This is the absolute first piece of fiction the krissan show off. It opens with a lengthy forward, describing how it's the oldest full written work they have preserved. It was written in a personal cipher (very common in cave writings even after the invention of reading). 

(There's a note that the translated work being submitted is a work of fiction expanding on it, though with more of an eye to faithfulness to the original than normal. This is traditional for retellings of this story. Also, the base story is broadly considered untranslatable, because the author's personal cipher was nongrammatical, with individual symbols sometimes referring to entire other stories that have been only shakily reconstructed, and a very complicated network of annotations.) 

The submission, in addition to the translated story, includes high-fidelity pictures of the original novel in the extensive cave system it was written in, high-fidelity images of the symbols directly translated into a two dimensional medium with colors standing in for position on the z axis of the original symbol. (The author seems to have used the natural unevenness of the walls and chiseling as part of the cipher). It also includes a history of the author, as best they can construct from legends, archaeology, and what the author wrote about themselves.

The author lived well before the first permanent structures were created. The cave system in question is only accessible for a few days a year. The author was trapped when the water outside rose early, and survived due to supplies passed over by people from outside (who also repeatedly tried to rescue the author despite the great danger; the author journaled this with a wish that they would stop and an expression of deep gratitude that they continued).

The author also attributes their continued sanity to the people outside, who came to the river bank to sing and dance and call out stories across the divide, and new people traveled from far away as they heard of the author's predicament to bring joys of their own. The author during that year wrote what's almost certainly the first novel, though of course stories existed before this, and they have older, shorter writings preserved still. The story and the author's notes and journals fill nearly every inch of the massive cave system - walls, ceiling, floor, with only a narrow strip to walk in - and the translation itself is well over a million words.

The story can be at its briefest summarized as such:  

The story is written in the style of a fable, about how at first the only things in all existence were the stone people, who spoke only in a slow, endless drone. They told the same history over and over, and they were reborn as they died, and time didn't yet exist. But a reborn stone at some point discovered 'before' and 'after' and therefore grew bored and restless.

They traveled through the currents of history to find the dead stones who lived beneath all other history. They found that the dead had become fire, and spoke to the flames. They expressed a wish for excitement and motion, but angered the fire through rudeness, and so they were cursed to always run. 

The youth becomes the wind, and every time they slow, the fire eats at their feet. They run over the entirety of existence and up and down the histories, destroying the droning histories of the stone people, and from wind's racing mind comes a world of color and motion. Wind grows terrified of stillness and ran ever faster, and the world moved faster with them. Obstacles sometimes appear and force them to slow down briefly, causing great pain. The story goes into detail about the world and the legends they run through, and how the world runs faster with the wind as all things chase it.

The story then introduces a second full character, a youth who runs alongside the wind and tries to warn the wind to slow down. The wind is too afraid, and the youth perishes from trying to keep up, causing the wind to slow down in grief. The wind can't stand the fire, though, and speeds back up - causing the cycle to repeat once, then a second time. For the third youth, the wind slows before the youth can die, even though this burns them.

The youth travels with the wind, and convinces the wind of the value of dreaming as people do. The youth swears to carry the wind while the wind sleeps, so the curse will be satisfied. The wind trusts the youth and sleeps - and slows, and dies in the fire.

The story shifts to the youth, who is revealed to be water, another stone person who went before the fire and wished for rest, and was cursed to burn if they went too fast. Water tricked wind, because water had been too weak to force the world to stillness. The world is both water and wind, so wind going quickly burns the water even if water doesn't run alongside.

Water realizes the world is quiet without wind, and regrets their actions. Water begins to run, speeding up the world until wind can exist again, and then confesses. Wind tries to run away from their emotions about this - again causing water to burn.

They realize they love each other, but neither can stand the other's pace for long, and existing in the middle is a constant agony - as is seeing the other's pain. They begin swinging between speed and stillness in step with each other, the least painful solution.

The story then details the new world birthed from their love. A new people of both stillness and speed arise and run alongside water and wind, offering love and distraction from pain. There's a few just-so stories woven in here, detailing how water and wind create the modern krissan out of the people, granting them twins and the power to dream worlds into being and creating the seasons.

The story then segues into recounting oral histories of the krissan, clearly tied to the cycle of wind and water.

 

The story ends with the author's present day, and with a signature - "As the wind runs because the wind must, and the water finds stillness because the water must, I write because I must."

Following the translation is a collection of books on the subsequent history of the novel - the invention of reading as the story of the novel spread and people wished to know it (this is based in legend but believed to be credible), the formation of the Temple of Writing to guard the cave, the development of the Festival-City of Weaving Knowledge first around the Temple and then moving to another location nearby to avoid visitors disturbing the site… Also a massive amount of linguistic notes and archaeological notes and 'how did we reconstruct all these stories anyways' notes. 

All told, there's over three million words worth of things to read. (There's a note that it's very tempting to try to read this in a single month, but the krissan really suggest taking at least three months, unless the aliens are fast readers of course.)

(There's an additional note that they have a lot of shorter works if this one is, uh, way too long to really test if people are into krissan works.)

A fantasy novel set in a world where nothing makes sense, every culture has their own superstitions and all the superstitions seem to be true at once, even contradictory ones. The central protagonist-pair is an asexual man and a trans woman (who manages to use magic to transition, kind of as a side note, roughly halfway through the story, it's not a major focus). The dynamic between this core pair is strong- They're deep and carefully thought out characters. They take lots of notes on local superstitions and travel to new places together and pretend to be husband and wife (or at least a polycule-core-pairing) in most places they visit because lots of places have helpful superstitions about couples. The pretending-to-be-married is held out as a metaphor for not fitting into society, it's kind of awkward. The two are intimate friends, just not in a romantic or sexual way. They avoid danger on the roads and make friends and enemies, and try to do science to superstitions. They eventually piece together that whether you believe something will work has a strong influence on whether it will actually work, and people's superstitions seem to be getting more and more grim and hopeless. They are horrified by the implications and form a secret conspiracy to try and spread more positive, hopeful spiritual beliefs, starting a spiritualist healing cult that has a good initial reception. It stops there with a clear sequel hook.

