Blurb:
The generational fleet was supposed to land on a new world in eighty years. Eleven planets and four hundred years later, they finally found a home.
The only problem is something already lives there, and it’s big.
Agetha and her husband Daved have lived in zero-G in the fleet their whole short lives. Now they are thrown into turmoil as the fleet lands, surrounded by a vibrant biomass consisting of a single fungal alien organism spanning the entire planet. Together, they must build a new home, brave a dangerous organism, and decide when and if they might raise a family in this new inhospitable landscape.
Jane Brighton holds tenuous command over the entire colony and the other administrators who once commanded the ships of the fleet. She and the other gene-modded leaders who have stayed in suspended animation for the four hundred year journey of the fleet find crew who are much different than the ones they started out with on Old Earth. Jane must direct the fragile colony, ever in danger of being overrun by the fast-growing biomass. The generational crew of the ships have their own agendas, but Jane and the other leaders will live many times longer than the colonists. They must balance the growth and survival of the colony with the fleeting lives of those who would build it.
But there is something none of the colonists know. The massive organism that spans the planet is not simply a fungal mass, nor even simply a chimerical combination of species that once roamed free on the planet. The biomass has desires and goals, and one of those is to know these strange beings carving out a new home in its midst.
Review:
Disclaimer: These thoughts are my own personal experience with the book. They do not represent Team Escapist as a whole.
This book has a lot of very interesting ideas and approaches the colonization of a planet in a very good way. The technical aspects of the book are very well thought out and make a lot of sense in the worldbuilding that takes place throughout the novel. The different castes are also unique and are done well with a divisiveness that adds a lot to the overall story. The passage of time is pretty large and it does jump between a lot of characters, within a pretty short book for what it tries to accomplish.
The strength of the novel was the worldbuilding. Lida is unique and interesting. I was constantly intrigued to see what the characters would do to combat and tame the new world that they were trying to call home. It starts off from the very beginning and then continues until the very end with great visuals. Unfortunately, it is hard to really connect with any of the characters. A lot of this is due to the time jumps. They start off fairly small but at the end we are jumping between some pretty long lengths of time for some of the characters. It makes it feel like I need to be reintroduced each time that this happened.
Overall, this story will appeal to a lot of sci fi lovers who are always interested in what could truly be out there. And what could happen if a world was truly to be colonized for the first time. I truly enjoyed most of my time in this world but there were times that I wish I had more, just so that I could be more invested in what the characters were trying to accomplish.
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!
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