Tarkabarka reviewed Everyday aliens by Polenth Blake
Best cozy read of the year
5 stars
This is the kind of book that either vibes with your brain or it doesn't. It vibed with mine, and I absolutely adored it. It is a collection of flash fiction and poetry based on two concepts: one is that statistically most aliens in the universe are not humanoid (in fact, humanoid aliens are an anomaly). The other is that aliens do a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with interacting with humans. So all of these stories and poems are about aliens doing their own alien things. Alien slice-of-life, if you will. The book already had me at this concept. The author is an ecologist, which means that they were inspired by a whole lot of weird things that exist in Earth biology. These were even cited at the end of the book, which is a further bonus. And I also loved the note in the …
This is the kind of book that either vibes with your brain or it doesn't. It vibed with mine, and I absolutely adored it. It is a collection of flash fiction and poetry based on two concepts: one is that statistically most aliens in the universe are not humanoid (in fact, humanoid aliens are an anomaly). The other is that aliens do a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with interacting with humans. So all of these stories and poems are about aliens doing their own alien things. Alien slice-of-life, if you will. The book already had me at this concept. The author is an ecologist, which means that they were inspired by a whole lot of weird things that exist in Earth biology. These were even cited at the end of the book, which is a further bonus. And I also loved the note in the introduction about how aliens will not think, communicate, procreate etc. like humans do, which means that stories about them should be weird and surreal, and occasionally make the reader strain to follow at all. And indeed, some stories needed all my attention and mental gymnastics to figure out. I ENJOYED this. None of the stories were random dadaist creations, though; if you paid close attention, they all made sense in their own little alien way. Which means that they were well written and constructed, representing all kinds of potential alien logics, ecosystems, societies, genders, communication forms, and philosophies. It was a great read. I had a lot of favorites among the stories. It would be very hard to explain which ones and why, because it would sound something like "so there are these interlocking generations of crabs and worts that learn to communicate with each other" or "there are these creatures that live in tar and taste the color of diamonds". But each was its own uniqe, fascinating, and memorable reading experience. Favorite cozy read of the year so far. I am so happy this book found me.