The Children Star - An Elysium Cycle Novel [Paperback]

Joan Slonczewski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2009

Only children can colonize the planet Prokaryon, genetically modified for a world whose chemistry kills unaltered adults. A colony of orphans struggle to survive, and find the planet hides strange secrets. ***** The Prokaryan landscape is ordered, as if by unseen gardeners, "hidden masters" no human has ever found. The weather behaves as though designed to meet the planet's needs. When fire threatens a forest, a rainstorm appears, only to dissipate when the fire is put out. ***** When a ruthless corporation threatens to terraform Prokaryon, to recreate it for "normal" humans, there is a sudden urgency to find the intelligent life form directing the planet. For only then can the colonists save their world-and reveal unexpected possibilities for the human future.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Pick (December 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604504455
• ISBN-13: 978-1604504453
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,864,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joan Lyn Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer. Her novel "The Highest Frontier" shows a college in a space habitat financed by a tribal casino and protected from deadly ultraphytes by Homeworld Security. According to Alan Cheuse at NPR, her book invents "a worldwide communications system called Toy Box that makes the iPhone look like a Model-T Ford."

Slonczewski's classic book, "A Door into Ocean" (Campbell Award) depicts an ocean world run by genetic engineers who repel an interstellar invasion using nonviolent methods similar to Tahrir Square. In her book "Brain Plague," intelligent microbes invade human brains and establish microbial cities. She also authored with John W. Foster the leading microbiology textbook, Microbiology: An Evolving Science (W. W. Norton).

Author blog: ultraphyte.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Morality and Biology on Prokaryon, January 4, 2007

By 

ManicPanic (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children Star (Elysium Cycle) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Children Star tells the story of newly discovered planet from a both a biological and political perspective. The plot itself is surely one any sci-fi reader has read before, but its perspective and characters are original and thought-provoking, written with an eye for both the beautiful and ugly aspects of humanity.

Slonczewski portrays aspects of modern society as species of the "Fold", cleverly having them play out a modern day drama in the discovery of the new planet Prokaryon. The immortal Elysiums (the wealthy) in cahoots with the profit minded Proteus Corp. (big business) combine to find a new home for the overpopulated L'li that doesn't involve the refugees cluttering up the home world of the rich and powerful. These pathetic L'ils, like poverty stricken populations of our third world country, even take desperate treks through space on overcrowded starships to crash land on planets where they have no home, no money and no hope for survival. The fact that Prokaryon is already teeming with inhabitants, perhaps intelligence ones, does little to hinder the Fold's plan to create a new colony for the sick and poor. Money and influence quickly win and a tense struggle to save the indigenous species ensues.

This story unfolds around a religious colony struggling to co-exist with the planet, where young orphans live off the land, taken care of by sentient machines who have found their calling in the "Spirit". The author's play of species off species, including sentient machines that earn their freedom through consciousness and work furlough, was fascinating. While I just skimmed through the biology lecture sections of the book, I didn't feel that took away anything from the story, and some may find it enhances it for them. I haven't read the other books in the Elysium Cycle (Door into Ocean and Brain Plague) but I plan to now. I'm hoping they have less bizarre alien physiology and more inter-galactic policy.

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative!, December 20, 2009

By 

S. Corbett "geoflora" (Saint Marys, Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Children Star - An Elysium Cycle Book (Kindle Edition)

I simply love Joan Slonczewski, and I wish she authored more books! Alas, I suppose she's busy with her hard-core research (she's a biology professor). So I will wait with baited breath until another installment of the Elysium cycle hits. The Children Star is a must-read introduction to the microscopic world of Prokaryon! Very imaginative, and alltogether possible (if we ever colonized other worlds, that is). The first 2/3 of the book are well-written, but rather slow. The last 1/3 is worth waiting for, as the story picks up rapidly and comes to a satisfying conclusion. You MUST read Brain Plague after reading The Children Star. I originally read Brain Plague first, so the Children Star was a bit like a pre-quel. I re-read Brain Plague afterward, and appreciated it even more than I had the first time (and I loved it the first time). Bravo Dr. Slonczewski!

4.0 out of 5 stars The title doesn't do the book justice, November 14, 2009

By 

orbops (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Children Star (Elysium Cycle) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Children Star turned out to be surprisingly engaging. It seems to straddle the target reader market of teenagers and adults. I liked the concepts presented concerning biology, but wish some of the other characters had more detail and development. The Elysium world that Joan Slonczewski created has interested me enough to look at other books from her.