Title: Refuge
Author: N.A. Ratnayake
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: October 29, 2025
Genres: Science Fiction
Length: 6 pages
Source: I received a free copy from the author.
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb:
A weary traveler coming from Earth discovers a new form of consciousness on an alien world and finds hope despite climate change.
Content Warning: Brief references to climate change.
Review:
A better world is possible.
I review a lot of short stories, and this particular tale is an excellent example of why a few pages can be more than enough space to make a difference. The author placed memorable characters into a challenging environment and threw in a thought-provoking plot twist into less space that most storytellers would use to write the opening chapter of a full-length novel. Pulling this off is a skill that should be acknowledged and celebrated, and it has only deepened my resolve to see what else this author has written and hopefully review it in the near future.
Climate change is a common theme in this genre, of course, but it’s generally not approached from such a hopeful perspective. While I can’t go into much detail about how it affected the plot without sharing spoilers, I can say that I loved what this writer did to make this topic feel fresh again and I would have happily read a whole novel or series of short stories about this protagonist’s quest if such things existed. There were some interesting ideas being played around with here that, while they worked perfectly well as gentle nudges, would have also provided plenty of material for conflict and plot advancement had space allowed for deeper explorations of these possibilities.
Xenofiction is something that isn’t covered in modern science fiction as often as I’d prefer to see, so I looked forward to finding out what the non-human intelligence was like and how its thought processes might differ from the way you or I would approach the same conflict or conversation. Exactly who or what is featured here is something that other readers should discover for themselves, but what I can say is that this character was creatively written and genuinely felt like something that, while incredibly smart, had never been and will never be human.
Refuge was the perfect introduction to this universe, and it made me yearn for more.