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I bought this book at Swancon 41 and am glad to report it more of a success than the last such that I reviewed. It's hard sf, which seems unusual these days, or maybe just unusual to do well. It's a very nice looking first edition hardcopy published in 1998. This date surprised me when I looked, because its subjects of terraforming from the POV of the alien planet, and human overpopulation extending beyond Earth, seem very up to date with the concerns of today.
The "Children Star" is Prokaryon, one such world, where a religious group is trying to fit in with the world rather than changing it. They do so by changing the humans who will live there, a difficult and painful process that takes best in young children. Children they retrieve as orphans from the most hideously overpopulated and now disease-ridden world which humans occupy. They then find themselves up against big business which wants to simply "boil off the planet," bring humans in en masse and make heaps of money. The only thing which will stop them is finding intelligent life on Prokaryon. But life there is so different that intelligence will be very hard to recognise.
This book is one of a series, which I hadn't realised, but although I could tell there were other stories, I was able to follow it pretty well, considering my biology knowledge is fairly minimal, so I can report that the author is well able to convey the concepts to a less knowledgeable readership. People I talked to about the book usually knew at least one of its prequels, A Door Into Ocean and Daughter of Elysium, which I think I will need to go and read. I had read the author's other novel, The Wall Around Eden which is unrelated.
The planet and its ecosystem are characters in themselves. I didn't find the humans that compelling as characters, though they are well drawn. There's one 'hermit scientist' character from the ocean world, whom I think I would probably understand better if I had read that book. Brother Rod, the only human adult in the Spirit Caller colony, is the most interesting, along with 'jum, the last child he brings in from the dying world of L'Li. 'jum shows distinctly Aspergers-like characteristics that make her the best equipped to find the answers the group needs.
Along with wide definitions of intelligence in organic life, the author also deals with the fascinating concept of machine sentience. Technology now enables extremely advanced machines to be built, some of which have been able to achieve actual sentience, which automatically gives them full rights as citizens. This can be decidedly inconvenient, such as when a computerised skinsuit manages sentience and decides it would rather go home than continue on to the job it had been sent to do. And of course, creates new crime, as humans try to limit the possibility that a machine will become aware, thus keeping them in 'slavery.'
The Children Star isn't an easy read but well worth the time.
The "Children Star" is Prokaryon, one such world, where a religious group is trying to fit in with the world rather than changing it. They do so by changing the humans who will live there, a difficult and painful process that takes best in young children. Children they retrieve as orphans from the most hideously overpopulated and now disease-ridden world which humans occupy. They then find themselves up against big business which wants to simply "boil off the planet," bring humans in en masse and make heaps of money. The only thing which will stop them is finding intelligent life on Prokaryon. But life there is so different that intelligence will be very hard to recognise.
This book is one of a series, which I hadn't realised, but although I could tell there were other stories, I was able to follow it pretty well, considering my biology knowledge is fairly minimal, so I can report that the author is well able to convey the concepts to a less knowledgeable readership. People I talked to about the book usually knew at least one of its prequels, A Door Into Ocean and Daughter of Elysium, which I think I will need to go and read. I had read the author's other novel, The Wall Around Eden which is unrelated.
The planet and its ecosystem are characters in themselves. I didn't find the humans that compelling as characters, though they are well drawn. There's one 'hermit scientist' character from the ocean world, whom I think I would probably understand better if I had read that book. Brother Rod, the only human adult in the Spirit Caller colony, is the most interesting, along with 'jum, the last child he brings in from the dying world of L'Li. 'jum shows distinctly Aspergers-like characteristics that make her the best equipped to find the answers the group needs.
Along with wide definitions of intelligence in organic life, the author also deals with the fascinating concept of machine sentience. Technology now enables extremely advanced machines to be built, some of which have been able to achieve actual sentience, which automatically gives them full rights as citizens. This can be decidedly inconvenient, such as when a computerised skinsuit manages sentience and decides it would rather go home than continue on to the job it had been sent to do. And of course, creates new crime, as humans try to limit the possibility that a machine will become aware, thus keeping them in 'slavery.'
The Children Star isn't an easy read but well worth the time.