Semiosis by Sue Burke
Earth colonists sought the ideal home, but they will have to make do with the one they found. They are unaware that another life form is watching and waiting.
Mutual dialogue is the only way to establish a partnership with the planet’s sentient species and demonstrate that people are more than just instruments.
Semiosis by Sue Burke
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Burke bases his depiction of extremely intelligent plants on a world called Pax, which has been colonized by humans. Pax, a planet revolving around a star 23 years away, is a billion years older than Earth, and the life it sustains has been evolving for much longer. There are intellectual animals, but none that can be compared to human sapiens in any way. The competition for resources between human settlements and flora is on. The most clever of all is a type of bamboo that the colonists refer to. It’s intriguing to read Burke’s painstaking account of how the two species develop communication. On the initial encounter, it’s a whole new wrinkle.
Semiosis by Sue Burke follows a colony of people who left Earth and made peace their top priority as they made it generation after generation in a strange world. Their continued existence will depend on an odd alliance with a novel form of sentient life, as the back cover of the book promises.
I’m afraid that, as far as I could determine, the premise never quite managed to live up to that promise, even though it is excitingly hopeful.
I was captivated by the idea of a “sentient alien plant” from the first time I heard about it, and I frequently pondered how Burke would depict a sentience that was not only non-human but also truly alien. Burke, in my opinion, did a fantastic job here.
A well-written novel with strong pacing and intriguing characters is provided by Sue Burke. The traditional space conflicts for control of the galaxy are very different from an intelligent plant on a strange planet where human inhabitants struggle to exist without it. The book’s extended generational timeline is satisfying because it demonstrates how the settlers adjust to a strange new world without all the advantages of technology. It’s a good thing that Sue Burke’s writing makes me think of Ursula LeGuin and Naomi Mitchison!
