392 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Three separate alien societies have claims on Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten the tenuous balance of a coveted world. Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's designated guardian. An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population. Now Shan and her party -- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them -- could face a similar annihilation . . . or a fate far worse. Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands -- …
Three separate alien societies have claims on Cavanagh's Star. But the new arrivals -- the gethes from Earth -- now threaten the tenuous balance of a coveted world. Environmental Hazard Enforcement officer Shan Frankland agreed to lead a mission to Cavanagh's Star, knowing that 150 years would elapse before she could finally return home. But her landing, with a small group of scientists and Marines, has not gone unnoticed by Aras, the planet's designated guardian. An eternally evolving world himself, this sad, powerful being has already obliterated millions of alien interlopers and their great cities to protect the fragile native population. Now Shan and her party -- plus the small colony of fundamentalist humans who preceded them -- could face a similar annihilation . . . or a fate far worse. Because Aras possesses a secret of the blood that would be disastrous if it fell into human hands -- if the gethes survive the impending war their coming has inadvertently hastened.
Overall good scifi and world building, with what I consider appropriate cynicism/realism around human behavior in first contact scenarios
If you're reading this on Goodreads, you'll see I gave it four stars, and honestly, I almost gave it five, but decided not to only because of some uncertainty about the sequel. Not that I've read it, yet, because my public library, for reasons best known to certain city officials, lacks the funding to catalogue paperbacks, so every library expedition is a bit like a dungeon crawl. Does the library own the sequel? Who knows! Certainly not the Public Library! (Mr Katz, I hope to make you the number one google result for "library cheapskate." You're welcome.)
Back on topic. A lot of the SF I read is more properly space opera; it may pay some lip service to relativity, but the only physics it obeys are Newtonian. Here is SF with science behind it; undergirding it; moving it. Not the sort where a half chapter is taken …
If you're reading this on Goodreads, you'll see I gave it four stars, and honestly, I almost gave it five, but decided not to only because of some uncertainty about the sequel. Not that I've read it, yet, because my public library, for reasons best known to certain city officials, lacks the funding to catalogue paperbacks, so every library expedition is a bit like a dungeon crawl. Does the library own the sequel? Who knows! Certainly not the Public Library! (Mr Katz, I hope to make you the number one google result for "library cheapskate." You're welcome.)
Back on topic. A lot of the SF I read is more properly space opera; it may pay some lip service to relativity, but the only physics it obeys are Newtonian. Here is SF with science behind it; undergirding it; moving it. Not the sort where a half chapter is taken up with cats in boxes and lecturing the reader, but the sort where the science is almost palpably a character in itself.
Shan Frankland is an interesting protagonist: a retirement-age civil-servant and former police officer. She's explicitly Pagan, something I would have liked to have seen more of, although there are something like five sequels to this book, and quite a bit more room for it to come up.
The other interesting thing, to me, was how much of the book was about ecology, and human (and alien) environments, environmental sustainability, and biology. More than is evident at the start of the novel, certainly. I want to say more, but am wary of spoiling.
I'm not entirely certain if this book is very good, or just very much the sort of thing I enjoy. It takes mature loners and gives them a connection which they didn't expect to find. I like those sorts of stories.
