Some of My Best Friends Are Human , livre ebook

Praise for Liz J. Andersen &
Some of My Best Friends Are Human


Excellent.
-Andre Norton, SFWA Grand Master

I finished your book last night. I settled down with it in front of a cozy fire and wound up staying up until 3:00 to finish it. I couldn't put it down! I had to find out what happened to these interesting characters.
-Jerry Oltion, Nebula winner, and twice nominated for the Hugo

Teens and adults will enjoy this fast-paced sci-fi adventure!
The book is written in journal-style entries of an orphan teen girl named Tajen. The occasional slang words used by her and all of her classmates are really unique. One can imagine that teens coming together from diverse planetary civilizations would absolutely have their own short-hand language to communicate with each other. The descriptions of the isolated world where they learn to survive, their medical technology, diversity of main characters and animals kept the story fast paced and held my interest. I enjoyed reading about the astonishing discovery they made towards the end. Very likeable characters and a satisfying read.
-Patricia .M. Prisbrey, Ret. YA Librarian

This is a coming of age story set within a distinct and well crafted SF universe which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The story starts off with a set of orphaned teenagers living in an underground orphanage on an alien world. Life and civilization outside the orphanage is sprawling and contains many varied species; of which the orphans comprise of. The main character is a girl called Taje who struggles to fit into day to day life within the orphanage. Her one love in life which sustains her is her love of animals which shows itself with her many pets and her desire to one day work within a related field. This love is the cause of the main plot point mentioned in the synopsis; namely being the opportunity to go on an ecological field trip. Her route to get there is interesting which is where I ll leave it with plot.
The most impressive feature of this book to me was the sense of optimism and hope running throughout. The characters are all young and inexperienced but want more out of life than their birth afforded them. They are trying to achieve more of themselves which lends itself to this optimism and forward thinking. It was a genuinely nice experience reading this as it s rare to read a book where the hope of the characters is based on their wanting more from themselves and will not abuse others to achieve this; it s all on themselves and their strengths and many weaknesses.
-Joseph Mcloughlin-U.K. Book Reviewer

“Some of My Best Friends Are Human is adventure with heart! A ripping good yarn told with grit and grace by a professional cat wrangler. Who says SF can’t be fun and scientifically accurate?”
—Erika, Cat Lady and Professional Nit-Picker

“Liz never would have made it through the Sierra Nevada without me, but she sure can ride a runaway horse.”
—Carla, Backpacking Buddy

“I haven’t read the book but I love the cover!”
—Kathy, Artistic Consultant

“Which character am I?”
—Brian, Liz’s Musician Husband, and, eerily, not present for the first drafts of this novel

“Don’t forget, I gave Liz the title. But I thought this book was supposed to be funny. All of the stories I helped Liz write for Analog were funny. Instead this is just one fur-raising adventure after another.”
—Tommy, Liz’s Cat





Labbwerk Publishing, Eugene 97404
© 2019 by Liz J. Andersen
All rights reserved. Published 2019.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-9988448-0-0 (paperback)

Labbwerk Publishing gratefully acknowledges the generous support of:
Kathy Baron: Cover Design
Anders Andersen: Front Cover Painting
Søren Østergaard: Front Cover Painting Photo
(Front Cover Painting Color Adjustments by Labbwerk Publishing)
T.J.: Front Cover Silhouette Drawings
Carla Salido: Spine Photograph
Terry Whittaker: Back Cover Caracal Photo
(Caracal Photo Color Adjustments by Labbwerk Publishing and Kathy Baron)

Names: Andersen, Liz J., author.
Titles: Some of my best friends are human / Liz J. Andersen
Identifiers: ISBN 9780998844800 (softcover) ISBN 9780998844817 (electronic book)
Subjects: LCSH: Bildungsromans. | Coming of age—Fiction. | Ecology—Fiction. | Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Multiculturalism—Fiction. | Transgenic organisms—Fiction.
GSAFD: Science fiction. | Adventure fiction.
Classification: DDC 813/.6—dc23
OCLC Record: 1013677229

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.


Contents
PART 1 - INSIDE
JOURNAL ENTRY 1
JOURNAL ENTRY 2
JOURNAL ENTRY 3
JOURNAL ENTRY 4
JOURNAL ENTRY 5
JOURNAL ENTRY 6
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JOURNAL ENTRY 48
PART 2 - OUTSIDE
JOURNAL ENTRY 49
JOURNAL ENTRY 50
JOURNAL ENTRY 51
JOURNAL ENTRY 52
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JOURNAL ENTRY 94
JOURNAL ENTRY 95
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR



JOURNAL ENTRY 1
The very first multiple choice question fused me: “How do plant pigments relate to the color of the sky?” Correct answer: hardly at all—and even less to my own life. That was the problem. That was always the problem, since I was shipped to the Center.
So I ejected from an exploding space ship into hard vac, when I discovered I couldn’t bring myself to answer a single question on Naemar’s science exam. The last question had the nerve to ask how to age an old-growth tree without damaging it. At that point I gave up. How I hated it here!
The end-of-class bell rang after an agonizing eon. Branem, the stocky, handsome human who sat next to me in the last row, slotted his stylus and stood up with a sigh.
Branem had smooth very milky brown skin and a typical hint of an epicanthic fold, so his brown eyes narrowed as he peeked at my screen. He tossed his curly black bangs as he grinned at the red STAY warning flashing on my screen. “Good luck!” he said. At least he never treated me like a human freak.
“I’m out of luck.”
“No you’re not.” And with that ridiculously optimistic remark, he pushed his way through the noisy rush to evacuate our science classroom.
I laid my head down on my arms. Last class of the day, and I had to pull this stunt. Pulse pounding, I peeked at my teacher.
Naemar stood over her deskcom. She must already know. Sweat ran down my sides and steamed from my collar. Naemar stared at our test results on her screen and squinted up at me. She strode down the aisle that led between our crowded desk rows, turned left at the last row, and halted in front of me.
Here comes the big lecture about studying, which I thought I’d never have to hear—
“What’s the matter, Tajen?” Naemar folded her tan arms and loomed over me, despite being the shortest adult human I’d ever met. Yet she sounded surprisingly calm.
I rubbed my eyes. What wasn’t the matter, being stuck in a Federation of Intelligent Life Orphan Center on Arrainius? “Where are the stars?” I whispered, barely holding back tears.
I hadn’t meant to say such nova nonsense loudly enough to hear, but she took it seriously. “This test covered our plant module. We’ll get to astronomy—”
“There are too many lights on Arrainius to view any stars without going to sea, so why bother? For that matter, why talk about old-growth trees when they no longer exist on this world?”
“Oh, so this isn’t just about my subject material?”
“Your subject matter?” I exploded from my seat, launched by rage I’d kept locked up for far too long—over half a dozen standard years since my mother had disappeared, ruining everything. “Why don’t you shove all this vac-brained garbage up your right nostril?” I said. “It should fit perfectly!”
I knocked over my multi-species chair in my rush to escape the classroom, so I wouldn’t break down in front of her.
If I could have broken out of the Center in that micro, I would have. Even with nowhere to go. Instead all I could do was lose myself in the end-of-school-day crowds.

JOURNAL ENTRY 2
I wiped unshed tears out of my eyes as students wound thr