I just finished
A Wall is Also a Road which is the newly released novel by Annalee Newitz. It’s a multi-faceted work, that is a first contact story, a historical fiction, and an exploration of an alien civilization. Our protagonist is an alien known as Gardenpath. They are an amorphous being that has characteristics of a slime mold and an amoeba, and are the size of a house. They are part of a species known as the Rational People. Gardenpath is a graduate student in an extragalactic university known as the Memory.
Gardenpath has begun their fieldwork toward their doctoral degree, and they have decided to study a planet within what they call the Spigot Galaxy, and we know as the Milky Way. They have to use a protective suit that allows them to survive the crushing gravity and intense radiation in such a place. This suit can be configured to have an exterior appearance that matches local organisms. So Gardenpath is teleported to Earth, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, near the City of Pompeii. They begin to study food webs, in this strange world of multicellular(!) organisms. Soon they come to believe that the strange organisms in Pompeii may be communicating, and creating art!
This story is quite an adventure! It has big ideas, lots of interesting information based in history, and all kinds of relationships. It also has mature themes, including sexy times! The overall story arc is positive, although there are some darker chapters. I think it’s one of Annalee’s best works to date. It certainly makes use of her research from her non-fiction book,
Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age.
