The Spacer (Galatean Saga #0.5) by Jasmine P. Antwoine

When the enemy isn't considered human, proving you have a soul becomes treason. Lieutenant Lucian Aris captures Commander Gordon Monihan alive, breaking the sacred rule of a decades-long war. Beneath the armor, he doesn't find the bioengineered monster from the propaganda reels. He finds a man. Severed from The Verse, the neural network connecting all Spacers, Monihan is plunged into a deafening isolation that threatens his sanity. But Dr. Hayden, a xenopsychologist, offers something far worse: a tribunal designed to prove Monihan has no soul. Every act of compassion will be dissected as programming. Every human gesture, evidence of sophisticated mimicry. Fifty years later, on Surinam Station, Monihan's trial has become legend. But Sergeant Yaniv knows what the stories don't tell: in a system built to deny personhood, the truth is the most subversive weapon of all. A tense psychological thriller exploring consciousness, identity, and the stories we tell about who deserves to be called human. For readers who want their science fiction thoughtful, unsettling, and morally complex.

Adult • Science Fiction/Military SF • Science Fiction/Space Opera • Science Fiction/Hard SF

Content Warning: physical and psychological abuse (of a prisoner of war), xenophobia, bullying, panic attack, grief

Reviewed by JustAskMatthew on 2025-12-24T09:53:46Z:

A character-driven drama filled with moral complexity that explores a couple of really big questions (and well), this is a riveting introduction to a future conflict that is all too recognizable from today's world. You must experience this novella's true power for yourself.

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