The book seems well-written and well-thought-out. Unfortunately, I can't connect it and started to feel like forcing myself to finish it. I decided to DNF it for now, but I want to emphasize it's the case of "It's me, not you" DNF :)

Thanks to the publisher for giving me the possibility to try it. I may give it another try soon.

To Each This World by Julie E. Czerneda
⭐️⭐️⭐️(3/5)

Humans from New Earth and aliens are working together to save the rest of humanity, but do the aliens have an ulterior motive?

Read this book if you’re interested in:
•aliens!
•intergalactic relations
•futuristic/alien technology

I loved the concept and the storyline of this book. I did not love how it was written. I found the sentences choppy and hard to understand and was unable to feel for any of the characters. For me, not great.

This is another strong, long book by Julie Czerneda. She is imaginative and uses her grounding in biology to create interesting aliens and settings. Humanity has taken to the stars but not as the alpha species. Alien benefactors aid but also limit human activity. As new human colonies settled in a slower-than-light diaspora are rediscovered, the aliens become restrictive and even menacing. The author unveils the reasons and the secrets effectively in this interesting and engaging standalone novel.

To Each This World is a new sci-fi book by Julie E. Czerneda.
This book takes place on a different planet called New Earth. A long time ago, they sent out ships to find and colonize new planets. At the start of this book, they get a probe from one of those colonizing ships, but in the time between they had met a new alien called the Kmet, slug-like beings. These aliens have very specific rules on what humans should and should not be, and colonizing other planets is not something they should be doing. Now humans have to go find these planets that may or may not have been colonized, against the Kmet's wishes.
I enjoyed the premise of this book. An interesting non-humanoid alien, who is very different from humans and difficult to understand. Frankly, I found the Kmet to be the most interesting part of the book. Most media seems to brush over the troubles of communication by having an "Universal Translator" or their differences are easy to work with, more quirks than anything else. I also enjoy how this book discusses the need to survive. This is most evident with the colonizing missions of the humans, and their need to discover what their predecessors did.
However, there were a couple issues. Mainly, the writing was strange. It was difficult to understand and get through in some parts. I also wish the world building was more expanded on, and that it told more at the beginning. I was very confused for much of the book.
In conclusion, I found this book to be good. I would recommend it to sci-fi readers who are more interested in reading about the difficulties that might arise between different people or aliens than discovering new worlds.

I always recommend books by Julie E. Czerneda, and this book is an exceptional example of why. This is an author who knows how to fashion a fictional world.

I found this a fascinating book. The author has so many novels that I didn't know whether this would have the depth and gravity I look for, but it greatly exceeded my expectations and even my hopes. This is a story of human diaspora, colonization of distant worlds, and first contact. It's told through the viewpoint of three great, well developed, interesting humans. I enjoyed that they are mature adults. Two of them, Henry and Killian, are on a spaceship with a very alien alien, a Kmet, under enormous strain and responsibility as they try to communicate and understand the alien's intentions. The third, Beth, is an explorer on a distant planet having one or more alien populations that they haven't yet encountered. The tension heightens as it becomes increasingly apparent that the Kmet might not be the ally they present as, but a potential threat to all remaining humans. Adding to the uncertainty, Henry's sentient AI shuttle/assistant may or may not be more alien than they knew. Underpinning the whole story is the concept of biological imperative, each species just trying to survive, thrive, and grow. This is a standalone novel which comes to a very satisfying ending, with no unraveled threads given some time to think about it all. Curious to me, but not related to the story, is the author's relentless use of contractions of the word "had", in a way I'm not accustomed. For instance, "He'd boots." is a sentence. I don't know if that terseness is particular to the author, the characters personalities she was trying to convey, or just how everyone uses contractions in that part of Canada. It wasn't detracting in any way, just interesting, and seemed especially appropriate for Beth who always thinks and speaks with extreme brevity. Highly recommend this book!!

I love well written sci-fi books, and Julie Czerneda knows how to write a sci-fi book!

Her characters and settings are amazing, I need to go back and read her other books, I can't get enough!

It took me a while to get into this book and understand it, but that’s because I’m an idiot. I thought it was great and imaginative and kept me guessing on who was an ally and who we shouldn’t trust. I wish we would have seen a little bit more world building from the various planets because what we were given made me very interested. The last act was slower than I expected but it did give solid explanations that I understood and it made everything that was still confusing make sense. It was a solid sci-fi book and I’m happy to have read it

To Each This World

[Blurb goes here]

First, I have to say that this a wondrous adventure.

A few hundred years ago, mankind sent forward arks to colonize new planets. One such ship arrived at New Earth, communications to Original Earth were lost by that time, the only conclusion was that planet Earth, was no more. Following tradition to go beyond what was known, and the desire to move forward, New Earth in turn sends arks across space. After a natural phenomenon destroys their capability to create new arks, killing, maybe thousands in the process, humanity decides that colonizing new worlds is no longer a priority.

Enter an alien race, de Kmet. A race that has the technology to create portals, it seems that they like humans, since one of their portals is in orbit, right above New Earth. The Kmet are hard to understand, and they have clear and strict rules on how to engage with the humans: through an Arbiter. Him, and only him is to be the link between both species. The Arbiter is the representative for all mankind, when addressing the Kmet.

One probe, from a long gone ark, arrives at New Earth, it has coordinates to another planet. It’s the job of the Arbiter to convince the Kmet to open a portal to the new world. No easy task. The Kmet had refused countless times to open a portal to Original Earth, hinting at the fact that humans are all in New Earth, and nowhere else. Also, the Kmet don’t want humans loitering about. If they are granted permission to go mine a planet, all have to come back. So, in other words, colonization is frowned upon by the aliens.

The world building is amazing, and so is the premise, along with the characters.

Now on to the cons. Or con, since there’s only one, albeit, an important one. The prose feels...off, from the start. Sentences in disarray, even chopped up. A very particular style. I was about to finish the book and still could’t get used to it, not even a little.

So, for all that I loved in the story, there was the way it was written: my enjoyment fighting against the annoyance of having to read through quite a few paragraphs, more than once.

In the interest of discovering a beautiful journey, I would say, go for it. Just try and be patient.

Any way, those are my two cents.

Thank you for the free copy!

This was another great scifi book by Julie E. Czerneda, I've been enjoying Ms. Czerneda's work since the Web Shifter. The concept was once again wonderfully done and I really enjoyed getting to go on this journey. The characters were what I was hoping for and really enjoyed getting to know them and their world. I look forward to whatever comes next.

“The columns are buoyant.” Ousmane’s hand disappeared inside one of the tips. Henry gave the ceiling a stern look and her hand reappeared, the finger a pointer. “A keel with ballast made from, ah, the ship’s, ah, metal. A truss.” She pointed to a girder. “Together, they not only, ah, keep the ship partially above the surface, they, ah, dampen the impact of, ah, waves on its structure. Please demonstrate.”