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TROPIC OF CREATION
Kay Kenyon
Bantam Spectra 2000
Pb 387 pages
ISBN # 0-553-58026-4

 

If you are into plausible alien societies and like intriguing new biologies and habitats, then you may enjoy this book.  Just don't buy it for the misleading picture on the cover.  [On what is obviously an alien world by the architecture, the cover art depicts two humans huddled together staring at a crashed space-ship.  The woman is kneeling, and the man standing with one of his hands on her shoulder and the other holding a pistol.  I got the impression these two characters would be spending time together but he goes one way and she another ... and the author also spends a lot of time in alien viewpoint away from the human problems--that is why I consider the cover art misleading.]  The title is a much better suggestion of what you're going to get: Tropic--the planet changes from a desert to a tropical rainforest when the monsoons blow in; and, Creation--the author proposes that her ahtra aliens seeded the galaxy millennia ago with "precursor molecules" of human DNA.

There is a bit of action.  Captain Eli Dammon and his crew land on the planet Null in search of survivors from a Congress Worlds ship Fury which crashed there three years prior.  They find survivors, and signs of ancient ahtra habitation as well.  What they do not know is that Null is the home world of ahtra, their enemy, who still live below ground.  An uneasy peace exists between humans and aliens, the war memories are still vivid on both sides.  But the ahtra have really won.  And Captain Eli Dammond takes this opportunity while on Null to investigate these ahtran vessels--for alien space technology is far superior to humans'.  But Eli stumbles onto an ahtran society on the verge of rebellion.  Meanwhile above ground, a general's daughter and her family who had unfortunately been aboard Eli's ship when the distress call came in, now find themselves at the mercy of some very dangeous animals.  Only the general's granddaughter and a handful of Eli's men are yet alive by the time he finally escapes the ahtra.  And due to unfortunate deaths on both sides, war is sure to resurge unless drastic measures can be taken to prevent it.

I enjoyed the character arcs in Tropic of Creation, most especially Eli's.  Starting with a slandered record, he must win the loyalty of those who follow him.  The general's granddaughter Sascha Olander is the woman pictured on the cover.  She is a survivor and a biologist whose altruistic bravery may just save her people.  Tropic of Creation is well written science fiction of the sociological order with a weird biology to spice your read.