Seed [Hardcover]

Rob Ziegler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2011

It''s the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants -starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses. In this new world, there is a new power. Satori is more than just a corporation, she is an intelligent, living city that grew out of the ruins of Denver. Satori bioengineers both the climate-resistant seed that feeds a hungry nation, and her own post-human genetic Designers, Advocates, and Laborers. What remains of the United States government now exists solely to distribute Satori seed; a defeated American military doles out bar-coded, single-use Satori seed to the nation''s starving citizens. When one of Satori''s Designers goes rogue, Agent Sienna Doss-Ex-Army Ranger turned glorified bodyguard-is tasked by the government to bring her in: The government wants to use the Designer to break Satori''s stranglehold on seed production and reassert themselves as the center of power. Sianna Doss''s search for the Designer intersects with Brood and his younger brother Pollo - orphans scrapping by on the fringes of the wastelands. Pollo is abducted, because he is believed to suffer from Tet, a newly emergent disease, the victims of which are harvested by Satori. As events spin out of control, Brood and Sienna Doss find themselves at the heart of Satori, where an explosive climax promises to reshape the future of the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"one of the best SF novels I've read this year." -Tor.com

"impressive debut...imaginative world-building, vivid writing." -Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Richly developed characters, a stark believable world...thoughtful and entertaining speculative fiction." -New York Journal of Books

About the Author

Rob Ziegler lives with his wife in rural western Colorado. Seed is his first novel, and he is currently hard at work on his second.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 350 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books; Book Club Edition edition (November 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597803235
• ISBN-13: 978-1597803236
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #685,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rob Ziegler lives with his wife in western Colorado. He writes speculative fiction. SEED is his debut novel.

Find out more at Zieglerstories.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Near Term SF in the Tradition of Windup Girl October 28, 2011

By Justin Landon

Format:Hardcover

Much like Night Shade flag bearer The Wind-Up Girl (Bacigalupi), Seed is a near term science fiction novel that centers around the impacts of climate change and over population on the world's environment. The Hugo Award winning Wind-Up Girl focused on Thailand, but hinted at the problems ongoing in America. In many ways Seed could be that story of America. That's not to say it's derivative of Bacigalupi, but there's certainly similarities in tone and texture to the world playing to the current fears that Earth is reaching 'critical mass'.

Seed is set at dawn of the 22nd century, the world has fallen apart and a new corporate power has emerged: Satori. More than just a corporation, Satori is an intelligent, living city in America's heartland. She manufactures climate-resistant seed to feed humanity, and bio-engineers her own perfected castes of post-humans. What remains of the United States government now exists solely to distribute Satori product.

When a Satori Designer goes rogue, Agent Sienna Doss is tasked with bringing her in to break Satori's stranglehold on seed production. In a race against genetically honed assassins, Doss's best chance at success lies in an unlikely alliance with a gang of thugs and Brood - orphan, scavenger and small-time thief scraping by on the fringes of the wasteland - whose young brother may be the key to everything.

What struck me most about Seed is the poignancy. Right away Ziegler jumps into Brood's nomadic life as he migrates from Mexico to the Mid-West with the imminent arrival of summer temperatures. With his special-needs brother, Brood lives just on the edge of survival. His imperative to protect crackles with emotion and his willingness to do anything to survive is heartbreaking. These threads continue into other parts of the story from the Satori lamenting the loss of their defective sibling to Agent Doss remembering her crippling childhood. Beyond the characters the world itself is bleak and desolate. Ziegler capably takes the small kindness of a drink of water and makes it a seminal moment of compassion.

Despite this being an 'American' novel Ziegler does a great job of integrating Hispanic culture into the pastoral fiber of the country. A pretty good amount of the dialogue is in Spanish often laced with Mexican slang. Elements of Hispanic culture are prevalent in the migrants and in many ways makes Seed not only a glimpse into the future of climate change and overpopulation, but a glimpse at the integration of culture on America's horizon. Juxtaposing this is the Satori which is so disturbingly self-interested and antiseptic as to be reminiscent of William Gibson's cyberpunk corporations.

My only real complaint stems from the lack of scientific underpinning to Satori. For a post-apocalyptic novel the science fiction felt very magical (not in the Arthur C. Clarke sense) in large part because Ziegler never takes the time to ground any of it in science. While he introduces the brains behind it all, they're never given the opportunity to expound upon how or why it all works. In that sense the novel 'reads' more like a fantasy than science fiction, something I believe is becoming a trend in the post-apocalypse sub-genre. Instead, Seed never lets up in its pace, keeping a constant tension throughout that eschews any need for exposition.

