Review: I, for one, welcome our new Minotaurian Alien Overlords
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 14, 2013
Even if they mostly ignore us.First, full disclosure.  I normally don't read short stories as all too often just as I'm getting into them and have become invested in the characters the story is over.  However, the description sounded interesting (I like alien invasion stories) and JohnR's review and the subsequent discussion in the comments section caught my eye and I decided to check the book out.Synopsis:Sometime in the early to middle of the 21st century, Earth is invaded by the 'Bulls', aliens that roughly resemble the Minotaurs of legend.  Bull technology is far more advanced than that of humans and the attack, an entirely one-sided engagement can hardly be called a war, is over in minutes.  Surprisingly, the Bull's do not engage in a genocidal campaign to eliminate all traces of mankind but instead simply set up shop at various locations around the world and ignore any humans not engaging in threatening behavior.  For the survivors, the complete destruction of all modern technology (via EMP) and supporting infrastructure mean times are hard and made harder by the human tendency to engage in destructive behavior toward their fellow man.  As mankind and the aliens settle in to a kind of laissez-faire co-existence, pockets of civilization hold on and even manage to thrive but sometimes hard decisions have to be made...*** warning, light spoilers below ***Although fairly short at the equivalent of 50(ish) printed pages, the author does a good job setting the stage with details about the fall of mankind, the nature of its conquerors, and the type of life that the survivors have had to endure in the hellish aftermath of the initial attack.  The story is told through the viewpoint of Evan Greggs, a now 38-year old man who lost the rest of his family in the aftermath: his father was killed and his sister is missing, presumed dead.At the start of the story (23 years after the attack), Evan is living at 'The Farm' - a commune with several thousand members but events are focused on a small cast of characters that we mostly get to know only through their names, a common problem with short stories but not one that particularly hampers Mr. Hill's novella as it is really more concerned with macro issues than with character development.  When soldiers arrive at the commune, the community is presented with a choice that will have drastic consequences no matter what decision they make.Despite a few quibbles, I rather liked this story, at least until the last few pages (more on that below.)  Mr. Hill's writing is polished and I don't recall seeing any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors - a rarity in self-published titles.  The general sci-fi elements of the story are engaging and I would very much like to see a longer novel that explored the Bulls in more detail (who, what, why) and delved more deeply into the struggles faced by the survivors.  These elements of the story earn a 5 star rating from me.For me, where the novel lost points was on two issues not related to technical merits, primary plotting, or general writing ability.The short version (see the review comments for the long version)Towards the end of the story, a very sharp political argument is made that I didn't feel was organic to the story.  The book is cruising along mostly as classical sci-fi story (alien invasion, sociological aspects of recovery) when it veers into a political discussion and pretty much stays there for the rest of the story.The issue of LGBT bias was raised by another reviewer.  I had problems with that aspect of the story (for different reasons) but don't think that it will be an issue to most readers as the overt references are all really mild.  The more subtle aspects, however... well, what prompts discussion is probably a good thing at least from the standpoint of feedback to the author.