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Semiosis A Novel Semiosis Duology Sue Burke Books

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Semiosis A Novel Semiosis Duology Sue Burke Books

“Grateful for this opportunity to create a new society in full harmony with nature, we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support. We will face hardship, danger, and potential failure, but we can aspire to the use of practical wisdom to seek joy, love, beauty, community, and life.”

Sue Burke’s Semiosis tells the story of a group of colonists, departed from Earth and dedicated to peace above all else, as they survive on a foreign planet generation by generation. As the back cover promises, their survival will hinge on a bizarre alliance – with a new kind of sentient life.
While the premise is excitingly promising, I’m afraid that, as far as I could tell, it never quite managed to deliver on that promise.
The whole “sentient alien plant” concept intrigued me from the moment I first heard of it, and I wondered more than once (in the four months between when I pre-ordered the book and when I was finally able to read it) just how Burke would present not just a non-human sentience but one that was truly alien. In this, I think, Burke did a wonderful job.
Where I think Semiosis fails to fulfill its potential is in the peculiar structure Burke chose to portray her narrative, as it progressed through the generations. Each chapter is told from one character’s perspective, one character per generation. While this is a fine way to approach storytelling, and served the story well structurally, Burke chose vastly differing voices for each of her characters. I found the switch from voice to voice jarring to the point of disorientation.
It took me until the third chapter to decide that the incongruity in the voice was intentional characterization instead of clumsy writing, and by that time Burke had already lost me. I think, had I been prepared for this narrative quirk from the onset, I would have had a better chance at enjoying the book.
The thing is, I really want to write this up as a fascinating and well-executed technique. Each chapter is written from a different character’s point of view – one per generation (or near enough). Not only are all people different, these people are changing (socially, culturally as well as biologically) in response to the challenges they face and the requirements of their environment. That Burke convincingly represents the POV of multiple very different people in order to assemble her IS an admirable accomplishment. I can’t tell you why it hurt the narrative instead of helping.
That’s hardly the book’s only issue, however. Notably, Semiosis falls victim to what you might call the “Prometheus problem”. Particularly in the first two generations, the decisions of these premier scientists can be downright baffling. Time after time they make terrible calls – beginning before they even leave Earth. For scientists that are supposed to be incredibly smart and thoroughly prepared, it was their repeated failures to think critically or act reasonably (within the bounds of Burke’s established universe) that almost demolished my ability to buy in.
I will say that once I powered through those first few generations, I began to notice some wonderful techniques. Burke pays particular attention to the cultural relationships between generations, knitting them together through graceful and delicate touches. Seemingly small events or symbols from one chapter appear in another as tradition, fable, or law.
Additionally, the colonists’ dedication to “peace,” even generations after the opposite was anything other than an academic concept, is explored and even employed to great effect throughout the book. Themes of identity, intergenerational communication, and the struggle one generation faces as it tries to pass both its knowledge and its priorities on to the next all feature prominently and are well explored within these pages.
All-in-all, I expect Semiosis to pop up on many readers’ “Best Of …” lists, and I absolutely see why. I’m very glad I read it, but a part of me will always yearn for the story I imagined Semiosis would be.


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Semiosis A Novel Semiosis Duology Sue Burke Books Reviews

