Last Communion is a rather neat book. Or it was until Fannon took center stage. In never particularly cared about the two men involved in the space mission, but that didn’t matter because their parts were small. But then . . . . Fannon ‘took over’. As in, everything suddenly was from his point of view.

ColCom, Colonization Command, sends out ships, something like scout ships, to planets floating around in space. They have basically two questions to answer, and only two. 1) can humans live there (I get the sense that this question gets mostly answered before the fact, as if scout ships get sent to likely habitable worlds, and the question is just ‘were we right, is it habitable for humans?’); not sure if it’s an ‘if so, now answer this question’, or if they would want an answer to 2 even if the answer to 1 is ‘no’ 2) are there sentient species there? And those are the two questions to be answered.

And so. So, Fannon and the other guy, whose name now escapes me (Nils something), are freaking out. One of their collogues, Wendy Chan, has gone all hysterical/out of it on them. So they had to put her on ice. Cryogenic ice. So they did. Then woke up the pilot. I’m not 100% certain why they felt they had to do that, but they did. Because of the nature of space flight, pilots and crew are not normally awake at the same time. The pilot . . um . . pilots the ship to the destination and back again. While at the destination, i.e. potential colony planet, they sleep. While the crew sleeps during the journey and is awake, or at least out of the cryogenic pods while at the planet. The pilots are special type of humans, the kind who just can’t stand to be near other humans. So they are perfect for the lonely moments of traveling, by themselves (as in the only ones awake) between the planets.

So, the two men wake up the pilot. Because she outranks them. This specific aspect seems odd. There are rules, the rules basically say that the pilots and crew do not interact. That isn’t the strange part. The strange part is that problems happen during missions, that’s just the nature of exploration. So, whoever the on-site mission commander would be, as in the person in charge while they investigate the mission, should have the authority needed to handle any situations on site. If, as occurred in this instance, the third member of the on-site survey crew has to be put into cold storage, then they should be able to do that without waking the pilot. Which they, in fact, do. It’s the ‘what do we do next’ aspect that caused them to wake the pilot.

Which is absurd. If you are working in an organization with lots of rules, which theirs appears to be, then there would be a guide book for even the situation they were in. Sure the pilot outranks them, but whoever is in command during the planet survey portion should have the authority to make the decision to continue, go back, or . . . other. I mean, this is kind of basic command structure.

Got distracted there. So, the pilot was woken. The three then investigate the situation on the ground, trying to determine if the aliens that look vaguely human like have intelligence, were sentient.

One thing leads to another and the pilot, one Col. Shelby Michaels, ends up coming across a dying Shade (the name for the aliens given to them by the humans). The alien touches Shelby. Intense pain. Now Shelby has alien consciousnesses inside of her. Great Mother, Great Father, Great Hunter, Healer, etc. Shelby has become a hybrid.

Naturally the two other crewmen awake at this time, are horrified and completely confused. They plan to put Shelby on ice and flee back to earth. While they talk, and while Shelby is otherwise unconscious, the ‘others’ take control of Shelby’s body, and they flee back outside the space ship which I didn’t mention yet is resting on the planet. Well, I’m not describing this correctly. Shelby, the consciousness known as Shelby, is awake, just in a kind of ‘am I awake or dreaming?’ state.

Right. So. Shelby and the aliens try to flee back ‘home’. Back to where the alien lived on the planet. But while on the way the ‘NEED’ developed, and she drifted off towards the mountains. The ‘Need’ being the only time, I believe, when the aliens actually come together. So that they can mate.

While all this is happening, the two men realize that Shelby is wandering outdoors and track her.

Stuff happens. Etc. etc.

The stuff that happens/ed on the planet was quite exciting, thrilling, etc. But, somewhere along the way, things progress to the point wherein Fannon is the one whose point of view takes over and we are in space again. Well, no, he wakes up back among ColCom people and is being interrogated. Then more stuff happens.

The book, near the end, seemed never ending. The stuff on the planet was fun. The stuff involving Fannon was not. Including the long, really really long, discussion on faster than light travel that suddenly gets dumped onto the reader. But, even so, I’d highly recommend this mostly forgotten gem from the 1980s. ( )