Sue Burke's " Interference " review

Sue Burke's "Interference" continue the story of the Pax colony, a culture of multiple sentient races with drastically different neurological and physical modalities. When I saw this in my prison library on the new shelf, having read Semiosis, I greedily snatched it up. This is a better piece than Semiosis. I'm saying that not to disparage Semiosis , but to emphasize that Burke is still improving, which is good to see. She does not hesitate to employ what feels like a nonstandard plot structure ... but does it well. I was pleasantly and genuinely surprised by the direction the story went in. It has to be mentioned: The politics between sentient organisms working to maintain a peaceful society does not feel so unrealistic and falsely iconoclastic as Avatar. This is well thought out speculative sci fi it feels like an outgrowth of the kind of odd sci fi short stories from the early half of the 20th century , but with greater believability and minus the speedo wearing lasgun jockey protagonist. I'm reminded of Jack Vance's Big Planet. The most interesting parts to me are the scenes written from the vantage point of alien organisms , including plant life. The author does this particularly well, well enough to justify it being a wheelhouse for her in her sci fi writing. I look forward to more work from this author as she carries the torch of good science fiction into the decades of our century. Science fiction has a rich tradition , but never a formula. Great work.