This is a sci-fi story with a unique twist. A group of Earthlings embarked on a space voyage to establish a new society called Pax, dedicated to avoiding the conflict and ecological collapse that had made life on Earth so difficult. The planet they arrived on was not their intended target, but it could support human life. However, the ecology was strange and unpredictable, full of strange animals and plants that could deliver either nourishment or poison without warning.

The first section (Year 1) describes the struggles of the new settlers. Then the timeline jumps to Year 34, the second generation. This new group had grown suspicious of the elders, and after going exploring they found an alien city that seemed more habitable than the original settlement. The jump to Year 63 sees the third generation beginning to communicate with the enormous rainbow bamboo plant surrounding the city.

By Year 106, the humans and Stevland (the intelligent bamboo plant that possesses a plant intelligence quite different from the humans and other animals) have established a partnership. Stevland and the other plants need the animals to spread their seeds, and the animals need the food that the plants can provide. At this point, the succession of time jumps ends, and the entire second half of the book stays in this time period. The community faces a major threat when attacked by the Glassmakers, another alien race on the planet and the one that created the beautiful glass buildings that comprise the city. The Glassmakers once must have had an advanced culture, but after abandoning the city they descended into an uncivilized horde. They finally find a way to coexist with the humans, but the secret of their history is the great unanswered question at the end of the book. Hopefully it is answered in the sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's Copy.

Interesting take on first contact sci-fi. I found it interesting. It was a new take and the ideas of a communicating plant and how that works is intriguing.

Semiosis is an interesting and cool ideas sci fi book. I went into it expecting more like sci fi horror, a la Annihilation, however it does not play like that. If you enjoyed Children of Time by Adrien Tchaikovsky, this book is probably your speed. I liked the different portrayals of intelligence and the way that the society of Pax evolved over time, it was really interesting to see that play out.

I've been meaning to read this forever, and now I regret waiting this long. Incredibly original, interesting story! Burke does an excellent job of giving you enough information to get the hang of what's going on, but not so much that you're not learning throughout the entire book.

I was sent this by the publisher in preparation for a new novel by Sue Burke coming out in this series. I enjoyed this! I love me an aliens story, and while first contact isn't always my cup of tea, it was an interesting read. A group living on Pax is trying to create a utopian society after the climate on Earth was destroyed. Settlers begin seemingly falling into a deep forever sleep, after eating plant matter on the new planet. Turns out, the plants are alive! (Well, they're obviously alive because they're plants, but they're sentient--that's the word I was looking for). I found this story really compelling, and while I wish we got a bit deeper with the characters, I liked the world, plot, and writing present in the story. I'm excited to read book 2, and book 3 (in October 2024 when it comes out)!

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for a copy of this first book in this multi-award winning series dealing with a strange new, the generations of humans that fled Earth for a new start, and the wonders they find themselves amidst, and how humans will always be humans, no matter where they go.

First contact stories are the backbone of science fiction. Aliens meeting humans allow for a variety of different stories. First contact, means vast interstellar wars, or deep philosophical thoughts on the nature of life, the universe and everything. Even the hey aliens are just like us, let's do things together, have adventures, explore, fight galactic empires. I am partial to all these kinds of stories, but I always like the stories were the strange creatures from another world are just different than what we expect. Not a furry dog like person, not a human seeming person missing a thumb or pinkie toe, but utterly different. These kind of stories take a lot of work, a lot of thinking especially when the aliens are revealed slowly. Or when the humans are the aliens. Semiosis by writer and translator Sure Burke is a hard-science fiction story dealing with strange new worlds, different life forms, and the capacity for humans to be just as human as ever, even after fleeing a dying world.

Semiosis is a multi-generational story set on the planet Pax. The book covers over 100 years and about 7 generations on the planet. Pax was settled by humans fleeing a world that was not doing well, slowly dying, at least that is how some stories go. Later generations might have a different take on that. Leaving Earth the crew entered suspended animation and after 157 years came to their new home. Which wasn't the one they had thought, the ship's computer felt this one was more lush and safer. Things proceeded to go wrong from their. Landing craft crashes cost them members of their team, and equipment like food replicators that could not be replaces. Once a food was decided as safe, it suddenly turned bad, killing three more members of the landing team, until a solution, an agreement was made with local plant life. As time goes on more problems develope. Frozen embryos turn bad, sterility is rising, and secrets are being kept from the next generations. Secrets like a glass city, others aliens on the planet. And a revelation that will change everything.

