"Knowing Neither Kin Nor Foe," by Nancy Fulda

[Scott H. Andrews]

This thread is to discuss "Knowing Neither Kin Nor Foe," by Nancy Fulda, which appears in BCS #40 (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/toc.php?s=40) from Apr. 8, 2010.

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[Michael R. Fletcher]

Good story. Solid world building. Nice handling of non-human characters.

Going to work...Going to Save the World. Sometimes it feels like the same thing (or at least equally daunting). Uh...not sure where that came from.

[Scott H. Andrews]

Good story. Solid world building. Nice handling of non-human characters.
Very glad you liked it!

For another great story of non-human characters, check out "Precious Meat," (http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/forums/../story.php?s=12) by Catherine S. Perdue (also a BCS Podcast (http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/audio.php#bcs005)). I really like great stories from an alien point-of-view.

[Michael R. Fletcher]

Thanks for the great suggestion. Precious Meat was fantastic.
It felt a little like a distant tie-in to Niven's Pak Protector stories.

[mbrennan]

My one quibble is that I never quite settled on a solid enough image of the kin. At first I thought spiders, but then spiders got mentioned as something different, plus there were the carapaces. Then I thought cockroaches, but threw that image out of my head as fast as I could, because I hate the things. :-)

But anyway, cool species, whatever they looked like, and cool extrapolation from it. I liked the explanation of why the savior needed to be a solo mind, and also approved of her decision to tell the truth. Lying to people for their own good always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, even when I agree it's for the best.

[avatar]

I think the story was well written and the way the characters were handled was really good and was some different way to what i have read till date..

[norris]

I really liked the story, I loved the characters! it made me feel like I was really immersed in the setting of the story. great job!

[Allyson Erick]

I just wanted to congratulate Ms Fulda on her stories. I read this after enjoying her Daily Science Fiction story about "zero," "All or Nothing." I am responding to this story because it just reminded me so strongly of the stories of Hal Clement, né Harry Stubbs (really! I had the pleasure of taking a writing class from him many [many!] years ago.)
While few people have the background in physics to so meticulously create worlds and non-anthropomorphic characters as he did, still Ms Fulda's world and protagonist are well thought out, giving us a chance to remove ourselves from our human bodies and try out some new "bandwidths," in a fairly short format.
It's not often that we are treated to a truly "alien" lifestyle, in such economy!
The Hal Clement Award is given for the best "Young Adult" Science fiction novels. I don't know of any awards for best non-humanoid characters. Maybe we can initiate a "Harry Stubbs Award," for that? (I think there are a few levels that works on.) If so, I think Ms Fulda should be given it retroactively for this story!