Resistance is futile, according to the aliens (not in those cliched words), and there is debate in the town council as to just how to react. Some politics are played out, and a local housewife tries a very subtle form of resistance.

She welcomes the alien in charge of arranging the relocation of the townspeople, and the pair get to understand each other very well. As the rock-like alien gradually becomes more human (quite literally!) the bond threatens to become a stronger one.

However, the potential love affair is of course doomed, as is Okanoggan Falls. But whilst the townspeople may lose their homes, humanity has perhaps made a small step, and whilst it may not be the end, or even the beginning of the end, it may be the end of the beginning. (Thinks : I'm sure I've heard that before...)

Shunn sets up an intriguing setting quickly and well, as we hear the doubts of 15-year old Jude, who shares a small room with his father in the claustrophobic Machinist Quarter of Netherview's Station Ring B : "The Manual tells us that in the beginning the Builder decreed six fundamental Machines. These are his six aspects, and all we do we must do with the Six. We need no other machines." Shunn is economical but extremely effective in showing how the beliefs of the Machinists structure their lives, education and behaviour, in a few pages building a believable and three-dimensional community.

Jude's father has found him a job - outside the Quarter, as a stevedore at the docks at the Hub, and here his already wavering belief in those six fundamental machines (The Wheel, the Wedge, the Lever, the Plane, the Pulley, and the Screw) is further compromised amongst The Sculpted : humans with body modifications and beliefs diamaterically opposed to the utilitarian society in which he has been raised. His inner turmoil is heightened by his conversations with the blue-skinned Derek, the communal samesex showers after work, and a tipping point in reached when triple-pay is on offer (and his father needs the money) but minor Sculpting in order to work in vacuum is required.

And in considering this option, a conversation with one of the ship's AIs, 'Geoff', puts Jude in possession of a lot of new knowledge, about the Machinists, his father, his mother, and ultimately, himself.

The story flows very quickly, with the short staccato sentences driving the plot along quickly (perhaps a little too quickly), and gives a lot in a short space.

The opening sequences ends with a nerve-jangling potential confrontation takes place with a gun-toting man with an old school bus, with a cargo which sends jitters around the family.

The background to the story is gradually revealed, and we find that we are on an alternate Earth, founded by the First Father, who came across from Old Earth using 'ripper' technology, which creates a rent in the small gaps between the branes of the millions of alternate Earths. And this Earth has seen sprung up a range of religions, each with their own perspective on this First Father. The further details are somewhat bizarre, for the First Father was a young student who in fact stole a 'ripper' and took himself and a dorm full of college girls off to this Brave New World.

The story of the young daughter, Kala, progresses, going forward several years, whilst more of the backdrop is revealed, including an attempted abduction of her by a young man who is one of a party who themselves are about to set off to another alternate world, to create another Eden.

An excellent piece of inventive society-building, with the only slight problem for me being that structure of the story, in that it feels like a compressed novel, with several key peaks in it, which would work well at a greater length. But for a novella, perhaps just a couple too many peaks in it, as with each peak there is a bit of a surprise that the reader hasn't crested the summit, but that another peak awaits. But that's being a bit picky I suppose, as a lot of stories barely manage the odd hillock, let alone a mountain stage of the Tour de France.