A big sprawling novel that tells quite a big story, in a very unique way. The book is broken down into chapters dealing with each generation and its struggles. This means primary characters in one chapter, become secondary or disappear in other books. This seems in a way like interconnected short stories, but is really a good way of telling about life on Planet Pax. One never gets the full story from each narrator, one has to piece together the things they don't share. or omit. The book is very well-written and as one reads more and more about what Pax is like is revealed. The science is used well, there are a lot of explanations, especially the botany in the beginning, and the creation of the city later that was quite informative, and helped the story move. As a reader I had no idea I was locked in so much, until the end of the chapter. I didn't even notice time passing. A really good story, that is part one of what looks like a big series. I've already ordered the second book.

Recommended for readers who enjoy big sprawling books with strong characters and different kinds of aliens. Readers of Kim Stanley Robinson, Ray Nayler and Brian Aldiss will definitely enjoy this story, for all the right reasons.

This starts off feeling very... Jeff Vandermeer, in the best way possible. That eerie underlying tone of the unknown, the uncharted, but there's something that mellows out halfway through that makes this even more interesting. The sociopolitics and discussion of what it really means to be "civilized" might be one of my favourite parts of this, weirdly enough, and there's so much to the tone of the book that feels like it deserves every ounce of praise. This isn't necessarily just a science fiction novel, this is hearkening back to the origins of good sci fi; first contact, developing societies, and a discussion of what we truly are as people.

An interesting and engaging multi-generational science fiction thriller. My first of the author's novels, and I enjoyed it. I've always been fond of interstellar colonist stories, and this is a good example of what can be done with that sub-genre. Also the first of a duology, which I hope to finish soon.

Recommended if you're a sci-fi fan.

Covers hundreds of years and several generations of human habitation on an alien planet. A readalike for Children of Time but with sentient, adaptable and communicative plants. Character-driven but impersonal.

This was such a cool concept and I wanted to like it, but I just had way too many problems with it.

Problem number 1 was the characters. The most positive feeling I felt towards any of the characters was apathy. Most of them I either felt annoyance or dislike for. I actively wanted the colony to fail at points because I so disliked the characters. Even looking at the group as a whole and not just as individuals I was so frustrated with them.

Problem number 2 for me was pacing. I found myself at many points just wanting the book to get on with things. This was probably compounded with my problem with the characters. Since each section was narrated by a different character I lived with the constant hope that maybe the next narrator would be better. But even so, I felt that the plot just dragged. Maybe a failed attempt to build tension?

Problem number 3 was believability of some of the plot points. Like how the got to this planet. They are space-fairing travelers with an AI that decides that Pax is better than wherever they were originally headed. But somehow between them and the AI, they can't manage to compensate for a little extra gravity and lose nearly all of their equipment. And they have a terribly planned lack of extras of essentials. And then they somehow can't maintain what they do have and are seemingly random about what they save? These people are insanely incompetent. Not to mention so many of the decisions that people made, both as individuals and as a society just felt so wrong and/or simplified to me. Basically everything about these characters frustrated me. And don't even get me started on the whole chapter with first and second generations, I would like to pretend that never existed.

This book was fascinating. It began as a sort of Lord of the Flies on another planet, but an order quickly emerged, and a new civilization developed, bearing some of the traits of its earthling ancestors, and taking into account the new realities of colonizing another planet.

In trying to find out about a previous civilization, though, the colonists will ignore at their peril the many other creatures that share their world. The methods of communication they develop are innovative and truly novel. Unexpected alliances are formed, and the colonists truly evolve. It's difficult to say much without ruining the plot, and the sheer delight that blooms when it becomes clear where Burke is taking this story. She pulls it off, too.

Am happy to amend my review to report that copies of Semiosis have been much enjoyed by our library readers. Will be purchasing more from this category and author in the future. Will also recommend for book club options due to unique themes and ideas.

I love first contact stories, and this one proved to be emotional and effective. I wasn't expecting the aliens to be quite as "alien" as they were. If I tell you what the aliens are like, it would spoil the fun of discovery.

A team of colonists immediately get embroiled between two alien factions, that have been at war for centuries, one hostile, the other, more willing to be cooperative, but each of them ruthless. The story takes place over several generations and chronicles how the humans adapt to the planet and how it adapts to them.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, the plot and the way the book is set up ,as it jumps ahead many years to show how humans are getting along with the planet's lifeforms. Since its a first contact story I was expecting something a little dry, and since the terms alien war had been bandied about regarding the narrative, I expected a lot more bombast. I was pleasantly surprised to find neither.

Sigo con mi carrera contrareloj para completar y publicar todas las reseñas que tengo a medias o casi terminadas. Le toca el turno a Semiosis, la primera novela de Sue Burke. Burke no es una autora desconocida, pero en general ha tenido más actividad en el mundillo dentro del campo de la edición, las antologías y demás. Ha colaborado con el fandom español, en concreto con personas como Mariano Villarreal para traducir relatos españoles al inglés. Por lo que su primera novela, y encima una de primer contacto con alienígenas, me apetecía muchísimo.


