A Half-Built Garden

by Ruthanna Emrys

They came from distant stars to save us but will they let us save ourselves? Climate fiction meets first contact in Ruthanna Emrys' A Half-Built Garden
On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm—and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn't agree, they may need to be saved by force.
The watershed networks aren't ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they rose up to exile the last corporations to a few artificial islands, escape the dominance of nation-states, and reorganize humanity around the hope of keeping their world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they've started to heal the wounded planet.
But now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if any one accepts the aliens' offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, everything hinges on the success of Judy's effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.

• ISBN10: 1250210984
• ISBN13: 9781250210982
• Publish Date: 15 August 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 16 May 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: http://melia.co.uk/page/detail/?k=9781250210982

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

It has been FAR too long since I've been able to dive into a science fiction novel (in truth, it's been a few weeks – at most). That made me excited for my next slotted read, A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys.

We've seen several takes on the first alien encounter. Yet none will be more harrowing than A Half-Built Garden.

One morning Judy Wallach woke up to a painfully normal alarm – the one alerting her of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. However, it won't be pollution waiting for her – but aliens. Aliens who seem to think that humanity needs to be saved from itself.

“On Earth, people like her had never given in—only died and made way for those more willing to listen,”

I felt like I was sold on A Half-Built Garden right from the start. The irony of a pollution alarm alerting us to aliens? That is such a human thing to do, much as I hate to say it. So it was easy to picture and easier to want to read everything that followed.

One of the many reasons I enjoyed A Half-Built Garden is that it didn't get bogged down by human expectations of what defines 'alien.' What I'm trying to say is that the aliens were precisely that – alien. They weren't humanoid by nature, but rather something other.

I would have enjoyed more time with aliens and the topics they opened up. Instead, this novel splits its focus into two things. The first should be obvious by now. The other half is a family drama. That isn't inherently bad (far from it!), but it felt top-heavy and kept pushing me out of my reading zone.

I do love how thoughtful A Half-Built Garden is. I wish more novels had so much thought wrapped into their development. Perhaps I'm just saying that because I really appreciated the story's commentary.

Thanks to Tor.com and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

A Half-Built Garden is an intelligent and compelling SF first contact near-future novel by Ruthanna Emrys. Released 26th July 2022 by Macmillan on their Tor Forge imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a beautifully written story, slow moving, with gravitas. I was engaged quite literally from the first page. Alien first contact stories are a favorite and this is a good one. It's set in 2083 and humans have finally banded together (more or less) to banish the corporations to isolated outposts and are in a desperate race to save Earth and maintain habitability. The aliens show up to convince what's left of humanity to abandon Earth before a catastrophe renders it a lost cause.

The first person protagonist/narrator is sympathetically written, intelligent, queer, compassionate, and three dimensional. There's a lot of content in the book extrapolating out from corporate oligarchy, corruption, greed, and the nature of power and the effect that has on our climate and habitat. At the same time, it's very much a story about parenthood and identity and the fact that diapers have to be changed and babies insist on being fed even if you're just a few minutes from first contact with alien lifeforms. Some of the mentions of parenting moments gave a whiff of whimsy, some of them, I felt, broke up the narrative thread a bit and yanked me out of my suspension of disbelief.

There is a very human story here, wrapped in a breathtakingly creative world building which made me pause at several points in amazement. Ms. Emrys is a gifted storyteller and this is a well written story.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.