Item 202

“The Officiant” is in some ways an old-fashioned “sensawunda” SF tale, though one tempered by more modern understandings about cultural identity and colonialism. The author has created a vivid and complex world with a fascinating history and mythology. The narrator, a human born to Christian missionaries on the planet Raxia, has come to the planet Tau to officiate a wedding. The narrator quickly learns that the inhabitants of Tau, an enigmatic mechanical race called the Strangers, have a different motive altogether for inviting them there. The strength of the story is the way it gradually deepens our understanding the three cultures and how they view each other and how their competing needs, and mythologies, might set them at odds. Much of how the story unfolds is revealed in interactions between the narrator and the Raxian diplomat who accompanies them to Tau, limiting the amount of tension and excitement the author can build. The plot felt a bit slighter than I hoped it would be, but I would not at all mind seeing this world expanded in a longer work.