What do you think?
Rate this book
Seed #1
Earthseed
Ship hurtles through space. Deep within its core it carries the seed of humankind. Launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago, its mission is to find a habitable world for the children - 15-year-old Zoheret and her shipmates - whom it has created from its genetic banks.
To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own, on an uninhabited planet, without Ship’s protection. Now that day is almost upon them, but are they ready? Ship devises a test, and suddenly instincts that have been latent for over a hundred years take over. Zoheret watches as friends become strangers - and enemies. Can Zoheret and her companions overcome the biggest obstacle to the survival of the human race - themselves?
Pamela Sargent is the author of many highly praised novels for young adults and adults, including Earthseed, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She has won the Nebula and Locus awards and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.
©1983 Pamela Sargent (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own, on an uninhabited planet, without Ship’s protection. Now that day is almost upon them, but are they ready? Ship devises a test, and suddenly instincts that have been latent for over a hundred years take over. Zoheret watches as friends become strangers - and enemies. Can Zoheret and her companions overcome the biggest obstacle to the survival of the human race - themselves?
Pamela Sargent is the author of many highly praised novels for young adults and adults, including Earthseed, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. She has won the Nebula and Locus awards and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.
©1983 Pamela Sargent (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
283 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1983
16 people are currently reading
1,678 people want to read
About the author
Pamela Sargent
157Ìýbooks203ÌýfollowersPamela Sargent has won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. In 2012, she was honored with the Pilgrim Award by the Science Fiction Research Association for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship. She is the author of the novels Cloned Lives, The Sudden Star, Watchstar, The Golden Space, The Alien Upstairs, Eye of the Comet, Homesmind, Alien Child, The Shore of Women, Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows, Child of Venus, Climb the Wind, and Ruler of the Sky. Her most recent short story collection is Thumbprints, published by Golden Gryphon Press, with an introduction by James Morrow. The Washington Post Book World has called her “one of the genre's best writers.â€�
In the 1970s, she edited the Women of Wonder series, the first collections of science fiction by women; her other anthologies include Bio-Futures and, with British writer Ian Watson as co-editor, Afterlives. Two anthologies, Women of Wonder, The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s and Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s, were published by Harcourt Brace in 1995; Publishers Weekly called these two books “essential reading for any serious sf fan.� Her most recent anthology is Conqueror Fantastic, out from DAW Books in 2004. Tor Books reissued her 1983 young adult novel Earthseed, selected as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association, and a sequel, Farseed, in early 2007. A third volume, Seed Seeker, was published in November of 2010 by Tor. Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures, with Melissa Rosenberg, scriptwriter for all of the Twilight films, writing the script and producing through her Tall Girls Productions.
A collection, Puss in D.C. and Other Stories, is out; her novel Season of the Cats is out in hardcover and will be available in paperback from Wildside Press. The Shore of Women has been optioned for development as a TV series by Super Deluxe Films, part of Turner Broadcasting.
Pamela Sargent lives in Albany, New York.
In the 1970s, she edited the Women of Wonder series, the first collections of science fiction by women; her other anthologies include Bio-Futures and, with British writer Ian Watson as co-editor, Afterlives. Two anthologies, Women of Wonder, The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s and Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s, were published by Harcourt Brace in 1995; Publishers Weekly called these two books “essential reading for any serious sf fan.� Her most recent anthology is Conqueror Fantastic, out from DAW Books in 2004. Tor Books reissued her 1983 young adult novel Earthseed, selected as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association, and a sequel, Farseed, in early 2007. A third volume, Seed Seeker, was published in November of 2010 by Tor. Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures, with Melissa Rosenberg, scriptwriter for all of the Twilight films, writing the script and producing through her Tall Girls Productions.
A collection, Puss in D.C. and Other Stories, is out; her novel Season of the Cats is out in hardcover and will be available in paperback from Wildside Press. The Shore of Women has been optioned for development as a TV series by Super Deluxe Films, part of Turner Broadcasting.
Pamela Sargent lives in Albany, New York.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
February 22, 2015
My first book by this author as I had not heard of her before despite the fact that she writes in one of my favourite genres and she has written a lot of books. Obviously my problem not hers! This one is Young Adult written in the days before that genre had been invented. It is pretty good too with no love triangles, no sex scenes and a fairly feisty heroine. I say fairly because it takes her most of the book to actually get out there and do something constructive although we always know she is going to - eventually. There were times during the story when I really wanted it to get a move on and frequent times when I wanted to shout to the characters "watch out behind you". They never did. Then it ended in such a way that you know there has to be a sequel and you just have to go read it because you really want to know what happens next............
April 25, 2012
I found Earthseed to be fascinating for more than the obvious reasons. We've had a recent spate of many young adult novels set on spaceships and will continue to do so in the near future. What sets Earthseed apart from them is the fact that it was written when the young adult genre was barely defined and if I'm not incorrect, was hardly recognized as a genre in its own right. The reading experience, too, is markedly different from reading other novels that may be superficially attempting to do the same thing and tell the same story.
There is a gravitas to Earthseed that is somehow lacking in contemporary young adult novels. What I mean by that is in my experience with reading some of the more popular young adult novels, I've found them to be very concerned with material things. Sometimes to the detriment of the overall narrative itself. That is not the case with Earthseed. Also the multicultural and diverse cast of characters in Earthseed is very welcome and I like that this multicultural-ness does not feel contrived to make the world in the narrative all encompassing but a natural progression of the circumstances that led to the creation of this solitary "world." The characterizations, too, were fascinating and while I cannot exactly articulate why, I reiterate that there is a certain more gravity, more solid-ness in the characters in Earthseed than I usually expect in characters in young adult novels.
Perhaps what is most different is the romance bit. There is no insta-love. There cannot be, these kids have known each other from birth but also lacking is the melodrama, the deep importance placed on romantic love. I found that really refreshing. The focus of the novel remains the spaceship, the self-discovery, the growing into their skins and the growing up of the children who represent hope and more. With all these important issues, romance, while present, does not take center stage and I applaud that. I also thought it was very interesting how there is no "true love" and the accompanying refrain of "soul mate" in the novel. What this says about recent novels is something I feel is worth pondering.
Earthseed explores themes of growth, mental and emotional. It also challenges the rights a creator has over the created. There are several sequences of intense action and danger that will have you reading rapidly and almost breathless with anticipation. This will make an awesome movie. Anyway, I recommend this to you. If you haven't ever read science fiction, try this. It actually is a science fiction novel and not a novel just masquerading as one.
There is a gravitas to Earthseed that is somehow lacking in contemporary young adult novels. What I mean by that is in my experience with reading some of the more popular young adult novels, I've found them to be very concerned with material things. Sometimes to the detriment of the overall narrative itself. That is not the case with Earthseed. Also the multicultural and diverse cast of characters in Earthseed is very welcome and I like that this multicultural-ness does not feel contrived to make the world in the narrative all encompassing but a natural progression of the circumstances that led to the creation of this solitary "world." The characterizations, too, were fascinating and while I cannot exactly articulate why, I reiterate that there is a certain more gravity, more solid-ness in the characters in Earthseed than I usually expect in characters in young adult novels.
Perhaps what is most different is the romance bit. There is no insta-love. There cannot be, these kids have known each other from birth but also lacking is the melodrama, the deep importance placed on romantic love. I found that really refreshing. The focus of the novel remains the spaceship, the self-discovery, the growing into their skins and the growing up of the children who represent hope and more. With all these important issues, romance, while present, does not take center stage and I applaud that. I also thought it was very interesting how there is no "true love" and the accompanying refrain of "soul mate" in the novel. What this says about recent novels is something I feel is worth pondering.
Earthseed explores themes of growth, mental and emotional. It also challenges the rights a creator has over the created. There are several sequences of intense action and danger that will have you reading rapidly and almost breathless with anticipation. This will make an awesome movie. Anyway, I recommend this to you. If you haven't ever read science fiction, try this. It actually is a science fiction novel and not a novel just masquerading as one.
September 28, 2020
e-audiobook
About 10% in. Does feel a bit dated. So far simplistic in some ways, but maybe because we're still learning about the 'world' from the perspective of naive teenagers. And I don't care for the cover as the teens would not wear jeans and belts, but probably jumpsuits much as real-life astronauts do. And there is a lot to learn about the world; in fact listening to audio is not ideal because I can't take notes or use book-darts. Otoh, I am enjoying it!
....
Next listen... getting more complex & interesting fast as the teens gain experience that widens their horizons & gives depths to their insights...
....
Done. Ok wow. Got very interesting. Definitely not just for teens. Much better than Hunger Games. (Ok, coming from me that's not saying much as I did not like HG at all, but still) and highly recommended to fans of that book.
Love the character of Ship that raised these teens. Love the provocation of what human nature really is... 'What If' we're stripped of the burdens of traditions & culture and are given a fresh start, will we be more like Star Trek's optimistic Federation, or more like the boys in Lord of the Flies? Love that a reader can enjoy the story just as an escapist adventure, can focus on the 'Sense of Wonder.'
Narrator excellent. Ending just fine... I don't know if I'll seek out the sequels, just because my to-read list is so long and I'm running out of lifetime. ;)
Highly recommended to people looking for more SF in the classic vein, esp. for female author, heroine a complex female.
