Ordered commerce floats

Above a chaotic world;

Strange dreams cross dark space.

"The Panda's Dream" is set in a distant future wherein humans have erased/replaced themselves with anthropomorphized animal species, who have colonized the galaxy. A panda named Ciochan is stationmaster of an orbital space station that is the single interface between galactic civilization and the backwards planet Barsk, with its isolated population of anthropomorphized elephants. All Phants were rounded up and "sequestered" on this apparently insignificant planet after representatives of all the major species agreed that Phants were monsters: hairless, horrible, maddeningly irrational and impractical. They just didn't belong in a well-organized, well-managed galactic civilization. But then the planet Barsk turned out to be a unique resource world, so commerce had to be established and managed - hence the space station, and the responsibilities that fall to stationmaster Ciochan.

Two years prior, the routine had been briefly disrupted when a Phant succeeded in reaching the orbital station. Ciochan had been accompanied by a young Phant who'd stowed away on the cargo shipment. Ciochan, then a mere cargomaster, had been tasked with baby-sitting, and in the course of conversations with young Pizlo had come to recognize there was something out of the ordinary about him. Before departing, Pizlo had warned Ciochan that a change was imminent, but that he, Ciochan, wasn't ready for it yet. Ciochan had promptly forgotten the odd conversation, and his subsequent promotion and welter of duties kept his attention fully occupied. Until he starts having dreams in which Pizlo revisits him and starts unraveling his world view. The dreams are so disruptive to Ciochan's phlegmatic equanimity that he starts making mistakes that affect shipping efficiency.

Ciochan doesn't realize that he is actually irreplaceable; his background, his qualifications, his experience and skill sets are not the sort of things you can simply dial-up on demand. So the commerce administrators assign a peripatetic therapist to their stationmaster, in hopes that efficiency and productivity can be restored.

The psychologist is a cuddly, unflappable capybara named Bronjo, who redecorates the room and regards tea as an essential element of any good therapy session. She doesn't confront the stationmaster's troubles head on, as he expects. In fact, he is quite baffled by her methods, and by the open-ended schedule she sets. He is accustomed to clear goals and clear limits, not meandering conversations over cups of tea. And the strange dreams continue. Whether Pizlo is actually visiting Ciochan is unclear, but the dreams converge with the discoveries that Bronjo helps Ciochan make. 

If you were ever annoyed by how the writers of Star Trek TNG rendered Counsellor Deanna Troy incapable of reading a room just when her empathic skills would actually come in handy, Bronjo is a bracing tonic. Her insights are astute, delivered with an odd mix of paradox and clarity. She not only helps Ciochan reorganize his frames of reference, she allows him to make the important discoveries himself. Then she explains aspects that Ciochan (and maybe the reader) overlooked. 

The story concludes quite satisfactorily. Insights have illuminated the dark places where foreshadows moved and lurked; dreams and reality are in concord.

Lawrence Schoen is one of those writers who brings all his skills and experience to the art of storytelling. He is a psychologist, a professor emeritus, an avid reader with a keen imagination, and a superb writer. Not all readers consciously notice details of writing, the nuts and bolts of communication, but anyone who does notice can take an aesthetic delight in how well Schoen crafts his sentences and paragraphs, his characters and storylines. He has fun with his stories, and that makes them a true delight to read.

"The Panda's Dream" can be read as a standalone, but it is a sequelette to Barsk and The Moons of Barsk.  Schoen himself tells readers to "not read the last paragraph" of The Moons of Barsk if they prefer to avoid cliff-hanging; he has the final novel mapped out, but before it gets written and published he is writing about characters and side stories which are essential to the world-building before the conclusion.  With side stories this good, it's well worth the wait. - Chris R. Wozney