Review: Who Is "Us" and Who is "Them"?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2012
Humans and Tofa share a planet but don't understand each other. Tofa make loud noises night after night. They object to the color blue at election time. We only know the human viewpoint but assume the Tofa don't understand humans either. Universal translators don't fix this perplexing relationship. The "evil aliens" aren't trying to wipe us out. In this classic "Us or Them" story, "Us" isn't who you think it is, and neither is "Them."Mara Cadell lost a twin brother before birth but still talks to him. Levi is a prankster, a sounding board and her only friend. She is in therapy for that. (The real secret about Levi is an extraordinary one). Mara wants to implant pairs of embryos, one Tofa and one human, into birth mothers. The "Twin-Born" should understand each other better and help their two races become more understanding.Initial co-operation degenerates into strange and later ominous behavior, far beyond misunderstandings and mutual annoyance. Is the project doomed to failure? Is the project and its success or failure the real point of the story? No. More about that in a moment.The morality of the experiment is never questioned except for a vague sense of "did we have a right to choose these children's lives for them?" The truth about Levi might cause discomfort. Teaching the children about worship provides some amusing comic relief but it is not respectful or tolerant of religion. There is no sex and no "onscreen" violence. It is a heavily female-dominated story, good "guys" and bad "guys." Men barely matter.Everybody has an agenda in this story. Real understanding isn't about races or sexes or cultures. In this story people ignore possible agendas, and that's when they learn the real meaning of "Us" and "Them."