Review of The Scent of Distant Worlds
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[Following is a volunteer review of "The Scent of Distant Worlds" by W. D. County.]
Cassie is struggling with a professional conflict, and she hopes her grandfather's gift of a little carved totem will help her find her way. As the expedition's exobiologist, she must identify any lifeforms that would compel her to invoke the Prime Directive to leave alone any worlds harboring intelligent life. However, both the company's owner and the ship's captain are obsessed with maximizing profits by mining the world's diamonds.
Author W.D. County questions how we would recognize intelligent life elsewhere if it is very different from what we experience on our planet. The Scent of Distant Worlds explores that challenge with humans dismissing the abundant but deadly plant life as not sentient. Meanwhile, the plants are using their complex scent-based communication system to debate what to do about the monsters uprooting them. Both sides have similar actors: a leader intent on eradicating the other side, a love triangle, personal and professional jealousies, and politics. Will they resolve their differences? Will the humans go away? Or will one side wipe out the other? There is an exciting twist at the end.
I was especially fascinated by the plant characters and intrigued by the intricacy of their scent-based society. Also, I liked that the danger of cross-species misunderstanding of actions and intent ripples throughout the novel.
Drawn-out early dramatic interactions among the humans contributed to a slow start, and I thought the character roles were a bit stereotyped.
Despite the personal dramas, this is not a space opera but a frank and thoughtful exploration of a topic that may be important as we explore new worlds. Sci-fi fans who appreciate an underlying social message will like this one.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. The book seems very well edited; I noted no typos or obvious grammatical errors.
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The Scent of Distant Worlds
View: on Bookshelves |
Cassie is struggling with a professional conflict, and she hopes her grandfather's gift of a little carved totem will help her find her way. As the expedition's exobiologist, she must identify any lifeforms that would compel her to invoke the Prime Directive to leave alone any worlds harboring intelligent life. However, both the company's owner and the ship's captain are obsessed with maximizing profits by mining the world's diamonds.
Author W.D. County questions how we would recognize intelligent life elsewhere if it is very different from what we experience on our planet. The Scent of Distant Worlds explores that challenge with humans dismissing the abundant but deadly plant life as not sentient. Meanwhile, the plants are using their complex scent-based communication system to debate what to do about the monsters uprooting them. Both sides have similar actors: a leader intent on eradicating the other side, a love triangle, personal and professional jealousies, and politics. Will they resolve their differences? Will the humans go away? Or will one side wipe out the other? There is an exciting twist at the end.
I was especially fascinated by the plant characters and intrigued by the intricacy of their scent-based society. Also, I liked that the danger of cross-species misunderstanding of actions and intent ripples throughout the novel.
Drawn-out early dramatic interactions among the humans contributed to a slow start, and I thought the character roles were a bit stereotyped.
Despite the personal dramas, this is not a space opera but a frank and thoughtful exploration of a topic that may be important as we explore new worlds. Sci-fi fans who appreciate an underlying social message will like this one.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. The book seems very well edited; I noted no typos or obvious grammatical errors.
******
The Scent of Distant Worlds
View: on Bookshelves |
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