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.
The Children Star
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Book Description
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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fine environmental SF,
By Sandra Lindow (Eau Claire, WI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Children Star (Hardcover)
The Children Star is a far future tale about the ethical problems involved in extending human civilization. Like Slonczewski's earlier novels Still Forms on Foxfield, A Door into Ocean and Daughter of Elysium, she takes on such accepted science fictional tropes as terraforming and weather control, opting for adjusting human biology for the specific planet humans plan to settle. Unfortunately, this medical technology is still in its infancy and those best suited for the process are infants because their body chemistry adjusts most quickly to the conditioning. Thus, the arsenic-based planet Prokaryon has been settled by a small colony of refugee orphans established by an ancient Holy Order called the Spirit Callers. The orphans are cared for by Brother Rhodonite, once a professional soldier and two sentient robots, Reverend Mother Artemis, a nanoplastic nana with tentacles and multiple breasts and Brother Geode, a six limbed, multicolored tarantula-like farm and mining machine. The characterization is well developed and believable. The plot revolves around an attempt by a corporate conglomerate to uproot the colony and burn off the planet with a terraforming white hole. Fighting this project is a hardy band of environmentalists who want to protect the unique Prokaryon ecosystem which is based on prokaryotes, or Cheerio-shaped chromosomes. Will the researchers be able to prove their claims of planetary sentience before time runs out and the conglomerate is allowed to destroy the ecoysystem? The story is exciting and Slonczewski, a working microbiologist, has done an excellent job in developing the hard scientific basis for her worldbuilding. Highly recommended for science fiction readers and environmentalists.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterfully written and thoroughly engaging novel.,
By Edward Alexander Gerster "miamibooks" (South Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Children Star (Hardcover)
Wow! This book turned out to be quite a surprise. I generally don't like "child-themed" science fiction so had left this one on my reading stack for a while. When I finally did get into the first few chapters, I found out how my preconceptions from the book's title, and the blurb on the back cover were totally off base.The very depth of mathematics and biology that are explored, within the context of a most fascinating story, are both mind expanding and enlightening. There is quite a bit more here than first meets the eye. The plotting and storyline combined with the hard science make this a most memorable and worth while novel. Highly Recommended.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Lifeshaping" and another theme make this a landmark.,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Children Star (Hardcover)
This is a landmark piece of science fiction. It introduces two new themes which are likely to sweep the world of science fiction, eventually becoming part of its stock in trade.The first of these is 'lifeshaping" -- the author's felicitous alternative to terms like "genetic engineering" or "biotech". The very term suggests the immense possibilities opening up as the result of current developments in microbiology. Joan Slonczewski, a professional microbiologist, very capably projects the good things we may be able to do, and makes them plausible. Her exploration of the moral and social implications is, in my estimation, much deeper than much of what commonly passes for "bio-ethics". It's almost impossible to invent a theme that is entirely new to science fiction, and Slonczewski herself has written previously of "lifeshaping". However, sometimes a theme that's been around explodes into prominence because of developments that catch the public fancy -- in this case, the cloning of "Dolly". Cloning is (literally) a baby step towards lifeshaping, and may or may not be advisable in its own right, but it's important that the broader vision of lifeshaping figure into the discussion. "The Children Star" puts that vision forward eloquently. One subtheme which I find particularly important is that lifeshaping can serve as an alternative to "terraforming". The latter is set up in this story as a straw man: inconceivably rough handling of a planet to make it human-habitable, in circumstances where the planet is more than a lifeless rock to start with. Personally, I anticipate that most planetary bodies will be found initially lifeless, and that we will have to use all the tricks at our command to establish a space frontier at all. Lifeshaping looks like a welcome addition to our toolbox, not a substitute for other aids. Sooner or later, too, it will occur to somebody that if we can "lifeshape" human beings to fit extraterrestrial environments, we may be able to lifeshape diverse forms of human beings to fit an evolving ecology here on Earth. I can't comment on the second landmark theme (yes, "lifeshaping" was just the first), because it's the surprise solution to a mystery which builds up throughout the story. Suffice it to say that it's more speculative than lifeshaping, but would justify the book all by itself.
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