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An intriguing followup to Semiosis that weaves several drastically different sentient species (both plant and animal) into a story about factions, community, freedom, communication and war.

In the centuries since the human colonists left for Pax, Earth's civilization collapsed and a fascist patriarchy took control and has rebuilt things to the point that they can check in on some of those outer-space colonies from before the fall.

Like the first book, each chapter is told from a different character's point of view (including Stevland, of course!), though this time around it's all focused on the arrival of the new expedition and the events leading up to it. The psychology of the bamboo's and the Glassmakers' perspectives is notably different from the humans', and of course each species has its factions, and each faction has its priorities, and each person has what they do and don't know and assume. (The chapter in which the Earth expedition arrives at the colony has the narrator repeatedly making and revising assumptions.)

And there are more factions in a war fought on plant timescale.

Despite it being more tightly compressed in time, it feels less focused than the first book. There's a side expedition late in the story that's both necessary thematically and narratively awkward. I'm not sure how I feel about the epilogue as an epilogue, but as I put the finishing touches on this review I've just discovered that Burke wrote some related short stories set during this book...and a third book that picks up on those threads and was published just last year.

Cross-posted from my website.

A fascinating follow-up that reveals more about the biology of the alien world, and how it can interact and interface with the biology of humans in unexpected ways.

In the first book, Handry gets 'Severed', resulting in his biology reverting to the original state and become unable to interact with the biology on the alien world. He now leads a group of similarly Severed people, and they have come to an accommodation with the villages of people altered to live with the alien planet's biology. But one village still fear the Severed, and it sends out a Champion to challenge and drive away the Severed.

But the Champion is the least of Handry's problems when they discover a bigger threat that has destroyed one village and is threatening another. Handry, his group and the Champion have to discover the threat that the new danger poses; a danger that the reader may be able to guess based on the interludes in the story that looks at the attempts of a group from the first colonist to try to live with the alien biology.

In the end, they all learn a little more about living together on the alien world and maybe discover not to fear each other so much.

This is one of those books that's tough to describe but impossible to forget. It’s a sci-fi, time-traveling, spy-vs-spy love story told in a way that feels more like a narrative poem than a straightforward novel. Let me be clear: this isn't a book for a drifting mind. You have to pay close attention, but the payoff is a story that really sticks with you.

The story follows two rival agents, Red and Blue, who are on opposite sides of a vast temporal war. Red is part of a tech-heavy, machine-like society, while Blue serves a nature-based, garden-like consciousness. They weave through history to alter events and secure victory for their respective futures. But one day, on a bloody battlefield, Red finds a letter from Blue, and so begins a correspondence that spans millennia. The amorphous, shape-shifting nature of these two characters is fascinating; one moment they're human, the next they're part of a hive mind, or even living water. They leave messages for each other in the rings of a tree, the ingredients of a tea, or the seeds of a fruit, risking everything for a connection with their sworn enemy.

What starts as professional taunting and clever barbs slowly, beautifully, blossoms into something much deeper. You get to watch as these two powerful beings, who have only known war and duty, begin to admire and then truly fall for one another through their letters. It’s a classic Romeo and Juliet tale, but instead of feuding families in Verona, you have god-like entities battling across all of space and time. The risk they take with every exchanged word is immense, and you can feel the tension build as their secret connection becomes the most dangerous game of all.

While I loved this book, I won't pretend it was an easy read. The language is dense and packed with figurative language, so you have to work for the story. But that’s also its greatest strength. It’s a book that forces you to slow down, to think, and to appreciate the artistry of every single sentence. It’s not the kind of story you like in the same way you like a fast-paced thriller; it's one you admire for its cleverness and its heart. For making me think and forcing me to pay attention, this one is a solid four stars.

This review was first published at BriefEcology.com

Show me someone who says they've found a place on Earth with no life and I'll show you a liar. That is, at least according to Alex Riley's upcoming book, Super Natural: How Life Thrives in Impossible Places, which I was fortunate to receive an advanced copy of. Riley's expansive look at the extreme conditions under which many extraordinary species live, and even thrive, reveals the diversity and ingenuity of life on Earth.

It's clear that Riley did the homework here. Traveling across the globe to interview over one hundred scientists, visiting their labs, and learning about their work are things only someone truly dedicated to the science of biology would undertake. And it shows up in the pages of Super Natural. The book is thoroughly researched and yet still widely accessible to non-experts, breaking down extreme conditions into categories of sustenance, environmental conditions, and radiation (solar and otherwise). Riley explores the biological details that allow life to survive in the harshest environments on the planet, while keeping the narrative grounded in the journey of investigative research and the context of what it all means.

