Review: Decoy by Joanna Steenen (Hannah Steenbock)

I received a free copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review.

‘Can a young human hunter find happiness on a planet dominated by aliens?

‘Zell is honing his skills as a hunter, hoping to win his Tribe leader’s favor. But can love even grow when aliens threaten to hunt humans every day?

‘Decoy is the fast, action-filled introduction to the Franssisi Four Chronicles, a complete series that follows Zell’s struggles and adventures while trying to reconcile alien overlords and human slaves in a beautiful, natural world.’

In Decoy, by Joanna Steenen (aka Hannah Steenbock), we’re introduced to Zell, a strapping young man with ambitions to become a mighty hunter. He’s part of a generally harmonious tribe of humans who inhabit a cave and live collectively off the land, on the planet of Franssisi Four.

In contrast, the Diles – the alien usurpers who conquered the planet around 100 years previously – live in towns and are well-equipped with technology. They keep humans as pets, and occasionally fly over in aircars, hoping to capture “Wild Ones” like Zell to use as breeding stock or fighters (think: Roman gladiator shows), or sometimes just to hunt them for sport.

When Zell has a particularly successful hunt, he attacts the attention of tribe leader Elera, and they become lovers. However, a romantic getaway in the forest ends in disaster when he’s captured by Diles. What are their plans for him? And how will he navigate his new circumstances?

Whenever I see a story labelled as a “prequel”, I get a bit nervous if I haven’t read the subsequent books: will I understand the significance of what’s going on if I don’t already know the characters and/or what happens later? Thankfully, Decoy truly is an introduction/taster that was published before the main books of the Franssisi Four series, and it left me really wanting to read on.

Decoy falls into the subgenre of sci-fi I awkwardly describe as ‘stories where humans have been living on another planet long enough to have a history’, and am very much into. While we don’t learn how long ago humans colonised Franssisi Four, we can presume that the tribespeople had quite a different way of life before the hostile takeover by the Diles a century earlier.

At the same time, their current circumstances aren’t characterised by privation or restriction: natural resources are abundant, there’s something of a “free love” vibe, any disputes are low-level and highly unlikely to lead to rebellion, and nobody seems to be yearning for “good old days” that were before their time.

For her part, the author skilfully gives us the context we need without getting bogged down in lore or losing sight of the “here and now”: Zell’s hopes and dreams, his budding (and rather steamy – not something that puts me off, especially as this writing has a level of maturity, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!) relationship with Elera, and the immediacy of the Diles’ pursuit of him. All in all, I found this set-up original and highly compelling.

The biggest threat to the tribespeople’s prosperity and peace of mind is the Diles, who are akin to the fairy/folk tale entities you’re warned will snatch you up never to be seen again, if you aren’t sufficiently cautious – except they’re real, and Zell has first-hand experience of fellow tribe members going missing, their fates unknown. This novella ends just as he is taken, which is another reason I’m keen to see what happens next (obviously he isn’t killed outright, or there wouldn’t be a series)!

Decoy is a compelling and well-written taster for a series I’m now really looking forward to reading.