SOLVED. Sci-Fi read ~1994-97 - maybe 6? kids in a human colony on an alien planet, adults become apathetic and start dying, kids get removed from planet and separated, later their souls get collected in jars(?) to return to alien planet

[ArcaneScribbles]

I picked this book up somewhere around mid to late 1990s. A friend who recalls reading the book believes they read it about 1997.

Plot highlights:

Group of kids (I believe 6 kids) are living in a colony on an alien planet. The adults/parents of the kids have started smoking(?)/ingesting some alien substance that makes them start turning apathetic to anything, they eventually start dying due to no longer being able to care about anything.

There's an intercession from some organization (government?) and it becomes an huge crisis where the kids become [in]famous for being the survivors of this colony. In the aftermath they are separated and told they can never contact each other or have contact with any other alien species for the rest of their lives.

There's either pot I don't remember or the book skips forward to when they are adults, and is primarily following one of the now-adult kids as he finds out that one of the other of their group has died. A woman, I believe, who had been in violation of the no-contact-with-aliens edict, possibly acting as some type of escort? It was believed she had committed suicide, I think, and he goes to where she died and does something(?) to collect her soul in a jar(?) or other container. He contacts the others of their group and starts to find out that they are all dying, and goes around collecting their souls(?), before taking them all and going back to the planet that the colony was originally on.

The cover of the book is dark blue/black, a figure (male) is sitting to the left hand side, facing the viewer. He is looking up towards/reaching towards some floating white(?) orbs, and I believe he is either holding a jar and/or there are jars on the ground in front of him.

The book was standalone, not part of any series that I'm aware of. The author was not a Science Fiction big name, and I don't think I recall ever reading another book by them. I've read most of the SciFi big names and rechecked them all, but none of them fit this book. The cover structure looks VERY much like Joan D. Vinge's _Dreamfall_ in layout, but the coloration of the this book is much darker, the figure is sitting instead of kneeling, and there are no other environment details that I can remember other than the floating orbs and possibly jars. I THINK the title was short, maybe only a word or two, but that could be wrong and I could be overlapping that with Dreamfall.

[ArcaneScribbles]

FOUND IT!

Alien Influences by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

[SBC]

Great! I'm glad you found it and thanks for letting us know. Alien Influences for the click.