From Publishers Weekly
In this far-future novel of planetary colonization and alien first contact, Hugo and Nebula Award-winner Kress (Probability Sun) offers a satisfying thought experiment in science and philosophy, despite a slow start, relatively stock characters and prose less lyrical than her usual. Jake Holman, founder of the Mira Corporation, leads 6,000 private citizens in flight from a troubled Earth to the planet Greentrees, where the expedition gets caught in the crossfire between two alien races: the Furs, DNA-based humanoids who first settled the planet; and the Vines, sentient plants who arrived after the Furs, their deadly enemies of long standing. Shipley, the leader of 2,000 Quakers, sympathizes with the Vines, while his estranged daughter, Naomi, sides with the Furs as victims of Vine bioengineering. Various philosophies, notably Libertarianism as extolled by Jake and New Quakerism, vie with one another. Fans of serious SF will enjoy this tale of bravery, travel, adventure, and personal and social crisis, though the inconclusive ending may annoy some readers, whether or not there's a sequel.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The first book in a new multivolume work sets up a somewhat familiar situation: interstellar colony financed by benign billionaire is filled by groups seeking room to achieve their identities. Said groups have barely reached the planet Greentrees, however, when they discover it already has sentient, alien inhabitants called the Furs. The groups discover soon thereafter that the local Furs were created as experiments in biological warfare by another sentient race, the Vines, who are, basically, plants and are at war with the technologically advanced, warlike ur-Furs, who subsequently show up and kidnap a number of humans. Caught in the crossfire, the humans need to foil Furs' and Vines' plans if they are to survive. Drawing on their mixed talents and personalities, they succeed for the moment. Kress operates up to her usual high standards in most respects, and she also makes ethical dilemmas as gripping as laser fights, and the results of human-alien contact rather depend on which human contacts which alien. Choice stuff.
Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
