Klandor Enigma

They're always there in the background. They say very little, but listen a great deal. There's one in a quiet corner at every meeting. There's one in every home - they like to cook and knit and master new skills.

We don't know what sex they are, if they have sexes, although it seems they have children...

It's not that they refuse to answer so much as that we can't understand the answer. They say things like 'the offspring are not yet ripe for the sun'. Or, 'they are in the place of learning'. But you don't get the impression that this is referring to their equivalent of our schools.

This is an area our xeno experts hope to understand better in time.

They seem especially protective of our children, but they don't really seem to grasp what growing up means.. . Indeed it is very easy to see them as perpetual children. Except that they learn skills quickly, and indeed most of them can drive - and Indeed the Lennisvale yoltus community has been allocated six of the new hydrocars.

Then 11 year old boys begin to die with no apparent cause of death - and it is always when the family yoltus is away for some reason. Were they suffocated by a cat? Was it some strange Klandor disease?

Some of the boys' fathers try to dig deeper into the enigma.

KLANDOR RISING

'A well-polished sci-fi saga with a 'classic' feel to it. A RED RIBBON WINNER and highly recommended!'  Wishing Shelf

Klandor Encounter is a finalist for the 2025 Realm Awards for Speculative Fiction (Novella), while Klandor Enigma is an expansion of the original standalone novellete that spawned the prequel novellas (although last in terms of Klandor chronology). The Klandor Rising collection won Silver for Hard Science Fiction in the 2025 Global Book — pipped by its prequel series Moonchild Rising, which won Gold for Hard Science Fiction and Bronze for Teen & Young Adult Science Fiction (this is the prequel series telling the backstory of Commander Irene Slade). The Klandor Rising novellas are:

1. Klandor Encounter

Encounter pilot Don Lindsay is at a loose end when not in the air or fixing things, or playing general dogsbody to the survey team - which he's not part of in any sense. Commander Irene Slade lets him audit the meetings, but he is not permitted to report or participate actively. So when he encounters an intelligent lifeform, and starts teaching them English and learning about the planet they call Klandor, he keeps it to himself. Until things go wrong...

2. Klandor Endeavour

Endeavour is searching for signs of the dangerous predators reported by the survey mission, but librarian Lorraine Firth thinks unofficial security chief Wayne Brescoe is just looking for an excuse to making himself look important and use those big guns of his to wipe them out. When she is invited to make a presentation on the importance of predators to the ecosystem, Lorraine endeavours to visit a site of particular significance both to her and the original survey team...

3. Klandor Enterprise

Enterprise brings hundreds of new settlers to the new Fairleigh colony from the ship it was named after, but engineer and de facto leader Yuri Gregovich has big plans — and within minutes of arriving is at loggerheads with the established leadership at Lakeside. He didn't get off to such a good start with crack pilot Lennis Firth either — but the enterprising teen is there at every turn, and may be the key to whether his own plans succeed or fail...

4. Klandor Enigma

Enigma surrounds the yolti, the indigenous life forms who have become so ubiquitous in every part of the colonists lives. They are strong and clever, quick learners and helpful assistants. They look after our children, but we never see any sign of theirs. And now mysteriously, on occasions when the family yoltus isn't around, eleven-year old boys begin to die...