#15 All Seated on the Ground, Connie Willis
got on my radar because my favorite vn writer (hikaru sakurai if youre new here) recommended a different book series from the same writer (doomsday book, also pretty high on my planning list, but i needed something shorter to read). the story itself was a winner of the 2008 hugo award for best novella and i ran into it while browsing the giant torrent of hugo award winners i got my hands on recently. definitely need to look at more of those i saw a few stories i really enjoyed on the list
the premise is pretty simple, a group of aliens landed on earth but no one can figure out how to communicate with them. theyve tried everything they can think of, but nothing seems to work, the hype and fear over an incoming invasion has slowly died down until their presence is a confusing but mundane affair. its fundamentally about the frustration one feels trying to get their peers to listen to them and be taken seriously and receiving only bickering and disinterest in return.
the fact that the aliens first respond to a christmas carol and the attempt to figure out what it is exactly that theyre reacting to gives it a certain christmas mood, but its about the desire to get everyone together to celebrate a holiday together and have a good time and the difficulty of accomplishing it with the christians-only overtone to the entire thing.
not a revolutionary or life changing story by any means but its a fun thing to sit down and read during the holidays... 'its march' dont worry about it.