This is one of the few recent tradpub scifi books that I read and liked. That being said, I had to read it with one eye closed for the first couple of chapters, skimming over nonsense about exhausted resources and pacifism. But once we got past all those obligations, there was a good story about aligning the interests of very different parties. The relationship between the colonists and the plant was implausibly shiny and happy (it grows addictive fruits in order to enslave people!) but there were a few sharper moments. I remember the part where, in order to let the plant have a vote, the colonists redefined "citizen" as "anyone who can claim to be sentient." This of course means that 4-year-olds can vote, and their next president is a beloved kindergarten teacher.
That's absolutely true. The second book requires reading with both eyes closed when it comes to feminist nonsense. In terms of the first book, there's a lot of really interesting ideas that could go in very different directions with a different author. The idea of a sapient plant growing addictive foods to create a servile population is fascinating.
Even while the '1 person 1 vote' thing holds with absurdly broad definitions of "citizens" there are also clear unofficial hierarchies that develop and conflict with one another. A male author would have, when working with those same ideas, written a very different book.
Haha! "Both eyes closed." Yeah. I don't think I'll read the third one.
Someone recently told me about (sigh) anarchist meetings that (sigh) she had been to, and how dysfunctional they were because they outlawed explicit discussion of hierarchy. Instead, implicit, unacknowledged hierarchies grew up, which were abused. The good news is that even this Leftist girl came to recognize the problem after she'd been boiled in it long enough.
This is one of the few recent tradpub scifi books that I read and liked. That being said, I had to read it with one eye closed for the first couple of chapters, skimming over nonsense about exhausted resources and pacifism. But once we got past all those obligations, there was a good story about aligning the interests of very different parties. The relationship between the colonists and the plant was implausibly shiny and happy (it grows addictive fruits in order to enslave people!) but there were a few sharper moments. I remember the part where, in order to let the plant have a vote, the colonists redefined "citizen" as "anyone who can claim to be sentient." This of course means that 4-year-olds can vote, and their next president is a beloved kindergarten teacher.
That's absolutely true. The second book requires reading with both eyes closed when it comes to feminist nonsense. In terms of the first book, there's a lot of really interesting ideas that could go in very different directions with a different author. The idea of a sapient plant growing addictive foods to create a servile population is fascinating.
Even while the '1 person 1 vote' thing holds with absurdly broad definitions of "citizens" there are also clear unofficial hierarchies that develop and conflict with one another. A male author would have, when working with those same ideas, written a very different book.
Haha! "Both eyes closed." Yeah. I don't think I'll read the third one.
Someone recently told me about (sigh) anarchist meetings that (sigh) she had been to, and how dysfunctional they were because they outlawed explicit discussion of hierarchy. Instead, implicit, unacknowledged hierarchies grew up, which were abused. The good news is that even this Leftist girl came to recognize the problem after she'd been boiled in it long enough.
Evidently a good cooking is needed all around.
[I am unashamedly proud that sentence can be taken in wildly different ways depending on which definition of 'cook' we're using]
all due applause
Also, typo. Paragraphs 3 and 6 are duplicates.
Thanks!