EARTH SUCKS

After an alien invasion, a resistance fighter makes an uneasy secret alliance with one of the creatures prior to becoming a prize prisoner in Chambers’ debut YA SF novel.

In the future, humankind is laid low by climate change, with cities becoming walled fortresses against floods and resources and infrastructure depleted. Sinister aliens called the Fringeants are undertaking a stealthy takeover of Earth, occupying major population centers and killing many residents. Fringeants look mostly human except for their glowing eyes and mouths, and their weapons tend to be whips, fists, and bows and arrows. They also use totemic magic involving the use of doll-like “poppets.” Somewhere in Canada, Feng is an underground fighter/saboteur/medic who fled pursuit by Fringeants as a teen three years ago. When Feng takes shelter in a Fringeant-held house, he accidentally makes his first close contact with one of the creatures. Diem is a sort of healer among the invaders and an expert wielder of poppets; she repeats the official line that Fringeants have a moral imperative to conquer the ecologically abused planet and force barbaric human beings into following the Fringeants’ universal religion and become enlightened. After Feng is captured and suffers brutally under torture, Diem reconsiders her peoples’ agenda and ethics. Chambers’ debut is not the satire its title seems to portend; instead, the graphic material in this work brings to mind the splatterpunk aesthetic. Descriptions of physical harm abound in these pages, and the fact that the Fringeants are resolutely low-tech for a galaxy-traveling race—their POW compound lacks even rudimentary surveillance—puts the material in league with brutal war stories of yore. However, quite young adults largely comprise the ensemble here instead of adults; the author herself was in her teens when the yarn was written.Readers may appreciate the many twists and betrayals in the close-quarter setting of a disused school that serves as a Fringeant base. An open ending indicates troop transports of sequels are on their way, and a preview of a prequel is included.

A violent alien occupation/prison break novel that feels more retro than futurist.