Laurent Genefort

This was my first encounter with French SF-author Laurent Genefort's works. The man has been writing SF-stories for many years and the Mois de l'imaginaire (see the Facebook-page, at least for 2017, unless they'll keep it, here) was an excellent incentive to buy one of his books. [b:Lum'en|33178743|Lum'en|Laurent Genefort|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1488205643s/33178743.jpg|45575544]'s story looked the most promising to me: the colonisation of a planet far away in the galaxy, yet show more retaining a link with Mother Earth for supplies and other goods.

Garance is the only planet among six to be habitable. For many years, humans have colonised the place, building a civilisation, relying on food and other supplies from Mother Earth. Until at some point, independence crept in and the "magnéto-lanceur" (a sort of launch device) was destroyed, resulting in cutting the links with Mother Earth. Now, the colonisers had to rely on their own, start cultivating the soil and what not, grow their own food.

Of course, as you can imagine, back at Mother Earth, those in charge of the colonising project (DeMeTer) were not happy about this development, this change, this rebellion. So they sent envoys to examine what was going on, why it happened, and thus try to bring the colonisers "to their senses".

The planet, Garance, has its own fauna and flora. The six stories, all independent yet related and linked (they are chronologically linked), tell of the lives of the colonisers, their encounters with the local fauna and flora (and trying to establish communication with said fauna, pilas). Meanwhile, there's a entity (Lum'en, hence the title of the book) below ground that seeks to establish connection with the colonisers, but as they have installed civilisation with roads and what not (including robots/drones doing the hard work, constructing, extracting minerals, ...), the concrete roads block any efforts to let the two parties approach each other.

As you can imagine with humanity, the stories also deal with political struggles (one faction against the other, fighting for supremacy - for the greater good of all?), religion/spirituality (seeing the local fauna as gods, for example), ... One of the envoys was sent over as negotiator to start peace negotiations (à la Israel vs Palestine). He didn't want military protection, so as not to attract too much attention to his mission and person. A simple police-woman would suffice, but it would be one tough lady, who would soon enough aid him in his visits. Of course, not everyone is satisfied with his coming and will try to get rid of him, despite him sending reports to his employer (DeMeTer, the organisation that set up the colonisation project).

And as you can imagine with humanity, when a forced rescue mission is due (to drop the rescued ones elsewhere, obviously), nature can reclaim its territory and possessions. Man-made constructions and products are left to rot, deteriorate, ... However, I didn't fully understand why Lum'en, somehow saved from the concrete by a stubborn kid, who eventually, as almost sole survivor lost his life doing a final act for nature, set for space itself. To go and seek the humans that once colonised its planet? To enjoy freedom?
The pilas apparently, over the course of a very long period, became very intelligent and managed to build vessels and what not. That too was a little weird for me, a bit too easy to seek an ending.

I've got mixed feelings about the book. The story/ies take place in a vast area of space, if only on one habitable planet (one gas planet, the other 5 were terrestrial ones) - Garance -, with its own fauna and flora and what not. Geneforts writing style isn't as accessible as you'd wish, as is some vocabulary (evidently). It takes some time to get into the story (overall), but once in, it's relatively smooth reading. It was, on the other hand, not always easy to sympathise with the characters, which may be a weak point in Genefort's writing. Something I've read in other reviews and of (some of) his other books.

So, in short: good ideas, interesting world, but the story overall not as exciting as it could have been. Not sure if I'll read another Genefort any time soon, though, and that's partly due to my large TBR-pile. show less