Bookfilter: Red planet colonists
January 11, 2009 2:13 PM Subscribe
Bookfilter: Young adult science fiction that you won't have heard of unless you read it, about a girl space colonist (possibly mildly telepathic?) in a station orbiting a red planet (not mars, a different solar system? I think?).
Colonists, animals, and most plants, are experiencing a 'failure to thrive', unexplained infertility and many want to abandon mission, and go home. Air plants, bromeliads etc are flourishing, and twinning mutations in plants (double flowers?) and animals are showing up very frequently.
Colonists are unhappy and creeped out by the presence of the planet. All viewing windows to planet have been closed.
Teenage girl protaganist doesn't want to go home, she and others are having a dawning awareness of the overall theme of the book, that the new planet had it's own 'vibe', possibly planetary intelligence, or at least pattern for life, and until the colonists were willing to get in sync with it, they were experiencing a failure to thrive?
Conflict was trying to figure out how to do that before support is gained to go home.
Presumably a really short, possibly crap read, but it's maybe a 15 yrs since I read it?
Colonists are unhappy and creeped out by the presence of the planet. All viewing windows to planet have been closed.
Teenage girl protaganist doesn't want to go home, she and others are having a dawning awareness of the overall theme of the book, that the new planet had it's own 'vibe', possibly planetary intelligence, or at least pattern for life, and until the colonists were willing to get in sync with it, they were experiencing a failure to thrive?
Conflict was trying to figure out how to do that before support is gained to go home.
Presumably a really short, possibly crap read, but it's maybe a 15 yrs since I read it?
was it the green book ?i read this as a little kid and loved it.
posted by genmonster at 2:40 PM on January 11, 2009
posted by genmonster at 2:40 PM on January 11, 2009
I don't think this is it, but it sounds a lot like certain plot elements of Asimov's book Nemesis.
posted by j.edwards at 2:40 PM on January 11, 2009
posted by j.edwards at 2:40 PM on January 11, 2009
Ditto on the Nemesis suggestion; the teenage girl protagonist, telepathy, and problems with growing plants are all big clues.
posted by adrianhon at 2:59 PM on January 11, 2009
posted by adrianhon at 2:59 PM on January 11, 2009
I came in here to suggest Nemesis as well.
posted by Johnny Assay at 3:34 PM on January 11, 2009
posted by Johnny Assay at 3:34 PM on January 11, 2009
Response by poster: Thank you for the suggestions!
But... nope. Definately not Girl in Landscape, the green book, or Nemesis.
They definately hadn't settled on the planet, they were just in orbit, and it was very red, that was a reoccuring theme.
Older reading level than green book, but very much YA, not adult, and not by a famous author. Possibly a female author?
I don't think anyone would really be bothered writing up reviews etc, but it's frustrating me, because I've got this strange yen to read, along with a bunch of others I read at the time, again.
posted by Elysum at 5:25 PM on January 11, 2009
But... nope. Definately not Girl in Landscape, the green book, or Nemesis.
They definately hadn't settled on the planet, they were just in orbit, and it was very red, that was a reoccuring theme.
Older reading level than green book, but very much YA, not adult, and not by a famous author. Possibly a female author?
I don't think anyone would really be bothered writing up reviews etc, but it's frustrating me, because I've got this strange yen to read, along with a bunch of others I read at the time, again.
posted by Elysum at 5:25 PM on January 11, 2009
Response by poster: The twinning and air plants were really noticeable...
Oooh, another detail - I think at the end of the book, the first human babies are finally carried to term? Blue-eyed twins? With the implication that the twinning wasn't a coincidence, and that the human inhabitants of, and around this planet will be subtly different.
posted by Elysum at 5:36 PM on January 11, 2009
Oooh, another detail - I think at the end of the book, the first human babies are finally carried to term? Blue-eyed twins? With the implication that the twinning wasn't a coincidence, and that the human inhabitants of, and around this planet will be subtly different.
posted by Elysum at 5:36 PM on January 11, 2009
This is a bit of a shot in the dark, but look up some of H.M. Hoover's work. She's written a bunch of semi-obscure sci-fi, and this is vaguely jingling bells as similar to some common themes of her. Try checking out some of the titles on Amazon?
posted by fuzzbean at 10:22 PM on January 11, 2009
posted by fuzzbean at 10:22 PM on January 11, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by evilbeck at 2:37 PM on January 11, 2009