About 10% in. Does feel a bit dated. So far simplistic in some ways, but maybe because we're still learning about the 'world' from the perspective of naive teenagers. And I don't care for the cover as the teens would not wear jeans and belts, but probably jumpsuits much as real-life astronauts do. And there is a lot to learn about the world; in fact listening to audio is not ideal because I can't take notes or use book-darts. Otoh, I am enjoying it!
....
Next listen... getting more complex & interesting fast as the teens gain experience that widens their horizons & gives depths to their insights...
....
Done. Ok wow. Got very interesting. Definitely not just for teens. Much better than Hunger Games. (Ok, coming from me that's not saying much as I did not like HG at all, but still) and highly recommended to fans of that book.
Love the character of Ship that raised these teens. Love the provocation of what human nature really is... 'What If' we're stripped of the burdens of traditions & culture and are given a fresh start, will we be more like Star Trek's optimistic Federation, or more like the boys in Lord of the Flies? Love that a reader can enjoy the story just as an escapist adventure, can focus on the 'Sense of Wonder.'
Narrator excellent. Ending just fine... I don't know if I'll seek out the sequels, just because my to-read list is so long and I'm running out of lifetime. ;)
Highly recommended to people looking for more SF in the classic vein, esp. for female author, heroine a complex female.
February 23, 2012
Originally Reviewed on
Earthseed begins with a familiar premise: after mankind has wiped out the majority of Earth's natural resources and damaged its ecosystem over the centuries, humans turn to the stars for a new home. These human survivors have thrown their hopes on a distant system in deep space, creating an artificial intelligence powered space ship, loaded with the history of human culture, knowledge, and the genetic material to create new humans, crops, and animals. As Ship nears its destination, just years away from reaching the new planet, it executes its mission to create and nurture human children from its genetic stores.
Zoheret and all of her fellow shipmates have grown up under the careful watch of Ship, learning about Earth's past and preparing for a future on a new planet. But Zoheret and her friends come of age at fifteen and come ever closer to reaching their new home, things begin to change. To best prepare its children for the reality of pioneering a new world, Ship creates a competition and gradually begins to withdraw the careful protections and conveniences with which it has provided its passengers over the duration of their young lives. As the teens cope with the reality of creating a new society, divisions form, violent tendencies are exposed, and the truth of Earth's past history, Ship's mission, and the future of humanity comes to a dramatic, terrifying head.
Inevitably, when reviewing older SF titles like Earthseed, there's the question of datedness. Having read and reviewed earlier this year, there certainly is something to be said for the context and point of time in which a novel was written - in the case of The Game, while the overall conceptualization was fantastic, the execution and depth of character was somewhat wanting. Earthseed begins with honest-to-god ROLLERBLADING around a spaceship.
I repeat: Rollerblading. On a spaceship.
How freakin' 1980s-early-'90s baller is that?!
All joking aside, I am happy to report that Earthseed stands the test of time. In the lingo of an '80s child, Earthseed is a totally rad book.
The premise of the novel is a familiar one, and fairly standard in future-dystopia SF fare, from the aforementioned The Game to Wall-e, but I think handled with a (surprising!) deftness and freshness in Earthseed. There are a number of unpredictable twists, plot-wise, as Ship hurtles its way to a new planet, and besides the rollerblading, the novel didn't feel dated at all.[1. On a side note, this is the mark of an excellent work of SF - take Ridley Scott's Alien, for example. I can still watch that 1979 film today and be thoroughly convinced by the acting, the set, the quality of the aliens...that's pretty awesome, and no small feat. But I digress.] Yes, this is soft science fiction (e.g. faster-than-light space travel, an enormous ship that houses an entire ecosystem that takes days to traverse in its hull), but I loved the jungle-within-the-ship setting and the juxtaposition of high-technology against a new low-tech environment, and watching how characters would respond. I also loved the diversity of the cast, encompassing many different races and cultural namesakes, which is, again, not something I expected in a book from 1983. Also unexpected was the level of brutality in this book, since it is billed as a YA novel. Earthseed doesn't shy away from anything - I'm talking teen sex, jealousy, infidelity, drinking, deception, murder, you name it. One of my complaints with much of the contemporary YA dystopian market is its lack of teeth - there's never any fear that our heroes are in the wrong, that they won't prevail or survive. In Earthseed, this is decidedly not the case. Characters do what they have to do in order to survive - and many of them die. Our heroine, Zoheret, makes many questionable decisions, and though her heart is in the right place, she's not idealized or infallibly right, which is wonderfully compelling. At one point in the novel, Ship tells Zoheret that she's not the smartest, or the kindest, or the most deserving - but like Ship, there's something about Zoheret's dogged stubbornness that is appealing.
Beyond Zoheret, many of the overall characterizations were perhaps a tad superficial, but only because the cast is so large - I do think the actions and justifications for all made sense and rang as genuine. I liked Ho's conniving and Manuel's selfishness - though these are archetypes that one often sees in society-falls-apart type of stories, they are archetypes for a reason. Ultimately, though, I think what I loved most of all about Earthseed is that the character of Ship (because yes, Ship is a central character) is not an evil robot/AI monster with a twisted agenda. I feel that in many contemporary SF novels, technology is demonized, and in this book, Ship is the voice of reason and civility; it is the peacemaker to our warlike tendencies, the Vulcan to our messy human emotions.
Ship is, above all, a nurturing force that is seeding the future with hope that mankind can change. And that kind of optimism, especially in a novel as bleak and gritty as this one is, is brilliant.
I'll be back for Farseed very, very soon.
Earthseed begins with a familiar premise: after mankind has wiped out the majority of Earth's natural resources and damaged its ecosystem over the centuries, humans turn to the stars for a new home. These human survivors have thrown their hopes on a distant system in deep space, creating an artificial intelligence powered space ship, loaded with the history of human culture, knowledge, and the genetic material to create new humans, crops, and animals. As Ship nears its destination, just years away from reaching the new planet, it executes its mission to create and nurture human children from its genetic stores.
Zoheret and all of her fellow shipmates have grown up under the careful watch of Ship, learning about Earth's past and preparing for a future on a new planet. But Zoheret and her friends come of age at fifteen and come ever closer to reaching their new home, things begin to change. To best prepare its children for the reality of pioneering a new world, Ship creates a competition and gradually begins to withdraw the careful protections and conveniences with which it has provided its passengers over the duration of their young lives. As the teens cope with the reality of creating a new society, divisions form, violent tendencies are exposed, and the truth of Earth's past history, Ship's mission, and the future of humanity comes to a dramatic, terrifying head.
Inevitably, when reviewing older SF titles like Earthseed, there's the question of datedness. Having read and reviewed earlier this year, there certainly is something to be said for the context and point of time in which a novel was written - in the case of The Game, while the overall conceptualization was fantastic, the execution and depth of character was somewhat wanting. Earthseed begins with honest-to-god ROLLERBLADING around a spaceship.
I repeat: Rollerblading. On a spaceship.
How freakin' 1980s-early-'90s baller is that?!
All joking aside, I am happy to report that Earthseed stands the test of time. In the lingo of an '80s child, Earthseed is a totally rad book.
The premise of the novel is a familiar one, and fairly standard in future-dystopia SF fare, from the aforementioned The Game to Wall-e, but I think handled with a (surprising!) deftness and freshness in Earthseed. There are a number of unpredictable twists, plot-wise, as Ship hurtles its way to a new planet, and besides the rollerblading, the novel didn't feel dated at all.[1. On a side note, this is the mark of an excellent work of SF - take Ridley Scott's Alien, for example. I can still watch that 1979 film today and be thoroughly convinced by the acting, the set, the quality of the aliens...that's pretty awesome, and no small feat. But I digress.] Yes, this is soft science fiction (e.g. faster-than-light space travel, an enormous ship that houses an entire ecosystem that takes days to traverse in its hull), but I loved the jungle-within-the-ship setting and the juxtaposition of high-technology against a new low-tech environment, and watching how characters would respond. I also loved the diversity of the cast, encompassing many different races and cultural namesakes, which is, again, not something I expected in a book from 1983. Also unexpected was the level of brutality in this book, since it is billed as a YA novel. Earthseed doesn't shy away from anything - I'm talking teen sex, jealousy, infidelity, drinking, deception, murder, you name it. One of my complaints with much of the contemporary YA dystopian market is its lack of teeth - there's never any fear that our heroes are in the wrong, that they won't prevail or survive. In Earthseed, this is decidedly not the case. Characters do what they have to do in order to survive - and many of them die. Our heroine, Zoheret, makes many questionable decisions, and though her heart is in the right place, she's not idealized or infallibly right, which is wonderfully compelling. At one point in the novel, Ship tells Zoheret that she's not the smartest, or the kindest, or the most deserving - but like Ship, there's something about Zoheret's dogged stubbornness that is appealing.
Beyond Zoheret, many of the overall characterizations were perhaps a tad superficial, but only because the cast is so large - I do think the actions and justifications for all made sense and rang as genuine. I liked Ho's conniving and Manuel's selfishness - though these are archetypes that one often sees in society-falls-apart type of stories, they are archetypes for a reason. Ultimately, though, I think what I loved most of all about Earthseed is that the character of Ship (because yes, Ship is a central character) is not an evil robot/AI monster with a twisted agenda. I feel that in many contemporary SF novels, technology is demonized, and in this book, Ship is the voice of reason and civility; it is the peacemaker to our warlike tendencies, the Vulcan to our messy human emotions.
