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Semiosis

A novel of first contact

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Semiosis

By: Sue Burke
Narrated by: Caitlin Davies, Daniel Thomas May
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‘Up there with the best of Le Guin in terms of beautiful, engrossing, brilliantly imagined sci-fi’
VULTURE

‘SEMIOSIS combines the world-building of Avatar with the alien wonder of Arrival, and the sheer humanity of Atwood. An essential work for our time’
STEPHEN BAXTER

NOMINATED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD

Escaping conflict on Earth, an idealistic group of settlers arrive on a distant planet – Pax – with plans for a perfect society.

The world they discover is rich with life, but this is not the Eden they were hoping for. The plants on Pax are smart – smart enough to domesticate, and even slaughter, its many extraordinary animals.

To survive, the colonists realize that they must strike bargains of their own. But if they are to make Pax their home, they must go further, searching for a way to communicate and coexist with these utterly alien intelligences.

 Adventure Fiction First Contact Genetic Engineering Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Space Exploration Interstellar Fantasy Solar System
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Continue the series
Interference cover art
Interference By: Sue Burke

Critic reviews

BEST BOOKS OF 2018 – THRILLIST, VULTURE, THE VERGE, CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
LOCUS RECOMMENDED READING LIST 2018

‘This is top class SF, intelligent and engaging and I loved every moment of it’
Adrian Tchaikovsky, award-winning author of CHILDREN OF TIME

‘Sue Burke blends science with adventure and fascinating characters, as a human colony desperately seeks to join the ecosystem of an alien world.’
David Brin, award-winning author of THE POSTMAN

‘A magnetic meditation on biochemistry and humanity’
LOCUS

‘A clever, fascinating, fun and unique debut’
KIRKUS
All stars
Most relevant
Excellent idea, great world building and the changes of generations was a really good way to show development of evolution through the book.

Occasionally the writing style was infuriating , many 'he said' 'she said' 'he said' dialogues that were just lazy writing with such expert narrative in other places.

The 3 narrators were good at showing different parts however the main drawback was the female narrator. Her tone of voice was sardonic throughout. Every character she narrated was twisted into a snotty mid Western housewife with a superior condescension of everything and anything.

Such a shame for a fresh and invigorating scifi idea. Glad I listened to it but will be checking the narrators more in the future to avoid the one of the three.

Great idea let down by narration

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I really enjoyed this book. The narrators are both really good too. Daniel does a very good range of different voices without sounding forced.

Great

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Wasn’t quite what I expected but I enjoyed this book overall. Some interesting ideas in regards to the plants and their interactions. Looking forward to the sequel. The narrators were ok, some of the voices they did were abit naff and the female narrator had a strange inflection in her voice that sometimes made her sound like she was asking a question when she wasn’t. I got used to it after a while.

Looking forward to the follow up

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wonderful book, a breath of fresh air in SciFi. Feels like it ended at where the midpoint should be, but I hear a sequel is in the works, so perhaps an edition that combines both books would make sense later on. I prefer bigger tomes, haha

wonderful book, ends too soon

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loved this really makes you think about animals vrs plants would recommend to all sci-fi fans

really grabs you

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