace the new. But Flint doesn't see it like that: he just wants to find his sister.


"I am so here! Genetopia is a meditation on identity - what it means to be human and what it means to be you - and the necessity of change. It's also one heck of an adventure story. Snatch it up!" Michael Swanwick, Hugo award-winning author of Bones of the Earth

"Keith Brooke's Genetopia is a biotech fever dream. In mood it recalls Brian Aldiss's Hothouse, but is a projection of twenty-first century fears and longings into an exotic far future where the meaning of humanity is overwhelmed by change. Masterfully written, this is a parable of difference that demands to be read, and read again." Stephen Baxter, Philip K Dick award-winning author of Evolution and Transcendent

I only say that because a high % of the books I actually do read are from the H/N list. I seriously have the objective of reading them all, and I can get there in 5-6 years if I really push. So despite my “quest”, my off-list books are limited. But I do browse things friends and group members have read, and will add them to my TBR list if they look interesting. BUT, I keep running into this irritating phrase.......

I wonder, is it one person at one publisher, or maybe a particular freelancer, writing these? Is it perhaps a conspiracy to fill our minds with an endless search for what it means to be human (or equine perhaps), so that they can blow them out as if we are slake-moths? Maybe a new plague, spreading from publisher to publisher, then to us through book descriptions, as in “Cell” or “Feed”? Is TV next? A new incarnation of “In Search of.....”? A random test pattern that shifts to some sort of mind-sucker crawling creepily out of a well? (radio is already there, IM not-so HO, when it comes to music). Or further, is it just one more stone in the Fat, Dumb and Happy pyramid of control (obesity, poor education, opiates)? Well, I could go on, but I think you get the picture. You know, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you!

So you're really gonna read some of those, Allan?
Actually I thought the whole point was to 'avoid' these books 😋
Respect!
I'll definitely be on the sideline cheering to encourage you as you try to find out what it means to be human!

And if you don't find good answers in those stories, you can always go back to Terry Pratchett for some deep thought insights: "Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." 😄

Oh man, good old Pratchett!

Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life

Thanks to Kristen I've got another one for you, Allan 😋

The Mother Code

What it means to be human - and a mother - is put to the test in Carole Stivers' debut novel set in a world that is more chilling and precarious than ever.

The year is 2049. When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots--to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order--an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right--the Mother Code. 



Kai is born in America's desert southwest, his only companion his robot Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too--in ways that were never predicted. When government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?

In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human--and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

Allan I had no idea that you weren't human!

Maybe this book can help if you have a human body:
Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum
At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a meditation on what it means to be human.

and if that's not enough, this book has the double-whammy
The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think
The award-winning author of The Music of the Primes explores the future of creativity and how machine learning will disrupt, enrich, and transform our understanding of what it means to be human. [...] It challenges us to reconsider what it means to be human―and to crack the creativity code.

Sarah wrote: "this book has the double-whammy
The Creativity Code: How AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think
The award-winning author of The Music of the Primes explores the future of creativity and how machine learning will disrupt, enrich, and transform our understanding of what it means to be human. [...] It challenges us to reconsider what it means to be human―and to crack the creativity code."

Sarah, could it be that this book will make him super human?!?

I have a long way to go, being a sub-human!

I for one find giraffes very superior: you're all much taller, stronger, faster, naturally vegetarian, only have to sleep for 10-120 minutes a day, and also seem to be great readers judging from your example. Nothing sub about it! I wonder why there are no books about what it means to be a giraffe.

Hmmmm, maybe I should consult with the horse on this one.

So maybe I should stick to giraffe-ness and not worry about what it means to be human!

Allan wrote: "So maybe I should stick to giraffe-ness and not worry about what it means to be human!"

You've cracked it! I've a long way to catch up as a snail. Probably on account of sleeping for somewhere between 15 hours and three years.

Allan wrote: "Hmmmm, maybe I should consult with the horse on this one.

So maybe I should stick to giraffe-ness and not worry about what it means to be human!"

There are other options. Have you considered what it means to be a gecko?

We have way too many geckos here for me to wonder about that! The little ones get into the house and then I find pieces of them left by the cats.

Allan wrote: "We have way too many geckos here for me to wonder about that! The little ones get into the house and then I find pieces of them left by the cats."

Lol
But it's not as bad as it looks, Allan.
Because if the cats get to you, you can always come back and then you'll know what it means to be born again 😋

If you prefer to stay in the fantasy atmosphere, you can also learn more about what it means to be fey.

Or you know what?
Actually you're just fine as you are!
And if you're not sure, you can always read about what it means to be you.

I like Elbert Hubbard))

Smooth.

I love this thread! I would point out that it is not hard to know the best part of being human. Why, that is all the noble characteristics projected onto aliens in Sci Fi books and films. Then the worst part of being human can be played by human characters in those same stories. A prime example is Avatar. An early example is Lil Fuzzy by H Beam Piper (and a Hugo nominee that is public domain too!)

My god, I think this question is pretty much dominant in just about every reading genre there is?

I just read Little Fuzzy a few weeks ago, and I see what you mean. I think I need to find some more books on our list that have that quest in their descriptions.

*Tau* wrote: "Nice to have started an apart thread, Art!

And here's another one 😉

The Sparrow

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a..."

And there goes my reading schedule plans. Read a thread, see a book that you might want to read, find out it is immediately available to download from the library.. and Bam! Now I am going to read something completely different over this weekend. Thanks!!!

TomK2 wrote: "And there goes my reading schedule plans. Read a thread, see a book that you might want to read, find out it is immediately available to download from the library.. and Bam! Now I am going to read something completely different over this weekend. Thanks!!!"

You're welcome, Tom 😄
And I totally understand you, as I have the same 'problem' with NetGalley at the moment. Even wrote lyrics about it: https://www.goodreads.com/user_status... 😋

TomK2 wrote: "* The Sparrow

And there goes my reading schedule plans.."

I enjoyed this (maybe a bit naïve) unusual first contact story

LOL, good catch. I actually had this book on my list for this year for having won the Tiptree and BFSA awards.

How about Nor Crystal Tears? Not available in Kindle, and technically a first contact story, but one of the best I have ever read, showing how little shape affects "humanity."