Did anyone else think the baby-eaters were created by the superhappies to demonstrate their point to the humans? The way the humans looked thought of the baby-eaters clearly paralleled how the superhappies viewed the humans. The end of chapter 3 really drove the point home:
They’re a lot like our own children, really.
“—they somewhat resemble the earlier life stages of our own kind.” [said Lady 3rd]
It seems to me that the superhappies had observed the humans beforehand and found their acceptance of pain abhorrent. They then fabricated the baby-eaters and arranged their contact with the humans to help drive home their point. Admittedly, fabricating petabytes of baby-eater history is very impressive, but I think this could be explained by the superhappies’ advanced technology. Sure, this explanation is a little elaborate, but I find it much more plausible than humans meeting two new alien species at once. Yes, I read the explanation that the nova attracted the attention of nearby star systems (found in chapter 7, I believe), but I don’t find that explanation extraordinary enough to fit the claim.
I did the thing!