There are many strange species on the world and at the apex of the intelligent species are plants, plants that are connected and themselves live in an almost hive-mind like state. Problems persist when they do land: the gravity turns out to be heavier than Earth, and oh yeah, there’s a little revolution when one group tries to enforce their will over the populace. Before they even land, problems arise some of the colonists perish, equipment gets destroyed. Rather than taming the land, they come to realize living as part of the world will lead to survival. With only themselves upon which to rely, these settlers overcome initial strife and revolution to understand their new home-world.

Only mutual communication can forge an alliance with the planet’s sentient species and prove that humans are more than tools. They don’t realize another life form watches…and waits… What they discover, unsurprisingly, is far from what they expected with peace as much a struggle in their new environment as it was back on Earth.Ĭolonists from Earth wanted the perfect home, but they’ll have to survive on the one they found. After nearly 160 years, these people land on the planet they dub Pax, or peace. In Semiosis, Sue Burke’s debut novel, a group of people have left an Earth in the near future (about 2060) that is deteriorating, hoping to cast off some of the social constructs that have pulled humanity down and start anew with a more harmonious mindset. Human exploration, settling on a foreign planet and making contact with an alien species are staples of science fiction.

Sue burke semiosis