Ship is, above all, a nurturing force that is seeding the future with hope that mankind can change. And that kind of optimism, especially in a novel as bleak and gritty as this one is, is brilliant.
I'll be back for Farseed very, very soon.
May 9, 2012
I’ll admit, I had never heard of this book before I was asked to review it and after looking into it, I found out that it had already been released way back in 1983. I know what you’re thinking 1983? For me I was shocked because I wasn’t even born until 1985 and this is probably one of the oldest books I’ve ever read, so I admit I was intrigued to find out why this book was being re-released, when it was released the first time around such a long time ago. And when I found out why, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the movie rights for the book have been sold…so Earthseed could be coming to a cinema near you very soon!
Earthseed takes you on an intense and thrilling ride as we join Zoheret and her shipmates; who live on a spaceship called “Ship� that was created by the dying people of Earth. The ship was created in order protect the child and find a habitable planet for them to live and continue their lives on � safely. As Zoheret and friends prepare to survive on their own, the pressure becomes unbearable and Zoheret can not help think can they really survive? And mostly, can her friends stop themselves from turning on one another?
I did like this book, more than I would have thought to start with. I’ll admit, I did struggle with the first 50 pages or so, but once I got used to the authors style of writing and got used to the space reference’s, I found I started to really enjoy it. I don’t know why but I always struggle with sci-fi books more than anything else but I thought the author did a great job bringing creating something new and interesting.
My reason for my 3 star rating was even though Zoheret was my favourite character, I felt that were wasn’t much character development with her or the other characters. It was hard to connect to them and I honestly love characters that I’m really able to root for all of them. But with this I couldn’t, so I didn’t really mind who took Zoheret’s heart or who survived.
Overall, Earthseed is an ideal read for science fiction fans that are looking for something different from your typical YA novel. It wasn’t a favourite of mine but I’d still love to watch it on the big screen.
Earthseed takes you on an intense and thrilling ride as we join Zoheret and her shipmates; who live on a spaceship called “Ship� that was created by the dying people of Earth. The ship was created in order protect the child and find a habitable planet for them to live and continue their lives on � safely. As Zoheret and friends prepare to survive on their own, the pressure becomes unbearable and Zoheret can not help think can they really survive? And mostly, can her friends stop themselves from turning on one another?
I did like this book, more than I would have thought to start with. I’ll admit, I did struggle with the first 50 pages or so, but once I got used to the authors style of writing and got used to the space reference’s, I found I started to really enjoy it. I don’t know why but I always struggle with sci-fi books more than anything else but I thought the author did a great job bringing creating something new and interesting.
My reason for my 3 star rating was even though Zoheret was my favourite character, I felt that were wasn’t much character development with her or the other characters. It was hard to connect to them and I honestly love characters that I’m really able to root for all of them. But with this I couldn’t, so I didn’t really mind who took Zoheret’s heart or who survived.
Overall, Earthseed is an ideal read for science fiction fans that are looking for something different from your typical YA novel. It wasn’t a favourite of mine but I’d still love to watch it on the big screen.
April 9, 2012
This book predates the Hunger Games trilogy by almost 30 years, but if you liked HG, I highly recommend this one. I can't believe I missed reading it in my own teen years, when it was freshly printed. Glad to have caught it now, though, and I'll be picking up the sequels in short order.
Note: Apparently it's been optioned for a film, hopefully HG will be a success and this will get made. Moviemakers running out of cartoon characters for inspiration would do well to look to a lot of the older SF classics, now that technology has made the special effects and settings needed possible.
Note: Apparently it's been optioned for a film, hopefully HG will be a success and this will get made. Moviemakers running out of cartoon characters for inspiration would do well to look to a lot of the older SF classics, now that technology has made the special effects and settings needed possible.
July 25, 2011
2.5 stars � Right in the middle. It’s not good enough for three, and certainly far from a two; more accurately I’d give it 2.75 stars, but I don’t subdivide that far.
For all the crap I’m going to give this book, I actually did enjoy it. It was good, good enough that I’ll probably read the sequel. Despite this, there are some things that I just can’t let go. For some indication of what I mean, it ranks about a 1.5 on the
Let’s start with the most obvious issue: Ship. Ship is not bad, and actually gets character development (there’s a super-cool reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey at one point) toward the end. Unfortunately, Ship is not plausible. Its entire mission is a sound idea, but how it’s carried out�.does not quite work. First, to raise about a hundred (more likely more) children from birth to teenage years takes a crazy amount of resources, which it seems unlikely that a ship would be able to carry with it. After all, Ship is unlikely to be and the food alone (which does not seem to be freeze-dried or anything) would conceivably take up a lot of space and mass. Then there’s clothes, as Zoheret mentions picking out clothes for a party, so she must have multiple garments to chose from. I could go on, but you must get the picture. Then later we learn about how exactly Ship was acquired, and the people who live off world in like ships. It’s mentioned that they could have unlimited populations, unlike on Earth where everything had to be rationed. No. Just no. Everything may be rationed on Earth, but it would be ten times worse on the ships. Especially since the people who live on those ships don’t go beyond the Solar System, and I don’t know that they could be getting resources from any of our fellow planets (except maybe Mars with a colony at a stretch, or possibly some asteroid). Also, fuel and propulsion of Ship are not discussed; I suppose that I should leave it alone then, but when in the beginning you learn Ship’s been traveling over a century� And then, I couldn’t help thinking of something I heard in my seventh-grade (I think) history class � about experiments performed by Hitler on babies raised by robots, with no human contact whatsoever, and none of them survived past one or two years. I do not very directly recall this though, and it’s entirely possible that the children of Ship were raised together.
More specifically about Ship, there’s the Hollow. It’s a lovely idea, really, but it makes less of an effort at reality than the timey-wimeyest episode of Doctor Who or Star Trek. I mean, come on. A natural, Earth-like space in the middle of an interstellar ship that takes two frikkin� days to cross? With a raging river and stocked lake and enoughdirt soil for farmland ? Really? I can suspend my disbelief pretty far, but this is ridiculous, even keeping in mind Ship is built as part of an asteroid. When Zoheret and company go to the Hollow to live, it’s a nice and purposeful segment, but it’s just too unrealistic when you start to think about it. Where does the water come from, and go? Is it recycled? How do the crops grow without real sunlight, because, you know, photosynthesis isn’t just some textbook thing? How are all the animals not dead already, or hunted to extinction? For that matter, how is there enough oxygen to support the Hollow, and Ship in general? I know trees do a lot, but they can’t do it without photosynthesis. I don’t know, maybe Sargent’s just saying, here’s the advanced technology that maybe runs this world, and you don’t have to worry about how it works, so let’s move on. I guess I like my science fiction hard or character driven. This book doesn’t really do a fantastic job of either.
Characters are a pretty mixed bag, but they’re mostly well-developed. In particular, Zoheret and Ho get excellent development, as well as Manuel, the conspiracy theorist Lillka, and hypocritical Willem. Actually, I don’t like Willem that much. But he gets an interesting moment at the end. Zoheret especially has quite a journey, especially after the finale. Humanity’s stupidity and stubbornness is present in full force, and realistically depicted as that, as frustrating as it is to read sometimes. However, specifically at the beginning, there are a lot of sudden character changes and new feelings with little to no explanation, though this mostly evens out by the time the main action rolls around. I also can’t quite see all teenagers having casual sex and drinking, and that such things are completely condoned by Ship. It’s also hard to imagine them as being the perfect age for colonization, but maybe that’s because of the society I grew up in.
Generally speaking, it works as a story. There were two twists I did not predict (though I should have seen the first one coming), which was interesting just from a storytelling perspective � because I am very good at predicting twists/endings. It did not have a neat, happy ending, which makes me incredibly happy. I would have been utterly disappointed if everything had worked out. The first hundred pages or so start the book out roughly. There’s the character issues, plot events seeming to happen just to happen and give the characters something to do while the rest of the book is set up, and some clunky writing. If you can get through that, though, the book’s worth a read. It’s unexpectedly fast-paced, and certainly not what you would think it was from either the cover or this review. It’s hard to review a book that has so much spoiler potential for conversations, so the best I can say is to give it a try. If you can look past the logic fails, it’s not so bad.
For all the crap I’m going to give this book, I actually did enjoy it. It was good, good enough that I’ll probably read the sequel. Despite this, there are some things that I just can’t let go. For some indication of what I mean, it ranks about a 1.5 on the
Let’s start with the most obvious issue: Ship. Ship is not bad, and actually gets character development (there’s a super-cool reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey at one point) toward the end. Unfortunately, Ship is not plausible. Its entire mission is a sound idea, but how it’s carried out�.does not quite work. First, to raise about a hundred (more likely more) children from birth to teenage years takes a crazy amount of resources, which it seems unlikely that a ship would be able to carry with it. After all, Ship is unlikely to be and the food alone (which does not seem to be freeze-dried or anything) would conceivably take up a lot of space and mass. Then there’s clothes, as Zoheret mentions picking out clothes for a party, so she must have multiple garments to chose from. I could go on, but you must get the picture. Then later we learn about how exactly Ship was acquired, and the people who live off world in like ships. It’s mentioned that they could have unlimited populations, unlike on Earth where everything had to be rationed. No. Just no. Everything may be rationed on Earth, but it would be ten times worse on the ships. Especially since the people who live on those ships don’t go beyond the Solar System, and I don’t know that they could be getting resources from any of our fellow planets (except maybe Mars with a colony at a stretch, or possibly some asteroid). Also, fuel and propulsion of Ship are not discussed; I suppose that I should leave it alone then, but when in the beginning you learn Ship’s been traveling over a century� And then, I couldn’t help thinking of something I heard in my seventh-grade (I think) history class � about experiments performed by Hitler on babies raised by robots, with no human contact whatsoever, and none of them survived past one or two years. I do not very directly recall this though, and it’s entirely possible that the children of Ship were raised together.