A narrative-focused-minimal-mechanics video game where the viewpoint/protagonist character is the captain of a magical flying trade boat in a fantasy world. There's a lot of attention paid to ancient navigation methods, to the weather, to food and water preservation, to translation and contact with unfamiliar cultures. Sometimes these issues are handwaved with a new magic item, but not always. Most of the game aside from the nerdy details is about meeting exotic cultures and navigating cultural differences (and the different clever solutions to basic living problems like chores or disease that the different cultures use). You can very easily get into trouble, offend the locals and get worse deals or even get kicked out, if you approach things trying to be polite and friendly the same way in each new culture. There is also the side-plot of accumulating lots of extra characters, romantic partners or just friends, usually with one or more nonhuman features on a mostly humanoid body, like harpypeople, goatmen, catgirls, merfolk, etc. You have to figure out how to alter the ship to accommodate them before you can pass a certain relationship level. You can pick the genders of the side characters and it doesn't seem to change much about them, just a couple of lines and the picture and animations. There are too many side characters for any of them except a couple to be especially fleshed out, so they tend to come across as somewhat flat aside from the color of their home culture. The game is sex-scenes-optional, with a friendly, romantic but non-sexual, and sexual path for each companion.

A book about TRAINS, BOATS, AIRPLANES, and ROCKETSHIPS! Its framing device is pretty minimal, the book almost seems to be a textbook in disguise. Or at most, a collection of short stories about what particular vehicles mean to particular people, light and cheery and hopeful and excited. The various characters and their jobs or reasons for being on a train, boat, airplane, or rocketship are pretty clearly mostly set dressing in favor of rambling nerdy rants about how these various vehicles work and what tradeoffs are made in their design and the historical value of particular models and the lovingly researched process of engineering them (with historical context included in the scenes of old-timey engineers discussing things) and what a difference having excellent vehicles makes to individuals in a society and the various situations in which design mistakes happened and a long rant that somehow diverts into tax policy about how much more efficient trains are than cars and much lamenting on how rockets are way too expensive for everyone to get to ride on one.

Looking at the books from Hearthome...

Thyris is not in the mood for several thousand words of alien electronica today, unfortunately. 

The epicurean tell-all is clearly Ecstatic work again, or perhaps just Sensate. It's alright. Some of it is just weird, honestly. She sets it aside pretty quickly as well.

More works from Hearthome, these ones looking to be nonfiction.

The history of electronica is interesting but perhaps too niche to publish on Heart. It gets put in the middle of the Maybe stack. 

The weird food art book goes in Maybe as well - the various perspectives are an interesting gimmick, but it's just kind of weird overall, and not in a very saleable way.

Thyris opens the package from the Krissan. It's huge, there must be a lot of works in here... 

... It's the oldest preserved Krissan novel. And a reading guide. 

One million words of story and two million words of interpretation. 

A spark kindles in her bones. It's early in the morning still - the previous two works from Hearthome didn't take long to set aside - and she has at least a million words to read. Important words, deep words, words that speak to history - 

This is the definition of her job. It's more than her job, it's her lifepath, her vocation. Keeping her Snowblossom up to date on the important things is what her skills are for. 

She opens the heavy paperback edition, and begins to read...

Meanwhile, Crystal looks at the massive Krissan package, looks at the recommendation to read it over three months, and sets it aside for evening reading later in the day. Sure, it might be lucrative, but it's an absolute monster of a doorstopper. If it's really important it can wait a little.

A coming-of-age story set in the late medieval period. An apprentice bloomer is unsatisfied with his home and his apprenticeship, and his Hidden* is in a gang. (One of the other apprentices is as well, probably, but uses a different name and the connection is overtly ignored.) They're eventually caught causing property damage, and one of the adults who catches him invites him (and just him) to a mystery cult's rite - he attends flippantly and uses the same name as for the gang, which is suggested to show he's unserious and attending mostly to avoid the inviter turning him in. The cult, Children of Daedalus, reveres an ancient, possibly-mythical inventor and emulates him, with many ceremonies being collaboration trying to create new technology, though this is more going through the motions than actual science or innovative engineering. Gradually he stops being flippant and engages more honestly with the rites, and as he is more invested, his dissatisfaction with the rest of his life reduces. As a milestone showing his maturity and admitting to deception, he holds a paper funeral** with most of the cult present and is re-introduced to them with a new name, chosen from a list of cult pseudo-saints. The final scenes show him achieving journeyman status in his apprenticeship and celebrating during three successive meals - dinner with his peers from the bloomery, lunch with his family the next day, and then a private dinner with his initial sponsor from the cult and another sponsor-sponsee pair he's become close with.

*Not well explained by the translator, who clearly considers it too obvious to bother going into detail about. Careful reading shows this is a persona or name kept separate from the others; the protagonist initially has two other personas, one for home and one for his apprenticeship, but these aren't kept separate as strictly as the Hidden is.

**Not explained beyond noting the etymology, which is a contraction from the words for 'paper funeral' in a now-dead language.

A collection of folktales about the Wandering Man, a traditional folk hero. The Wandering Man (usually but not universally male) usually says he is a merchant or a message-carrier, but sometimes claims to be a tinker, mason, or minstrel; he always has enough skills to make his claims seem plausible. The wanderer brings down evil lords, catches murderers, exposes frauds, and in more fantastical stories banishes evil spirits, prevents unnatural plagues, and stops vampires, werewolves, and trolls. However, while he always leaves things much better than he found them on net, these stories are almost never purely positive. He leaves ruined farmlands, broken homes and barns, and clashing communities in his wake, and in the more severe cases, often causes deaths or maimings. Every story ends with him leaving, usually with the community shouting curses at his retreating back despite being grateful for his accomplishments. Many stories include young people admiring him and assisting him, but many of these become the most furious cursers by the end of the tale. A common way communities are left in furious disarray by his actions is exposing the connections between the several faces/personas prominent or controversial members have, breaking the boundaries between home, work, and hidden - frequently breaking apart a village's local mystery cult or a town's private hobby clubs.

