Publisher  - Annorlunda Books

Published - Out Now

Price - £2.17 ebook

When war comes to your planet, everything changes…perhaps even the meaning of family and identity. Xin inherits a vineyard on a distant planet and moves there to build a life…but an interstellar war intervenes. Will Xin’s dreams of a new life get caught up in the crossfire? Xin’s understanding of a family and sense of self must evolve to cope with the changes brought by life on a new planet and a war that threatens everything.

Science fiction does love the battles – the wars in the stars (no trademarks are infringed!); the land battles, the starships exploding in the skies but we perhaps forget about those who just find themselves in the firing line. In this bittersweet novella from Joyce Chng we focus less on the armies and the tech but a reminder that there are human lives being devastated by both sides.

Xin’s grandfather decided they should own the vineyard he has on the remote planet Tertullian VI. She narrates the story of the family arriving and how over the months to then come a Secessioniest War in the Allied planets spreads through space and ultimately hits the planet too. The hardship of understanding farming and running business gets intermingled with a simple farm being pummelled by armies who are more focused on the prize than the people they wish to save/liberate. Xin discovers love, horror and how far she is prepared to go to protect her land and her family.

The story is told through Xin’s voice. Xin is not a natural farmer but finds the prospect of owning and running the farm a challenge, they can’t refuse. Their children and mother accompany them into working how exactly wine gets produced and, in some ways, this feels a very relaxed matter of fact narration but then we see explosions in the sky; acts of terrorism against refugees and a casual cruelty that both sides dish out if they feel you betray their values. Its that sense of dawning horror as we see children ant to be soldiers; livelihoods ruined, and people being tortured less for secrets and more than they just can. Chng has a subtle way of making you see the changes in the world but at a local life level. You invest yourself int this little household and hope they can survive what the two factions throw at them. By the end the pain of war and what this means is heartfelt.

Xin is a fascinating lead narrator – currently transitioning to be a man Xin is trying to focus on farm and family but an intriguing relationship with the stoic and sometimes secretive Galliano develops that is fraught with tension of many kinds. The world is vividly brought to life with scenes of food and religion and family customs. All painted to show you what is being lost by war. It’s a very haunting experience.

This a short tale but one I think would be good for readers to vie and remember that war is not always a special effect extravaganza and be it in Syria, Yugoslavia and Iraq will always mean local people who just really wanted to make a living may find themselves in a whirlwind that will change everyone.