Angry Young Spaceman

Joanne Wotypka is a branch library assistant in the Cameron Library and
the University of Alberta.

Adventure, culture shock, loneliness ... anyone who has been an English
teacher in a foreign country has doubtless experienced these emotions.
However, if your assignment is halfway across the galaxy, and your hosts
are part octopus, things get even more complicated. Sam Breen’s
decision to work on the planet of Octavia is motivated by many factors:
student loan payments, breaking with his rowdy past, family
difficulties, and a recent romantic disappointment. Octavia (a planet
with a liquid atmosphere) will, he hopes, provide the direction he is
looking for.

Sam quickly finds out that while cultures change, interpersonal
relationships and institutions are pretty much the same the galaxy over.
As he settles in for his year of teaching, he deals with office
politics, unmotivated (and overmotivated) students, and the novelty of
being the only bi-ped on the planet. His solitude is broken by
occasional trips and visits with his friends from orientation who are
dealing with problems of their own.

Jim Monroe delivers an engaging, thought-provoking look at the business
of spreading the English word. His narrative provides an interesting
view not only of interspecies relationships but also of the larger
picture of cultural preservation versus “modernization.” Will
Octavia lose its protected status if Sam becomes the first fluent
speaker of Octavian? Will teaching English be the first step at
“normalizing” the planet and bringing it into the galactic economy?
Angry Young Spaceman presents the wonder of the galaxy as simply folks
trying to live their lives and get along, despite their differences.