This is not like any other science fiction I’ve read. Even after reading the last page I still feel like I can’t possibly guess where the story is going next. It follows events, rather than some standard story arc. This lends it incredibly powerful suspense, because nothing is certain. It’s not just that there may be tragedy, it’s that we don’t even know if there’s going to be a villain, or if conflicts will cohere, or anything. We simply care about the characters the way they would care about what’s going to happen to them. It’s a quick read, not least because of how gripping it can be. Expect to pause to look up words unless you’re an experiment in botany and exobiology, though.
Excellent book. I read these reviews and decided to take a gander at it. Im not usually this type of book reader as i prefer a total fantasy escapism. However, the idea of a plant being the superior being kinda got my gears turning. Amazing. And how this plant grew throughout the book from an egomaniac to a true pacifist. He totally grew to even understand humor and emotion. The different voices of the generations was perfect. I loved the perspectives. And the duality between the power driven choices versus the decisions used to save Pax as a whole. Each voice drew me into the character as if I could really be that character facing the challenges a new world brings. I read the book in two and a half days. Devoured it. With all of the ecology, biology, politics, humanity... All the ideas... And it wasnt pretentious at all. I read in the reviews that a possible sequel might be in the making left by the opening at the end of the book. But i love the somewhat ambiguous ending. After the journey and adventure this book took me on... Im just totally wanting to know more. To be completely emersed in this world again. But maybe that would take away from it. Maybe all it needs is a novella. Just something to let me know how they end up a hundred then several hundred years after. This was a great book. I would totally recommend it. It makes your brain reel on so many levels. Thank you Sue Burke for a real insightful look at survival.
I first read a related story by this author, 'Spiders' in [[ASINB002AWX74W Year's Best SF 14 (Year's Best Science Fiction) in 2009 and I was able to find out that this story was part of a proposed novel due out in 2018. What fascinated me in the short story was that it mentioned a city with a population of 200 people.
How cold that be?
I’m glad to say that this novel answers that question in an entertaining way. It doesn’t spend any time at all on questions of economics and population, but concentrates a lot on languages and character.
There are some great short stories on the nature of how humans would fit in to an alien ecology, such as James H Schmitz’s 'Balaned Ecology'and Robert Abernathy’s 'Pyramid', but this shows adaptation and inclusion into the ecology over several generations, mostly narrated by a long-lived sentient plant. The introduction to the idea that plants can be intelligent is logically handled but still came as a surprise – which it may not be for you.
There’s marvellous attention to the development of language over the time period of the story, and while I might disagree that the language would change so much so fast over a short time, the sophistication and nuance of the humans’ language reflects their social and technological progress through the story. The evolution of the narrating plant’s language into a cute pidgin is quite engaging, too.
Fortunately, the reader isn’t beaten over the head with notions of alien assimilation and semiosis, and the novbel ends with room for a sequel, which I will certainly buy.
“Grateful for this opportunity to create a new society in full harmony with nature, we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support. We will face hardship, danger, and potential failure, but we can aspire to the use of practical wisdom to seek joy, love, beauty, community, and life.”

Sue Burke’s Semiosis tells the story of a group of colonists, departed from Earth and dedicated to peace above all else, as they survive on a foreign planet generation by generation. As the back cover promises, their survival will hinge on a bizarre alliance – with a new kind of sentient life.
While the premise is excitingly promising, I’m afraid that, as far as I could tell, it never quite managed to deliver on that promise.
The whole “sentient alien plant” concept intrigued me from the moment I first heard of it, and I wondered more than once (in the four months between when I pre-ordered the book and when I was finally able to read it) just how Burke would present not just a non-human sentience but one that was truly alien. In this, I think, Burke did a wonderful job.
Where I think Semiosis fails to fulfill its potential is in the peculiar structure Burke chose to portray her narrative, as it progressed through the generations. Each chapter is told from one character’s perspective, one character per generation. While this is a fine way to approach storytelling, and served the story well structurally, Burke chose vastly differing voices for each of her characters. I found the switch from voice to voice jarring to the point of disorientation.
It took me until the third chapter to decide that the incongruity in the voice was intentional characterization instead of clumsy writing, and by that time Burke had already lost me. I think, had I been prepared for this narrative quirk from the onset, I would have had a better chance at enjoying the book.
The thing is, I really want to write this up as a fascinating and well-executed technique. Each chapter is written from a different character’s point of view – one per generation (or near enough). Not only are all people different, these people are changing (socially, culturally as well as biologically) in response to the challenges they face and the requirements of their environment. That Burke convincingly represents the POV of multiple very different people in order to assemble her IS an admirable accomplishment. I can’t tell you why it hurt the narrative instead of helping.
That’s hardly the book’s only issue, however. Notably, Semiosis falls victim to what you might call the “Prometheus problem”. Particularly in the first two generations, the decisions of these premier scientists can be downright baffling. Time after time they make terrible calls – beginning before they even leave Earth. For scientists that are supposed to be incredibly smart and thoroughly prepared, it was their repeated failures to think critically or act reasonably (within the bounds of Burke’s established universe) that almost demolished my ability to buy in.
I will say that once I powered through those first few generations, I began to notice some wonderful techniques. Burke pays particular attention to the cultural relationships between generations, knitting them together through graceful and delicate touches. Seemingly small events or symbols from one chapter appear in another as tradition, fable, or law.
Additionally, the colonists’ dedication to “peace,” even generations after the opposite was anything other than an academic concept, is explored and even employed to great effect throughout the book. Themes of identity, intergenerational communication, and the struggle one generation faces as it tries to pass both its knowledge and its priorities on to the next all feature prominently and are well explored within these pages.
All-in-all, I expect Semiosis to pop up on many readers’ “Best Of …” lists, and I absolutely see why. I’m very glad I read it, but a part of me will always yearn for the story I imagined Semiosis would be.