Story marked as fine literature; it covers seven hundred years, and everything is funerals - either the participants in a funeral or a paper funeral, or newspaper obituaries about either kind. The funeral customs vary, with a casket or urn of ashes for true deaths, but they are substantially outnumbered by the paper funerals. Each paper funeral has somewhere from three to twelve people, at least three of them with speaking parts, reciting the funereal rites for the name that has been laid to rest, with at least two people splitting the first person portions of the narrative - "I lived and shone brightly and believed in my righteous cause..." (insert some statements about said cause) and at least one person taking the role of the present, welcoming in the new name and persona into their newer home, guild, or in later centuries social/interest club. The background events show radical changes in the political structure of the area several times, and it becomes increasingly suggestive that several of the people holding paper funerals have in fact lived for many normal human lifetimes. It never becomes totally clear why they live so long, what they hope to achieve, and whether any of them have died a true death by the final pages of the novel.

Two days later, Thyris has finished the Krissan's story. She has read for around twenty hours* in the past two days, barely pausing for food or sleep, all of her time dedicated solely to the Krissan's first novel.

Unfortunately, she cannot read the original. But it's being preserved. The Krissan have the right idea. That's good. This is clearly part of the shirasanmi** of the entire Krissan species, just from the wisps of context she already has. There will have to be an official response from the Sanctified to having this shared. But she needs more context - 

Well, there is another two million words to read. 

She reads them. It takes her another four days.

*Thyris reads at around 800wpm. 
**Soul-record, in practice a combination of a will, a eulogy, and a personal mythology with specifically defined rites of remembrance, generally written by the person in life or their survivors. It is a daily ritual for the Sanctified to select a shirasanmi from the vault and publicly perform one of its rites, thereby representing symbolically the wishes of all the unremembered. 

Pigeon is speechwriting in her head while Thyris reads. She jots notes during meals, writing, compressing, trying to distill the essence of the story to something appropriate. The introduction is obvious enough, but she can't misrepresent the Shirasanmi of an entire species. 

It's too important to share. Someone else might get it wrong. 

She writes the version she feels is right, in the tradition of Krissan storytellers before her. Snowblossom will have to improvise from her notes, of course, she has to have her own version as well - but she can't read the whole original, not and run the damn country at the same time. It would take months, and this needs a response now, before the publishing companies get a hold of this. She and Snowblossom have a tense conversation about the timescales late at night on the third day. This is in a sense the first real first contact they've had, the first piece of an alien species' soul they've found. They can't risk someone other than the Sanctified being the first to respond officially.

(Crystal is still only 200,000 words into the original story. It's clear enough that it's important, but she still has very little clue of where this is going or what it really is.)

A working group has been put together to curate a collection of some the Union's most significant or impressive works. These are some of the selections they've made for fiction. (The form of the submission is a box containing paper books, naturally.) Excepting the book of lies, all are certified for accuracy*.

A fantasy novel in which people have physical 'souls' which record their memories, instincts, and parts of their personalities. Moreover, it is possible to 'eat' the soul of a dead person and gain some of their memories and instincts. Since this is transitive, and most souls are eaten after death, some small part of most people lives on for hundreds or thousands of years after their death, although transmission is lossy. The story who follows a young monk and his life in a monastery (which is equal parts academic and spiritual). One day, returning from an errand, he discovers that the entire monastery has been slaughtered by an errant monster. Alarmed, he hastily eats as many of the souls of the dead that he can before they expire, almost one hundred in total. This is many more than most people ever consume, and for the rest of the story he is afflicted by mysterious visions and impulses. In the aftermath of the massacre, he travels to the nearest military outpost to report the attack, only to discover that they too have been overrun. Soon learning that a large group of monsters have penetrated civilization's defensive lines and are now heading inwards, towards populated areas, he sets off for the nearby large city to warn them. Along the way, the intuition borne of the souls he consumed helps him narrowly avert disaster several times, and he comes to trust it. After reaching the city, he helps organize its defense, and distinguishes himself. After the crisis is resolved, he is recognized as an exceptionally wise and resourceful leader, and accepts a position on the city's ruling council.

A memoir written by a woman who grew up as a member of one of the last isolated primitive tribes of the great river forest. When she is a young woman, a group of Hadarite missionaries arrive, bearing gifts. Once they learn the language, they tell stories of faraway lands, vast cities, great wealth, and an incredible amount of knowledge about the natural world. Most of her tribe is skeptical, but she, ever curious, listens to them with rapt attention. After a year, they depart. She chooses to accompany them to the city, leaving her old life and family behind. Over the next several years, she attends a school, and learns a great number of things---the knowledge of more than a thousand years of civilization—very, very fast. The book describes in detail her thoughts and inner experience, and what it was like for her life and view of the world change so much so quickly. She seems to have found it both overwhelming and exhilarating. During her time in the city, she also comes to grips with an entirely foreign culture, and the book recounts various stories of misunderstandings or confusions on her part or on the part of others, not used to people with her background. These events are not only humorous, but also offer a deep look into both cultures, and the unstated assumptions and beliefs that underlie them. (This book is popular in the Union for its rare perspective on Hadarite culture, and the curators expect that, for similar reasons, it will be useful to help other worlds understand that culture.) The increased comfort and security available to her in her new life is also a significant change, although she seems to find this less important than what she's learning. After studying for several years, she returns home to visit. After so long, and dressed in foreign clothing, they do not recognize her at first. When they do, they welcome her back, and ask her about her travels. She struggles to recount the most magnificent things she's seen or learned, but finds it difficult to communicate why they mean so much to her when her audience lacks the background knowledge to understand. In her time away, she has grown accustomed to Hadarite culture, and must make an effort to remember what it was like to be so different, to know so little. Realizing that she cannot go back to the life she once had, she departs for good. It is a bittersweet farewell. She returns to the city, begins a career as a biologist, and (as described by the afterword) eventually makes several significant discoveries and is acclaimed as one of the greatest minds of her era.

This book isn't fiction, precisely, but it's definitely not nonfiction either. The most common religion on Olam, called Hadar, is centrally about truth. A fringe sect (allegedly) believes that the best way to learn truth is to be exposed to lies—the trickier the better—examine them, and learn from them how to overcome illusions. This book, written by a member of that sect, is one of the most acclaimed examples of what are known as 'books of lies'. Not everything is a lie, of course, or else you would be able to reverse them and consistently discover what the author really thinks. Instead, the book is a careful mixture of truths and falsehoods, some more obvious than others. It combines various arguments about philosophy, psychology, sociology, and history into a strangely persuasive theory of everything. This book is clearly labeled as not-reliably-true, and the included advice recommends reading this carefully, treating it as a challenge to discern which parts of it are true and which are false, and avoiding drawing any strong conclusions from the text, even if you're pretty sure you've got it right. The curators have included an 'answer sheet', containing the priesthood's best judgments about which parts are true and where the deceptions lie (although it is strongly cautioned that they could have missed something). It is strongly recommended not to distribute these answers, except to a small group of sanity-checkers who will be in a position to notice if your extra-dimensional civilization has a special vulnerability to any of the deceptions contained herein. If used in accordance with the provided instructions, the curators expect this book to be much more valuable as a learning exercise than it is dangerous.

