Colonial History

The story is about the first contact between a space-faring civilization and earth, but the twist on this story is that the story is told through alien peoples as opposed to humans.

Grammar: There are a few small issues, but nothing too jarring. Unless it's abhorrent I usually rate this 5.

Now, let me say, this is a really interesting premise, but it takes a while to get to the interesting part of the story. 

Characters: 3.5/5 - I've marked this lower because there are no characters to really sink your teeth into until chapter 13. 

Story: The first 12 chapters are comprised of historical exposition about the events leading to the landing, with some really neat graphics by the author, including one that looks like it was shredded and pieced back together. I think all the exposition is great but it's a lot of it to digest before we get something we can relate to.

Style Score: The author is quite gifted and the prose is elegant.

Overall: I think the story might just need a bit of re-ordering. The scene with the transcript form the phone video was really interesting, but then it's 5-6 chapters of reports from the Minare about their contact with the humans. The reports are well done, but if interrupted with some more intrigue the story would be better for it, I think. 

All in all, the talent of the author and original premise make this one worth following! 

*Review is partially out of date, the introduction has been updated and is far easier to follow now after being edited by the author. 

Introduction

Colonial history does what it says on the tin. It gives a colonial history. I also have lots to say about it. 

Personal thoughts

This is a difficult read to work out what is going on. The writer does not spoon feed you or give you a gentle easing in.

Now whether this is a turn off or not is up to the reader. I did not find it pleasant but I can admire the author's boldness. 

Moreover, it is difficult to talk about this story because it is so different from the normal fiction typical anywhere.

It reaffirmed my faith in the openness and variety that web fiction format allows. It also further reaffirmed my faith in the wonderfully creative talents that come to Royal Road. 

A brief unofficial summary of the first chapter

*For those seeking guidance but without spoilers. 

The first chapter introduces us to our narrator. 

The second chapter shows the range of data we will be reading in future chapters. 

There is a brief aside for a history of a people. It is not, ironically, brilliant for an introduction. This information assumes expert knowledge. Chapters three and four are relevant to know but dense. They do serve to demonstrate the expertise of our narrator.

Our narrator is as close to a neutral observer as we can get. They come from a group who want trade with the Anuh-Kaj. A major player on Tiz-tozar. Tiz-Tozar is our setting. 

The last chapter touches upon the methodology of our narrator and thus also setting the structure of the entire web novel. 

To put it simply - You read data, in every chapter, to learn the subject that is colonial history. 

The colony is Tiz-Tozar. I will leave it to the reader to learn further. 

A difficult beginning 

For example the first sentence is …

"I am one of a study group of academics sent by my informational institution’s administrative intelligentsia, as part of a preliminary agreement between the Zeflopidian Galactic Collective and the Eas-Enerang Apiary."

The next three sentences are about the same length all in the same paragraph. 

Further, this first sentence contains two jargon terms the reader has no way of knowing what they mean or the motivation to care.  

I had to re read the prior chapters to try and understand what was happening. I failed, as is clear by the author's reply in the first chapter. It was on reading again that I understood where Tiz Tozar was and then what the second chapter sets out. 

On the first read of the first five chapters I was a little lost. However, for the intentional style that the author is implementing this is to be expected. I do not take this as a flaw. It is a consequence of the complexity of the information. It is deliberate and well done.

"Art"

The images on Chapter four enhances the chapter immensely. Not only for the reader, but works in text as well. The work by the author is much appreciated. 

It is another example of multimedia. Text and art elevates web fiction.  

The advanced review section 

This assures a three stars in my view, or what would be four stars for most people.

It also pleases its niche fans which means the story is a four star. I personally lack the taste and understanding to grasp if it deserves a higher rating.

But my second read through of the first five chapters helped my acquire a taste for the work. It is challenging but worth the effort. 

Characters it is hard to review for given the nature of this work and the few chapters I've read. If I treat the characters as of the world, rather than as traditional literary subjects with arcs, then I give them a solid four stars. At the having read six chapters mark. 

Style is an easy four and half stars. It could be made easier to read and there are flaws but style is as it should be for this story. 

Yes it is dry and dense. But the reader who understands, I think will agree with me when I say this is a stylish portrayal of fictional history. 

Grammar. There are no major grammar flaws  I noticed. However there is  a few clunky and awkward sentences. Four stars. 

In sum

Not for the faint of heart, but for the bold of mind. 

I'm loving the story so far! Definitely deserves the rating! The names of all the races were a bit confusing at first (maybe easing into the race's culture first might be the way to go), but you quickly get accustomed to it and just enjoy the amazing portrayal of aliens interacting in a (to me) completely new way!

I like the idea of a sort of objective viewpoint as we see the characters face their own problems, while still keeping the tone of the story as a whole in check.

Keep up the great work, man!

Cover: Not the best but good enough. 4.5/5

Synopsis: Really good. It's descriptive and tells the readers what the book is all about vividly. 5/5

First Chapter: Very good. It grabbed my attention. 4.5/5

Grammar: High quality. No error that could affect the flow of the story. 5/5

Story: The dystopian story is mainly a mixture of first contact, sci-fi and comedy. From what ive read, the story is well written. 5/5

Style: First person narration, and it's well executed. 5/5

Characters: They are written in a great way. So far, so good. 4.5/5

Overall: Excellent work.

Colonial History is an alien history that starts out as a sort of "found footage" narrative of events leading up to an alien crash-landing and encounter on earth (I assume we'll get to the colonization bit eventually, but it hasn't happened yet). The story is essentially an alien historian's attempt to piece together a history surrounding a first encounter between humans and a spacefaring species that finds itself crash-landed after a nuclear-assisted bumpy landing while flying through a wormhole. The narrative is sketchy at first, with sparse news articles and background history before resolving into the interwoven narratives of a team of alien explorers and some plucky anti-establishmentarian Earthlings. This story isn't the easiest to traverse, but it can be fun picking apart what different alien interpretations of Earth are, as well as the first awkward attempts at communication. Overall, I give the story 4.5 out of 5.

Style: The style of Colonial History is quite creative, including mixed media from news sites, personal communications, newspaper articles, etc. to give it a "found footage" feel and making it clear that the historian providing the story is very much working from incomplete data. The different narratives have a sufficiently different voice that it comes across as genuine rather than a cheap device.

Grammar: Not much to critique here - there are some hiccups in wording or sentence structure, but nothing that a light edit wouldn't fix. Better than the average RR story.

Story: The story is coherent but can be a chore to pick apart because of how the narrative is written. As a reader, you have to work to make sense out of the information, which will be annoying to some readers. On the other hand, it also gives you the sense that you might be a fellow historian working to parse the mystery that is the colonization of Tir-Torzor.

Characters: The characters here show promise, but because of the style of narrative, we haven't gotten enough time with any given set of character to have them be well-established or have much in the way of character arcs. Their personalities are plausible and there are no obvious shortcomings in characterization - we just aren't given much insight into the characters yet.