The Children Star (Elysium Cycle) [Mass Market Paperback]

Joan Slonczewski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1999 | Series: Elysium Cycle

Joan Slonczewski, author of Daughter of Elysium, and A Door into Ocean, is one of the field's leading writers of biological SF. Her new novel, The Children Star, is an ambitious adventure set on the planet Prokaryon -- a world that is only habitable to humans who have been genetically altered. But disaster is close at hand when a greedy corporation attempts to alter the planet's ecosystem in an attempt to make it habitable for all humans. Spectacular and plausible world-building fun from an SF writer to watch.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two hundred years after the events recounted in Slonczewski's Daughter of Elysium (1993), little has changed in the confederacy of human worlds known as the Fold. The wealthy, near-immortal technocrats of Elysium still dominate Fold politics, and the Sharers still promote environmental concerns. On L'li, the population explosion continues with millions dying from malnutrition and disease. On Prokaryon, colonization proceeds slowly because each human colonist must undergo a painful process of genetic adjustment in order to survive on the planet. One successful colony there has been founded by a religious order, the Spirit Callers, who have devoted themselves to the rescue of L'liite orphans. Most of the other colonists on Prokaryon, both human and sentient machine, are small-scale miners or scientists working to uncover the planet's "hidden masters," the perhaps mythical intelligences behind Prokaryon's suspiciously regular ecology. Both genetically altered colonists and indigenous life forms are threatened when an avaricious Elysian capitalist determines to take over Prokaryon for his own private domain. The main characters?Brother Rod, a Spirit Caller; Sarai, a renegade Sharer; 'jum, a six-year-old mathematical genius; Khral, an uplifted simian geneticist?all are soon engaged in a race against time to uncover the secret masters of Prokaryon and save the planet. Slonczewski, a noted biologist, has written a novel that features enough absorbing material on genetics and planetary ecology to satisfy any aficionado of hard SF. At the same time, she tackles a wide range of moral issues, from overpopulation to ecological responsibility and the ethics of machine intelligence. Remarkably, Slonczewski accomplishes all of this in a story that is not only exciting but also is filled with memorable characters, human, alien and sentient machine.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A small colony of orphaned children and their mentors, genetically altered to survive in the fertile yet inhospitable environment of the planet Prokaryon, fights to prevent a galactic bureaucracy from claiming and terraforming its adopted world. As scientists and researchers comb the planet for signs of indigenous intelligence, a few insightful individuals discover that their planet's salvation lies within its smallest inhabitants. Set in the same world as Door into Ocean (1986) and Daughter of Elysium (Avon, 1993), this novel offers a dazzling array of alien life and a cast of memorable characters. Slonczewski's imaginative and compelling tale of transformation and renewal belongs in most sf collections. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (August 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812568621
• ISBN-13: 978-0812568622
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,459,867 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.