A Locus Recommended First Novel for 2015
The Weave brings us a first-contact story in which humans, seeking to exploit the much-needed resources of a system inhabited by creatures they assume are "primitive" and defenseless, discover their mistake the hard way. Human Caty Sanjuro, a seasoned marine and dedicated xenologist, and native Sundown, a determined astronomer, struggle to establish communication across the many barriers that divide their species, at first because they share a passionate interest in alien species, but finally because they know that only they can bridge the differences across species threatening catastrophe for both sides.
Vonda N. McIntyre, author of Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun, writes of The Weave: “Unique protagonists. Unique aliens. Unique war. Nancy Jane Moore's remarkable first novel drew me in and kept me reading and left me, at the end, knowing that Caty Sanjuro and Sundown the Cibolan continue their work and their lives and their friendship. My favorite kind of novel.”
Michael Bishop, author of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, writes, “In this accomplished first novel, Nancy Jane Moore dramatizes at least three great speculative themes: first contact, telepathic communication, and earthlings and aliens at war. In so doing, Moore narrates the compelling struggle of a brave human xenologist, Caty Sanjuro, to wring interspecies harmony from the chaos of interspecies misunderstanding and mistrust. Like Ursula Le Guin, Moore never settles for pat or clichéd extrapolations. Further, she treats each of her archetypal themes with adult thought-experiment thoroughness and all her characters, human and alien, with insight, respect, and compassion. Aficionados of real science fiction will love and celebrate this remarkable debut.”
Reviews
Space opera seems to be enjoying a surge at the moment, which is good news for those of us who are still moved by a sense of wonder. Humans are planning to place a colony on a world whose inhabitants appear to be too primitive to provide any real resistance. Unfortunately they are unfamiliar with the history of the world. Part of the problem also arises because of difficulties of communication between the two peoples, and the protagonist is a woman who is determined to bridge that gap, and who suspects that resistance is going to be more determined than do her superiors. The chief alien protagonist is attempting to prevent open violence but it seems inevitable. This is a good metaphor about the problems of communication that face us even among ourselves here on Earth. It's also a remarkably good first novel.
—Critical Mass, Don D'Ammassa, 6/28/2015
Moore (Changeling) effortlessly weaves together first contact, corporate exploitation, and space adventure on a planet 40 light-years from Earth in this anticolonialist science fiction fable.… Moore realistically and enjoyably describes the excitement of scientific exploration, corporate greed, conspiracy, telepathic conflict, and the desperation of natives determined to defend their home against invasion.
—Publishers Weekly, July 2015
