The Enemy Papers


The Enemy Papers is a short story collection by American writer Barry B. Longyear containing, among the others, the novella "Enemy Mine", later made into a feature-length film of the same name, along with two sequels: "The Last Enemy" and "The Tomorrow Testament". The volume also contains excerpts from the holy book of the aliens featured in these stories, the Dracs, a discussion of the writing of the three stories, 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. The Drac are a race of aliens which are reptilian in appearance, and are hermaphrodites who reproduce parthenogenetically.

"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 both 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. Many of the works contains moral or philosophical statements as to how Dracs should live their lives.