So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion - by Caren Gussoff Sumption (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

James Blackthorn is a solid company exo-geologist stationed at an automated mining facility on a newly discovered planet of Zil. It's his duty, or so he thinks, to spend the brutally hot summer months helping to test an experimental drug on an indigenous reptilian volunteer, Aveliin-one that blocks her species' natural hibernation cycle and will prepare them for integration into Concur Unlimited. As the planet bakes, the two have plenty of time to waste, so they share their cultures-which, for James, involves watching old films and playing classic games. And this close relationship becomes romantic. As they grow closer, there's more at stake than the happily-ever-after of one human and one Zill. But the course of true love never did run smoothly for anyone in heaven or Earth or Zil.

Review Quotes

"Can love truly conquer all? Can it bridge the enormous gulfs that lie between stars? With furious humor and unrelenting glee, Caren Gussoff Sumption shows her characters-one a clueless exo-geologist and one a long-tailed, estivating alien-courting each other with pancakes, favorite movies, and fresh-cooked cockroaches. There are so many great things I could say about this wild, utterly original novella, but I'll let you discover and delight in them yourself." - Nisi Shawl

"Both a funny, cozy romance and a post-colonial cautionary tale; a story where isolation and connection, love and exploitation, understanding and cluelessness, all dance with each other in a way I never knew they could." - Elly Bangs

" A brilliant book, a sly, weird, funny, delightful book, ultimately a devastating book. It manages the trick of making every cute and charming and heartwarming thing also a creepy and disorienting and chilling thing at the very same time." - Benjamin Rosenbaum