Sha’Kert: End of Night

Soledad’s inventive if muddled debut sends an unwilling family and an Amish community into space to find a new home. In the distant future, enforcement official Greg Robertson agrees to serve a criminal organization in exchange for expensive, life-saving surgery for his daughter, Penny. When his deception is discovered, he’s given the option of emigrating with his family to the distant planet Juuttua instead of facing punishment on Earth. So he, Penny, and his wife, Louise, board a ship full of Amish led by minister Menno Stoll, who hopes his community’s agrarian lifestyle will flourish on Juuttua. When the ship instead crash-lands on a different planet without hope of rescue, Menno is convinced that God planned this twist. After a grueling planting first crop without technology or animal help, Greg and Henry, Menno’s nonbelieving son, set out to explore the planet, discovering a small band of aliens. When the men return bearing impressive alien technology, Menno informs Greg that anybody not willing to live by Amish doctrine must leave their settlement. So Greg returns to the aliens, who slowly initiate him into their culture. Both the Amish-in-space arc and the first contact plot are full of imaginative ideas and rich characters, but mashing them together gives both short shrift. The result is intriguing but underdeveloped. [em](Apr.) [/em]