Semiosis (Semiosis Duology, #1)

(em português → sol2070.in/2024/10/livro-semiosis-sue-burke/ )

It's been harder to read science fiction, for some reason. Or rather, it's not been easy to find books I like in the genre. In the last few weeks, I've abandoned three well-recommended ones. So “Semiosis” (2018, 336 pgs.), by Sue Burke, was a find.

The story covers the first century of a small human settlement on the planet Pax, roughly the year 2200, after the complete collapse of civilization and the environment on Earth. The plan is a reboot of humanity, with values that don't point towards compromising the environment and self-destruction. Pax has a biosphere similar to Earth's — already with vegetation and animals — but as it is a billion years older, its members have evolved in an unexpected way. The species with the most sophisticated intelligence and communication is a plant, and humans have to learn to deal with it, among other factors, such as loss of technology, population decline and environmental hostility.

It's a gripping, conflict-ridden story that also reflects fundamental questions about ethics, society and non-human sentience. It has small flaws, which can even be seen as qualities. The depth of the scientific dive into world creation is ideal — any more than that and it would be too hard sci-fi for me. However, people with a more rigorous scientific bent may be disappointed by some of the details, since the focus is on human and non-human relationships.

It's the first volume of a duology that will be completed with “Interference” (2019), already in my reading queue.

An interesting novel set over several human generations on a world where a colony of humans has become dependent on an intelligent plant to provide them with the required nutrients. In return, the humans 'serve' the plant by protecting it from other predators and helping it to spread when required. An unusual novel presenting a plant as a form of intelligence, possibly superior to man.

The plant's intelligence isn't evident at the start when the colony begins. But the biologist in the colony begins to suspect that the plants on the newly colonized planet, Pax, are intelligent when one plant tries to kill them while another 'protects' them. The way herbivores behave also give a clue as to whom is the dominant species on the planet. As the colony slowly grow under the plant's protection, conflict breaks out over whether to move the colony to yet another plant that may have attempted to 'bribe' them with gifts and the offer of more protection.

Partway through the book, the point of view shifts from the humans to the plant, which can now communicate with the humans with more than just scents and tasty fruit. The plant can see using numerous light sensitive cells and write messages with dye-sensitive ones. The plant also talks with other plants through the language of chemistry. The plant and humans now coexists, although tensions remain over who dominates and whether domination or mutual coexistence is the more desired outcome.

For the book is also about the colony trying to find a new way of life after the conflicts that have affect Earth and cause the colonist to flee to a new planet. This would be challenged when yet another alien species is discovered on the planet and the colonists and plant have to decide how to deal with them: with cooperation or with conflict.

By the end of the book, a new balance has been achieved by aliens, humans and plant: but who knows how long it can last and how it may handle any new crisis in the future.