Scan barcode
tome15's review
4.0
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn. Alien Influences. Spectra, 1997.
I am most familiar with Rusch through her Diving the Wreck series about a deep space salvage team exploring abandoned and wrecked spaceships. I was expecting something along the same lines from Alien Influences. But what I found is a story much more darkly psychological, science fiction only in that it is set on alien planets. The story most reminded me of accounts of the Salem witch trials. It deals with the murder of a child, at first blamed on alien rituals, but later discovered to have committed by one of the children. One would think that would be the end of the narrative, but the story is more complex and nuanced than that. Recommended if you are game for a creepy, semi-gothic psychological thriller with unexpected twists.
I am most familiar with Rusch through her Diving the Wreck series about a deep space salvage team exploring abandoned and wrecked spaceships. I was expecting something along the same lines from Alien Influences. But what I found is a story much more darkly psychological, science fiction only in that it is set on alien planets. The story most reminded me of accounts of the Salem witch trials. It deals with the murder of a child, at first blamed on alien rituals, but later discovered to have committed by one of the children. One would think that would be the end of the narrative, but the story is more complex and nuanced than that. Recommended if you are game for a creepy, semi-gothic psychological thriller with unexpected twists.
More...