''The Enemy Papers'' is a single-volume edition of a trilogy by American writer
Barry B. Longyear, containing an expanded version of his novella "
Enemy Mine", later made into a
feature-length film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
of the same name, and two sequels: ''The Tomorrow Testament'' and ''The Last Enemy''. The volume also contains excerpts from the ''Talman'', the holy book of the aliens featured in these stories, the Dracs, as well as a discussion of the writing of the three stories, including the production of the film ''Enemy Mine'', the author's perspective on formulating the Drac language, and a Drac vocabulary list.
Contents
"Enemy Mine"
Willis Davidge, a human fighter pilot, is stranded along with Jeriba Shigan, a
Drac, on a hostile
planet
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
. The Drac are a race of
aliens
Alien primarily refers to:
* Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country
** Enemy alien, the above in times of war
* Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth
** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...
which are
reptilian in appearance, and are
hermaphrodites
In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes.
Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separ ...
who reproduce
parthenogenetically.
''The Tomorrow Testament''
''The Tomorrow Testament'' chronicles the capture of Joanne Nicole, a human female, at the hands of the Dracs. Soon after she is blinded by a USEF bombing raid. She is taken in by a high-ranking Drac military officer, where, like Davidge, she learns the Talman. While she recovers, she discovers that the war between Dracs and Humans was the result of a conspiracy by another race called the Timans. She writes the tale of her life, capture, and personal growth, and submits it as the first book of the Talman not authored by a Drac: ''The Eyes of Joanne Nicole''.
''The Last Enemy''
''The Last Enemy'' begins on the planet Amadeen, on which the human-Drac war began. A treaty was resolved in ''The Tomorrow Testament'' which limited the fighting to this single planet. It chronicles how the conflict is eventually ended by the actions of Davidge and Yazi Ro, a Drac from Amadeen.
"The Talman"
This chapter consists of stories from Dracs' holy book. Contains the Story of Uhe, the Myth of Aakva, fragments of the Story of Shizumaat, and other tales. The Story of Shizumaat makes up the majority of the text, as Shizumaat is the Dracs' most important
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. Many of the works contains moral or philosophical statements as to how Dracs should live their lives.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enemy Papers, The
1998 short story collections
Science fiction short story collections