BOOK REVIEW: Semiosis by Sue Burke

Semiosis is the first book in a duology by Sue Burke about a small group of around 50 human colonists trying to survive on a planet they call Pax which is populated with exotic fauna and flora, in particular a sentient plant.

The story is told in a series of chapters, each of which serve as independent short stories or novelettes. They are often set a significant distances in the future, centered around subsequent generations, so characters from one chapter can be aged in another. Slowly, the outline of the overall act of the story becomes clearer to the reader. During this time, we start to get the perspective of the most dominant intelligence on the planet, which is Stevland, the sentient rainbow bamboo plant.

The book is strikingly original, with prominent sociological, ecological, biological and psychological themes. The colonist left earth to attempt to recreate a new, utopian Pacifist society, but it becomes very clear early on that the rigors of survival threaten to upend or warp their intended principles. Humans are humans, and the full range of human foibles, failures and fortitudes are displayed. The author does an outstanding job of moving the story forward rapidly and deftly by focusing on character development, which is surprisingly effective since almost in every case, we are basically introduced to a new set of characters and situations, but in almost every case these are compelling and engaging. (And if the reader isn’t that interested in the current batch, they know that this chapter will be over relatively soon, so there’ll be a reset into a new part of the story shortly.) The book combines the strengths of a short story collection with those of an entire novel.

That Semiosis is able to do this while simultaneously being funny, suspenseful, romantic, exciting and thoughtful is truly impressive. There’s a shocking amount of chemistry, especially biochemistry in the book, but even if you can’t distinguish between an acetone and an acid, you can still enjoy different aspects of the book. It works on very many different levels. Overall, I’d say it’s about a 4.0-4.5-rated read, but I’m rounding up to reward it for its creativity and effectiveness of implementation. I’m going to start the sequel right away!

Title: Semiosis.
Author: Sue Burke .
Length: 336 pages.
Publisher: Tor Books.
Date Published: February 6, 2018.
Date Read: October 20, 2020.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★★  (5.0/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A.