One pattern that struck me while reading was the pervasiveness of life. It's virtually impossible to find a place on Earth that isn't inhabited. At the deepest floors of the sea, where there's often no light, little oxygen, sometimes even minimal water due to salt concentrations, there's life. In scorching deserts with scarce moisture, there's life. In the radioactive remnants of the Chernobyl disaster, there's life. Not only is there life in these places, but a diversity of life adapted to thrive in places where most species can't even exist.

If space abhors a vacuum, so too does biology. Ecological niche theory describes how organisms, and broader taxonomic groups, respond to their physical environments. It also entails the degree and characteristics of how organisms interact with each other. Prevailing theory suggests that if a niche exists, life will fill it. Riley's work collects a vast amount of research that strongly supports this notion, but in my opinion, it also suggests something more.

Life strives. Life multiplies and diversifies, seeking out and and inhabiting new places. In fact, through the responses and interactions with surrounding environments, organisms often create new niches which can then be subsequently filled by new forms of life. There's an agency latent within the diversity of life, and this agency creates the potential for life to evolve.

Of course, it would be impossible to discuss the ecology of life in Earth's harshest conditions without mentioning the fact that those conditions are changing. Riley has an interesting perspective on the fact that our planet's climate is changing. While recognizing the threat of global climate change, Super Natural argues that life's resilience and creativity are reasons to be hopeful. All the evidence suggests that life is likely very difficult to eradicate from the planet. Although the same cannot be said for human life, specifically.

In fact, I think this is Super Natural's shortcoming. Riley neither identifies the economic drivers of global climate change and environmental degradation, nor addresses the full ramifications. For life to remain diverse, and thus resilient, the conditions under which it exists must also be diverse. But capitalism is homogenizing our planet: blanketing it in evermore CO2, removing its forests, paving its countrysides, covering it with industrial agriculture, and polluting every surface with plastic. These factors, I believe, present much greater risks to life on Earth than Riley permits.

Nonetheless, I think Super Natural is a testament to everything about life's existence that's crucial to protect. The secrets to how some of these organisms survive under enormous pressure may hold untapped potential to improve human life. And even if not, our existence is simply richer because of theirs. For that reason, I enjoyed reading this one.

A long but interesting history on the period known as the Renaissance, when many of the things that make up modern society, from science to humanism, came out of nowhere: of course not. As the author (a historian and fantasy writer) shows, many of the things and ways of thinking that came out of the Renaissance build on what people did in the Middle Ages (no longer the Dark Ages). These changes would continue into the Enlightenment, and then into the modern world.

The book starts by looking at one particular place: Florence. In an era where most places were ruled by royalty, Florence stood out by being a republic, officially ruled by 'elected' people. But even then, this was no modern democracy: only the elite of the elite could be elected and even then, they were subjects of patronage to various wealthy families, most notably the House of Medici, who 'called the shots' when it came to making (or gaming) the rules to their advantage.

But Florence is only a city, and can be conquered by rival cities or countries. One way to counter this was to make Florence indispensable, by promoting ancient studies and the arts and spreading them far and wide. Other rulers began to accept that acquiring culture and learning from Florence were 'better' ways of showing they were superior to their betters. This gave Florence influence and access to the 'great powers', gaining protecting in return.

The author then shows us the lives of various people during the Renaissance period, mostly from Florence, to give us a view of what life was like for elites (written history usually focus on the elites, few on the peasants) at the time. And life at that time was rough and full of intrigue and conflict. We see the rise and fall of the Medicis and the influence of Florence, and parts of the 'Great Game' as France, the Popes in Rome, the various city states of Italy (Venice, etc.) strive to gain control of Italy and of Europe.

In all of these struggles, the idea that 'there has to be a better way' starts to gain strength and are covered in a section that covers one of the most 'notorious' people in the Renaissance period: Niccolò Machiavelli. His writings on how rulers should rule would lead to modern Political Science. But at the time, his writings were a struggle to understand what the rulers of his time were doing to gain an advantage over others and what could be done to raise the condition of humanity as a whole.

The final section looks at just what the Renaissance really put forth: a lot of questions that need answers. These questions would gradually overturn the idea that ancient authority was always right, and that ideas need to be tested by questioning them and comparing them with evidence. This would lead to the idea of Progress.

Here, the author looks at current times and shows that the idea of Progress as a way to improve humanity is still a work in progress. Technological and social changes have improved mankind but also caused problems (like colonialism and racism). While much has changed, much still has to be done using concepts that rose during the Renaissance. And the author is optimistic that the future will get better, given time.