Es un tema recurrente el del primer contacto con una civilización alienígena en la ciencia ficción. Probablemente de los más recurrentes. Sin embargo son pocas las ocasiones que el tema se trata con rigor especulativo. Me explico, a menudo nos encontramos con seres antropomorfos, parecidos a los humanos pero verdes, rojos o con antenitas. Quizá por eso disfruté tanto de Embassytown, donde los alienígenas tenían una forma de comunicación totalmente distinta a la nuestra. O La historia de tu vida, de Ted Chiang. Estas son las historias que me apasionan, las más imaginativas, las más atrevidas. Porque sí, todos hemos soñado con una cantina de Mos Eisley, pero os recuerdo que el 90% eran antropomorfos y hablaban inglés. Es poco realista, aunque divertido.

Volvamos a Semiosis. La novela comienza con una expediciónc olonial humana que abandonó la Tierra en 2060, y que se dirige a una estrella lejana. La misión viene motivada por lo típico: degradación del medioambiente, conflictos bélicos y demás. Por lo que su misión es comenzar una nueva civilización en otro lugar. Tras viajar durante 158 años llegan a la estrella HIP30815f, alrededor de la cual orbita un planeta habitable, algo mayor que la Tierra. Lo llaman Pax, y descienden. Pero claro, no todo va a ser tan fácil. Varias cápsulas se estrellan al aterrizar debido a la enorme gravedad del planeta, por lo que varias personas mueren y se pierde mucho material vital para la colonización del lugar. El bioma, por supuesto, es totalmente distinto, y comienzan las complicaciones: enfermedades e infecciones desconocidas diezman a los colonos. Y descubren que las plantas, aquí, son inteligentes.

Sabemos que las planta en la Tierra pueden, hasta cierto punto, comunicarse, segregar esporas o ciertas segregaciones químicas para afectar a su entorno (incluso influenciar en el comportamiento de insectos), etc. Burke aprovecha este aspecto y lo lleva a una escala mucho superior en su novela especulativa que, por lo que habréis deducido, trata precisamente sobre la pregunta: ¿y si las plantas de la Tierra también fueran inteligentes? ¿Y si hubiera un lugar donde lo son? Estas respuestas encuentran lugar en Pax, el planeta ficticio de la autora.

La estructura del libro no destaca demasiado, pero funciona y es efectiva. El primer capítulo se centra en el primer grupo de colonos y va dando saltos temporales entre las sucesivas generaciones durante todo un siglo de tiempo. El segundo capítulo, por ejemplo, se centra en un personaje de la primera generación de humanos que han nacido en Pax. No os cuento más de la trama, pues me ha gustado mucho más de lo que esperaba en un inicio. El estilo de Sue Burke es directo y efectivo, manteniendo el ritmo durante todo el libro gracias a esa estructura narrativa que he mencionado. Semiosis es una novela muy bien escrita, inteligente, divertida y adictiva. Especula al mismo tiempo que tiene acción, tensión y misterio. Al final del libro quedan algunas preguntas en el aire, y esto me hace sospechar que puede haber una secuela en camino (edit: la hay), y estaré encantado de leerla. Si os gustan las buenas obras sobre primeros contactos, colonización del espacio y especulación biológica y espacial, leed Semiosis, una estupenda primera novela.

Wanting to leave behind numerous conflicts, warfare and ecological disasters, a group of colonists departs Earth, to create a new, better life. They decide to land on another planet than the one they set out to, based on very good readings from their ship, so they arrive on PAX (latin for peace) with few casualties. Here, they try to form a society based on peace and harmony, avoiding conflicts and trying to negotiate and coexist with Pax’s sentient alien life.

Apart from the interesting premises of sentient plants and the intriguing PoV of one of this sentient lifeforms, you have lots more to think about during and after reading this book. If you decide to depart your planet (you are not forced, but DECIDE to leave - would you, really?! even to escape a warring and suicidal society), how do you choose what to take with you? Not only objects (computers, spare parts, medical equipment, industrial appliances), but especially knowledge: medicine, science, history (to know what to avoid) etc. Also, do you disclose to future generations the warfare in human history, trying to teach them how to avoid it, or do you simply erase it from their knowledge, so they don’t know that can exist? Not to mention that nothing guarantees that future generations will value this way of thinking and living and won’t make the same mistakes that seem to hover over humanity..

This is a four star book partly for the writing, and partly because I just haven't read anything like it. I have read science fiction (and fantasy, and horror) involving sentient plants, before, but nothing as nuanced as this, and nothing that had plant POV sections; I'm not usually a massive fan of generational sci-fi either (Children of Time excepted), and I did find this slow to get going, but once it did I enjoyed it a lot. Very good work with the alien concepts, too. I'll not look at plants quite the same way again (especially not bamboo).

