Author: Carol Severance
Published: 1991
Genre: Science Fiction (soft)
Type: Good vs Evil
Standalone
I first read this book when I was 12 or so. I'd been systematically reading out my local library's science fiction and fantasy section. I'd check out 10-20 books at a time and return them the next weekend when my mother had time to take me to the library.
Reefsong was about water. I love and have always loved water world based books. There are not enough of them in my opinion. Its an exotic environment and a beautiful one. I picked up Reefsong just because it was about water. I'm glad I did. Sadly, I read it a few times over the next year or two and then lost track of it when I stopped going to the library every weekend.
It was one of those books that always stood out to me. I'd think about it now and then but I couldn't remember the name of the book. When I returned home from college, my Library had cleared out 90% of its books and replaced them with Magazines and Newspapers and more modern things.
I mourned and it was not until years later that I found a science fiction form that had a section to help people find books. I was able to write an almost verbatim description from the back of the book and two days later someone figured out what I was talking to. I did a search on amazon and found out that a kindle version had become available only a few months before.
Reefsong is one of those books where the bad guy is the evil corporate power that seeks money over everything else. The main character is a proud, honest, uncorruptible person who makes hard decisions. The secondary characters are complex but filled with self motivations the reader can get behind and cheer for. The good and the bad are not complex but they are pleasant.
The world has some interesting aspects to it. There is space travel through wormholes, making the travel times fast. There appear to be several inhabitable worlds out there. A lot of time is not spent on dealing with technical details. The science fiction is the setting for the story not the story itself.
The world has some interesting aspects to it. There is space travel through wormholes, making the travel times fast. There appear to be several inhabitable worlds out there. A lot of time is not spent on dealing with technical details. The science fiction is the setting for the story not the story itself.
The story is a bit of a mystery a bit of personal journey. The main character Angie is sent to the water planet Lesaat to find a biochemical formula that may end world hunger. Along the way she deals with explorations of the native population, the environment, and herself by the evil entity of the company.
Carol Severance manages to hand the beauty of the world without slogging through the minutia of it. You understand that Lesaat is beautiful and complex. It is every beautiful beach you have ever seen. It is unspoiled and pure and she only hits at the complex nature of the environmental What really is the true nature of the world and what is the interpretation of the characters is muddled and I think she means for it to be. There is a feeling of world worship and a leaning towards ancient gods and deities of the deep that may be imagination or may be sentient life on the planet itself. She uses these are supports for her picture and not actual elements themselves.
It is a good, solid science fiction story. There is genetic manipulation altered people, different worlds, similar but different situations, gadgets and toys and all of the pieces that make the future seem so cool to us. Its also an environmental tale. The earth is over populated and struggling under its resources People have given up nature to feed the furnace of humanity. It speaks of a lack of morals fed by a thirst for power.
She does a good job of not being preachy about it. Its the theme without a doubt but she, at least, doesn't have the character's going through page after page of ranting. She won't pull you from the story, but those ideas and problems are deeply woven. Its a bit of a heroes tail as well. Her view points are open minded when it comes to gender and sexuality in the story.
Its a solid, good read. Its a story about the story. It answers its questions and leaves you full and satisfied I've read it half a dozen times. After rereading it earlier this weekend, I decided that it would be my anchor about books.
Its a solid, good read. Its a story about the story. It answers its questions and leaves you full and satisfied I've read it half a dozen times. After rereading it earlier this weekend, I decided that it would be my anchor about books.
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