More specifically about Ship, there’s the Hollow. It’s a lovely idea, really, but it makes less of an effort at reality than the timey-wimeyest episode of Doctor Who or Star Trek. I mean, come on. A natural, Earth-like space in the middle of an interstellar ship that takes two frikkin� days to cross? With a raging river and stocked lake and enough
Characters are a pretty mixed bag, but they’re mostly well-developed. In particular, Zoheret and Ho get excellent development, as well as Manuel, the conspiracy theorist Lillka, and hypocritical Willem. Actually, I don’t like Willem that much. But he gets an interesting moment at the end. Zoheret especially has quite a journey, especially after the finale. Humanity’s stupidity and stubbornness is present in full force, and realistically depicted as that, as frustrating as it is to read sometimes. However, specifically at the beginning, there are a lot of sudden character changes and new feelings with little to no explanation, though this mostly evens out by the time the main action rolls around. I also can’t quite see all teenagers having casual sex and drinking, and that such things are completely condoned by Ship. It’s also hard to imagine them as being the perfect age for colonization, but maybe that’s because of the society I grew up in.
Generally speaking, it works as a story. There were two twists I did not predict (though I should have seen the first one coming), which was interesting just from a storytelling perspective � because I am very good at predicting twists/endings. It did not have a neat, happy ending, which makes me incredibly happy. I would have been utterly disappointed if everything had worked out. The first hundred pages or so start the book out roughly. There’s the character issues, plot events seeming to happen just to happen and give the characters something to do while the rest of the book is set up, and some clunky writing. If you can get through that, though, the book’s worth a read. It’s unexpectedly fast-paced, and certainly not what you would think it was from either the cover or this review. It’s hard to review a book that has so much spoiler potential for conversations, so the best I can say is to give it a try. If you can look past the logic fails, it’s not so bad.
November 30, 2011
I read this when I was eleven or twelve (I was an advanced reader and it was easily geared more for sixteen - eighteen year olds) and loved it. I've been trying to recall the name and author for years, and it was only when I stumbled on a description of the movie adaptation and the main character's name that it clicked and went, "YES!" I love it when I solve book mysteries - there are so many titles from way back when that have been lost to me.
The main female lead is complex, diverse and strong-willed. I loved reading about a female character that was practical, even-headed, yet still compassionate. So many books that I read growing up cast girls/women as either passive/nice/good, or proactive/mean/bad. As the saying goes, good girls rarely make history. As lame as it may strike some, the realization that (counter to many teachings) strong does not equal bitch was a revelation for me in my teens that has helped me survive horrible events in my life and deal with reality as it is. This story certainly helped in creating that dawning realization that if I want things to get better, I have to make that happen myself. This is an excellent book for parents to give to their teens.
As for content, as far as I can recall, relationships are 'adult' in that crushes are formed and explored, but there is no sexual content. The focus is on the main character's struggle to devise ways to survive and help her companions on Ship, during an intense survival simulation aboard their star craft, before it lands on their new home planet. The lack of adult characters is reasonably explained - older people have old ideas, which clearly did not work on Earth, and so to avoid tainted perspectives and failed ideologies, they've been left behind. This is much more thought out than a lot of bump-off-the-old-farts/parents plots/explanations that I've come across. If I read about one more car accident that claimed both the main characters' parents, who were their only living family, I will lose my mind.
The choice to have an adult-free environment seems to be motivated by a desire to illustrate that these teens' success and lives depend solely on their ability to think, provide and act in responsible and humane ways. This is a much different plot motivation than, say, absenting the adults because they interfere and are uncool.
I have read that there are two more sequels, released more than 20 years after the original, and I'm super interested in picking them up.
The main female lead is complex, diverse and strong-willed. I loved reading about a female character that was practical, even-headed, yet still compassionate. So many books that I read growing up cast girls/women as either passive/nice/good, or proactive/mean/bad. As the saying goes, good girls rarely make history. As lame as it may strike some, the realization that (counter to many teachings) strong does not equal bitch was a revelation for me in my teens that has helped me survive horrible events in my life and deal with reality as it is. This story certainly helped in creating that dawning realization that if I want things to get better, I have to make that happen myself. This is an excellent book for parents to give to their teens.
As for content, as far as I can recall, relationships are 'adult' in that crushes are formed and explored, but there is no sexual content. The focus is on the main character's struggle to devise ways to survive and help her companions on Ship, during an intense survival simulation aboard their star craft, before it lands on their new home planet. The lack of adult characters is reasonably explained - older people have old ideas, which clearly did not work on Earth, and so to avoid tainted perspectives and failed ideologies, they've been left behind. This is much more thought out than a lot of bump-off-the-old-farts/parents plots/explanations that I've come across. If I read about one more car accident that claimed both the main characters' parents, who were their only living family, I will lose my mind.
The choice to have an adult-free environment seems to be motivated by a desire to illustrate that these teens' success and lives depend solely on their ability to think, provide and act in responsible and humane ways. This is a much different plot motivation than, say, absenting the adults because they interfere and are uncool.
I have read that there are two more sequels, released more than 20 years after the original, and I'm super interested in picking them up.
June 13, 2012
EARTHSEED was originally published in 1983 to great acclaim. Paramount Pictures recently optioned the novel, causing Tor to dust off the Seed trilogy and send it back into the world. I can see what made EARTHSEED a YA sci-fi classic, but it's kind of dated.
EARTHSEED is the story of a group of kids on a sentient Ship who have been raised to colonize a new planet. They've spent their entire lives relying on Ship, but now it is time for them to learn how to live on their own. Some aspects of EARTHSEED feel contemporary. Zoheret and her friends represent almost every nation of the world in order to bring the whole of human culture to the stars.
But the success of Harry Potter did so much for children's and young adult literature. It convinced publishers to take chances on longer, more complex works. The characterization in EARTHSEED reads more like a middle grade novel than a young adult one. The bad guys, in particular, are disappointing. They're mustache twirlers with the barest hint of a reason for their villainy.
The plot contains lots of exciting moments - battles in the dark, desperate rescues, everything that goes with starting a new civilization from scratch. There are plenty of twists to keep things moving, although one of the twists comes out of nowhere. As a long-time science fiction fan, I expected Ship to be keeping secrets. But it turns out Ship knows far less than Zoheret thinks it does.
As I said, I can see why EARTHSEED is a classic. You want to know what will happen next. And Zoheret is a terrific heroine, with a nice balance of proactivity and caution. I think there's still an audience for EARTHSEED. Fans of Beth Revis's ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, in particular, might be interested in one of its predecessors.
EARTHSEED is the story of a group of kids on a sentient Ship who have been raised to colonize a new planet. They've spent their entire lives relying on Ship, but now it is time for them to learn how to live on their own. Some aspects of EARTHSEED feel contemporary. Zoheret and her friends represent almost every nation of the world in order to bring the whole of human culture to the stars.
But the success of Harry Potter did so much for children's and young adult literature. It convinced publishers to take chances on longer, more complex works. The characterization in EARTHSEED reads more like a middle grade novel than a young adult one. The bad guys, in particular, are disappointing. They're mustache twirlers with the barest hint of a reason for their villainy.
The plot contains lots of exciting moments - battles in the dark, desperate rescues, everything that goes with starting a new civilization from scratch. There are plenty of twists to keep things moving, although one of the twists comes out of nowhere. As a long-time science fiction fan, I expected Ship to be keeping secrets. But it turns out Ship knows far less than Zoheret thinks it does.
As I said, I can see why EARTHSEED is a classic. You want to know what will happen next. And Zoheret is a terrific heroine, with a nice balance of proactivity and caution. I think there's still an audience for EARTHSEED. Fans of Beth Revis's ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, in particular, might be interested in one of its predecessors.
September 17, 2021
Review to come
July 13, 2012
Earthseed was…amazing! Seriously, it was so good. It’s no wonder that Paramount Pictures has teamed up with Melissa Rosenberg (the adaptor of the Twilight films) to release Earthseed through Tall Girl Productions as a major motion picture. I am so curious to see what they will come up with!
When I first read the synopsis, I thought that Earthseed was going to be a read similar to that of Beth Revis� Across The Universe. Although there are a few similarities, Earthseed stands up on its own. Think of a story that is a mixture of Across The Universe meets Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies.
Earthseed follows the lives of a group of teens aboard a spacecraft that they lovingly call “Ship�. Ship acts as the parental figure in the lives of these teens. With them from their birth, and guiding them as they grow up, Ship is a huge figure in their lives. With sensors scattered all throughout the space craft, Ship is able to monitor the activities that occur onboard, and is always available for guidance when needed.
The main objective for this mission from Earth is to take the “seeds� of the people and scatter them throughout space on other liveable planets. Ship must travel throughout space in search of habitable land that does not have intelligent life on it yet, where this group of teens must learn to live and create a new world.
