The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters …
Who will inherit this new Earth?
The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.
But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.
Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
Set across thousands of years, it nevertheless reads through without feeling stretched. It follows two threads. The first is the story of uplifting a species. The second is the far-off descendants of those who started the uplift. Themes of the nature of humanity and the drive for survival.
As a life-long arachnophobe, Tchaikovsy did something I honestly never thought could happen. He made me pull for an arachnid species. He wrote them in such an empathetic way. He had me rooting for them and their species. If the movie is ever made, though, I'm NOT going to see it.
I liked the parallels he maintained between the two story lines. And I really enjoyed the gender flip on oppression for the spiders. Of course the male spiders were lower ranked in society. It was a bit heavy-handed at times, but maybe that'll just help men who don't get it now see it.
Very intriguing story and great world-building on the green planet. I was really fascinated by the cities and technologies made from silk.
But I never felt too much sympathy with the protagonists, because they either only came up for a short period and then disappeared in time, repeating the same names (Portia) for different characters didn't help. Or because they were not very likeable. There was hardly any backstory on the crew of the ship, and emotional storylines like the relationship of classicist and engineer were rather subdued, never made it into my heart. The storyline was foreseeable in many parts, even the rather abrupt ending. I found myself skipping lines and paragraphs towards the end.
This may sound negative, and honestly, the book leaves me somehow unsatisfied, even though I can't point out a singular reason. Nevertheless, I would recommend reading it, it's entertaining and gripping in …
Very intriguing story and great world-building on the green planet. I was really fascinated by the cities and technologies made from silk.
But I never felt too much sympathy with the protagonists, because they either only came up for a short period and then disappeared in time, repeating the same names (Portia) for different characters didn't help. Or because they were not very likeable. There was hardly any backstory on the crew of the ship, and emotional storylines like the relationship of classicist and engineer were rather subdued, never made it into my heart.
The storyline was foreseeable in many parts, even the rather abrupt ending. I found myself skipping lines and paragraphs towards the end.
This may sound negative, and honestly, the book leaves me somehow unsatisfied, even though I can't point out a singular reason. Nevertheless, I would recommend reading it, it's entertaining and gripping in most parts, and as said before, the world-building is full of original, great ideas.
Incredible! "The smartest evolutionary world-building you'll ever read", indeed! I was not expecting that wonderful ending. I was bracing myself for an ending I would not like, but I was wrong!