We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen (English) Hardcover Book

Description: We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen The behavioral psychologist onboard a survey ship headed to a planet ripe for colonization, Dr. Grace Park must determine the origin of a strange phenomenon thats causing the crew to suffer mental breaks --without losing her own mind in the process. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description This "claustrophobic and dark" sci-fi thriller debut is "full of twisting ship corridors and unreliable characters" as it explores AI ethics and the effects of climate change (Kirkus Reviews). Aboard a ship manned by humans and androids, one doctor must discover the source of her crews madness—or risk succumbing to it herself. Misanthropic psychologist Dr. Grace Park is placed on the Deucalion, a survey ship headed to an icy planet in an unexplored galaxy. Her purpose is to observe the thirteen human crew members aboard the ship—all specialists in their own fields—as they assess the colonization potential of the planet, Eos. But frictions develop as Park befriends the androids of the ship, preferring their company over the baffling complexity of humans, while the rest of the crew treats them with suspicion and even outright hostility. Shortly after landing, the crew finds themselves trapped on the ship by a radiation storm, with no means of communication or escape until it passes—and thats when things begin to fall apart. Parks patients are falling prey to waking nightmares of helpless, tongueless insanity. The androids are behaving strangely. There are no windows aboard the ship. Paranoia is closing in, and soon Park is forced to confront the fact that nothing—neither her crew, nor their mission, nor the mysterious Eos itself—is as it seems. Author Biography The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, Lena Nguyen lives with her partner in the alien desert of Arizona. She received her MFA in fiction from Cornell University, where she also taught courses in English, writing, and zombies. Her science fiction and fantasy have won several accolades, and she was a Writers of the Future finalist. When not writing, Lena enjoys editing and game development. We Have Always Been Here is her debut novel. Review Praise for We Have Always Been Here"We Have Always Been Here is an extraordinary, multifarious debut: a white-knuckle adventure, a wrenching love story, a confounding intellectual puzzle, and a masterful inquiry into the nature of consciousness. Lena Nguyen has done with her first book something that takes most writers decades. Its all in here, and its all fantastic." —J. Robert Lennon, author of Subdivision"Nguyens debut seamlessly blends the nail-biting pace of a thriller with the detailed set pieces of science fiction, perfect for fans of either genre." —ALA Booklist (starred)"Nguyens is full of precise lines and icy sharpness, creating a world that is simultaneously oppressively expansive and uncommonly claustrophobic." —Bookpage (starred)"Nguyens debut is claustrophobic and dark, full of twisting ship corridors and unreliable characters.... A promising, atmospheric debut." —Kirkus Reviews"Nguyen immerses readers in a chilling landscape while effortlessly softening the more sinister moments with wistful, dreamlike flashbacks. This impressive sci-fi thriller marks Nguyen as a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly"An exciting debut that delves into themes of corporate conscription, the definition of humanity, and the complexity of relationships. This science fiction thriller will keep readers guessing and wondering past the final page." —Library Journal"Theres a real palpable tension and delirium infused into Nguyens writing that enhances what could have been a straightforward thriller into something much deeper, sharper, and stranger." —The Speculative Shelf Review Quote Praise for We Have Always Been Here " We Have Always Been Here is an extraordinary, multifarious debut : a white-knuckle adventure, a wrenching love story, a confounding intellectual puzzle, and a masterful inquiry into the nature of consciousness. Lena Nguyen has done with her first book something that takes most writers decades. Its all in here, and its all fantastic." --J. Robert Lennon, author of Subdivision "Nguyens debut seamlessly blends the nail-biting pace of a thriller with the detailed set pieces of science fiction, perfect for fans of either genre." -- ALA Booklist (starred) "Nguyens is full of precise lines and icy sharpness , creating a world that is simultaneously oppressively expansive and uncommonly claustrophobic." -- Bookpage (starred) "Nguyens debut is claustrophobic and dark, full of twisting ship corridors and unreliable characters.... A promising, atmospheric debut ." -- Kirkus Reviews "Nguyen immerses readers in a chilling landscape while effortlessly softening the more sinister moments with wistful, dreamlike flashbacks. This impressive sci-fi thriller marks Nguyen as a writer to watch ." -- Publishers Weekly " An exciting debut that delves into themes of corporate conscription, the definition of humanity, and the complexity of relationships. This science fiction thriller will keep readers guessing and wondering past the final page." -- Library Journal "Theres a real palpable tension and delirium infused into Nguyens writing that enhances what could have been a straightforward thriller into something much deeper, sharper, and stranger." --The Speculative Shelf Excerpt from Book 1. The day after they landed on the new planet, Park woke to a pair of strong metal arms pinning her down. Against all instinct, she ignored her initial sense of terror and automatically relaxed her body; she recognized an androids grip when she felt it, and her rational mind-the one that overrode the panicky animal one-knew that it was impossible for an android to hurt her. Still. It wasnt a comfortable thing to look around and realize she had no idea where she was. She tried to focus her unusually bleary eyesight on whoever was holding her: shed had her vision genetically corrected a few years ago and had already forgotten what it was like to be poor-sighted, which didnt help the bubbling panic. "Where am I?" she croaked. She noticed her lips were cracked and sore, but theyd been like that for months, dry from the endless vacuum of space. The android above her turned their head, looking off to the side as if asking for permission to speak. She thought she could make out blond hair, twisted in a tourniquet-like braid. Ellenex, then, the ships medical android. No other robot on the ship had yellow hair. "Go away," commanded another voice, this one sharp and rigid. What she thought was Ellenex moved silently away, leaving Park blinded by the sterile white light the androids head had been blocking off. Then another person moved into her watery field of vision, and this one she recognized more clearly: Chanur. The ships physician. Park was in the medical bay. Now she did panic, sitting up and clawing automatically at her arm; she ripped off whatever medical tab had been glued there and said thickly, "Am I sick?" Sickness should have been impossible on their ship, she knew. All thirteen members of the Deucalions human crew had been rigorously examined, scanned, and tested for disease prior to boarding for the ten-month journey to Eos. And with no foreign microbes in space, the chances of incurring infection en route were vanishingly small. But just last night, Park had been informed that the expeditions roboticist, Reimi Kisaragi, was indisposed and being held in quarantine. And if Park had caught whatever she had . . . well. The last time something like this had happened, an entire fleet of military vessels had been compromised, a foreign virus blazing through their ships like wildfire. Park remembered reading about it in the news before they left Earth: a biological attack by the rebels. No survivors. Chanur watched her struggle with a thousand grim possibilities like a scientist watching a pinned insect squirm. Finally the doctor said, without warmth: "Youre not sick. Not in the way youre thinking, anyway." She sounded genuinely disappointed by that fact. Park frowned at her. "What do you mean?" "You spent the entire night throwing up in the waste cubicle," Chanur answered in clipped tones, folding her arms as if it were Parks fault; as if she were a child who had misbehaved. The doctor was a native of Phobos, and her voice always had the flat, tight tones of a human whose larynx had shrunk a little in space. Actually, all of Chanur seemed a little shrunken, a little hard: she was a compact woman with iron-colored hair and eyes, and a mouth that was perpetually pursed. Park had always thought that she would be better suited as a roboticist rather than as a physician. Or as a coroner. Despite her reputation in the medical field, Chanur didnt like people very much. "You essentially passed out from dehydration. The janitor bot found you." Something jolted at the back of Parks neck. "I dont remember that," she said automatically, tamping down the bubble of fear in her chest. Then she welded her mouth shut; Chanur was raising her eyebrows at her. "Are you saying that Im a liar?" "No," Park said. She thought fast. She didnt remember going to the bathroom at all, let alone spending an entire night in there. But it was true that she had woken up space-sick and nauseous every day since theyd launched out of Baikonur; she had never left Earth before, had never worked with a flight crew of any kind, so was it that much of a stretch that the long journey had finally taken its toll on her? But all night? She needed information first, not a fight with the ships only physician. "Im sorry," Park said, squelching any emotion out of her voice. "It must be the sedatives, fogging my memory. I dont doubt your word, of course. I just dont remember." Chanur grunted, unimpressed. "Someone put something in your food," she said, consulting the medical manifest in her hand. She said it in a bored tone, as if she were reporting a change in the