The Terraformers

De: Annalee Newitz

Narrado por: Emily Lawrence

This program includes original sound design.

From science fiction visionary Annalee Newitz comes The Terraformers, a sweeping, uplifting, and illuminating exploration of the future.

Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her.

But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano.

As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission she's devoted her life to, and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.

A science fiction epic for our times and a love letter to our future, The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.

"Brilliantly thoughtful, prescient, and gripping.”--Martha Wells, The Murderbot Diaries

Also by Annalee Newitz
Autonomous
The Future of Another Timeline

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

Reseñas de la Crítica

<p>"<i>The Terraformers</i> is so engaging, you could almost miss the pyrotechnic world-building and bone-deep intelligence. Newitz continues doing some of the best work in the field."—James S. A. Corey, author of the Expanse series<br><br>"Fascinating and readable in equal measure, <i>The Terraformers</i> will remake your mind like its cast remakes an entire planet."—John Scalzi, author of <i>The Collapsing Empire</i><br><br>"Newitz performs a staggering feat of revolutionary imagination in this hopeful space-opera. . . . With the ethos of Becky Chambers and the gonzo imagination of Samuel R. Delany, plus a strong scientific basis in ecology and urban planning, this feels like a new frontier in science fiction."—Publishers Weekly, STARRED review<br><br>“Newitz always sees to the heart of complex systems and breaks them down with poetic ferocity.”—N. K. Jemisin, author of the Broken Earth trilogy and <i>The City We Became<br><br></i>"Brilliantly thoughtful, prescient, and gripping.”—Martha Wells, author of The Murderbot Diaries<br><br>"An incredibly emotional and action-packed novel deftly taking on personhood, corporate ownership, and terraforming.”—Library Journal, STARRED review<br><br>“A complete refurbishment of the great galactic story of terraformers. The old pleasures of the planetary romance are reanimated in kaleidoscopic fashion. Startling fun!”—Kim Stanley Robinson, author of <i>The Ministry for the Future<br><br></i>“Annalee Newitz’s ability to combine the wild west and the final frontier with plate tectonics and post humanism while spinning an epic tale that never loses sight of its characters is nothing short of magical. After reading <i>The Terraformers</i> you will want to live in Annalee Newitz’s future.”—Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator of <i>The Middleman</i> and producer on <i>Lost</i> and <i>The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance<br></i><br>"Newitz’s latest is far-reaching and ambitious but also surprisingly cozy and warm. . . . Newitz has a true gift for exploring the tweaks, movements, and decisions that keep history moving forward centuries ahead, and for digging into weighty issues while maintaining light humor, a delightful queer sensibility, and pure moments of joy."—Booklist, STARRED review</p>

A solid 3/5. 1st third good the rest boring

The premise of the book is great, the world building and characters are interesting and plausible within the parameters of the story, the socioeconomic and political commentary is good. The book gets boring after the first third. It should have ended with Destry's story. It was really hard to finish after that. Also, the ending is anti climactic and reads as lazy writing. Finally, I am not interested in interspecies sex scenes. If I was I would read alien porn or similar.

Uneven and sort of preachy

The story seeks to have a grand sweep, covering three different eras separated by hundreds or thousands of years with three different sets of characters. I found the three parts of the story uneven. I enjoyed the third the most, which is why I finished the book.

The story and setting portray a world of galaxy-spanning corporations vying with eco-communes governed by direct democracy, and it presents the reader with a pretty good idea which one of those is better. But the story fails to grapple with its own morality. Massive crimes - like slavery, deliberate mental handicapping by genetic engineering, and two characters threatening to cause a disaster that could slaughter millions - pass by in a few pages each. I found that aspect jarring and the rest unnecessarily preachy.

Original

I hated the sound effects. It reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon. I didn't like it.

Inanimate objects and rodents as people? Meh!

Inanimate objects and rodents as people? Meh! Sex between a robot and a cat? Why?? That train happens to be a living, biological, sentient, multi car passenger train that flies and plays video games. Weird!

This book was a recommendation via an interview with the author on an NPR Podcast I subscribe to. It was made to sound like a fresh angle on Climate change and mitigation from elements of the environment like the soil and trees and animals that are able to communicate their wishes needs and general health to the people in charge of the environment. This allowed them to maintain balance in the ecosystem...or at least to know that when there is lack of balance, that nobody could claim they didn't know. However, this story took a turn for the fantastical with the introduction of naked mole rats as engineers and scientists and intelligent earthworms, and actually living breathing intelligent passenger trains. If this were about a struggle between different bioengineered humanoid species on the needs and expectations of the populations vs the health of the ecosystem, kind of what I was led to believe this would be, it would have been a fascinating angle to take. As it is, I finished the book with an image of an adult version of Thomas the Tank Engine.

An uneven audio experience

The Terraformers was not as good as I hoped it would be. I found its premise intriguing - in the far far distant future , lifeless planets are terraformed by corporations to provide habitats for visiting outworlders who are promised pristine lands and beautiful cities. In order to create this, multiple life forms were created and given intelligence and bodies according to the needs of the corporation who owned the planet.
The basic conflict is between those who eventually settled on the planet (many in virtual servitude ) and the corporation leaders who supplied a preferred hominid shape from ancient earth DNA for a select few. This part I found interesting.
What was troublesome was the emphasis on the sex between trains, cats. humanoids etc and the annoying sound effects after a line of dialogue . The characters also often behaved in a playful way that conflicted with the seriousness of the plot.
Another issue I had with the novel itself is the tendency of the author to follow a character for a time and then jump to a much later year abandoning that character.
All in all, I stuck with the story to its predictable conclusion and felt that there were enough memorable moments to suggest that readers should listen/read The Terraformers and form their own judgement.

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