(There are other books of lies, designed to be deceptive taking into account that you expect to be deceived, those are much more dangerous and the curators thought it best not to send any to other worlds just yet.)

A book of post-post-apocalyptic speculative fiction (set on Olam) in which, in the aftermath of an improbably dangerous plague that killed most of the population, the survivors rebuild civilization. It follows seven characters from all around the world, of various ages, genders, and social roles, over a period of several decades. In this period, substantial recovery and reconstruction takes place, and isolated lands come back into contact with one another. Many decades of separation—and varying consequences of and reactions to the plague and its aftermath—cause the already distinct cultures of these various lands to diverge further. When characters from these separate populations meet, they are struck by the differences between them, and seek to understand each other and draw together despite those differences. The book focuses most on its examination of the cultural and economic consequences of the plague, and contains several appendixes detailing the timeline of events, how the economic and cultural conditions changed over time, and why they changed in those ways. The plot, in comparison, is rather straightforward and unsurprising.

*'Accuracy' in this context, seems to be related to how safe it is to draw conclusions about the world from a work. In the case of fiction, it mainly has to do if the work's implicit or explicit models of psychology, sociology, economics, biology, etc. are accurate.

Snowblossom announces a press conference. And a week to the day after the Krissan share their story with the Senior Reader, she goes live on air to read it to everyone in Anadyne who will hear their Sanctified speak. 

Pigeon, as Snowblossom's speechmaker, has had to cut the one million word original to less than seven thousand words so that it will fit in one hour. They can afford to stretch the press conference a little with introductions and conclusions, but the attention span of their listeners is only so long. Even for this.

It's a small press conference. Snowblossom has restricted the audience to senior press members she has good relationships with and a few high-ranking members of her staff. No-one here will dare interrupt their Sanctified, even if she speaks for an hour. 

In a fit of spiritual fervor, Snowblossom discards her notes moments before the press conference. She knows the story. She's going to tell it her way. 

"I have invited you all here today," she says, "to read to you a piece of the Shirasanmi of the Krissan, who did entrust it to us as fellow-minds, not knowing if we would know it for what it was, or acknowledge how significant a gift they have made to us. This story is the oldest surviving Krissan novel, the birth of long-form storytelling for a species that lives with stories. It is enshrined even today in the Temple of Writing in the Festival-City of Weaving Knowledge. It was written originally on a cave's walls by someone trapped there with nothing left to do but storytell. 

The original is over a million words long, in its translated form; so I will have to adapt it, to this brief moment with you, the people of the great nation of Anadyne, who came here expecting a routine reading before bed. Tonight I am afraid I will have to be lengthy..." 

She looks up from the microphone, runs her hand through her hair. 

"No. I think I will have to be brief. Because I will not tell this story the Krissan way; I will tell it my own way, and I am far more a poet than a storyteller. And I would hate to bore you all."

She takes a deep breath, squares her shoulders. 

"First was stone, empty, thoughtless, 
in void and no-time, life in darkness, 
ever-born, ever-dying, circular and still.

One stone knew, 
separating past from future, 
and so was motion born. 

Stone saw the stillness 
and sought southwards, 
seeking something swift. 

Beneath the bodies 
of countless unliving ancestors
Stone found Fire,
Consuming and kind - 

Stone asked fire, 
"Make me quick, 
make me breathless,
make me wild, 
make me free. 
I want to do something. 
I want to be something. 
I want to be other, 
more than a Stone." 

And Fire was pleased, and granted them blessings - 
Gave them their lightness, their grace, their haste - 
But Fire also said: 
"Here is my price:"
"You can never be still, Stone who once settled - "
"Now you are Wind, and should you stop, you are mine."

Wind fled from Fire, 
and out into the world, 
and the world knew motion,
as Wind once knew now -

And Wind fled, and fled, 
and sought and flew and quested
and the world became more, 
that it now knew Wind and Earth.

Wind could not be stopped. 
When it stopped, it burned. 
But then came a runner,
the first of their kind.

Runner was fast, but not like wind.
Runner wished to catch the wind. 
Runner asked Wind, 
"Please, slow your blowing,"
"Please, run with me." 

But Wind could not stop. 
Runner fell behind. 
The world fell behind. 
Wind was empty, 
lost like before, 
when Wind was Stone. 

There was no change for all its changefulness. 
Only Runner was new. 
And so Wind slowed, 
and burned, 
and tried to know Runner.

Runner promised:
"If you will slow, I will run with you."
"If you stop, I will carry you." 
"Then you need not burn." 

Wind slowed. Wind learned. 
Though it was painful, 
Runner was worth it. 
They ran and blew and struggled together. 

Finally, after timeless time, 
Wind stopped, 
curled close to Runner,
and slept. 

And in Runner's embrace, 
Wind burned to ash. 
For Runner did not run. 

Runner was Water, 
a Stone wishing for stillness,
Fire-asker, second-cursed. 
The faster Wind ran, 
the hotter Water burned.

But without Wind, Water
was lonely as Stone.

In time, Wind returned. 
Movement in stillness.
And Water knew - 
They were one as two. 

And so they run together. 
Now stopped, now moving, 
now laughing, now crying, 
never free of Fire, 
never whole, 
and yet whole enough. 

Their children were the Krissan.
Their passion, the world. 
Their story, I have told. 

Like fire burns, wind runs, 
Water stills, and the Krissan write, 
I remember." 

Snowblossom leaves before anyone can ask her a question.

An alternate-historical novel set after the Zadian Theocracy has been overthrown by revolution, following the revolutionary committee trying to set up a new government.  We have several characters pushing for new theocracies (but disagreeing on which religious sects to favor - a few of them still agree with the Zadians' teaching just not the strictness of their practices), some other characters advocating a more secular aristocratic-democracy, and others who want each town choose its own course.  The book majors on their debates and their interaction with the city around them.