Side note: the 'Gift Centre' still makes me chuckle when I think of it.

I liked parts of this book a lot but there were whole sections that I could barely read. I loved the vines. Everything else, not so much.

Published by Tor Books on February 6, 2018

In its infancy (both in its Golden Age and for years thereafter), science fiction took human supremacy as a given. Humans were viewed as superior to aliens and were destined to prevail in conflicts. A few writers (Clifford D. Simak among them) took a contrary approach, writing stories in which aliens had a lot to teach stupidly aggressive humans, but even today, the notion of human supremacy is alive and well in science fiction.

The best science fiction asks us to question our assumptions. Semiosis questions the assumption of human supremacy without denigrating human nature. Two forms of alien life come into contact with a human colony. One faction of humans condemns both alien species because, well, they aren’t human. A competing faction argues in favor of mutualism. Neither perspective is presented in a simplistic way, giving rise to the kind of debate that invites the reader to decide how humans might best interact with intelligent nonhuman aliens, if and when we meet them.

The first alien life form is a sentient plant, or more broadly, the most intelligent plant in an ecosystem. Different kinds of self-aware plants with varying degrees of intelligence communicate with each other chemically. Other life forms on the planet (flippokats are fun, flippolions less so, and bats have rudimentary language) interact with humans, but only the plants manipulate them.

Fifty human colonists on a distant world called Pax want to create a place that exists in harmony with nature. Global warming is ravaging Earth, so the colonists are looking to do better than the humans they left behind. They have a fine constitution dedicated to peace, freedom, and equality. Of course, by the time the second generation matures, the first generation has become repressive, outlawing time-wasting notions like art and forcing women to breed. Such is the nature of humanity; fine ideas give way to our worst instincts when things aren’t going well.

The novel follows the human colonists through seven generations. Each generational chapter is narrated by a human from that generation. The question for each generation of colonists is whether the plants can be trusted. Plants can synthesize chemicals, but chemicals can be beneficial or toxic. Will humans control the plants, will plants control the humans, or will plants and people work together to attain their mutual goals? The reader is likely to revise tentative answers to those questions repeatedly as the story moves forward.

The second generation comes upon a city in which glass has clearly been shaped as art and for utilitarian uses. The colonists dub the city’s original inhabitants “the Glassmakers,” but humans do not encounter an actual Glassmaker until later in the story, after the first few generations have become part of colonial history. The Glassmakers are the second alien race to interact with the human colony, but they seem to be more primitive and confrontational than the beautiful city they left behind would suggest.

Whether the Glassmakers are good or evil is no more easy to answer than whether humans are good or evil. Forgiveness is, for some, a human virtue, but we sometimes find it easier to forgive ourselves and our friends than people who are not in our own circle. Can we learn to forgive aliens for their harmful behavior, even if their behavior was based on a misunderstanding of humans? Will they forgive us for misunderstanding them?

Understanding another human is difficult enough for humans; understanding an alien might be an impossible task. Semiosis suggests that it is a task that, at best, will require multiple generations of effort on the part of both humans and aliens. But in the end, understanding the universe and all of its inhabitants is worthwhile, and the need to pursue understanding rather than conflict is at the heart of the best science fiction. Semiosis easily falls into the category of “the best” science fiction. In the depth of its story and of its characters, Semiosis is award-worthy.

RECOMMENDED

I originally received this to review, but I felt back for neglecting it and picked up the hardback at that most excellent bookstore, the American Book Center in Amsterdam. I've been meaning to read it for ages, so that was the impetus to finally get going, and for the most part I wasn't disappointed. The idea is great, and the way it explores a different kind of intelligence, a different way of living, is really great. I enjoyed the character of Stevland; it was a little too human-sounding at times near the end, but I do think that was partially intentional, as Stevland and the humans grew to co-exist and help one another, and genuinely work together (rather than one thinking of training or compelling the other).

I also really enjoyed that though the plants being sentient and against you would make a really creepy and probably enjoyable sci-fi story, it was more complex than that. Nothing was as simple as some of the characters saw it -- even Tatiana, whose narration I quite liked for her dedication to working out what was happening, didn't get Stevland quite right.

I was less impressed with the narrative voice, which sounded too much the same between the different characters, but that was about my only quibble. Sometimes it rather deadened the impact of events, but nonetheless there were some excellent scenes -- especially with Stevland, but also one with Tatiana and Jersey.

Overall, not perfect, but recommended!

Semiosis is such an original work of science fiction. At first I worried about the inter-generational story telling, because usually I like to follow the same set of characters throughout a story. But eventually it grew on me (heh, pun intended) and I started to see it not as a story of the characters, but as the story of a new world. I think it's probably going to be too dense for a general readership, but sci-fi fans will love it.