Hal Aetus's Blog: Hal Aetus, page 7

Summer Relaxin’ with Hauke

Hal Aetus

Hauke is enjoying a beer on a summer evening while fireworks are going off for July 4th. Fortunately he has his own built-in bottle opener too! Patreon reward for Hauke.

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OvO

Hal Aetus

Firebirdy is birdifying OwO

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Sammy’s Sluggo

Hal Aetus

A little hatchday gift for my friend Sammy <3 He has a pet slug (who needs a name!)

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Colin Fursuit Reference

Hal Aetus

I created a simple fursuit reference for my husband, Colin. He wants to bounce into and sit on people as a huge, soft, but angry-looking, eagle.

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Book Review: Pantheran (Koinobi Trilogy #3)

Hal Aetus

This final book in the Koinobi Trilogy takes place entirely on the Pantheran home world or in their space ships. It’s a pretty deep dive into a society of large felid humanoids through the eyes of David, a human who was exchanged for one of the Pantherans in Book 1. Fortunately he’s an intelligent guy and is able to learn their language and most of their basic rules of society. However, he’s also a bit too compassionate to comply with the complex ethics of the Pantherans, and they are too rigidly entrenched in their world view to entertain human values. He makes some huge mistakes that send tremors through the relatively fragile glue that holds Pantheran society together. It’s so radical that he even alienates those that had come to befriend and respect him. But, there’s a pretty amazing wrap-up at the end that leaves you with hope for their future.

I found the Pantheran society to be unexpectedly complex. It started out seeming pretty simple on the surface, but through David’s foibles in diplomacy, we uncover more and more layers to it, and even see a case wherein saving the lives of his friends against criminals, actually erodes the respect the Pantherans had for him. Reid handles this extremely well and works things out in ways you don’t expect without making it confusing.

My only squawks are that, as with the other books, there are times of high action where the writing gets hard to follow. There are also typos and clumsy sentences, seeming to come in clusters. It makes the reading a little harder at times, but then smooths out again. I think that an editor or a few beta readers would have helped straightened those parts out very nicely. It didn’t keep me from reading the entire book in pretty short order.

The other squawk is that I wish there was a bit more time at the end suggesting what happens next. I think I understand why it ends on a dramatic note and leaves the future untold, but the natural consequence is leaving a reader wanting more. I guess that’s the mark of a good book though! There could easily be another book but it would probably be mostly anti-climactic. If Reid reads this, though, I’d love to see a bit more about how things work out on the Aquilan side. It seems to me that their space command will still need a lot of convincing to establish trade with humans who seem to be influenced by a Koinobi. And they will have a long, long way to go to accept Pantherans as partners. I think that Dr. Abernathy could have a lot of interesting adventures too, as a veterinarian. Hmm… perhaps I should write a bit of fan fiction in that regard…

All in all, a good read and a very interesting world that Reid built in this book. I’d love to see more!

If you read this book, let’s discuss it! You can comment here or respond to my review on GoodReads.

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Book Review: Aquilan (Koinobi Trilogy #2)

Hal Aetus

ALERT: THERE ARE A FEW MINOR SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW!

This was a great read. You get to see Aquilans (avian aliens) and a Pantheran (felid humanoids) as they interact with rural American society. It’s mostly positive but, as you would expect, there are some who are irrationally afraid or seek to make a profit from the alien visitors. There’s also a particular Aquilan who cannot overcome her distrust of Koinobi, or disdain for humans, and it costs her dearly. It culminates on a good note though with a pretty moving standoff wherein humans defend and befriend the Aquilans and Pantheran. It ends with the first stages forged of a mutually beneficial alliance with the avians.

This book takes place entirely on Earth so it’s much easier to fill in detail gaps, as I had reported being present in Koinobi. During periods of high action, it gets a little hard to follow who’s doing what. But mostly it’s smooth reading.

There’s a subplot where in a local, underprivileged, young dreamer seeks out the Aquilans after seeing them cause a ruckus at an Asian grocery store (getting fish). He gets their attention by strapping a communicator they lost to a balloon, which seems very unlikely to work. If I were the kid, I’d have pestered the Asian grocery store owner to get in touch with them through Mike and Kindra, passing the communicator that way.

I actually loved the avian captain, Narete, despite her inflexible hatred. I would have liked to see her show more rationality and come around to at least some measure of respect of the others, if not trust. Her creative curses were humorous and, as an avian veterinarian myself, I really enjoyed the scenes where she was being treated by a veterinarian and coping with examinations and treatments. If I were to venture what disease she had, it would likely be fungal airsacculitis (e.g., aspergillosis), which is a common, and often deadly, malady of birds of prey. And, oh my gods… the veterinarian leaves at the end for the Aquilan home world to help advance their state of medicine. That would be a dream come true!

