boocia's Reviews > Semiosis

i had some stylistic quibbles but by the end this book won by over by what it was interested in, and how good a job it did with bouncing ideas off of each other.

structurally this book feels like that thing where someone writes a really good short story and it takes off so they write a whole book, which i don't mind, but it does mean it's split into basically 7 short stories that are from different points in this human colony's history.

stylistic beef: some of the hand is just a little overplayed, there was something almost young-adult-novel-y about say, the section where one of the charas kept observing that it was a perfectly quiet day and everything was working exactly as planned for several pages, when it was extremely obvious that everything was in fact going to go to shit.

cognitive aesthetic beef: i think the premise of plants using chemicals to manipulate their surroundings, and specifically the animals around them, is good, but i do think this the sheer power of Stevland, this sentient ancient bamboo, seems a little ridiculous. it is seemingly able to generate any medicine or chemical that is helpful for the plot, including ones effective on not only one but two different species not indigenous to the planet, so like, there were moments that felt more fantastical in the "we have this semi-worshipful relationship with a wizard" way that undercut the sciencefictional elements at times.

i had a bit of a skeptical reaction at first (more later) to some of the ways violence is deployed in this work, as well. the second story describes a revolt by Gen2 humans against Gen1 humans. Gen1 humans - who established this colony called Pax explicitly on the grounds of not wanting to recreate Earth-ly violence, war, etc. - hide information from Gen2 and abuse/murder/rape them to keep them in line politically, which just doesn't make any sense, or belies a laughably pessimistic view on how humans work. the sheer gore-violence of the serial killer plotline in a later short story also just felt kinda weird to me at first blush; you'd think you'd want to talk about how to contend with murder and violence in an attempted utopia in a more nuanced way, other than nobody-was-wrong, this person was "just sick" line.

however there was a lot of play in this book that i really enjoyed that vindicated these bits later.

(1a) really fascinated by the flickering between plant/animal and "citizen" throughout. Stevland as a member of his species regularly "keeps" animals; this is sort of the central extrapolation of this book, the way that plants can create chemicals to induce bugs to idk, eat pests or bring it pollen or whatever. Stevland keeps animals the way humans keep cows, or dogs, or whatever. Over time he has his own gratifying character arc of ascribing to Pax's values, human values, and becomes himself a citizen, making a leap from ecosystemic "mutualism" to sentient "society" that was pretty cool. in general that's sort of the knife's edge that Pax and Stevland walk; he relies on them to live and they on him, but the humans are repeatedly wary on relying on him because if he makes the food, and the chemicals in the food, and the medicines they rely on, then he really can just control them like animals, hack their biology, or just blackmail them. Stevland in turn before learning citizenship is all about controlling humans biological and societally so they can better serve him. the materiality of this situation never changes; Stevland does rely on humans and humans rely on Stevland; but over time darwinian mutualism turns into society based on values, right? so that's really cool, this interest in making a "leap" from nature to society, or pointing out that the line between the two is thin indeed, or even perhaps asking why we in our world don't consider what the plants and animals around us "have a right to", given that we literally rely on them for our survival too.

(1b) the introduction in the later chapters of the Glassmakers, the aliens that came before humans, makes this whole thing more complicated as well. Pax - with its pacifist values - doesn't want to kill the Glassmakers, and explicitly wants to ally with them. when the Glassmakers attack the Pacifists do not kill them, but do drug them via Stevland and then take literally all their clothes and tools. this is explicitly a way to coerce them to cooperate; if they are willing to join Pax and become Citizens they are allowed their clothes back. there's definitely this undercurrent of basically de-sentientizing them until they are willing to become sentient the way the humans are; citizenship. there's this underlying biology here too; ultimately the Glassmakers who still have a matriarch of their family (in the biological queenbee sense) are able to be civilized; the "Orphans" who have lost their matriarchs are cruel torturers, unwilling to speak to humans, and are ultimately slaughtered like animals; or even slaughtered by nature. the humans don't kill the Orphans, but Stevland entices a native hunting animal pack to come and finish the job. so again this flickering of sentient to animal and back; the underlying deciding factor being this biological fact of motherhood. the serial killer arc also ends with the discovery of a brain disease; you become a murderer and a non-citizen when your biology is unbalanced. you become a citizen when your biology is balanced with the ecosystem around it. there's just something super wacky about this , but compelling.

(2) other thing i really enjoyed seeing played around with was what role secrets play in a functioning society. the initial rift between Gen1 and Gen2 is because Gen1 hides both the truth about Earth - afraid to teach their children the realities of war and sin in case they Get ideas - and about the Glassmaker's city; which they deemed too dangerous because of Stevland. other secrets are that Tatiana fails to stop the serial killer because instead of announcing anyone was murdered she thought it'd be safer to keep it to herself so nobody would suspect her of investigating. Sylvia murdering the first moderator (leader) to become a better one is sort of a original sin that is passed on from moderator to moderator until Stevland finally announces it to everyone at the end of the book. so there's something there, i think, about trusting people with knowledge, perhaps. idk, but definitely fun to think about.

(3) the key role that having a relationship with the animals on this planet as well as the plants was really interestingly depicted. partially because they stay pretty agricultural, there is always a "fippmaster" who has to be wolf-pack style become the alpha of the "lions" that the villagers rely on for things. the fippokats are domesticated as well but are smarter than any animals from Earth, and basically dig holes and stuff but think they are playing games. the plants Stevland talks to and also needs - he convinces the turnips to grow food for the humans, etc. are on a very gradated line of intelligence as well, from extremely stupid and barely sentient to full on personalities. much like in Children of Time, this alien world where sentience isn't black and white and so you have to negotiate and think about the world around you's intentions and needs urges the reader to re-think how little shrift we are giving to the living things on our planet, right? the idea of making a "contract" with your livestock or your food supply is just v compelling to me.

v readable, and an easy read as well