Sargent, Pamela: Farseed
Farseed (2007)
Written by: Pamela Sargent
Genre: YA/Science Fiction
Pages: 287 (Hardcover)
Series: Book Two
Why I Read It: The whole reason I started on this trilogy (series?) is because of the release of the third book, Seed Seeker. Which, for the record, I don't have, but was quite tempted by. I couldn't bring myself to get it, though, until I'd read the first two books. I read Earthseed in December, and I needed something science-fiction-y after my recent glut of urban fantasy. Farseed fit the bill.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Centuries ago, the people of Earth sent Ship into space. Deep within its core, it carried the seed of humankind . . .
More than twenty years have passed since Ship left its children, the seed of humanity, on an uninhabited, earthlike planet -- a planet they named Home. Zoheret and her companions have started settlements and had children of their own. But, as on board Ship, there was conflict, and soon after their arrival, Zoheret's old nemesis, Ho, left the original settlement to establish his own settlement far away.
When Ho's daughter, fifteen-year-old Nuy, spies three strangers headed toward their settlement, the hostility between the two groups of old shipmates begins anew and threatens to engulf the children of both settlements. Can the divided settlers face the challenges of adapting to their new environment in spite of their conflicts? And if they do, will they lose their humanity in the process?
Review style: The usual: what I liked, what I didn't, with the kind of spoilers that really don't spoil anything due to the construction and nature of the book, if that makes sense. Still, if you're worried, skip to "My Rating" at the bottom of the review. :)
Thumbs Up:
The one thing that really caught my eye in this book deal with the children of the original colonists, aka, the characters we met in Earthseed. On one hand, in Zoheret's group, in order to have a diverse genetic pool, couples are allowed to have one child of their own blood and another that's been cocktailed from the genetic library from earth. So even though learning that Leila had a pale, blonde little sister was a shock (because I thought that meant Zoheret had cheated on Manuel--yes, they're still together), I liked hearing the explanation was both scientific and logical for the survival of humanity on the planet Home.
But in Ho's corner of the colony, away from the protection of technology and all that jazz, Home (the planet) has managed to embed itself into the DNA of the children, so that they're not wholly human from a technical standpoint, yet they aren't alien from the native to the planet standpoint. No, their DNA is different enough to give them the kind of senses that will allow humans to adapt to Home itself, without the aid of technology. So Nuy's and her friends' ability to see, sense, and hear far more than their parents wasn't just some lame we-are-one-with-nature-because-we-live-in-the-wild excuse, but rather, it's a result of the environment changing the human body and forcing it to evolve, and it see such strides so quickly is quite cool. Makes me wonder just how different future generations will be, or if Sargent's going to stop the buck here.
Also fascinating, even though it's not a new notion to me, is the idea that as Ship sought earth-like planets to seed humanity on, perhaps Earth itself was seeded oh-so-long ago. I doubt Sargent is ever going to chase that particular rabbit in a focused book, but it's always a fun thought to consider, that we're actually the product of a far older race that is colonizing the galaxy and we simply don't know it. It's a romantic notion, and the suggestion of it fit well in the Farseed.
And I didn't give it much thought while I was reading, not until I saw a comment about it in a review, but Sargent does have a way of crafting strong heroines. While they might have some guy they have their eye on, it's maybe .01% of the story (if that), and instead, the heroines are usually more focused on survival and finding their places in the world. Zoheret was such a heroine in Earthseed, and here in Farseed, we get Zoheret's daughter Leila and Ho's daughter Nuy. I was quite fond of Nuy, actually. I can't point out any particular reason why, but she was sympathetic and fascinating, tough and strong, yet not without feeling. Her backstory implies that Ho might've abused her (not sexually, mind you), but I didn't read too much into that as I did the fact that Ho wasn't of sound mind and he went into rages, at which point it was best to stay out of his way. Though, what I know of Ho, physical abuse would not be surprising. At any rate: strong heroines. This book has them, and it's nice to see that in a YA, SF setting.
In truth, while violence still permeates this story as it did Earthseed, it didn't come across quite as sudden as it did in the previous book. Maybe that's because I already knew what to expect, but I think it was more that Sargent utilized her skills to the point that when violence DOES happen, it has greater motive, greater affect. In Earthseed, it often seemed like an extreme reaction to something with little motivation. Here, we understood the reasons behind the violence, so it flowed better into the narrative.
Thumbs Down:
I didn't care for the prologue/epilogue frame story of Ship. Not at all. In truth, I think the only reason it was there was to tie this book to the first and the upcoming third, so that returning readers would remember what happened before, and so that new readers could have a sense of what happened before, so that new readers knew who and what Ship was. Still, the prologue went on too long, and I found the sections rather dull and unnecessary.
And despite Sargent's solid handling of violent scenes, I found this book to be mostly devoid of action. There's a lot of talk, a lot of decision making, a lot of talking about the decisions that are made, and then little action between the very beginning and very end. The ending was handled well too, seeing what Ho was capable of and why, but the large portion of book in between. At one point I just stopped and thought to myself: this is kind of boring for a YA. For an adult book too, but ESPECIALLY for a YA. Why should readers keep going, especially in the target audience?
I still don't have an answer. Farseed is a quiet book about the struggle between conflicting groups with conflicting ideas, but Sargent is part of that old school of show all and tell less in terms of story, which is fine, when it's something like Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed, but not so much for a YA. Not in this format.
