WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 61. Affiliations, Aliens, and Other Profitable Pursuits by Lyn Gala (Sci-Fi) Book 3

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27401647-affiliations-aliens-and-other-profitable-pursuits

This book was a very powerful story filled with everything that came before it and shaded with relevant issues that we still face today. Being in a gay relationship is one thing, being a submissive is another, but Lyn Gala held back no punches with her display of human bigotry even centuries in the future. This story is about a future that mirrors our world. In the prior books, we’ve only heard about Earth and her colonies through anecdotes, we now see what other humans outside the few with direct interactions with aliens are like and we see how the human race of this future interacts with one another. One thing I noted in my first review is that Lyn Gala is probably one of the most interesting writers of perspectives in the gay science fiction subgenre, she displays her skills even more here.

Lengthwise: 186 pages long and 7 hours 56 minutes on audible, it is quite a bit of reading despite the fewer pages, since this book should be treated as a normal science fiction novel, perhaps even part of a sci-fi epic at this point in the story. I would recommend readers, who have already dedicated their time so far to read the series, pace yourselves. This book is worth reading if you love the first two books, but you need to be ready for some interesting twists and turns.

Plot: Liam and Ondry are heading to an Earth colony aboard a Rownt “Home Ship”, which is a massive city-ship that houses several generations of Rownt. These vessels dwarf any that Earth’s military could field and are among the reasons that a diplomatic mission is needed to formalize terms and treaties with humanity. Trade is the principal reason for Rownt to head to Earth space, at least to human government, but there are ulterior motives at play by the Rownt Grandmothers, the ruling female council in dispatching a city-ship to Earth space.

Liam and Ondry are accompanied by Colonel Diallo, the Earth diplomat and special operations agent originally tasked to recover Liam from Rownt homeworld. Her actions and her position have left a deep impression on Ondry, who distrusts and dislikes her, but in maintaining his newly won status as the highly sought-after Tuk-rank, he puts aside his animosity for the mission at hand. Trade with humanity as a Tuk-rank with connections to operations throughout the galaxy would create great profit; ensuring that Ondry would have enough leverage to trade goods with Imshee, the alien race that specializes in advanced genetic engineering technology. This would prolong the human lifespan of Liam, who at nearly 40 would be dead long before Ondry with a lifespan of over a thousand years. The Rownt profits and the potential loss of Liam incentivize Ondry to succeed with the trade mission.

As the negotiations begin, the Rownt grandmothers make Liam their human liaison, which in turn results in Earth providing Liam with a promotion to Lieutenant and upping his pay scale with the hope of buying his allegiance in trade talks. Ondry is sidelined by his trade negotiations with human corporations and could not protect Liam from the machinations of Earth politics. After encountering an old friend from the frontlines, Liam is shaken to his core about how he and the Rownt, in general, are perceived by someone he trusted. These things crescendo into a major shift and opening in Human-Rownt relations.

Review: Yeah, this book is heavy on everything that has been built across books 1 and 2 about Rownt, humanity, and perceptions of how relationships function within human eyes versus that of Rownt. There’s a lot of stuff to unpack in this book beyond just the concepts that are introduced here in the obvious plot, but Lyn Gala added subversive elements that were hinted at in Book 2 and have now become a tragic reflection on human ignorance, both fictional and real.

First, yes, Lyn Gala did add her two cents in on abortion rights and implied in her science fiction universe timeline, Pro-Life movement does exist and has major support as well in this far-flung future with a vocal base that applies human morality with an alien civilization. Humans like Liam’s old wartime friend appear to believe the Rownt are alien monsters for allowing their young to die without pre-natal medical resources. The Rownt in contrast does not consider the loss of their eggs to be a matter of moral concern, merely an issue of survival and the ability of potential offspring to crack their turtle-like shells. Their resources are not directed toward medical care for unborn, who are not considered "alive" (yes, no concerns about conception or waiting periods), rather they will treat injuries to children and adults as needed. I do disagree with the Rownt viewpoint if applied to human beings because the need for medical support is something that should not be denied to a society based on current rationale alone, but there’s a long-term issue with societal development and integrated systems. The Rownt though are an alien species and human subjects like abortion and health care coverage should not be made equivalent to an alien species. It’s the height of arrogance to believe that humanity, a species technologically far inferior and reliant on the goodwill of the Rownt, dictates to the Rownt that our moral values should be followed. I also think Lyn Gala has taken the extreme scenario on what a Pro-life success could mean (she wrote this in 2015), where human overpopulation without abortion has left many unemployed and many more people tolerant of formerly illicit activities like child prostitution in Liam’s tragic case. Still, she has a point as the anti-abortion movement has never truly planned things out for society afterward, they just believe things will work out when they win as we’re seeing with some early signs of the chaos in the Post-Roe world.

