Interference

Interference by Sue Burke is a very highly recommended science fiction story following colonists on Pax and continuing the story from Semiosis.

"Over two hundred years after the first colonists landed on Pax, a new set of explorers arrives from Earth on what they claim is a temporary scientific mission. But the Earthlings misunderstand the nature of the Pax settlement and its real leader. Even as Stevland attempts to protect his human tools, a more insidious enemy than the Earthlings makes itself known. Stevland is not the apex species on Pax."

This is a totally engaging and fascinating science fiction story. The opening chapters set up the Earth as a disturbing dystopian society and introduce some of the new group of scientists that will show more be setting out to visit Pax for research. Then we are reintroduced to the planet Pax, a habitable planet fifty-six light years away, where a group of colonists already live. On Pax there is a stable community and a relationship between three species that are now living together as pacifists on the planet. The humans, who were originally colonists from Earth, are living in a community with the Glassmakers, large arthropod-like beings, and Svetland, an intelligent bamboo species. On Pax, both Glassmakers and humans coexist with Svetland, who privately considers them service animals. When the research group arrives, it upsets the balance the community has established. But there is something else afoot that is threatening every species.

I haven't read Semiosis, but I was able to follow the narrative in Interference without a problem and pick up enough clues to fill in anything I missed. (I am buying Semiosis, though, based on how good Interference is.) Svetland narrates much of the book, but chapters are also told from the point-of-view of other characters - Earth humans, Pax humans, Glassmakers, and plants. The characters newly arriving from Earth, started out their mission with conflicts that they bring to Pax, and immediately cause problems. The conflicts and tension the Earth humans introduce are compounded by a new group of humans arriving and an unknown threat.

The wide variety of characters are all interesting and well developed in relationship to the narrative as a whole. The single chapters from the point-of-view of different characters help provide a richness to the story as they furnish insight into what characters are thinking. These chapters add depth and discernment to the plot through the wide variety of opinions and thoughts. The writing is excellent, thoughtful, astute, and intelligent. It highlights how assumptions (on all sides/ from all species) can lead to problems, but also revelations. This is an outstanding novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Tor/Forge Books.
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The sequel to Semiosis starts out fantastically. I loved the amount of worldbuilding that had gone into this future Earth and the kinds of people they would be putting on a spaceship to interfere with Pax.

Ya gotta love the vagarities of human ignorance. It doesn't matter what we do or what we try, we always seem to f*** everything up.

So here we have an invasive species (us) doing what we do ALL OVER AGAIN on Pax. At least Steveland and the other locals have had an opportunity to get along for quite some time by now.

As we get to know both sides and watch the lies and the germs spread, I started getting a sinking feeling. All this downward spirals happened instead of a nice (possibly twisty) fantastic uptick with a sometimes wise show more Steveland. I discovered I had to start reading the book as if it was a commentary.

That isn't bad, of course. We all should see what the consequences should be for our blundering, mindless behavior and see the destructiveness of authoritarians. *shrug*

This is complex, well-thought-out, and subtle. Or sometimes not very subtle at all. That's FINE.

I guess I just wanted more diving into the whole cooperation mythos, more toe-dipping in other intelligences, new ways to make things work in the middle of sooooo much crazy interference.

The rest works on those levels, but I think this novel could have been GREAT. Not just good. But that's just my opinion. show less

That I picked up the second novel in this trilogy, when I didn't care that much for the first book, is my way of showing due diligence to Ms. Burke, in as much as I probably wasn't trying hard enough to get the most out of the story. Though once you got past the concept of a planet where plants were the dominant species I wasn't sure that there was much depth to the novel.

That said, I did get a lot more out of this book, although it feels a little over-stuffed with scenario, as a follow-on human expedition arrives at the colony of Pax. The dialogue was less clunky and there seemed to be more of a point to the whole exercise than just the high concept. I'm certainly much more interested in how Ms. Burke wraps up this story.

A little disappointing after "Semiosis". Some of the premises and decisions seemed implausible and arbitrary for plot purposes, and the characterization was a little thin. Still worth reading, but not as powerful as the first book.

This book (as well as Semiosis) is worth reading just for the world-building alone. I love trees and the secrets they hold, so sentient trees are pretty much as up my alley as is possible. The writing is also decent and the plot is okay, too.

The reason this isn't a five star read for me, is the fact that it feels incomplete. There was so much to explore in this book, and the author made the choice to pick a single path and follow that. So effectively, my gripe is basically just about personal preference.

If you don't mind a book with several loose ends, though, you'll love this. (Also, it'll make my year if it turn's out there's a third installment coming out sometime in the future!)

Follow-up to Semiosis, trades length of time for breadth of perspective, with tons of viewpoint characters. Is doing a lot—there's Atwoody dystopia stuff back on Earth, a new invading intelligence on Pax, and complicated inter-cultural & inter-species conflicts. It's still committed to a peaceful and ecologically-sound world, but it feels a little despairing that it's possible without some kind of benevolent sovereign. Points for how it deals with some pretty complex in-group power issues, but it feels less strange and wondrous than Semiosis; it's less concerned with the world and more with the story.

This book was not nearly as strong as the first one. Though still an enjoyable read, there was little to no character development for everyone and there were so many plot points thrown in that felt so rushed and tied up very well (if ever fully addressed). I also really missed the societal development that we got in the first one. We only got a tiny glimpse of that in the epilogue here.

All that being said, I still really enjoyed the societal developments we did see (especially since we got to see a tiny bit of earth this time).