Of the three books, this is my favorite, but that’s because it concentrated on the avians and, well, I’m pretty biased towards birds!

If you read this book, let’s discuss it! You can comment here or respond to my review on GoodReads.

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On the Same Team

Hal Aetus

Joel and Aetus are always on the same team
Patreon reward for my birdfriend Joel. And good hatchday wishes too!

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Whiterock Updates

Hal Aetus

By Hal Aetus

I’ve been hard at work on Whiterock for the past few weeks. It started with an awesome writing retreat to the Cascade Mountains in Washington, right during that heat wave in late June. But, no matter, I found the early mornings alone by Twisp Creek quite focusing. I went back through the entire book and chopped bits out here, added bits there, and smoothed it out. I added a few new characters and I fleshed out the existing cast more thoroughly. I’ve also been reading the book to anyone that will listen. Each time I do so, I find sentences to smooth and paragraphs to shape so it’s getting better and better with each pass. I am hoping to share livestreams of readings from the book soon so that I can gather input from others too. A special thanks to Colin (my husbird) and to Bob and Esther for providing the space in the mountains and for listening to my first readings.

I’ve updated the chapters that were already posted here so if you’ve read them before, read them again as some things have changed. Also, I added the next three chapters so there are now six chapters that you can enjoy. That’s probably as far as I’ll go on sharing whole chapters but I might share short excerpts from the rest. And, I’ve rearranged my Patreon so that starting in September, I can concentrate on creating artwork and swag for the book, so stay tuned!

Learn More & Read Excerpts

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Review of Koinobi by Reid Minnich

Hal Aetus

An intriguing first contact scenario that includes benevolent parasites, space-faring eagles, and an advanced feline race

I had the pleasure of meeting Reid Minnich and his wife at Fursquared in 2020, right before the pandemic took hold and stopped our lives. We exchanged books with the promise to write reviews for each other. Reid followed through within about a month and wrote a nice review of The Sky Calls on Amazon for me. I, however, needed a bit more time, I’m sorry to say. It wasn’t until a trip last month, where I was completely off the grid for 9 days in the arctic, that I finally dug into some much-neglected reading. I was immediately sorry that I had not read Koinobi sooner– I had missed out.

The book opens in a rather unlikely place for sci-fi: The 1800s. You quickly learn that an insect-like being has been taking up residence in a line of humans for many centuries. This is no Stargate Goauld though– the creature is benevolent and has a plan to bring unity to the galaxy.

The insect-like Koinobi on the cover of the book threw me off at first. I’m a bird guy and I wasn’t sure I would like something involving intelligent insects. Then you learn that they are actually a “parasite” of sort that augments their human hosts and uses them for communication and action. After this, the first race that humans meet is eagle-like and I was hooked. I ate up the rest of the book in less than a day and I absolutely love the world he created for them. I like how Reid introduces the advanced tech, species, ships, method of space travel, etc. in a way that doesn’t overdo the details and allows the reader to create it in their own mind. I like how space travel is handled and that the avian environments are not the traditional 2D, bottom-up POV of humans. There are perches instead of seats, terminals mounted in positions inconvenient to people, and buildings where the customers enter through the top. I love it! It’s the way I tend to imagine it.

If there are any negatives, they are few and mild and have more to do with my personal preferences. One is that sometimes I feel rushed along a bit but for those that like the plot to move right along, that’s probably not a negative at all.

Along the same lines, I’d like a little more detail. In particular, I’m still a bit confused as to how the avian race actually looks. It’s cool that Reid lets you fill in the blanks, particularly with some of the fantasy tech, but when it comes to characters and environments, I could use a few more details. It would really be cool to know what he’s seeing in his mind’s eye.

The body horror that’s a component of Koinobi renewal was pretty bizarre at first as that’s not usually my thing. But it was not too graphic or prolonged and I grew to appreciate Reid’s creative way of handling the regeneration of these very strange creatures.

Overall, I loved the book and look forward to reading the other two in the series. If you like space-faring avians, felines (which I think are introduced in more detail in book 2), or first-contact scenarios, you will love it too.

You can buy all three books in audio, Kindle, or soft cover through Reid’s website. Thanks, Reid, for the fun book exchange and the helpful review. I now look forward to reading the other two books in this series.

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Proud to wear the uniform

Hal Aetus

He’s proud to wear the uniform in the service of his avian nation.
For Shaun– thanks for the awesome support!

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