Among the teens on board, Earthseed focuses primarily through the eyes of female protagonist, Zoheret, a strong character that I loved reading about. We watch her interaction with the other teens on board, and are introduced to the ways of life aboard Ship. As is human nature, groups of kids have become closer with others forming their own clique. And as it is in high school, a teen story is never complete without its own fair share of bullies. Enter Manual and Ho. Using their strength and influence to get what they want, everyone knows to stay on their good side, doing their biding.
As it is done every year, Ship holds a type of competition among the group, whether it be through Q & A, or physical exertion. This year’s competition is one of significant importance. Aboard ship, there is an area known as the Hollow. And it is in this Hollow that the groups must traverse from one end of the Hollow to the other. Sounds simple enough…but with the need to win, groups will stop at nothing to come out the victor. And it is from this competition that former alliances break down and turn into something darker.
At the completion of the competition, Ship informs the group that the time for their decent to a new land is fast approaching, and they must learn to live on their own as a tribe. They must learn how to grow their own food, become civilized in an unknown land, and learn to live with each other and co-exist. And with this experiment, Ship has agreed to not monitor the Hollow allowing them to fend for themselves. This is just an experiment waiting to go wrong� I only wish that rather than start a new “part� in the book, that we could have seen the beginning days of their new way of life.
This book was completely unput-downable. I completely devoured it! The multiple twists and turns that author, Pamela Sargent, has put in the pages kept me up late at night. I needed to know what was going to happen the minute a plot twist presented itself. There were various parts in the book that I did not even guess was coming! I was shocked on multiple occasions. Sargent has poured in so much emotion into the characters of this book that all of them will stand out and won’t soon be forgotten. The world building that was found in the pages was amazing. I could see the different images clearly in my mind as I was reading…the movie playing out in my head. Broken down into 3 parts, each part surpassed the one before. I am totally looking forward to reading the next installment to this trilogy, Farseed.
Fans of Sci-Fi and Dystopian reads will completely devour Earthseed. For those who like to read the book before the movie comes out, don’t hesitate on this one. You won’t be disappointed.
When I first read the synopsis, I thought that Earthseed was going to be a read similar to that of Beth Revis� Across The Universe. Although there are a few similarities, Earthseed stands up on its own. Think of a story that is a mixture of Across The Universe meets Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies.
Earthseed follows the lives of a group of teens aboard a spacecraft that they lovingly call “Ship�. Ship acts as the parental figure in the lives of these teens. With them from their birth, and guiding them as they grow up, Ship is a huge figure in their lives. With sensors scattered all throughout the space craft, Ship is able to monitor the activities that occur onboard, and is always available for guidance when needed.
The main objective for this mission from Earth is to take the “seeds� of the people and scatter them throughout space on other liveable planets. Ship must travel throughout space in search of habitable land that does not have intelligent life on it yet, where this group of teens must learn to live and create a new world.
Among the teens on board, Earthseed focuses primarily through the eyes of female protagonist, Zoheret, a strong character that I loved reading about. We watch her interaction with the other teens on board, and are introduced to the ways of life aboard Ship. As is human nature, groups of kids have become closer with others forming their own clique. And as it is in high school, a teen story is never complete without its own fair share of bullies. Enter Manual and Ho. Using their strength and influence to get what they want, everyone knows to stay on their good side, doing their biding.
As it is done every year, Ship holds a type of competition among the group, whether it be through Q & A, or physical exertion. This year’s competition is one of significant importance. Aboard ship, there is an area known as the Hollow. And it is in this Hollow that the groups must traverse from one end of the Hollow to the other. Sounds simple enough…but with the need to win, groups will stop at nothing to come out the victor. And it is from this competition that former alliances break down and turn into something darker.
At the completion of the competition, Ship informs the group that the time for their decent to a new land is fast approaching, and they must learn to live on their own as a tribe. They must learn how to grow their own food, become civilized in an unknown land, and learn to live with each other and co-exist. And with this experiment, Ship has agreed to not monitor the Hollow allowing them to fend for themselves. This is just an experiment waiting to go wrong� I only wish that rather than start a new “part� in the book, that we could have seen the beginning days of their new way of life.
This book was completely unput-downable. I completely devoured it! The multiple twists and turns that author, Pamela Sargent, has put in the pages kept me up late at night. I needed to know what was going to happen the minute a plot twist presented itself. There were various parts in the book that I did not even guess was coming! I was shocked on multiple occasions. Sargent has poured in so much emotion into the characters of this book that all of them will stand out and won’t soon be forgotten. The world building that was found in the pages was amazing. I could see the different images clearly in my mind as I was reading…the movie playing out in my head. Broken down into 3 parts, each part surpassed the one before. I am totally looking forward to reading the next installment to this trilogy, Farseed.
Fans of Sci-Fi and Dystopian reads will completely devour Earthseed. For those who like to read the book before the movie comes out, don’t hesitate on this one. You won’t be disappointed.
June 7, 2012
A long time ago, in a high school far away, I remember coming across EARTHSEED tucked among the broken paperbacks. I never picked it up because it looked like the cover would break if I even touched it. I skipped it over for other greats from the 1980s because my library was that backwards. When I got the chance to read and review this one, though, as well as interview author Pamela Sargent, I jumped at the chance.
EARTHSEED follows fifteen year old Zoheret as she lives and grows on a spaceship run by a computer named Ship. Ship has been parent, caretaker, mentor, and friend since the day she was born, grown from eggs and sperm never to know her real parents along with dozens of other kids. Her destiny � to populate a new planet now that Earth is pretty much caput. But for Zoheret and her friends, things are not as they seem. When the backstabbing starts and the claws come out, it is every kid for him or herself.
I should probably start by saying that this book really gets only 3.5 out of 5 stars. This book succeeds for me mostly on its impressive plot. Zoheret’s story is like LORD OF THE FLIES meets outer space, with kids who backstab for survival, forests full of traps, and a ship pushing its wards to succeed at all costs. It’s a story worth telling, and Sargent does an amazing job of introducing new twists that complicate matters for Zoheret. And I have to give kudos to Sargent for being rather ruthless with her turns in the story. There be death and chaos and blood in this one, folks.
But what this book lacks is something I’ve found to be the norm in books from the 1980s. The writing is dry and stiff, with a cardboard-like consistency to it. Told in third person, I found it excruciatingly hard to connect with Zoheret. Likewise, her shipmates were a revolving door of names, albeit multicultural names � we have Jews, Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, plain old Americans and kids of mixed descent, all born from eggs and sperm whipped together by a machine and grown on the ship. But none of these names have any real personalities. Zoheret herself is relegated to a dry tone and kept at an arm’s length, which can be understandable given that she was raised by a computer, but it’s not great for reading.
As I’ve said, the writing is dry and the characterization isn’t great. Another issue I had that takes it down another half star is the fact that there is no foreshadowing. You find a book like CINDER where the author loads us with heavy foreshadowing that is painfully obvious, but in EARTHSEED we find the opposite. Twists occur without any build up, leaving us dropped into a new situation and caught off guard. I loved the twists, but when you can’t see them coming or rationalize their sudden appearance, you’re going to end up all like, “Did I read that right? Am I an idiot?� But yeah, I loved the twists once I had a chance to read and understand the situation. With some of the twists, especially later on, the twists seem like a tacked on afterthought.
EARTHSEED is a book where I can see a lot of people being on the fence about it. It’s definitely not the same style of book you see from 21st century YA. Still, it has been optioned for film by a Twilight screenwriter/producer/someone Twilight related. And I would definitely be there opening day if this movie were ever produced and released, but to be honest, it feels like 95% of YA books are optioned these days, and only 1% are ever made into movies. This one just doesn’t feel like it will make it far, but I can hope! It would indeed by EPICCCC.
Also, who is the guy on the cover � Manuel? Dmitri? Random other guy? I still can’t figure it out.
VERDICT: Although a bit dry, EARTHSEED is worth a read if only for an epic plot. The science fiction genre is a fave, and this book reminded me why I love it.
EARTHSEED follows fifteen year old Zoheret as she lives and grows on a spaceship run by a computer named Ship. Ship has been parent, caretaker, mentor, and friend since the day she was born, grown from eggs and sperm never to know her real parents along with dozens of other kids. Her destiny � to populate a new planet now that Earth is pretty much caput. But for Zoheret and her friends, things are not as they seem. When the backstabbing starts and the claws come out, it is every kid for him or herself.
I should probably start by saying that this book really gets only 3.5 out of 5 stars. This book succeeds for me mostly on its impressive plot. Zoheret’s story is like LORD OF THE FLIES meets outer space, with kids who backstab for survival, forests full of traps, and a ship pushing its wards to succeed at all costs. It’s a story worth telling, and Sargent does an amazing job of introducing new twists that complicate matters for Zoheret. And I have to give kudos to Sargent for being rather ruthless with her turns in the story. There be death and chaos and blood in this one, folks.
But what this book lacks is something I’ve found to be the norm in books from the 1980s. The writing is dry and stiff, with a cardboard-like consistency to it. Told in third person, I found it excruciatingly hard to connect with Zoheret. Likewise, her shipmates were a revolving door of names, albeit multicultural names � we have Jews, Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, plain old Americans and kids of mixed descent, all born from eggs and sperm whipped together by a machine and grown on the ship. But none of these names have any real personalities. Zoheret herself is relegated to a dry tone and kept at an arm’s length, which can be understandable given that she was raised by a computer, but it’s not great for reading.
