It's You, Isn't It? (2025) - Antony Paschos

 

It's You, Isn't It? by Antony Paschos is a SciFi space colonialism novella that tells the story of Avra, her younger sister Olia, and their friend Penko on the planet Terra-Octa as they encounter an alien species that turns out to be more than what they originally thought.

This novella was reviewed during the first round of SFINCS3.

This review may contain minor spoilers.

Worldbuilding: I think there was an interesting setup for the world of Terra-Octa and the wider universe, but often times the details that would have really cemented it get brushed aside because Avra is 'bored' by it. There were many times where we were about to get some interesting details about the Platani or the Gardeners, but the story quickly moves past it and left me feeling like I was missing something.

Emotions: This is where I really struggled with this story. I had such a hard time connecting with any of the characters, and when bad things started happening to them I felt no emotional impact.

Intrigue: This is where the story shined and is what kept me reading. I genuinely wanted to know what happened at the end, and the framing of the story being told in a combination of present day, when the characters first arrived of Terra-Octa/made contact with the chlorobots, and during the chlorobot uprising worked really well.

Relationships: Similar to the emotions section, the relationships in this story fell flat for me. Avra has a complicated relationship with her sister, father, and caretaker (Mr. Stephens), and has a budding relationship with Penko, but it all just felt like set dressing to me.

Descriptions: The prose in this story is quite distracting and hard to follow. I found myself having to reread sentences several times and still not fully understanding what they meant. To contrast that, the dialogue often felt stilted and unnatural which made for a somewhat sludgey reading experience at first.

Engagement: Once I got past my hang-ups with the prose, I did move through the story relatively quickly and it did keep me engaged. 

Final thoughts: In spite of my gripes with the prose, I did enjoy the ending, the worldbuilding was interesting, and the back and forth of telling the story pre-revolt and during was an interesting framing device that worked well for this story. If you like space colonialism with a twist then this may be an interesting read.