Book Review: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

 

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz 

352 pages, Hardcover

Tor Books, Jan. 2023
 

I am one of those lucky people who grew up in a house with too many books, and parents who were always reading. My father was an excellent role model as he always had his face in a book. My mom and sister were readers too, but Dad and I bonded on used bookstores.  Our reading interests couldn’t have been different.  I discovered space as a wee tot and science fiction at the age that my mother read my first Asimov and Heinlein to me before I was stuffing towels under the door frame to block the light while I stayed up late reading Science Fiction.  

My father was a professor of political science at Indiana University and his reading was 99.9% for research.  He read one novel at some point in his sixties, and I tried a few times to show my father the crossover. Too bad that the Terraformers came out after he passed, the intersection of political science, urban planning, social science, and bureaucracy would have been up his alley. I am sure I would have to talk him through the uplifted flying moose, and transhuman evolved humans of the far future but for the modern SF  reader all that stuff is like catnip.  

This novel is the kind of idea-driven SF that takes place over generations with a 20th-century feel. Think of novels like Dune, Foundation, or Brunner’s Crucible of Time.  Unlike so many of those novels, Newitz doesn’t get lost in gee-whiz and gives this novel fully 21st-century characters and vibe. This is a modern SF novel that has just enough of the old-school DNA.
 
The best novels SF or otherwise come from authors who bring a voice that is unique and all their own. The combined Science fiction and social science knowledge leads to a book that no one else could write. (my favorite kind of novel. Once the characters and events are put into motion Annalee Newitz is performing an alchemy entirely of their own. The result is a century-spanning exploration of environmentalism, capitalism, and the nature of being a rights-holding being. Along the way, there are hundreds of stimulating speculative ideas and adventures.

The terraforming of SASK-E is a planet that they have been preparing for colonization for 60,000 years. Destry is an ERT member, who lives much longer than we do taking a couple of centuries at a time to maintain the ecological balance of this world soon to open to human colonists. The Venus-based Verdance corporation represents capitalism and entire eras and generations of investment.  They own and control the ecology of this world, which is why they are furious when a group of hominids from the Pleistocene era of the planet were not only found to have survived underground on an island but built a civilization. Oops.  Thus begins the drama of the first action, the second and third acts do tie together, but there are time jumps and bit of their own stories.

It is more than ecological and government. It is Environmental rangers whose partners are talking moose, and a convincing relationship between an AI train and a historian cat. This is 60,000 years or more in our future so it is not like our world. Plenty of fun weird stuff.

So before we drill down if you are looking for a non-spoiler take, here is where you to tap out, put this book on hold at The Terraformers at the library, or better yet buy a copy. This is fantastic work of speculative fiction. Funny enough as I was introduced to this book at an event with S.B. Divya promoting this book and Meru.  These are my two favorite books of the year so far.  I know it is early.  They make a great pairing, thematically. I also read this novel right after Joanna Russ's Picnic on Paradise from 1968. Totally a coincidence but again thematically good pairing.

So now what makes Terraformers great? One of the problems with epic idea-driven SF of the last century was the Asimov, Leguins, and Heinleins of the world were not the best with characters.  Newitz brings a balance to this book.  There are times when the Ideas, characters, message, politics etc. squeeze through to the forefront, but every time I felt that happening the book dipped into the other elements.  

The novel is built on a view of the universe that includes stretches of time, and the slow flow of ecology. Destry and the ERT are characters who live by that understanding in a way characters in a non-genre novel never could.   

“Water engineers talked about rivers the same way they talked about people—rivers had desires; they had bodies; they had histories. Maybe they were built of sediment borne by water, but they were alive.”
 
They also understand the weight of it all. Too many people in our early 21st century earth are not thinking about any of their actions let alone the next seven generations.

“We do not make sacrifices, but we do make bargains. Pay attention to the difference. One path leads to a simple death, and the other to a complicated life.”

The Terraformers takes a uniquely science-fictional approach to guiding the reader through the idea of thinking in generations. The characters and corporations right or wrong are constantly confronted by sociological, ecological, and generation responsibility. That is why the bulk of the second act is about the bureaucratic battle over the planning of mass transit trains.  

In this future, non-human mammals, from dogs, and moose to cats are smarter and more evolved.  Most can text and communicate their needs. This reminded me of Simak’s City but the idea is greatly expanded in The Terraformers. It is also a natural part of the world-building and not the point of the novel. In the first act it is subtle with Whistle Destry’s flying moose partner making sure to choose when she wants to give rides to our hero. As an Animal Liberationist and 30-year vegan, I enjoyed the asides this led to about Dairy products.

“He handed her a small cup of cow milk. “We don’t drink this much, but it’s a  good source of protein when a person lets you have it.”

It was true. She never forgot how good that milk tasted.  A few weeks later Destry awkwardly asked one of the cows in La  Ronge for milk and was surprised to discover to the person couldn’t respond with words – she was what people called an “animal.” The cow flicked an ear and lowered her head what could have been assent or confusion.  Destry couldn’t bring herself to take milk from someone who had no words…”   

There are several things I love in this passage. A cow in this future is a person. The distinction of “animal” is a weird thing that Destry barely understands. Other mammals in this future are persons. Destry, as a person whose job is guiding centuries of ecology doesn’t see any dividing line between her and other beings of the world. Scenes like this drive home that this not throw away details but excellent world-building and first-class far-future speculation that some will consider goofy and weird. It is not for humor or to be weird, it is evolution, not just of biology but ethics and compassion. Hell yeah.

That leads to a scene when Earthworms access to public transportation is added a meeting’s agenda.

“How are earthworms going to get on board?” Sulfur asked, half-joking. “Good question. We’ll make sure there’s a way.” Zest looked at the structure with a critical eye. Acorn was confused. “Why would earthworms need transit?” Sulfur arched an eyebrow. “They’re members of the public.” “OK, I’ll put worm accessibility on the list.”

What might seem to throw away… I mean the header on page 135 is “Meanwhile at Verdance Headquarters.” Is an interlude on Venus, a planet we learn was the first terraformed. The interworkings of Verdance the terraforming corporation is a novel or TV  show on its own.  How the corporations work, inter-office bullshit, and entire eras and worlds being molded.  Juicy stuff.

That said the third and final act is also juicy stuff, told mostly through the perspective of Scrubjay, the AI-driven self-away flying train, that is a part of the mass transit system the characters spent the second act debating. What makes this evolution of the novel really work is the third act is all built on the decisions of the second, and while it could seem like each act is independent they are not the third act depends on the second and it solves many of the dangling threads of the first act.  

The Terraformers is top-notch modern Science Fiction. A solid 21st-century SF novel that pays homage to the feel of the GREATS of the 20th century. Similar to the sociological SF of KSR or Leguin but with a hipper vibe.