As I’ve said, the writing is dry and the characterization isn’t great. Another issue I had that takes it down another half star is the fact that there is no foreshadowing. You find a book like CINDER where the author loads us with heavy foreshadowing that is painfully obvious, but in EARTHSEED we find the opposite. Twists occur without any build up, leaving us dropped into a new situation and caught off guard. I loved the twists, but when you can’t see them coming or rationalize their sudden appearance, you’re going to end up all like, “Did I read that right? Am I an idiot?� But yeah, I loved the twists once I had a chance to read and understand the situation. With some of the twists, especially later on, the twists seem like a tacked on afterthought.
EARTHSEED is a book where I can see a lot of people being on the fence about it. It’s definitely not the same style of book you see from 21st century YA. Still, it has been optioned for film by a Twilight screenwriter/producer/someone Twilight related. And I would definitely be there opening day if this movie were ever produced and released, but to be honest, it feels like 95% of YA books are optioned these days, and only 1% are ever made into movies. This one just doesn’t feel like it will make it far, but I can hope! It would indeed by EPICCCC.
Also, who is the guy on the cover � Manuel? Dmitri? Random other guy? I still can’t figure it out.
VERDICT: Although a bit dry, EARTHSEED is worth a read if only for an epic plot. The science fiction genre is a fave, and this book reminded me why I love it.
May 9, 2013
review of
Pamela Sargent's Earthseed
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 9, 2013
This is the 4th bk by Sargent that I've read. The others are The Sudden Star, Watchstar, & Venus of Dreams. The only one I've reviewed is Watchstar ( ). I can't really say that I know her work yet. It appears that her writing is somewhat known as being targeted at young adults. I'd say this bk was.
As w/ Watchstar (1980), Earthseed (1983) is a 'coming-of-age' story - in this case it's not so much a story about a central character, even tho there IS a central female protagonist as there was in Watchstar, as it is about a whole community of characters 'birthed' by a 'mother' spaceship around the same time.
I reckon that there're enuf SF stories by now of groups of humans traveling to new planets in spaceships in order to spread humanity far & wide for this to be a subgenre. I think of Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars (1992) ( ) as a variant. I'm interested in reading the different imaginings of this possible future. At the same time, the basic idea isn't likely to surprise me precisely b/c it IS a subgenre.
It wd oversimplistic to call Earthseed the Lord of the Flies of this subgenre but it wd still be close. The spaceship, if I understood correctly, is an adapted asteroid. Inside there's a wilderness that spans 10s of miles. The coming-of-age Earthseed teenagers must live in this wilderness for awhile in order to develop their skills at adapting to an environment that doesn't machine feed them - as the mother ship had previously done. The Lord of the Flies aspect appears as the nastier side of humanity manifests itself in typical bullying Alpha Male ways.
While Sargent doesn't completely oversimplify human behavior into sexual stereotypes, there's a bit too much of the THE-MATRIARCHY-WILL-ULTIMATELY-BE-MORE-HUMANE -THAN-THE-PATRIARCHY in here for me. My own personal experience is that matriarchy is just as vicious & soul destroying & manipulative & hateful as patriarchy.
Maybe one of the more interesting aspects of this for me was the way Sargent had characters who were born w/ various health problems. I don't have a personal timeline of SF-stories-w/-characters-w/-major health-problems but Candas Jane Dorsey's A Paradigm of Earth (2001) comes to mind b/c of the character dependent on a wheelchair. Have any SF writers explored the possibilities of how zero-gravity might benefit a person w/o the use of their legs? I think of the movie Avatar.
Sargent's take on it appeals to me - the mother/father ship has created children from genetic banks as the ship has approached a potentially habitable planet. Not all of these kids have come out 'perfect'. One is blind, eg. Sargent's not going for the technology-is-a-perfect-Aryan-God routine, thank goodness. At any rate, I appreciate the sensitivity & realism of her treatment of the subject.
All in all, I whipped thru this, enjoying the tale & rooting for the least brutal, least selfish, & most cooperative & free-spirit encouraging path. So far, alas, Sargent doesn't strike me as particularly original either in terms of plot or in writing style. Instead, she's a 'solid' writer, as some might put it - a writer who imagines a very particular plot & then writes her way thru it w/ clarity & technical simplicity.
Pamela Sargent's Earthseed
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 9, 2013
This is the 4th bk by Sargent that I've read. The others are The Sudden Star, Watchstar, & Venus of Dreams. The only one I've reviewed is Watchstar ( ). I can't really say that I know her work yet. It appears that her writing is somewhat known as being targeted at young adults. I'd say this bk was.
As w/ Watchstar (1980), Earthseed (1983) is a 'coming-of-age' story - in this case it's not so much a story about a central character, even tho there IS a central female protagonist as there was in Watchstar, as it is about a whole community of characters 'birthed' by a 'mother' spaceship around the same time.
I reckon that there're enuf SF stories by now of groups of humans traveling to new planets in spaceships in order to spread humanity far & wide for this to be a subgenre. I think of Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars (1992) ( ) as a variant. I'm interested in reading the different imaginings of this possible future. At the same time, the basic idea isn't likely to surprise me precisely b/c it IS a subgenre.
It wd oversimplistic to call Earthseed the Lord of the Flies of this subgenre but it wd still be close. The spaceship, if I understood correctly, is an adapted asteroid. Inside there's a wilderness that spans 10s of miles. The coming-of-age Earthseed teenagers must live in this wilderness for awhile in order to develop their skills at adapting to an environment that doesn't machine feed them - as the mother ship had previously done. The Lord of the Flies aspect appears as the nastier side of humanity manifests itself in typical bullying Alpha Male ways.
While Sargent doesn't completely oversimplify human behavior into sexual stereotypes, there's a bit too much of the THE-MATRIARCHY-WILL-ULTIMATELY-BE-MORE-HUMANE -THAN-THE-PATRIARCHY in here for me. My own personal experience is that matriarchy is just as vicious & soul destroying & manipulative & hateful as patriarchy.
Maybe one of the more interesting aspects of this for me was the way Sargent had characters who were born w/ various health problems. I don't have a personal timeline of SF-stories-w/-characters-w/-major health-problems but Candas Jane Dorsey's A Paradigm of Earth (2001) comes to mind b/c of the character dependent on a wheelchair. Have any SF writers explored the possibilities of how zero-gravity might benefit a person w/o the use of their legs? I think of the movie Avatar.
Sargent's take on it appeals to me - the mother/father ship has created children from genetic banks as the ship has approached a potentially habitable planet. Not all of these kids have come out 'perfect'. One is blind, eg. Sargent's not going for the technology-is-a-perfect-Aryan-God routine, thank goodness. At any rate, I appreciate the sensitivity & realism of her treatment of the subject.
All in all, I whipped thru this, enjoying the tale & rooting for the least brutal, least selfish, & most cooperative & free-spirit encouraging path. So far, alas, Sargent doesn't strike me as particularly original either in terms of plot or in writing style. Instead, she's a 'solid' writer, as some might put it - a writer who imagines a very particular plot & then writes her way thru it w/ clarity & technical simplicity.
June 28, 2012
Earthseed book 1 of the Seed Series by Pamela Sargent is a timeless masterpiece originally written in 1983 that raises important questions and will leave readers with intriguing issues to ponder. Earthseed is an old-school science fiction book that offer far more psychological drama and adventure than your typical flashy space operas. Earthseed is suspenseful, thought-provoking and thoroughly engrossing. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have discovered this series! Ship is an A.I. built from/on an asteroid by the last surviving members of Earth to hold the DNA of all living animals, plants and even select human into space, to find a New Earth and to preserve humankind. Children are born from artificial wombs, then raised by ship who is mother/father figure, mentor and friend to them. Ship is responsible for the care of the passengers, providing them with every-day necessities, knowledge and training. Ship is also responsible for not only for keeping them alive, but teaching them how to stay alive on their own when they finally land on a new planet and Ship will no longer be able to assist them. Earthseed by Pamela Sargent raises many important questions! Is it possible to start over and not fall into the same patterns? Are we bound to repeat the same mistakes our ancestors made? Can we change who we are, and how we behave, in order to create a new and better world? Or are we destined to drive ourselves to the brink of extinction once again, sliding down the spiral of violence, anger and despair? I really appreciated the lack of romance in Earthseed, it is unnecessary and I was glad to see that Pamela Sargent didn't try to squeeze it into the plot as most authors do. Earthseed is all about survival, life lessons, and exploring the depth of human nature. More of an intellectual feast than a romanticized vision of space travel, and definitely not some cheesy space love story. I recommend Earthseed book 1 of the Seed Series by Pamela Sargent for all scifi and young-adult lovers. I read that it was recently optioned by Paramount to become a major motion picture. If this is indeed true I just PRAY they do not ruin Earthseed by Pamela Sargent the way so many books to movies have been. Earthseed book 1 of the Seed Series by Pamela Sargent is a remarkable and astonishing novel, and just couldn't put it down. I am looking forward to reading Farseed book 2 of the Seed Series by Pamela Sargent.