Additionally, there are more disturbing things in this book and this futuristic humanity. Yes, being gay isn’t a crime, but it is not favored either. The topic of gender equality is also open to interpretation within Lyn Gala’s story. With each character introduced, each new tantrum is thrown about Rownt behavior from their stance on abortion to the placement of women as leaders in their society rather than men, the reader gets the feeling that Earth is far closer to a dystopia. Sure, there are signs of open social order or some opportunities for wealthy or intelligent individuals, but the close-minded nature of individuals and the brash nature of the male-dominated military and political leadership paints a society that is closed to outsiders. You will see little signs of a dystopia from the way corporations have expanded their grip on trade across the universe, the perverse nature of the media mob, and skewed notions of individuals. With all that said, human beings still view themselves as being better off than the Rownt, even with the fact of a Rownt City-ship in orbit and their obvious advanced weapons and propulsion capabilities. Despite, being a different kind of society, a more advanced technological society at that, humanity seems to apply a moral superiority to ourselves despite how seemingly inferior our abilities and resources truly are compared to the Rownt. I hope we’re not that stupid in the future, but looking at modern events, where nations from the US to Russia appear to apply the idea of national “moral” imperative to be the basis of dealings with other nations on Earth through peace and war, I fear the humanity that we see in Lyn Gala stories are closer to the truth.

Among new characters, I find the “Eldest” grandmother to be a refreshing and interesting Rownt character, she admits that she requires diverse opinions as the leader of her people, including Ondry’s perspective on humanity. She’s a complex Rownt with nearly a thousand years of life experience and countless encounters with alien species during her city-ship’s journey across the stars for her people. We as the reader learn through her that the Rownt truly loved Palteia and children, even from other species to the point of contemplating the Rownt equivalent of war over them. A single Rownt City-ship could likely take on the entire forces of Earth without batting an eye and bypass planetary defenses. Along with the fact that Rownt equivalent of war has no terms for “peace” or “ceasefire” if humanity does not capitulate and allow the Rownt claims. Luckily for humanity, the Rownt waited and acted based on reasoning after observing how humans treated one another. While one of Liam’s friends was ignorant and bigoted, his other friend turned out to have a pretty open mind toward the Rownt. The General in charge of negotiations was also less discerning about social issues and treated the Rownt as equal trading partners rather than moral adversaries as some other humans hold. Cooler heads prevailed in this instance, but the prejudice is quite rampant even if there are level-headed people on Earth. If you are interested in observing far more human interactions with the Rownt, I’d advise readers to continue reading, Kensho, an anthology book written by Lyn Gala set in this universe, which acts as a prologue to Book 1 and an epilogue to Book 4.

Liam and Ondry are a dynamic couple even at this stage in the game. They are practically married and still, they are discovering new things about one another. Ondry is trying to offer Liam as much space as he can reasonably, but Liam has issues around human beings that he cannot shake off. The presence of Liam’s old friends among other troubling things the human authority put in his path to elicit empathy was debilitating for Liam. From an alienated Liam, who suffered sexual and mental abuse over 4 decades at the hand of various people, these people and reminders of events have left him haunted with many bad memories. However, through Ondry’s interaction with Liam, we learn of better times on Earth between Liam and “floaters”, a futuristic equivalent of hippies based on their descriptions. When Liam had no family support or his life got too hard, he’d be at the beach with these free-spirited people, who cared for him. It’s one of the few glimpses of something other than abuse that Liam has shown for human beings and it was brought forward by Ondry, who wanted Liam to share his humanity and happiness with him as a partner. That interaction was beautifully crafted and I think that more than anything in the books helped balance Ondry’s role as a Chilta and Liam as a Palteia.

I have nothing bad to say about this book, it was well crafted, executed, and developed from the other books.

Rating: 5 out of 5, this is how you write a serial novel. You need to develop things in the earlier books and deliver a beautiful payoff. Lyn Gala did a wonderful job in this book and I know book 4 does not live up to this book’s heights, sadly.