(The author's brief prologue explains that in actual history, the Zadian Theocracy was overthrown by foreign armies some time before this book was set.)

A historical-fantasy novel set in the late Middle Ages (before the rise of global trade, the translator's preface explains), where magical elves kidnap some novice Historian-Monks, and they must use their historical and philosophical training to resolve the elves' political dispute and convince someone to bring them back home.  Along the way, they convince two elves to take Historian-Monk vows and set up their own Elven monastery.

A historical novel set during the Barren-Power war, about two (fictional, the author explains) people arrested for treasonously passing secret information to the Barren-Power army.

(The translator explains that the Barren-Power war was Ev's last major war, about a century before the present.  It was started by the Barren-Power ideology, which condemned abstract philosophy as useless, advocated whatever led to success, and saw successful dictatorship as its own justification.)

One person did it out of cowardice when they temporarily conquered his town; he's horrified at what he did and can't imagine how to atone.  The other person felt that a stronger Barren-Power movement would push the world out of their suboptimal equilibrium; he agrees he did wrong but thinks it was worth it.  We follow their psychological and religious journey while under sentence of death for treason.  The first person finally forgives himself and begs to be kept away from any similar situation; the second person finally trusts in God and other people to handle the situation.

In the end, both their sentences are commuted to lifelong vows as Astronomy-Monks.

(The Ecumenical Astronomical Monks also send their complete tables of supernova and pulsar observation, with a letter from the Abbot-General of the order expressing his wishes for profitable exchange of nonfictional knowledge.)

A Basillian coalition has assembled and distributed a collection of novels to share with aliens!  It also includes a note, which clarifies the following:

-that each of these works has been chosen for both being popular and being a central example of a popular genre,

-that derivative fiction and alternate timelines are welcome,

-that if the aliens would like a copy of the setting bible for the shared settings they'd be happy to send one over, 

-that they appreciate comments of all sorts.

A fantasy novel about an extremely convoluted civil war. It begins with the government, framed as the good guys, in an ongoing conflict with a group trying to overthrow them. The protagonists are not initially particularly affiliated with the government but all have personal issues with the group trying to overthrow them, and are talking about how to best oppose that group, with "joining the military/law enforcement" only one option being considered. They discover a ~vigilante group trying to oppose the anti-government side somewhat extra-legally, and join up with them. As the story goes on, more and more groups, defined primarily by which group they hate, emerge, as does more and more information about the motives and aims of the various groups. Eventually the protagonists conclude that while the original bad guys are not potential allies, their aims are morally better than the aims of the government and the group they joined up with. They create their own secret group, which primarily infiltrates the other groups and recruits from their membership. They then manage to assassinate, or persuade other groups to assassinate, and otherwise pull strings such that the leaders of most of the other groups are dead, and their agents are in control of most of the groups, at which point they reveal themselves, and restructure the government to align with their aims. The people they are at the end of the story would be morally abhorrent to the people they were at the beginning of the story, but the government they instantiate aligns with their aims at the time of creating their secret group.

A story which takes place in a world with a very complicated magical system. The magic system has several different forms of magic, many of which have sub-forms. They are culturally and legal classed into "dark" and "light", with use of "dark" magic being seen as Evil and socially unacceptable. While a large portion of magic types classed as "dark" are harmful or exceedingly dangerous, many others have been classed as such due to a variety of cultural and legal influences. The protagonist begins as a young mage apprentice, learning from a Wise Older Mage who treats these categories as absolute and as a magical truth. Because non-Mages don't know much about magic, he accepts what he is told, and does not dabble in dark magic. Over time, as he learns magic and goes on various small adventures, he starts to meet other mages and realize that some of them dabble in dark magic without succumbing to evil. Eventually, he is sent alone to a great magical library to find and make a copy of a book for his master. While he is in the magical library, he takes the opportunity to read various other books on magic, and quickly learns that the classification is not an innate magical truth but instead a judgement made by mages based off of various things. Thus disillusioned, he decides to learn more about dark magic, and in addition to the book he was sent to get, he secretly makes himself a copy of a how-to book on one of the more harmless types of dark magic. He takes the book home with him, and studies it in secret, taking great care to never let his master see it. Eventually he reaches the point where in order to learn more he must begin to apply his magic practically, and begins to sneak out to practice.  One night while he is out practicing, he is seen by a passing mage, who instead of turning him in, offers to help teach him. The mage happens to live nearby, and begins to teach him ongoingly. The mage does not stop with the contents of the book the protagonist had found, but continues to teach him more and more dark magic, though he sticks to the more innocuous stuff at first. They enter into a romantic and sexual relationship, and slowly the other mage pushes him to be more and more self-interested. Meanwhile, the protagonist is often tired during the day, due to being up all night training, and is evasive and distracted with his master, leading to tension between them, and eventually the master mage tells the protagonist to take the rest of the season, and the season after, for himself, and to come back to resume his training afterwards, as it is clear he cannot learn more at this time. The protagonist, thus released, moves in with the dark mage, and steadily delves deeper and deeper into dark magic. The dark mage encourages him to practice his magic on nearby townsfolk, and to focus on taking what he wants and not on good and evil, and the protagonist quickly finds this comes far more naturally to him. He eventually learns enough to be considered the other mages equal, and suggests they go off travelling, and the story concludes with the protagonist and the dark mage travelling the continent as evil dark wizards, feeling happy and fulfilled.

A novel set in a popular shared soft sci-fi setting, which features aliens and spaceflight and very little concern for the scientific possibility of these things, but no magical powers, nor magical powers by some other name- all of the impossibility lives in the tech. The novel clearly expects the reader to be existingly familiar with the setting. The novel focuses on a young woman who lives with her girlfriend, and does not seem to have other friends and datemates. She's clearly dependent on her girlfriend in a few ways, living in an area with no public transportation despite being frequently unable to drive, and cannot afford housing on her own. Over the first half of the story it becomes increasingly apparent that the girlfriend is emotionally abusive, frequently cancelling plans with the protagonist in favor of other friends or datemates, and never cancelling in favor of the protagonist, lying to the protagonist about all sorts of things, making promises she never intends to keep, and, several times throughout the story, begging the protagonist to promise to never leave her shortly before confessing to gradually worse and worse atrocities. Throughout the same time the sex scenes gradually become less and less consensual, culminating with the protagonist physically shoving her girlfriend off her, after which her girlfriend claims she didn't realize the protagonist wasn't into it.  Up until this point the girlfriend had been employed and the protagonist had not, instead living off of her savings. Shortly after, this dynamic switches, with no reason given, and the protagonist slowly begins to make friends at her new work. She spends more and more time away from the house, which enrages her girlfriend, and eventually begins dating another girl at her work. This relationship is much healthier and allows her to realize her existing relationship is abusive, and she begins the tedious work of figuring out how to move out of her and her girlfriends shared house. At the end of the story she lives in a small apartment alone in a city, still dating the girl from work, though it's now long-distance, and has friends and other datemates in her new city.