weather. "Emesis tabs. Not taken from the stockroom, so it must have been from the culprits personal stash." Park clenched her jaw to keep it from slackening. "Who? Why?" Chanur gave her a look. "I dont know who. As for the why-what do you think?" Park pressed her lips together. She was not popular with the crew, everyone knew this; and some of the space-born had mocked her ongoing queasiness, going so far as to call her a "garn"-after Senator Andrew Garn, an Earth politician whose intestines had bottomed out during the first lambda space flight. And they hated her for her role on the ship, and for what had happened in Antarctica, and for any number of things-but shed thought the hazing and pranks had stopped on Earth. To go as far as poisoning her food . . . She jerked her thoughts away from the topic, despite the heartsick feeling in her chest. She needed time to regroup her thoughts, away from Chanurs unsympathetic gaze. She needed to talk to Dr. Keller and decide what should be done. There was no doubt in her mind that punishment ought to be meted out. But to whom-and by whom-was something she needed to consider. "Will there be any long-term effects?" she heard herself ask, as if she was listening to her own voice from another room. Chanur looked like she wanted to roll her eyes. "Teenagers eat emesis tabs with their meals to lose weight. Youll be fine." She turned away, perhaps to begin the process of discharging her, so Park said, "Hows Reimi?" The abruptness of it was gauche, but she hoped she could surprise Chanur into answering. "Has her condition . . . improved?" The doctors shoulders stiffened, but she didnt turn around. "Officer Kisaragi is in cryogenic stasis," she said finally. Park hissed in a sharp intake of breath, as if Chanur had punched her. "Cryo?" she all but cried. Then she gentled her voice and said in an undertone: "Surely it cant be that bad?" The last time shed seen the roboticist, Reimi had complained of stomach upset, but otherwise shed seemed fine. How could her sickness have gotten bad enough that the young woman was placed in the "freezer," as the spacers called it-and what were they going to do without her? Reimi was the Deucalions lone engineer: the only person with the knowledge to service the ships vast governing systems and all thirteen of its androids. Park supposed the expedition could muddle through with the robots maintaining the ship-but what would happen when they fell into disrepair? Darkly she imagined an explosion in the ships innards, the silent bloom of fire in space. She said aloud, "Ten months out from Earth-no foreign microbes, filtered air. How could she have gotten sick enough to warrant cryo? It couldnt be latent, could it? Something we missed in the scans?" A disease, she meant: something that had lain dormant in Reimis system all this time, only to surface now. The part of Park that had grown up in a crowded biodome shuddered. Just please tell me its not contagious. The corner of Chanurs mouth twitched. "Its confidential medical information, Park," she answered, looking back at her with disdain. "You know I cant disclose that to you. Surely things work the same way on Earth?" Park ignored the jab. "Then why not keep her in quarantine, at least? That way she could work on the ship and the androids in isolation-or at least instruct someone else on how to do it remotely. Why cryo?" If shes unconscious, she meant, how can she help us? The ISF was not paying billions of dollars for their missions only engineer to be frozen as literal dead weight. But Chanur didnt answer, and something else occurred then to Park. "How do we know she wasnt poisoned, her food tampered with-like me?" From over the top of her manifest, Chanurs gaze flicked over Park with the hard precision of a scalpel. "I dont know what it is you want from me," she said finally, tightly. Her lips barely moved, as if she were practicing ventriloquism. "Its classified and not under your purview. More than that, I didnt realize I needed your approval." Park tried not to flinch at the obvious hostility of the statement. She was one of the two psychologists on the ship, charged with monitoring the crews mental health; Chanur was the physician in charge of their physical wellbeing. That meant they were both medical professionals-Hippocratic sisters, Keller sometimes joked-but Chanur obviously saw their roles as completely separate from one another. Worse, she seemed to perceive Park as some kind of rival, or a threat. Stop antagonizing her, Par Details ISBN0756417295 Author Lena Nguyen Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 0756417295 ISBN-13 9780756417291 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2021-07-06 Pages 368 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2021-07-06 NZ Release Date 2021-07-06 US Release Date 2021-07-06 UK Release Date 2021-07-06 Imprint DAW Books Place of Publication New York Publisher Astra Publishing House DEWEY 813.6 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137597743;

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