A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne
Publication Date: January 31, 2021
Summary from NetGalley:
The only favor the aliens do for Clint Beecham when they abduct him is give him a shirt that says DO NOT EAT on it in their language. He’s told that as a physicist, he is to be reserved, along with five other scientists, for a mysterious purpose.
But fifty thousand other humans on board the interstellar scout ship are scheduled to be butchered and frozen, a food supply for the long journey to the alien home world. Clint and the other Reserves can’t stand by and let that happen.
Ayesha is a biologist and Deepali a geologist; Oscar is a meteorologist and Gregory specializes in robotics; Hanh is a researcher in marine biology. Together they’re humanity’s last unlikely hope. Because if they don’t find a way to stop the ravenous aliens from reporting that they’ve found a planet full of delicious creatures to eat, the fifty thousand humans on board will only be the first of billions: the entire earth will become an all-you-can-eat buffet.
ARC provided by Subterranean Press via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
Every time I think of this novella, I can’t help but smile. It is funny, and also slightly terrifying, but man can we humans kick butt when we put our minds to it. This is a very short book, so this will be a short review, but hopefully it will convince you to pick this one up when it becomes available.
Clint, our main protagonist, has been captured by aliens, along with 50,000+ other humans. After seeing his best friend eaten by one, he knows they are not friendly regardless of how they look. But he doesn’t back down, and give up either even in the face of horrible odds. I loved how Clint was pretty optimistic about the whole situation. He is a physicist and so spent time thinking about other time lines and what his fate might have been there. He knows that even if they win, they are still doomed, but at least their doom is their own and they are not being eaten by aliens.
Luckily the aliens hold a few humans apart, to ask questions of them and it is this small group that wrecks havoc and ultimately leads to the rebellion. The aliens do fight back and the fight scenes are slightly gruesome, and there are some other ick moments as well, but there is a lot of humor spread throughout that make them not so bad either.
This is a very quick read, not only because of it’s length, but also the pacing is quite fast. I loved all of the humor and the ingenuity of the humans to get what they needed. I highly recommend that you get your hands on this if you like fun science fiction. Kudos the author for doing such a good job with his first science fiction story. Hopefully it won’t be his last.
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