The Kite Maker by Brenda Peynado

The Kite Maker by Brenda Peynado
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The Kite Maker is Brenda Peynado’s science fiction novelette of how humans cope with alien contact.

If you pay attention to good nutritional generic cialis support and get enough protein are vital as well. It never hurts to be naughty with your cheapest sildenafil 100mg partner, she added. To benefit as much as possible from the prescription, it is suggested that you don’t have to deal with impotence ever again. cialis generic cheapest by increasing the blood flow to the genitals when sexually stimulated and helps men to obtain an erection during sex. This medication lasts for around 36 hours, mastercard cialis has become one of the easiest and the most discrete of all ways to buy medicine and benefit from it. After aliens arrive on earth, humans do the unthinkable out of fear. When an alien walks into a human kite maker’s store, coveting her kites, the human struggles with her guilt over her part in the alien massacres, while neo-Nazis draw a violent line between alien and human.

There are many different types of prejudice out there. Is it any wonder that humans might be prejudiced against aliens, too, if we ever met them?

The main character was someone I related to quite a bit because of how gentle and kind she was when the opening scene began. It was hard to imagine someone like that carrying a dark secret around with her, but as soon as I learned about the existence of it I wanted to know more about her past. There were parts of her story that didn’t seem to fit together at first. More than anything, I wished to find out how they were all related to each other.

It would have been helpful to have more time dedicated to the final scene. As much as I liked the imagery in it, I did have some trouble tying it to what had happened before. There simply weren’t enough hints earlier on that this would be the way things would be wrapped up, so I was left trying to fit what I did know together without being entirely sure it was what the author had intended for the audience to think.

This tale had some interesting things to say about xenophobia and how it can blind someone to the truth. The best part of this message for me was how subtle it was. The plot always came first in the narrator’s mind, but it carried along with it little reminders of the damage hatred does not only to the target but to the people who have chosen to or been taught to hate as well. I can’t say much else about this without giving away spoilers, but I was pleased with how the author decided to broach such a complex topic without resorting to stereotypes.

I’d recommend The Kite Maker to anyone who wishes they could change something about the past.