As a narrative, Seed is a multi-view point third person novel that I believe stands alone and should continue to do so. Interestingly, I realized none of what I liked about it had much do with the actual prose. I didn't find myself highlighting passages or even taking note of particularly nice turns of phrase. This isn't a negative. Rather than flowery descriptions or particularly evocative metaphors, Seed compelled me forward with... wait for it... a great story. And a great story told well.

Seed is Rob Ziegler's debut novel and another very good one from Night Shade's 2011 crop of new authors. Reading this review it might seem that this is a slow and morose novel. It's not at all. Woven in between scenes of migration and self-reflection is tons of action that culminates in a conclusion that's both explosive and cathartic. This is one you don't want to miss.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Satori in the Dust Bowl November 15, 2011

By Stefan TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

About a century from now, climate change has caused a new Dust Bowl in the Corn Belt, resulting in major famine across the United States. Most of the surviving population leads a nomadic existence, migrating across the ravaged landscape in search of habitable, arable land. Decades of war, resource depletion and population decline have left the government practically powerless. Gangs and warlords rule the land.

The only thing staving off full-blown starvation is Satori, a hive-like living city that produces genetically engineered drought-tolerant seed. Its population is a mix of transhuman Designers, Advocate warriors and "landrace" Laborers. When one of Satori's Designers leaves the fold and goes rogue, the desperate U.S. government sends the ex-military Secret Service Agent Sienna Doss to track her down.

Seed follows three separate but connected plots. Brood, Hondo and Pollo are starving migrants trying to make ends meet in the parched America heartland. Through them, the readers gets a look at what life's like for common people in this horrible, gang-dominated future. On the other end of the spectrum are Pihadassa, the Satori Designer who strikes out on her own, and her former partner Sumedha who remains in Satori. They can see and manipulate DNA helices, both of the gengineered seed Satori provides and of the people and clones around them. The third point of view comes from Sienna Doss, the no-nonsense agent tasked with tracking down the missing Designer. Seed smoothly switches back and forth between these three perspectives, and in the process paints a compelling picture of a ravaged country and of the forces that would control it.

What's interesting about Seed are the huge differences in tone between the three plots. The story of Brood, Hondo and Pollo is grim and violent. They lead desperate lives, navigating the land between gangs and desperate, nomadic families, scavenging to make ends meet. Their chapters have a post-apocalyptic, almost Mad Max-like tone. By contrast, the sections set in Satori have a futuristic, post-human flavor. The Satori Designers are eerie creatures, manipulating human beings like science experiments or breeding stock, helped by their drone-like landraces and protected by the terrifying, inhuman Advocates. And finally, the Sienna Doss chapters feel like solid military SF, with Sienna taking the lead as the complex, kick-ass heroine who moves heaven and earth to achieve her mission objective and recapture the rogue Designer.

The way Rob Ziegler manages to weave these three highly disparate stories into one cohesive narrative is impressive. He confidently writes in all three modes, as different as they are, and gradually brings the plots together into a spectacular resolution. It's hard enough to write a good post-apocalyptic story, or a transhuman/bioengineering one, or a military SF one, but to write all three and weave them together into one captivating plot is simply amazing--especially for a debut author.

The resulting novel is a real page-turner filled with interesting characters and pulse-raising action scenes. It offers both the grit of a post-apocalyptic survival story and the mystery of the Satori composite clones. The pace is full speed ahead right from the start and doesn't let up until the end, but Ziegler infuses enough character depth and genuine emotion into the story to make it much more than just another action-packed SF adventure.

Night Shade Books seems to have made it its mission to produce great, dark science fiction debuts on a regular basis--The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, Necropolis by Michael Dempsey, God's War by Kameron Hurley and Soft Apocalypse by Will Macintosh, just to name the ones I've read in the last twelve months or so. To that list we can now add Rob Ziegler's excellent debut Seed, one of the best SF novels I've read so far this year.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A bold and welcome edition to the rising tide of ecopunk January 27, 2012

By Bradley P. Beaulieu

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I blurbed this book. Here's what I said about it:

"If The Windup Girl had been born in the American Southwest, and had had the genes of Akira spliced to it in utero, you'd have something like Seed, a gritty, sobering story about the fallout of climate change. When Seed hits it hits hard, but there are parts that are surprisingly tender. The writing is intricate and bright, the plot sings, and through fascinating extrapolation, Ziegler has created a world that feels foreign and familiar both. The bottom line? Seed is a bold and welcome edition to the rising tide of ecopunk."

Beyond this, what I can say is that Seed is a book that constantly challenges you. It's inventive and immersive. The world feels consistent and fascinating. I haven't gotten a feel from a book like this in a while. The last time I recall feeling this sort of wonder was when I'd read William Gibson for the first time.

For those that like their sci-fi with a harrowing plot and characters that live and breath, Give seed a try. You'll be glad you did.