Another novel from the same setting as the relationship fic, but during a different time period. At this time, the setting is ruled by an archetypal Evil Empire, with the Evil Empress passing down all sorts of laws allowing for slavery of various alien species, censoring all sorts of content, banning criticism of the government, and sanctioning multiple genocides. The protagonist, a 15 year old boy, starts the story as a member of the Imperial Navy, but quickly realizes that the Empire are the bad guys, and drops out to join the Plucky Rebels. The Rebellion generally have good values and good aims, opposing slavery, censorship, genocide, and large states- a set of things which the narrative treats as a completely natural and obvious set. The Rebels suffer a large number of setbacks, and several lesser protagonists die, but they win the day and overthrow the Evil Empire, killing the Evil Empress. There is a minor romance sub-plot, featuring 4 characters, at least 2 of which are dating at any given point, ending with all 4 in a happy relationship.

Some time later, once all the hubbub from December's reading has died down, Pigeon once again takes her role as Senior Reader and continues on her stack of books. She's got somewhat of a backlog. 

First up, the submissions from Planet. 

A fantasy novel set in a world where nothing makes sense, every culture has their own superstitions and all the superstitions seem to be true at once, even contradictory ones. 

Ah, an all-beliefs-are-true one, she's seen this concept before. The ace representation here is very modern. The fake dating is an interestingly novel trope, and does a lot to illustrate the not-couple's outsider nature. The "twist" is predictable, but oh well. And of course what you do in that situation is found a better religion, she's glad the Planet people have the idea of sects down.

A narrative-focused-minimal-mechanics video game where the viewpoint/protagonist character is the captain of a magical flying trade boat in a fantasy world. 

This one is very relevant to Eravian-Anadyne relations, despite their shared heritage. It's so strange to think that there are people out there who don't believe in anything! But adapting to how other people think and understand the world is the foundation of politics. (Thyris agrees from Co-Consciousness.) And this one isn't all complicated plots and backroom dealings and the boring kind of politics, it's the core idea of trade and diplomacy, understanding what others value. And that's good. The companions are a little roughly sketched and as a result the sex scenes are poor by her standards, but then that's not really the focus of this one. She puts it aside in her personal game collection for when she's feeling like something happy and thought-provoking. 

A book about TRAINS, BOATS, AIRPLANES, and ROCKETSHIPS!

Awwwwwwwww, someone has a lifepath-vocation! Transportation is not a common vocation on Heart, but she's known one or two people who are into it. This book is clearly not for her, but she really appreciates its existence. She sets it aside for now.

Crystal has also been run off her feet. She happened to catch Snowblossom's broadcast, recognized the book she'd started from the poem that was broadcast, and then a large number of things all happened very quickly. 

The Krissan's work is now in the middle of its first print run in Eravia, and she's finally back to scouting again. Like Pigeon, she has quite a backlog. 

A fantasy novel set in a world where nothing makes sense, every culture has their own superstitions and all the superstitions seem to be true at once, even contradictory ones. 

She's seen this premise before, but the book works well on the strength of its character writing. Top of the maybe pile. 

A narrative-focused-minimal-mechanics video game where the viewpoint/protagonist character is the captain of a magical flying trade boat in a fantasy world. 

Solid. The politics are deep enough to attract Suns while not being complicated enough to deter Skies. The character writing is a little shallow, but the loads and loads of characters makes up for that to some degree. And they're all romanceable. The erotica content isn't a standout, but it'll move units. She puts it on the Yes pile. 

A book about TRAINS, BOATS, AIRPLANES, and ROCKETSHIPS!

This one won't be popular, but those who'll want it will Need It Now. Though the audience is relatively small, their hardcore nature means sales should be solid. Yes pile. 

Next in the backlog is a series of books from Piecemeal. 

A coming-of-age story set in the late medieval period.

Ooh, alien devotional work! Though the religion is clearly fictitious, this shows a lot about Piecemeal religious practice. They have mystery cults too, huh? And based around a Great Reflection as well, though she doesn't see any true Mirrors being held up to it. Which is interestingly alien! The difference between personas and Reflections eludes her for a while, but the consistent characterization of the apprentice eventually clues her in that there isn't necessarily plurality going on here. The leading-of-multiple-lives is very familiar to her, of course, and not really worth commenting on. 

A collection of folktales about the Wandering Man, a traditional folk hero.

This one is clearly a Shirasanmi of a Great Reflection, though a somewhat sinister one. It seems like the people of Piecemeal have an inclination towards transformation for transformation's sake. She sets this one aside to speak to Snowblossom about, somewhat troubled by the implications of there being a large following for this Wandering Man that would presumably seek to emulate his behavior. Hopefully it's different for Piecemeal's natives. 

Story marked as fine literature; it covers seven hundred years, and everything is funerals - either the participants in a funeral or a paper funeral, or newspaper obituaries about either kind.

This is a really interesting epistolary format! It's a little less clear and resolved than she prefers, but the depth of it is impressive. The idea of transformation and leaving the past behind is very strong here, reinforcing her idea that Piecemeal's natives are perhaps sequentially plural rather than simultaneously so? It's quite thought-provoking, and also provides a lot of context for Piecemeal's treatment of death. She sets it in her personal collection and also makes some notes to share with Snowblossom. 

Crystal has a look at the works from Piecemeal as well. 

A coming-of-age story set in the late medieval period.

This one is both solid and alien. It'll need an introduction with some cultural notes written for interpretation's sake, but that shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Yes pile.

A collection of folktales about the Wandering Man, a traditional folk hero.

