Book Review

[kenjari]

Earthseed
by Pamela Sargent

This YA sci-fi novel was originally published in the early 1980s and is now being reissued. I received a free copy in a Goodreads giveaway.
The story concerns a group of teenagers who were born and raised on (and by) a ship hurtling through space in search of a planet for them to colonize. They are approaching a habitable planet and have been sent to the biosphere at the center of the ship to learn how to survive in the wilderness on their own - sort of a dress-rehearsal for what they will have to do on the planet's surface. Both the positive and negative sides of human nature reveal themselves. It's a little like Lord of the Flies in space with some extra plot twists thrown in.
Unfortunately, despite its potential, Earthseed is pretty flat and dull. Its main problem is its profound lack of characterization. None of the teenagers are given much more than a basic description and the bare minimum of personality. It was almost impossible to care about any of them as a result. This also made it hard to feel involved with any of the events or even any of the plot twists. My feelings about this book can be summed up thusly: Meh.

Comments

[alphacygni]

Ooo, I'm torn. On one hand, generation ship sci-fi is one of my favorites. And I've been a kick of reading YA sci-fi lately, perhaps because it's easy on my sleep-deprived brain. So I want to read it, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to be disappointed that much.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I'd say skip it - there must be better stuff out there with a similar setting. I can look at the reading lists of my YA-librarian fans and see if there's anything similar but better.