May 31, 2011
Entertainment Weekly included this book in their "the next Hunger Games?" list (popular YA fantasy/sci fi books that have been optioned into movies), so I was intrigued. I thought Earthseed was really good for maybe 3/4 of the way, to where I had a hard time putting it down and was already bossing the husband to get ready to include it on his assigned-by-me reading list. But towards the end of the book, the plot machinations and even the myriad interpersonal/intergroup dynamics (which I usually love beyond all measure, the whole X-Men thing of how a disparate group meshes together) start dragging everything down, and I was more bored than anything and finishing-just-to-be-done. Too much action movie type stuff for my taste (boring fight/stealth sequences, etc.), and more importantly, for all the portrayals of interpersonal relationships, I feel like there's very little character development, even where the main character is concerned. I don't mean that no one changes or evolves, but that we still don't learn that much more from central characters aside from broad brushstrokes and immediate details. Also, I found all the Zoheret/Ship stuff more boring than I think I was meant to... I'm on the fence about whether to check out the sequel - the few pages included at the end of my copy of Earthseed piqued my interest, but I see some reviewers describing it as "boring", and since I was already bored by this book, which is supposed to be the good one, I guess I'll just wait until I'm truly desperate for books to read... (BTW I was rather surprised by the all the teens having sex in this book, like without even the pretense of love or procreation - I guess the '80s were a lot less conservative than we are led to believe!)
November 19, 2015
Même si Mme Sargent sait raconter son histoire ça n'a pas fonctionné avec moi La façon dont le vaisseau astéroïde parvient à élever des enfants sans intervention humaine reste flou ; les aspects techniques sont à peine évoqués De ce fait la trame m'a paru faible et finalement peu intéressante fondée juste sur le développement d'un groupe d'ados confrontés à la réalité en sortant d'un cocon Rien de nouveau sous le soleil
August 17, 2011
the first couple chapters seem a lot like set on a spaceship. this is not a compliment, either, as i HATED lord of the flies.
on top of that, the writing is choppy and the heroine unappealing.
30 pages and out.
on top of that, the writing is choppy and the heroine unappealing.
30 pages and out.
Read
October 4, 2022An early forerunner of the Hunger Games (book was written in 1983.) Recommend to anyone else who likes reading outdated sci-fi.
October 30, 2018
Rating: 4/5 stars
Human nature is complicated and contradictory. It’s predictable yet unpredictable; it’s cruel yet kind; it’s violent yet peaceful. It’s a topic that plenty of literature touches upon, yet Pamela Sargent’s Earthseed is the first book that has truly made me think about it. The thought-provoking and relatable content is one of many positive reasons why I gave this book the rating of 4/5 stars. Another positive reason is the amazing amount of diversity present in this book in all its forms. However, I do have a criticism: The writing style is lackluster and, at times, rather boring. This shortcoming is the reason why I removed a star from my rating that otherwise would’ve been 5/5.
Let it be said that I’m an optimist; I have a tendency to see only the good in people and their creations, and I hate critique. However, even the most critical pessimist would have a hard time finding any less-than-stellar themes or ideas in this novel. The prevailing theme is that of human nature and the violence within. Reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, the teens in this book, once isolated from the parental control of Ship within the Hollow, resort to violence. However, because of the large amount of characters in this story, there is plenty of diversity in opinions and actions. There are the young, reckless boys who embody the human nature of violence. However, there are also the calm, rational girls who seek solutions to disagreements, and they embody the diplomatic nature of humanity. These human impulses are portrayed so realistically and intricately in Earthseed that it truly causes the reader to reflect on their own actions and tendencies, as well as those of their peers.
As I mentioned before, this novels features diversity of opinions and actions. However, there are a lot of other dimensions of diversity within this book that also stood out to me. One of the most obvious ones is that of racial diversity. It’s heavily implied in many places throughout the story, such as during the dance at the beginning or when the characters are being described. The best part about this is that though it’s mentioned and alluded to, it’s something that the characters are completely oblivious to. There’s no racial tension, and there’s not even a single mention of it in dialogue, either. It’s a pretty neat political statement, and I like the depth that it added to the story. As well as physical diversity, there’s also the diversity in opinions. These children were all raised together, but they all have minds of their own, and it’s rather refreshing. It keeps the story interesting, and it really drives the plot forward.
I hate to be the Debbie Downer in any situation, and I especially dislike critiquing others when I know that their work is far better than my own. I’ve never been a brilliant author; however, I do recognize good writing when I see it. The content of Earthseed may be astounding, but the execution is decidedly not. Sargent’s writing in this novel is very dialogue-heavy, which fortunately works in its favor. However, this has tipped the scales against the favor of any descriptive writing. There are a few select scenes which are described fairly well, especially during the conflict at the climax of the story; however, the description usually seems way too mechanical and dull, and it seems like it’s treated more like filler between dialogue. I opened the book to a random page and found a perfectly laughable example: “‘There’s Lars.� Kagami went towards the boy� (Sargent 73) This is followed by equally awkward descriptions of Zoheret eating an egg roll and watching her peers dance. The sentences are short, chunky, and full of basic descriptions and basic words. I’m a fan of science fiction, but I’m a bigger fan of poetic writing, and I see no reason why some authors choose to keep the two separate. I’d love to see some of the scenes (such as within the Hollow) or the interactions between characters described with more effectiveness and more power. There’s something to be said for vocabulary words.
It’s no stretch to say that I enjoyed this book. I’m so grateful that I rescued it from the gallows that is my library’s �DISCARD� cart - I can’t say what drew me to it in the first place, but I’m thinking that it was fate. It’s almost perfect for me in the way that it combines science fiction with YA literature, featuring an interesting story and characters that I couldn’t help but root for. Reading this book was a memorable experience, and I savored every moment of it. It’s a shame that it’s not too popular, and I really would recommend it to anyone who’s even slightly intrigued by it. It’s no waste of time.
May 16, 2019
Earthseed by Pamela Sargent
I came across this book while looking at a request someone had for a book they had once read. Someone may have mentioned these novels or I might have just stumbled upon them at the time. Either way I decided since I have read Pamela Sargent's Venus series and enjoyed her style of writing I would give these a try. I have to admit that the first 100 pages almost discouraged me. The books are being marked now as Teen fiction and they certainly read like Young Adult at least for the first half I have no idea what they were listed as back in 1983 first printing.
There is a point when the story finally takes off with some reasonable conflicts and interesting plot twists and it become a book that's hard to put down.
I was expecting a lot more from Pamela Sargent when this started out with Zoheret, a young teen living a sheltered life aboard Ship with her young friends and the struggles of the day were to the tune of; which girl her favorite boy was spending time with. This actually does define Zoheret from the beginning and there is a lot of time spent showing us how shallow she can be. Aboard ship everyone is somewhat healthy but for some reason some of the people born aboard have defects. They all seem to have been born through some sort of cloning or test tube type of process and the Ship acts as their single parent. Zoheret is Ships favorite and the other children aboard are pretty normal children some not so nice while making fun of the others.
The premise of this story is that they are aboard this ship heading for a planet they will colonize. It doesn't take much imagination to see that they are not nearly ready to do this and that something has to happen soon or they might never be ready. Several of the group seem aware of this and are asking Ship to let them go into a part of the ship that is like a massive garden that can sometimes be dangerous. They want to go in and have Ship shut down all the safety's so they can begin to learn how to survive.
At this point it begins to sound a lot like the Lord of the Flies when things start to go all wrong in what has been termed a competition. People get hurt but no one dies and the Ship seems blase about the whole thing and though sometimes Zoheret can have insightful thoughts she mostly is stuck in teen angst about finding a boyfriend.
About halfway through the book Pamela Sargent finally turns on the style I'm more used to from her and we begin to see some conflict. Something is not quite right with Ship and while Ship sends them out for more training in the wilderness region of the ship 'she' begins to act strangely even as the children begin their devolution to Lord of the Flies territory. The teens soon discover that they are not alone aboard Ship and that there is not just one other set of settlers here there are two and both could be very dangerous to them and even to the continued integrity of the ship.
And now what first sounded like a light version of Lord of the Flies, begins to start darkening until we have several moral questions being examined while the stakes get higher and people begin to die. The decisions the characters have to make become real and relevant and they become much more difficult for some of them. We finally begin to see Zoheret growing to a more reasonable level of maturity as she begins to realize she can't trust the one who has been her mother, protector and constant companion throughout her life and their journey.
Once again Pamela Sargent delivers her usual insightful and well crafted SFF that will capture most fans as long as they suffer through the first part of world building.
J.L. Dobias
I came across this book while looking at a request someone had for a book they had once read. Someone may have mentioned these novels or I might have just stumbled upon them at the time. Either way I decided since I have read Pamela Sargent's Venus series and enjoyed her style of writing I would give these a try. I have to admit that the first 100 pages almost discouraged me. The books are being marked now as Teen fiction and they certainly read like Young Adult at least for the first half I have no idea what they were listed as back in 1983 first printing.
There is a point when the story finally takes off with some reasonable conflicts and interesting plot twists and it become a book that's hard to put down.
I was expecting a lot more from Pamela Sargent when this started out with Zoheret, a young teen living a sheltered life aboard Ship with her young friends and the struggles of the day were to the tune of; which girl her favorite boy was spending time with. This actually does define Zoheret from the beginning and there is a lot of time spent showing us how shallow she can be. Aboard ship everyone is somewhat healthy but for some reason some of the people born aboard have defects. They all seem to have been born through some sort of cloning or test tube type of process and the Ship acts as their single parent. Zoheret is Ships favorite and the other children aboard are pretty normal children some not so nice while making fun of the others.
