Published: Aug. 05, 2012
Words: 58,705 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781452426587

Short description

A small group of Human colonists have escaped a lingering death on the drought and war ravaged planet Earth. Sadly, their new home may not offer the gleaming future life they expected. Besides losing all their technology and tools, dodging lurking predators and finding few sources of food, they have something new to worry about. They are not alone. They may not find any welcome here

Extended description

A thought provoking story in a scifi setting. Forty-two teachers, scientists, engineers and their children, have just completed a twelve year deep-space journey to escape the war and drought ravaged Earth. A carefully selected band of hardened survivors, they are to be colonists on the planet Nakis. Lying at the edge of the galaxy, it’s a new world that they hope will let them build a safe life together. Unfortunately, within two days, their ship, all their supplies, tools and technology are destroyed in an unforeseen melt-down of the crystalline core of their laser-driven vehicle.

Scrambling up to take shelter in a rough cave above the valley floor, those watching the melt-down find that survival will mean resurrecting the ancient technology and forgotten skills of their Paleolithic ancestors. If dodging the lurking predators isn’t hard enough, soon they discover the uninhabited planet they are marooned on, isn't exactly uninhabited. Nakis has not provided the home they had wi.. (Read more) A thought provoking story in a scifi setting. Forty-two teachers, scientists, engineers and their children, have just completed a twelve year deep-space journey to escape the war and drought ravaged Earth. A carefully selected band of hardened survivors, they are to be colonists on the planet Nakis. Lying at the edge of the galaxy, it’s a new world that they hope will let them build a safe life together. Unfortunately, within two days, their ship, all their supplies, tools and technology are destroyed in an unforeseen melt-down of the crystalline core of their laser-driven vehicle.

Scrambling up to take shelter in a rough cave above the valley floor, those watching the melt-down find that survival will mean resurrecting the ancient technology and forgotten skills of their Paleolithic ancestors. If dodging the lurking predators isn’t hard enough, soon they discover the uninhabited planet they are marooned on, isn't exactly uninhabited. Nakis has not provided the home they had willingly traded their old lives for. They have been reduced to foraging for subsistence. No strength, no defenses and now: powerful, potential enemies waiting in the darkness.

If lasting peace with the native humanoid species eventually comes, it will not be without incidents that try their empathic hosts’ patience. Rigid, bunker-mentality and religious stubbornness prevails among many of the original mission founders and a growing anger emerges that may doom the human colony. But a breakthrough cooperative experience binds them all together in a completely unexpected way from a source no one considered. Will this illuminate their path to finally finding the home they had hoped for, or will it drive a deeper and darker wedge between them and the Naku?
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Tags

music, sharing, new world, new home, cavemen, religious bigotry, telepathic communication, colony planet, escape from earth, deepspace

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Reviews

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Review by: Brian Clegg on March 25, 2013 :
I don't get to read a huge amount of fiction any more, which is why it is particularly enjoyable when I do. At the moment I'm drifting back towards science fiction, which I had abandoned for quite a while, and had an enjoyable weekend with Richard Sutton's Home.

I thought to start with this was going to be a typical 'stranded in space/revert to savages' type novel, but in fact Home is much more about what it is to be human, and what it would be like to be dependent on a largely superior race. As someone brought up on Star Trek, I thought Sutton's humanoid and interbreeding aliens were very reminiscent of the Star Trek humanoid universe, complete with its explanation of early shared origins - and I don't say this as a bad thing.

Overall, Home is a gentle, enjoyable read. If anything it could have done with a bit more menace, but because a lot of it is about inner exploration (I was slightly reminded of Heinlein's early inward looking phase, before he got too self-indulgent), this isn't a problem.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

Review by: Steve Bartholomew on Sep. 17, 2012 :
"Home" is a thoughtful metaphor about the phenomenon of immigration and the clash of different cultures. The author might have chosen to relate a story of Eastern Europeans immigrating to America during the 19th Century. Instead, his story takes place in the far future, with pilgrims from a depleted Earth traveling to a new planet. They are welcomed and helped by some of the natives, but despised by others. The discovery of a common DNA leads inevitably to inter-species romance with equally inevitable stresses and trials. Somehow people make do and survive. This is not a Star Wars tale, with ray guns and interplanetary blasters. Rather, it is a story of quiet struggles within, to come to grips with our own natures. A unique accomplishment.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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