MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE

In Ho Yen’s debut SF novel, aliens and humans meet at a crossroads for humankind.

In the 22nd century, humankind labors to restore Earth following the ravages of the 21st. Unbeknownst to them, two aliens observe their work from the remote safety of the moon. One is the Ethnologist, a crafty and dispassionate recorder of human endeavors. The other is the Cosmologist, whose traumatic past makes him deeply empathetic and who harbors something of an independent streak. Both are members of a migratory trans-species alien collective known as the SelfMade. They are acutely aware of an impending “Catastrophic Cosmological Event” that will destroy Earth’s segment of the galaxy, but they are unsure if and how they should intervene to help save humanity. Down on Earth, specifically in Quebec, Laurence Levesque is a high-functioning autistic girl forced to deal with the cruelty of “normal” children. She’s cared for by an ailing single mother until lymphoma makes her an orphan. Meanwhile, in Iowa, Matt Hutney is raised in a violent, religious household until his father murders his mother, consigning Matt to years of foster care. As Laurence and Matt grow up (to become a prominent AI scientist and a radical anti-secularist, respectively), their fates become linked inextricably with those of the two aliens, each of whom decides to get a bit more hands-on when it comes to human affairs. Ho Yen’s prose style varies based on which characters he is following, from the grit and suspense of Hutney’s chapters to the wry serenity of the SelfMade: “The Ethnologist admitted to its having left a message for a journalist. ‘Harmless fun,’ it said to the Cosmologist. ‘Something to break the monotony.’ The Cosmologist did not admit to having coopted a rover to observe an individual human.” Ho Yen’s descriptions of advanced technologies should please fans of hard SF, but what really makes the book work are the questions it raises about what it means to be a person and a member of a species.

A thoughtful, inventive SF fable.