Alien religion will sell well in Anadyne, and this particular one will also sell well in Eravia, since they love to talk about religion's dark side. It'll be controversial, but it won't hurt her publishing company's reputation. Perfect. Yes pile. 

Story marked as fine literature; it covers seven hundred years, and everything is funerals - either the participants in a funeral or a paper funeral, or newspaper obituaries about either kind.

Educated people in both Eravia and Anadyne will want to read this one for the cultural context on Piecemeal. It's a little dense for Skies, and the ending is, well, a non-ending, but...

Okay, maybe she's convincing herself out of this one. Maybe pile, in the middle. She'll sort out her thoughts on it later. 

Next up is the dump of books from Olam. 

A fantasy novel in which people have physical 'souls' which record their memories, instincts, and parts of their personalities.

This one is highly disturbing! Eating people's souls is weird and concerning, and the fact that the transmission is lossy if souls are repeatedly eaten makes eating one in the first place a crime! What is with these aliens! Plurality does not work like that!!!!! Why would you EAT THEM?!?! She finishes the book in an increasingly high state of alarm, particularly with the part where the person with a hundred souls becomes a leader over people and this is just treated as normal!!

(She takes a deep breath and reminds herself that it's fiction. Still, alien morals are weird. It's just obvious to her that you'd preserve the physical soul as long as possible without eating it. Eating something like that is a fundamentally selfish act that destroys the record, WHO DOES THAT??? Maybe in time of dire need when you need that specific person back, but a HUNDRED SOULS? Because they were THERE????)

Eventually she calms down enough to read another book. 

A memoir written by a woman who grew up as a member of one of the last isolated primitive tribes of the great river forest. 

Now that's an unexpected twist. Stories like this are old histories on Heart, not modern and fresh. She devours the memoir and sets it aside for Snowblossom to read as well. The Hadarite culture is interestingly different from both Anadyne spirituality and Eravian skepticism, having a blend or harmony of both. There could be a lot to learn from each other. Assuming they don't eat people's souls. (She's kidding. Hopefully.)

This book isn't fiction, precisely, but it's definitely not nonfiction either. The most common religion on Olam, called Hadar, is centrally about truth. A fringe sect (allegedly) believes that the best way to learn truth is to be exposed to lies—the trickier the better—examine them, and learn from them how to overcome illusions. This book, written by a member of that sect, is one of the most acclaimed examples of what are known as 'books of lies'. 

A devotional work! From a recognizably-Storyteller sect, too! She has to send this to Liar. She'll be happy to match wits with an alien civilization. ... But she should probably run that idea past Snowblossom first. In any case, this is not something she should personally be reading, since she's not a Storyteller. 

A book of post-post-apocalyptic speculative fiction (set on Olam) in which, in the aftermath of an improbably dangerous plague that killed most of the population, the survivors rebuild civilization. 

Another culture-clash novel. It's realistic, sure, but a bit boring. The prose doesn't exactly leap off the page. She sets it aside before finishing it. 

Crystal reads the books from Olam as well. 

A fantasy novel in which people have physical 'souls' which record their memories, instincts, and parts of their personalities.

This one goes firmly on the No pile as soon as the premise becomes clear. She does not want to be involved in a diplomatic incident today, thank you. 

A memoir written by a woman who grew up as a member of one of the last isolated primitive tribes of the great river forest. 

By contrast, this one goes firmly on the Yes pile. The outside perspective is greatly illuminating for Hadarite culture. People who want to know about the Hadarites will snap it up.

This book isn't fiction, precisely, but it's definitely not nonfiction either. The most common religion on Olam, called Hadar, is centrally about truth. A fringe sect (allegedly) believes that the best way to learn truth is to be exposed to lies—the trickier the better—examine them, and learn from them how to overcome illusions. This book, written by a member of that sect, is one of the most acclaimed examples of what are known as 'books of lies'.

She is not going to be publishing alien devotionals from a Storyteller sect in Eravia, and even in Anadyne that kind of thing is... "mischevious", let's put it that way. It could hurt her publishing-house's reputation, so that's a no. 

A book of post-post-apocalyptic speculative fiction (set on Olam) in which, in the aftermath of an improbably dangerous plague that killed most of the population, the survivors rebuild civilization. 

This one is just dull and uninteresting. She has a feeling Olam just writes better nonfiction than fiction. No pile. 

Next up is the dump from Ev. 

An alternate-historical novel set after the Zadian Theocracy has been overthrown by revolution, following the revolutionary committee trying to set up a new government.  

She was wondering when she'd get a sectarian-conflict book. They're pretty popular on Heart. This particular book from Ev would probably be considered social commentary if it were published today on Heart, what with the debates on spirituality and governance that are happening all throughout it. She makes detailed notes to share with Snowblossom. 

A historical-fantasy novel set in the late Middle Ages...

More politics. She swaps to Thyris for this one; Thyris enjoys it, but feels like it's a bit simplistic for her taste; prisoners like this are unlikely to be able to have much of an influence on politics in the real world. There are exceptions, but in general it's rare. 

A historical novel set during the Barren-Power war, about two (fictional, the author explains) people arrested for treasonously passing secret information to the Barren-Power army.

The Barren-Power ideology is highly concerning to both Thyris and Pigeon. It sounds like the worst kind of cult, the kind that uses people up and demands service through violence. In the last hundred years there are some equivalents on Heart, but nothing that has managed to acquire significant force, not since the Modern Reunification. The fact that they apparently had a major war about it is not comforting. 

Both Pigeon and Thyris try their best to set aside their worries, and instead read the story. The notion of a singular God is foreign to them - perhaps the author is talking about the Harmony, but it really sounds like they're talking about one. The notion of execution for this sort of crime, particularly when the guilty party was coerced, is somewhat queasy as well - the last execution on Heart was again before the Modern Reunification. Perhaps on other worlds you can more cleanly separate the guilty from the innocent; it would certainly be easier when a criminal doesn't share the same body as others. 

The commutation is reasonable enough, though on Heart it would have been something of a political football if this situation had happened historically. But then that's neither here nor there.

(The Ecumenical Astronomical Monks also send their complete tables of supernova and pulsar observation, with a letter from the Abbot-General of the order expressing his wishes for profitable exchange of nonfictional knowledge.)

