Just finished reading this novel and I want to recommend it. No big spoilers.

Here’s the blurb:

On a warm March night in 2083, Judy Wallach-Stevens wakes to a warning of unknown pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay. She heads out to check what she expects to be a false alarm–and stumbles upon the first alien visitors to Earth. These aliens have crossed the galaxy to save humanity, convinced that the people of Earth must leave their ecologically-ravaged planet behind and join them among the stars. And if humanity doesn’t agree, they may need to be saved by force.

The watershed networks aren’t ready to give up on Earth. Decades ago, they rose up to exile the last corporations to a few artificial islands, escape the dominance of nation-states, and reorganize humanity around the hope of keeping their world liveable. By sharing the burden of decision-making, they’ve started to heal the wounded planet.

But now corporations, nation-states, and networks all vie to represent humanity to these powerful new beings, and if any one accepts the aliens’ offer, Earth may be lost. With everyone’s eyes turned skyward, everything hinges on the success of Judy’s effort to create understanding, both within and beyond her own species.>

First off, if you’re bothered by “woke” ideas of gender, this is not the book for you. The gender stuff is a bit much, but it’s all relevant. Animal genders/sexes work differently than humans, so it’s to be expected that aliens would. Add culture into the mix (both the aliens and humans) and gender expression is a big issue to explore.

As first contact stories go, this one is pretty low-effort These aliens arrive already speaking english and understanding a lot about humans from watching our media. The difficulty for them is in separating reality from fiction; they might make breezy references to Faye Wray in King Kong, but believe frogs are mythical. Their values differ from the humans, but there are no issues with the groups communicating.

The human society is so different from ours, its as interesting as the aliens. Basically these socialist communes sprang up, shut down capitalism, and built a culture focused on the environment and one another. I love the idea of their technology: like a cross between reddit and Next Door. All problems are discussed and solutions decided on democratically. Discussions are weighted based not on heirarchy or popularity, but on values agreed upon by the community.

The book would have benefitted by being shorter. Judy is obstinate and anxious. She spends a lot of time ruminating, and that can get tedious. This is not a fast-paced novel, by any means. The gender stuff was also focused on way too often. But I still found it worth the read.

For novels with similar human societies, I recommend The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. For a similar alien contact story, I recommend the Lilith’s Brood trillogy by Octavia Butler.