The Stars Change

by Mary Anne Mohanraj

[Heather]

 

In the future people from South Asia settle a distant planet.  Their descendants have established a prestigious university that attracts students from all over the galaxy.  But tensions have been rising for years between humans and nonhumans and now the human supremacy movement has launched a missile into a nonhuman population center.

This story is told starting with short stories that introduce the main characters.

Kimsriyalani  - a feline-like nonhuman computer programming student who has sex with a stranger in the park that night


Amara - a human woman who is married to the man Kimsriyalani has sex with.  He comes home and tells her and she grabs a bag and leaves him.  She doesn't know where to go.  She can't go home to her very traditional mother.


Narita - a genetically modified human woman who wanted to marry Amara nine years ago.  Amara knew her family wouldn't accept a modified human so she left her and had her mother arrange a marriage.  Now she goes to Narita's house to escape her marriage but Narita doesn't want to let her in because she is sheltering a group of aliens who were injured in the blast.

Gaurav - a reptilian police officer who is the only one of his kind on the planet.  He got stuck here when his planned transport disappeared into a worm hole.

Chieri - a religious prostitute and empath who had a customer tonight who was celebrating the successful missile strike he set off.  She goes to Gaurav to report it.

When Gaurav's superiors don't believe the words of a prostitute who says that more attacks are coming at sunrise, it is up to these people to follow the clues to stop further attacks.

This is advertised as erotic fiction and it is that in the beginning but as the story progresses that aspect of it falls away.  There's no time for sex when you are fighting for your life.  (Yeah, I'm still giving you the side eye Outlander.)

This is a short book and a quick read.  It shows how people of various creeds and species can pull together to protect what they love.

 This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story