Needle in a bottle. Needle in a bottle, yeah.
October 16, 2010 9:55 PM Subscribe
About ten years ago, I read the first two books in a sci-fi trilogy involving a world that had some kind of accelerated decay problem. Also, there were giant, intelligent ants.
This is what I remember:
Accelerated decay was a problem. People had to do things like keep fresh needles in sterile jars or they'd go rusty almost instantly. This decay may or may not have had religious overtones - people may have thought that the rapid decay was caused by some type of original sin. Or, I could be making that last part up. But there was definitely a lot of decay and rust and whatnot.
The main character was a young man. He was introduced as being pretty young (maybe 11?) but you figured out that a year on this world was longer than one of our years. So he read more like a young man than a child.
He went on some kind of mission or quest that eventually involved interacting with human-sized intelligent insects that lived in colonies. At the end of the second book, I think that he had made contact with one of the insect queens.
I think there was a young woman on the quest with him. And maybe some kind of priest or alchemist figure.
The people in this world kept talking about the "Garden of Idun" (I think "Idun" was the spelling - but google won't help me out, which gives me pause and makes me think I'm probably wrong) - they were possibly mis-remembering some kind of story told to them by the from-Earth humans who colonized their world?
It was a trilogy. I think that maybe the author was British.
Help?
This is what I remember:
Accelerated decay was a problem. People had to do things like keep fresh needles in sterile jars or they'd go rusty almost instantly. This decay may or may not have had religious overtones - people may have thought that the rapid decay was caused by some type of original sin. Or, I could be making that last part up. But there was definitely a lot of decay and rust and whatnot.
The main character was a young man. He was introduced as being pretty young (maybe 11?) but you figured out that a year on this world was longer than one of our years. So he read more like a young man than a child.
He went on some kind of mission or quest that eventually involved interacting with human-sized intelligent insects that lived in colonies. At the end of the second book, I think that he had made contact with one of the insect queens.
I think there was a young woman on the quest with him. And maybe some kind of priest or alchemist figure.
The people in this world kept talking about the "Garden of Idun" (I think "Idun" was the spelling - but google won't help me out, which gives me pause and makes me think I'm probably wrong) - they were possibly mis-remembering some kind of story told to them by the from-Earth humans who colonized their world?
It was a trilogy. I think that maybe the author was British.
Help?
Kage Baker wrote a book called The Garden of Iden, could that be part of the series?
posted by iconomy at 12:17 AM on October 17, 2010
posted by iconomy at 12:17 AM on October 17, 2010
It's not Kage Baker. In the Garden of Iden is set in like Elizabethan England.
posted by Justinian at 1:33 AM on October 17, 2010
posted by Justinian at 1:33 AM on October 17, 2010
Best answer: It sounds like Brian Stableford's Books of Genesys.
posted by mephisjo at 8:14 AM on October 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mephisjo at 8:14 AM on October 17, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Mephisjo - thank you, thank you. That's it. And this frees up an embarrassing amount of wondering-about-stuff brain space.
posted by thehmsbeagle at 9:41 AM on October 17, 2010
posted by thehmsbeagle at 9:41 AM on October 17, 2010
« Older Do I need to winterize sprinklers in Portland? | Need help finding good, trustworthy cross country... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by divide_by_cucumber at 10:25 PM on October 16, 2010