What Hears You

Almost a wonderful first contact alien novel, but slightly let down by a weak ending and an incomplete ecology. It asks more questions than it ever answers but is an intriguing look at a possible other world

Tara is one of 4 Scouts (although the other 3 are never mentioned again) landing as first contact on the world of Ilyr, confirming that the planetary surveys were correct ahead of a colony landing. Things go wrong almost immediately as she craahes into rugged terrain mapped as flat, but in reality ridged and hummocked with stones gullies, plantlife and bogs. She moves away from the wreck to seek better signal - and realises she's not alone. She's being stalked by creatures she calls Sere from their cries. Six legged and viciously show more clawed they mimic her own sounds and start predicting her movements rather than attacking outright. Fleeing a pack she disturbs the other intelligent species present, bipedal quiet and cunning, they move with stealth and care, along marked trails, always aware of how they sound in the landscape. Tara's crashing presence has brought them to the Sere's notice again. But they have sympathy, albeit abrupt, and take her with them as they flee through the crawls, tangles climbs and ledges that mark safe (less dangerous) travel through this world. She has joined their line.

All of which is great, and would make an amazing opening half of a novel. But it's all there is, there is no wider world or culture - literally no other species, no insects, bugs, birds, or rodents, no flowers no leaves no thorns. Reeds and woven materials are mentioned but nothing about the plants they came from and the running hunted lives of the others (no species name ever given) doesn't allow for the culture to produce anything. Where are the young, the weavers, the farmers. Tara can eat their (processed, again how?) food which is incredibly unlikely even if the water is potable. They have no defence or offence other than loud sounds, no knives or weapons or mindset to fight or trap the Sere even when cornered and desperate.
There Sere are odd too. Six legged against the bipedal other is not evolutionary likely from a distant common ancestor although without any other creatures on the world it's hard to assume. That they hunt but seldom attack makes even less sense - what are the hunting for if its' not to eat? How many are there? Three initially with Tara, but more seem to come and go without being part of a pack, yet why follow for so long without an obvious goal.

Perhaps it's the beginning of a series, although the others are yet to be written. I would read them, probably, but only if more of the background was shown. show less

It has the eerie creepy vibe, and then you think oh Tara is in a safe place now, then something happens to dispell that belief. Was a very interesting read but the ending just lacked something.
And it very much comes off as a book in a series.

What Hears You started out very strong - I excitedly texted a fellow horror-loving friend that I was super into this book - but quickly devolved into repetitive, bland content with little plot or tension. I can't remember the last time I was so let down by a book. I feel bad giving this review as it's clear the author put a lot of effort and care into their writing, but they need a strong editor and several more revisions before this is ready for the big leagues.

While I'm not a particular fan of survivor horror or sci-fi, this book started out intriguing and hooked me right away. Tara crash-lands on Ilyr, an alien planet that she's been sent to survey for approaching colony ships. The initial description of the landscape and the first show more awareness of the predators that inhabit it were great, and the tension built slowly. I could feel Tara's unease and discomfort as she's stalked by unseen creatures, and the way they torment her was cruel, creative, and unsettling. Like I said - very strong start.

Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Plot hole after plot hole abounded - like why didn't the humans consider that the planet could be inhabited by life that wasn't advanced enough to receive interstellar transmissions? Why did they send scouts alone, without weapons? Why did they send human scouts at all, rather than drones or rovers? If we can send rovers to Mars, surely we would send rovers to an unknown planet that we're hoping to colonize. Apparently, their signals weren't returned so the humans assumed the planet was uninhabited, and proceeded accordingly. It's like Rhodes either expects his readers to be dumb or to suspend our disbelief entirely in order for the story to work.

Once the predators come out of hiding, Tara spends the rest of the book - about 75% - running. About 40% of the way through, she meets the locals, essentially humans that have been put through a taffy puller, and runs with them. The predators chase, but rarely attack. About 60% of the book follows Tara and the locals escaping through "routes", hidden chambers, marshes, "shelves", "throats", etc. It's pages upon pages of incredibly repetitive 'action' while the "Sere" follow them around, but the tension is gone. The Sere are presented as these sadistic hunters who kill for the thrill of it, but they have no motivation so they're lackluster villains. And after several chapters of them always being offscreen, just a sound away, the tension fades because the stakes drop. Will they ever attack? Yeah, like twice in the entire book. Otherwise it's repetitive descriptions of stalking while Tara learns, very slowly and repeatedly, that sound travels weirdly on Ilyr and that they have to move silently even though the Sere have eyes. It's also never explained why the locals don't fight back, try to exterminate the Sere, or manage to move out of their territory or build structures that are Sere-proof. Again, we're being asked to suspend our disbelief and not ask any questions, because with the slightest pressure the entire premise falls apart.

Rhodes is not a bad writer by any means, and he is clearly creative, but I wish someone had handed him a thesaurus during the writing of this book. The number of times I read "dry throat-note" and "it was enough" was... let's just say it was too many. The paths were always called routes, never lanes or paths or roads or thoroughfares. Just routes. I also struggled with visualizing the Sere and the landscapes based on the descriptions given. The Sere were six-legged, low in the front, with pale eyes - okay, but how are they shaped? What color are they? Do they have skin, fur, or scales? Can they be better described by being compared to a terrestrial animal? The landscape, meanwhile, is described as marsh, with root structures, shelves, balconies, fins, fibers, water... again, lots of repetitive nouns that do little to paint a setting in the reader's mind. All I knew was that Tara was running through some soggy ground with arched roots, and then maybe some narrow underground passages.

We don't even know what Tara looks like. Or where she's from. If she has any siblings, what her favorite color is, why she decided to become a scout. It's hard to care about a protagonist when we don't know anything about them.

The action picked up a little in the last 20%, but I basically skimmed the last 40% of the book because I realized that I was reading the same things over and over. Nothing new was happening for the majority of that span, and the ending was more of a whimper than a scream. I understand that it's being set up for a sequel, but there's no resolution. Tara and I trudged through all of this soggy mess for nothing.

Just watch A Quiet Place instead. show less