The premise of this story is that they are aboard this ship heading for a planet they will colonize. It doesn't take much imagination to see that they are not nearly ready to do this and that something has to happen soon or they might never be ready. Several of the group seem aware of this and are asking Ship to let them go into a part of the ship that is like a massive garden that can sometimes be dangerous. They want to go in and have Ship shut down all the safety's so they can begin to learn how to survive.
At this point it begins to sound a lot like the Lord of the Flies when things start to go all wrong in what has been termed a competition. People get hurt but no one dies and the Ship seems blase about the whole thing and though sometimes Zoheret can have insightful thoughts she mostly is stuck in teen angst about finding a boyfriend.
About halfway through the book Pamela Sargent finally turns on the style I'm more used to from her and we begin to see some conflict. Something is not quite right with Ship and while Ship sends them out for more training in the wilderness region of the ship 'she' begins to act strangely even as the children begin their devolution to Lord of the Flies territory. The teens soon discover that they are not alone aboard Ship and that there is not just one other set of settlers here there are two and both could be very dangerous to them and even to the continued integrity of the ship.
And now what first sounded like a light version of Lord of the Flies, begins to start darkening until we have several moral questions being examined while the stakes get higher and people begin to die. The decisions the characters have to make become real and relevant and they become much more difficult for some of them. We finally begin to see Zoheret growing to a more reasonable level of maturity as she begins to realize she can't trust the one who has been her mother, protector and constant companion throughout her life and their journey.
Once again Pamela Sargent delivers her usual insightful and well crafted SFF that will capture most fans as long as they suffer through the first part of world building.
J.L. Dobias
January 23, 2019
Actual rating 2.5
I want to start this off by saying, I was very surprised that this book was published in the '80s. I honestly thought that it was more modern (like mid 2000s). This isn't very significant, just a fun fact that I found out.
But now, it's time to get real. This book was very...meh. I really enjoy the concept and world building of the story, but a lot of stuff was just very confusing.
The concept starts off as humans sending "seed" (or children) to an uninhabited planet to begin humanity anew. That's what we are led to believe for the majority of the book, and that ideal doesn't change too much, but when some unexpected company appears, well...the idea is somewhat altered. I think the kids stills see their existence as continuing on humankind, but I also think that idea was somewhat "dirtied" towards the end.
There were three parts of the book and with less than 300 pages, I don't think that worked very well. I think if the author had taken each of those parts and expanded on them more, this one book could have made an AMAZING trilogy. I would have read it. I just think the transition between each part was done very poorly. Things were left out and unknown periods of time passed (at least between part 1 and 2, I think it was a year between part 2 and 3).
The character development was somewhat lacking. The biggest problem I had was how many characters there were. We are never really told how many kids there were, but you kinda have to think there are quite a few, especially between the two groups. I think the characters could have really been expanded on if this book (alone) had been made into a series. There also didn't seem to be much development of the individual characters. For example, the main character was just as headstrong and stubborn in the beginning as she was in the end. I think some of the events in the book did shape who she became after the events that happened in part two of the book and you can really tell in part three. It's almost as she's tired of it all.
I think one of the best parts of this book was the world building. There was more information on the world as a whole in this book then there was on all the people in this book COMBINED (I am not entirely sure home many people were in this book, but I'm assuming it's a lot, since there was enough to help repopulate 2 human societies).
Overall, this book had huge potential to be something amazing. I think the author missed out on a good opportunity to make a great series out of just this one book. I'm actually very content with the ending and don't see myself reading the rest of the series at all.
I want to start this off by saying, I was very surprised that this book was published in the '80s. I honestly thought that it was more modern (like mid 2000s). This isn't very significant, just a fun fact that I found out.
But now, it's time to get real. This book was very...meh. I really enjoy the concept and world building of the story, but a lot of stuff was just very confusing.
The concept starts off as humans sending "seed" (or children) to an uninhabited planet to begin humanity anew. That's what we are led to believe for the majority of the book, and that ideal doesn't change too much, but when some unexpected company appears, well...the idea is somewhat altered. I think the kids stills see their existence as continuing on humankind, but I also think that idea was somewhat "dirtied" towards the end.
There were three parts of the book and with less than 300 pages, I don't think that worked very well. I think if the author had taken each of those parts and expanded on them more, this one book could have made an AMAZING trilogy. I would have read it. I just think the transition between each part was done very poorly. Things were left out and unknown periods of time passed (at least between part 1 and 2, I think it was a year between part 2 and 3).
The character development was somewhat lacking. The biggest problem I had was how many characters there were. We are never really told how many kids there were, but you kinda have to think there are quite a few, especially between the two groups. I think the characters could have really been expanded on if this book (alone) had been made into a series. There also didn't seem to be much development of the individual characters. For example, the main character was just as headstrong and stubborn in the beginning as she was in the end. I think some of the events in the book did shape who she became after the events that happened in part two of the book and you can really tell in part three. It's almost as she's tired of it all.
I think one of the best parts of this book was the world building. There was more information on the world as a whole in this book then there was on all the people in this book COMBINED (I am not entirely sure home many people were in this book, but I'm assuming it's a lot, since there was enough to help repopulate 2 human societies).
Overall, this book had huge potential to be something amazing. I think the author missed out on a good opportunity to make a great series out of just this one book. I'm actually very content with the ending and don't see myself reading the rest of the series at all.
December 21, 2018
Even though this is often marketed as an adult SF novel, by modern standards I would have to call it YA. The main characters are teens, sort of, even though they are in a weird cultural setting, on a huge starship.
The reason I couldn't give it a fourth star was that none of the characters really engaged my interest. The central one spent too much of the book being detached and distant. She's usually as emotionless as Ship's computer.
Also, as the story progressed, I had problems with the revelations about Ship's origin and the Project, especially the people involved. We get snippets about those people, which are terminated too abruptly.
Also, and maybe this is just me, but...programming Ship to not notice that Ship couldn't perceive some of the interior compartments...that seems like a recipe for disaster.
On a purely science side, I couldn't figure out where their gravity was coming from, but was willing to forgive that. Still, it was a little distracting.
The reason I couldn't give it a fourth star was that none of the characters really engaged my interest. The central one spent too much of the book being detached and distant. She's usually as emotionless as Ship's computer.
Also, as the story progressed, I had problems with the revelations about Ship's origin and the Project, especially the people involved. We get snippets about those people, which are terminated too abruptly.
Also, and maybe this is just me, but...programming Ship to not notice that Ship couldn't perceive some of the interior compartments...that seems like a recipe for disaster.
On a purely science side, I couldn't figure out where their gravity was coming from, but was willing to forgive that. Still, it was a little distracting.
October 18, 2021
Not much to write home about, let alone to a group of people who will read this review. The basic premise is the old adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same.� Zoheret and a cadre of associates live inside a ship created by humans centuries earlier to populate the stars. The humans hope their survivors will build better than they did, and it is that hope that creates the ship and populates it with these idealistic teens.
But things go awry when Ship creates a survivor game designed to teach the would-be colonists how to exist without Ship’s overarching influence.
This was a downer that left me cold and unimpressed. I have one more book by this author in the to-read rotation, and it will come up soon. I’ll be fascinated to determine whether that will be a more positive experience than this was.
But things go awry when Ship creates a survivor game designed to teach the would-be colonists how to exist without Ship’s overarching influence.
This was a downer that left me cold and unimpressed. I have one more book by this author in the to-read rotation, and it will come up soon. I’ll be fascinated to determine whether that will be a more positive experience than this was.
June 15, 2019
This was quite disappointing. I had been looking forward to reading this series for some time and finally managed to get my hands on the first copy in the series. I thought it was going to be an interesting story about space travel and humans finding a new home, with all the usual fascinating themes that go with that. Unfortunately, the story was something like a cross between The 100 and The Hunger Games and the only themes were really violence and war. 'What it means to be human' was just subsumed into that. I thought the Earth generation of adults that appeared towards the end were bare caricatures with no real personalities (why would her genetic donor try to kill her for example?). Not for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2023
An enjoyable coming of age story in space. A fairly easy to read story that puts you into the mindset of a child who was part of a space colony set to colonize a new planet. The writing feels clear and motivated and the world felt logically consistent. The hurdles the children have to face are a result of their situation as opposed to being artificially manufactured. Each of the characters seem to have their own small struggles. My one complaint was the lightness of the plot, but that also makes it more accessible to younger readers.
March 5, 2018
Lord of the Flies in space. 15-year-olds raised on a ship headed to a new world experience division and violence, but learn from their experiences. Sargent does a nice job of reflecting problems with human society in this world in microcosm. The story of an ark to settle a new world was more novel in 1983, but little about the story seems novel now.
December 17, 2020
Actually went back and read this after accidentally reading book 3 first. The first chapter or two had me a little worried, but then things got pretty good. Ended up reading the last half of the book in a single sitting. That has to be a good sign.
November 29, 2021
I can't finish the at that moment. It's very YA Sci-fi, but there's nothing wrong with it, technically speaking. It's just very "you know something bad is always right around the corner" stressful and I'm apparently more fragile about stress than I realized at the moment.
July 16, 2018
I read this book as a kid and for the longest time couldn’t remember the name of it, but always wanted to re-read it. Thanks to Google I was finally able to find it.
January 26, 2019
This book was okay. The Beginning is kind of boring and brutal to read, but things pick up as it goes on and you get invested in characters. They stop complaining so much about nonsense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.