Maybe I would've been more invested with the lack of action if the prose engaged me. It didn't. While there's nothing wrong with it (though I do have nitpicks), I found it without any spark or life. Again, I can't see this book doing well with YA readers, because there 1) no action to propel them along and 2) nothing special about the prose that absorbs the reader. I wonder if Sargent was banking on the success of Earthseed to carry this book, because short of the initial murder, there's no real mystery here, nothing to keep those pages turning. And the sad thing is, this book can easily be read as a stand-alone, so why not rely less on the first book and focus on a tale that 1) has a little more oomph and 2) knows how to nab the attention span of a YA reader who's got far more to distract him/her than he/she did back in the early eighties?
And for those of us who did read Earthseed, we're essentially getting the same theme: no matter how noble the intentions, humanity will always divide itself, and those differing groups will always come to conflict and misunderstanding, aligning only when they have to before splitting again. Seriously, that's what happened in Earthseed, and that's what happens here in Farseed. Are there any answers to this recurring theme? Is Sargent going to bring it to some kind of resolution in the third book, which--by all appearances--seems to have the same theme going for it? I'm not sure, but seeing the same pattern in the first two books and sensing the same pattern for the third makes me unexcited to read said third. Why read it if it's going to be the same story with different characters?
I wonder if repetition is simply the author's Achilles' Heel? I mean, aside from repetitive themes between books, themes that don't build on each other, mind you, we're often told the same information over and over. Like who Carin's mate is, for example. That drove me bonkers, because it seemed like we couldn't have a POV change towards the end without being reminded who Carin's mate was, you know?
Speaking of Carin, I was perplexed by Edan's attraction to her. I mean, he hated Nuy on sight, and yet he's unbelievably sympathetic to Carin the moment he meets her? Why? She must be hotter or something, because short of lust, I'm not sure that Carin losing her mate would be enough to make him sympathetic. The pregnancy would be, sure, but he doesn't know about that right away. At any rate, I found that little development odd, given how hostile the character was to everyone from Ho's camp.
And now, it's nitpick time!
Trevor slowed his horse to a trot as he approached them. "Leila," he called out.
She lifted her hand, then let it fall. "Trevor." (page 64).
Really? Do we HAVE to describe the motion of a wave? There's nothing unique about this that deserves anything other than "She waved." Maybe the author was too concerned about how the wave would look in the reader's mind (maybe picturing the British royal wave? The beauty pageant wave? The hyper-little kid splayed-finger wave?) and felt compelled to show the lift and fall, but I read that, and I was like, "Give me a break…"
I really wish I could remember what this is called, but Sargent had this problem in the previous book too. And it's what happens when you're trying to find other ways besides a characters' name and pronoun to describe them. On page 139, in Leila's POV, we get Zoheret (which is fine, because characters don't use the terms Mom or Dad) and then immediately after, we get "Leila's mother."
Well, we're in Leila's head, so that's the first awkward moment (and besides, we're not going to forget at this point in the story that Zoheret is Leila's mother, yanno), but the it's a place where a simple "she" would've sufficed because the set-up is such that there should be NO confusion as to who's speaking, so the pronoun would've worked FINE.
My Rating
Take It or Leave It: If this were an adult novel, the book would have issues: the ideas aren't really that big or that new to carry the weight (which is only 287 pages) of what's mostly a non-action book, nor is the prose so engaging that you don't care. Being a YA novel, those issues are magnified, and I have trouble imagining how the target audience would be engaged by this instead of bored. The prologue does nothing for the story but remind readers that a book came before, and despite the sudden, shocking bit of violence in the very start, the book is very low key for the remainder of the pages. The most action you get is in the beginning and the climax, and the rest, well, not so much. Nuy, however, is a great little character, and I enjoyed her sections. Yet when I stopped to really consider what I was reading, I realized there was very little meat on the bones. That doesn't mean there's not any, of course: I like what Home is doing to the children of Earthseed, but not enough to continue with the trilogy/series. Let's face it: both books have been about two sides duking it out for whatever reasons, and really, the theme of conflict isn't really building on itself to make me look forward to a third book with the same basic premise. I'll borrow it if I want to read it, but I won't be buying.
That said, Sargent crafts nicely drawn heroines, and fortunately doesn't dwell much on any romantic entanglements, because what's there is the weakest part of her storytelling. And yes, this book can be read as a stand-alone, though new readers may wonder what the big deal is with some of the adults, having not read Earthseed. And it is good to see some soft SF written for the YA audience, but I wish . . . I don't know what I wish. I wanted to be enraptured, because that's what I expect of soft SF. I wanted to be enraptured, but I wasn't, and that makes me sad.
Buy or Borrow: I purchased this hardcover SUPER CHEAP at Book Closeouts, but it's not yet available in mass market, and it's not available on a Kindle yet either. If you're interested in this series, I say borrow, or if you must buy, you should buy super-cheap.
Cover Commentary: I love this cover. I love seeing Nuy all proud and painted on the front, despite the fact that in all actuality, she's only wearing a loincloth. I don't care: it's a great cover, and even better, it accurately represents a character of color, of which the book is full of.
Next up: Antarctica: A Call to Action by Sebastian Copeland (I promise!)