A fascinating nonhuman cast and their faraway world make for an enthralling read.
─Kirkus Reviews
Love forms at the margins of a warring society in the potent science fiction novel The Outcast.
An infant abandoned to his natural enemy faces prejudice, hatred, and ostracization in Ashton Fenix’s science fiction novel The Outcast.
In the great multiplanet society known as the Galactic Alliance, an alien warrior race, the nervin, are split into numerous warring tribes. When a Xai tribe infant, Hok’ee, is found in Das tribe land, the Das view his presence as a threat. And later, as a teenager, Hok’ee remains a second-class citizen in Das society. His adoptive family detests him, and his Das peers shy away from him.
Hok’ee lives a lonely existence until he meets Öökyo, a Das boy from the slums who embraces Hok’ee and becomes his haliin, or trusted battle partner and soulmate. The evolution of their relationship is organic and raises the novel’s stakes: Loving Öökyo makes Hok’ee’s desire for peace more urgent.
...Hok’ee gains depth as the story progresses, evolving from a naive teenager into a cautious adult and learning the hard way that his enemies outnumber his friends. The book’s worldbuilding is complex, with both the Das and Xai people described in detail: Both clans have sharp canine teeth, serpentine eyes, and long, pointed ears. Their only physical difference is the color of their eyes, insinuating that the communities have more in common than not.
In the adventure-filled science fiction novel The Outcast, a boy who’s rejected by his society meets a fellow outsider and seeks peace among various worlds.
─Foreword Clarion Reviews