History Literature / AlienInASmallTown

Some centuries in the future, Earth has entered into an alliance with a race of [[SiliconBasedLife silicon-based]] [[StarfishAliens nonhumanoid aliens]] called the Jan, and permitted them to establish a colony on [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfJupiter Jupiter's moon Callisto,]] in exchange for helping humanity establish itself in the wider interstellar community.

And although they are [[SpaceAmish perfectly aware of all this,]] it has had little effect on the everyday lives of the technology-shunning [[UsefulNotes/{{Amish}} Mennonites]] of central UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}, who continue to live much as they have since the seventeenth century.

30-year old Indira Fenstermacher left her Mennonite community ten years ago, learned the ways of the outside world, got a job on a space station... but has now returned in the wake of a personal tragedy.

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Basically how [[spoiler: Paul declares his love for Indira.]]

* BeePeople: Paul describes Jan culture this way.

* CrisisOfFaith: Paul suffers from this after [[spoiler: Indira's death.]]

* DeathOfTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Tendai, decades later.]]

* GreatOffscreenWar: At least two - the Genomic War (which gave rise to genetically engineered HumanSubspecies like the Tesks and the Elves) and the Android Uprising.

* {{Kaiju}}: ''Hoons,'' enormous animals that prey on the Jan but hold a totemic significance for them. "Our great sacred nightmare."

* HumansAreUgly: To the stony Jan, we're "blob monsters."
--> "Even after all this time on Earth, the little bipedal bloodbladders still all tended to look alike to him. [[BizarreAlienSenses The ground hummed for a moment as he took a sonograph of her,]] giving him a flash image of a delicate calcium/phosphorus understructure, wrapped in a flexible form-fitting sack of goo. It was truly miraculous that such an... ''object'' could be a conscious being. "

* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler: Paul, Indira, and Tendai -- although Indira is slow to recognize it, and Tendai never does.]]

** It's coming back into fashion after everyone scorned it following "the Genomic War." Still, the war spawned at least two genetically engineered subraces of humanity: the tough but very perceptive [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Tesks,]] and there's brief mention of a long-lived race called [[SpaceElves Elves.]] Also, even if it wasn't done recently, almost everyone on Earth has a few genetically engineered ancestors.

* SliceOfLife: A rare science fiction example.
* SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence: There is a definite distinction between sentient machines and nonsentient ones, but...
--> "It could be very hard to tell, even if she took the time to converse with it (the old TuringTest was a joke; the parser program ELIZA had done a fair job of making a mockery of it only sixteen years after the test was proposed, and modern “hollow” behavior simulators could ape human speech quite well while lacking even the self-awareness of a honeybee)."

* SonicStunner: How hoons disable their prey.
* SpaceAmish: Mennonites... [[RecycledInSpace IN THE FUTURE!]] To a much lesser extent, the Jan count, too.
* SpaceStation: Felice Station, the most vital port city in the solar system.

* BizarreAlienSenses: Apart from 360 degree vision and the ability to see colors we can't, the Jan also have a sonar sense, which forms the basis of their language. Apart from giving them a form of XRayVision (they consider humans to be nice sturdy skeletons wrapped in slimy goo), this also means with practice a Jan can become a LivingLieDetector, because he can hear your heartbeat.

* FishOutOfWater: Both Paul and Indira, at different times.
* FreakOut: What happened to Indira on Felice Station.
* TheFuture
* GeniusLoci: The Jan matriarchs, who are essentially living mountains.

* NoTranshumanismAllowed: It's coming back into fashion after everyone scorned it following "the Genomic War." Still, the war spawned at least two genetically engineered subraces of humanity: the tough but very perceptive [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Tesks,]] and there's brief mention of a long-lived race called [[SpaceElves Elves.]] Also, even if it wasn't done recently, almost everyone on Earth has a few genetically engineered ancestors.

* RedRightHand: Nuada's silver hand.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler: Nuada.]]

* StarfishAliens: All aliens appear to be this.

30-year old [[MultiethnicName Indira Fenstermacher]] left her Mennonite community ten years ago, learned the ways of the outside world, got a job on a space station... but has now returned in the wake of a personal tragedy.

* MultiethnicName: Applies to at least half the human cast. Indira and Jawarhalal Fenstermacher, Aleksei Callahan, Adah Chan, Julius Xaioming, and on and on. In the case of the otherwise insular Mennonites, this is explained by their people having been displaced by invading soldiers generations earlier. When the Amish and Mennonites came home after the war, others who [[LuddWasRight blamed technology for the war]] came with them.

* [[UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}} Zimbabwe]]: The location of Earth's capital city, as well as Tendai Tamsanga's birthplace. Apparently a pretty nice place in the future. Notably, they have monuments dedicated to the memory of all those who died during the AIDS plague, and also to "those who’d died under the vile 21st century tyrant Mugabe."

* ShoutOut: Many and varied, from books like ''Literature/{{Candide}},'' ''Literature/MobyDick,'' ''Literature/PilgrimsProgress,'' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds,'' and ''Literature/TheHobbit'' to contemporary musicians like Music/AlanisMorissette and Music/TheRollingStones.

* ShoutOut: Many and varied, from classics like ''Literature/{{Candide}},'' ''Literature/MobyDick,'' ''Literature/PilgrimsProgress,'' ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds,'' and ''Literature/TheHobbit'' to contemporary artists like Music/AlanisMorissette and Music/TheRollingStones.