Pigeon consults with Snowblossom briefly, then with a Sensate librarian; he sends back the current year's nautical almanac for Heart, as used by Sensate navigators to calculate lunar distances and thereby their longitude. (And double altitudes for latitude, and so on.) He also includes in the package a good-quality ritual sextant and a reflecting artificial horizon with a small bottle of mineral oil. While in the modern era there is GPS, the ritual role of celestial navigation is still strong among the Sensates on Heart. 

Crystal continues reading as well. 

An alternate-historical novel set after the Zadian Theocracy has been overthrown by revolution, following the revolutionary committee trying to set up a new government.

This one has biting political commentary dripping from it. It'd probably be quite popular, but on the other hand it's a bit of a brave publishing decision. She calls her boss, then one of her contacts in the industry who works at a publishing house more known for critical commentary and political books. They'll have the reputation to stand behind this. The book goes in its own pile, to be handed over later; she and her boss will charge a finder's fee and the publication profits will go to their allied publishing house. 

A historical-fantasy novel set in the late Middle Ages...

This one doesn't really make the grade for political fiction. The fantasy elements are kind of perfunctory and the plot is kind of unbelievable. No pile. 

A historical novel set during the Barren-Power war, about two (fictional, the author explains) people arrested for treasonously passing secret information to the Barren-Power army.

She needs a history textbook from Ev. People need to know about this. Failing that, she'll recommend this book to her boss. Yes pile. 

(The Ecumenical Astronomical Monks also send their complete tables of supernova and pulsar observation, with a letter from the Abbot-General of the order expressing his wishes for profitable exchange of nonfictional knowledge.)

This is not a scientific publishing house, so she's not interested. No pile.

Last in Pigeon's backlog is the set of four novels from Basilland. 

A fantasy novel about an extremely convoluted civil war. 

UGH POLITICS 

Thyris comes forwards again, and reads. The ongoing moral development/backsliding (it's not entirely clear which, which is a lesson in itself) of the main cast is really portrayed well. The work raises interesting questions of identity, morality, and political realism - is it ever reasonable to use violence in pursuit of political ends? Is assassination and manipulation a reasonable means of acquiring power? - and it's also just a ripping good read. The complexity of the plots is great, the web of lies and promises is realistically portrayed. The Storytellers will love this one. She puts it aside into her personal collection (which is on a different shelf from Pigeon's personal collection.)

A story which takes place in a world with a very complicated magical system. 

Now this one is interesting. Again, is this a villain protagonist? Well, it's arguable that they've crossed a line by the end of the story, but the point at which that happens is well-blurred by the events that take place throughout. The personal journey and the moral journey are pleasingly opposed. She kind of wants to read the sequel. She kind of wants to write fanfiction, honestly, but she doesn't have time for that right now... Anyway, it raises satisfying questions. The fact that at the end these villains are unleashed upon an unsuspecting populace doesn't really bother her - after all, it's only fiction. (Pigeon quietly objects from back in headspace, but she is a small soft birb who should not be exposed to harsh realities.) 

A novel set in a popular shared soft sci-fi setting, which features aliens and spaceflight and very little concern for the scientific possibility of these things, but no magical powers, nor magical powers by some other name- all of the impossibility lives in the tech. 

This one is kind of uncomfortable in its grittiness, but at least it has a happy ending. It reminds her again of some of the worse cults - the small ones where some petty Sun lords it over a polycule of three or four unhappy Moons. At least those don't tend to last long. At least this book ended alright. She probably wouldn't have been able to deal with a tragedy here, the stakes are too personal.  

Another novel from the same setting as the relationship fic, but during a different time period. 

This one is really too simplistic for her, and the inclusion of "large states" in that list of Bad Evil Things sure makes her raise her eyebrows! Hopefully these aliens will be able to see that the Anadyne Union is good for its people even if it does rule a whole continent. Hopefully. (She makes note to raise this with Snowblossom.) She sets it aside unfinished.

The last of Crystal's backlog is finally here. 

A fantasy novel about an extremely convoluted civil war. 

This one is pretty deep and gritty. The Suns will love it, but they probably won't recommend it to their Skies. Maybe pile. 

A story which takes place in a world with a very complicated magical system. 

Ooh, interestingly dark and deep. It might bruise the sensitivities of some readers, but the plot is solid enough to carry. Yes pile, though towards the bottom if publishing order starts to matter.

A novel set in a popular shared soft sci-fi setting, which features aliens and spaceflight and very little concern for the scientific possibility of these things, but no magical powers, nor magical powers by some other name- all of the impossibility lives in the tech. 

This one... Hurts a little, but in a good way. It's very realistic in its handling of abuse. This is a book that needs to exist in the world. Yes pile. 

Another novel from the same setting as the relationship fic, but during a different time period. 

This one is a bit too simplistic and cut and dried and the alien morality is a little bit off. No pile.

A surprisingly gripping docudrama novelette about a financial scheme, with a foreword written for alien publication explaining Planet politics briefly. Apparently on Planet, their governments tend to - overlap a lot? For example, if you live in a city you'll likely be under the authority of a transport authority that runs transport for a whole region, a local orderliness group that is an odd combination of law enforcement/health services/emergency response, a building and food service code organization that covers half the continent, and a tax-administration entity that covers the entire world. But every political organ in Planet has in common an extreme 'openness'. Every major decision, all their finances, meeting recordings, and many other things are public and available for anyone to look through, and people do carefully comb through it for signs of corruption and incompetence. There's a long tradition of political units just... Being ignored if they lose the public confidence. Consequently, politics is a very stressful job that often just consists of not breaking anything that already works, and in general moves pretty slowly.

The work itself is a light dramatization (with notes on where it departs from reality) of this one time that it turned out a very expensive ecological intervention that the World Impact Tax had been funding for over a decade not only didn't work, but was actively counterproductive and was ruining a large ocean biome. It had been based on bad science that was obfuscated by a clique of researchers and owners of relevant industries, with the obvious conflicts of interest of money and prestige. The dramatic tracking-back of the bad science plus accusatory court scenes and bungled attempts to cover the whole thing up further makes up the meaty part of the book. When it ends, the scientist cabal and everyone who went along with it were shamed, public confidence in WIT was shaken, and they started a deep rework of their anti-corruption practices, led by the woman who was the main force in uncovering the bad science.