A mature and well-crafted work.
I personally find the sci-fi scenario where humans are squished together in huge building complexes that they rarely leave, and all other lifeforms have been forced into extinction due to humanity's lack of caring or active malevolence, to be truly terrifying, as it is all too likely that that is truly the direction that we are heading in.
I thought Tepper's point that a race that cannot co-exist in its natural environment is unlikely to be able to co-exist with itself is also relevant....
I find it incomprehensible that the forces behind environmental destruction are often those also touting Christianity as a prerequisite for civilisation...
If an all-knowing, benificent god created all life on this earth, then is not wantonly destroying that life the worst blasphemy imaginable? An insult to god's creation?
But - that's what they're doing, and I liked how she linked the anti-environmentalists to far-right religious groups in her theoretical IGY-HFO group.
HOWEVER
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
In the Companions, I thought Tepper really ruined the force of her message by, at the end, revealing that the aliens/gods had saved the thought-to-be-extinct animals by zapping them into heaven/alternate universe.
That was like, "don't worry about destroying species, I'm sure god will make sure we don't really do it..." I'm sorry, but gone is gone forever and there's no "feel-good" fix that can mitigate that all-too-real horror.
Also, I think that she didn't really do enough with the discussion of genetic tampering that was brought up with the use of Zhaar technology. Is it ethical to tamper with a creature's natural way of existence to "improve" it? Is it really "saving" the species? This is a complex and relevant issue, and it was mostly avoided.
Making the Simusi so wholeheartedly and irrevocably evil, after linking them with the lovable and benign dogs, also created some oddities in the plot, I thought. It seemed that Tepper couldn't make up her mind whether "pets" are enslaved or not. Sometimes it seemed like she was arguing FOR having domestic animals, with all the old saws about friendship between species, and maybe the dogs think they've domesticated us - then in the scenes with the Simusi and their human slaves, the parallels are drawn (very heavy-handedly) to indicate that we have terribly enslaved domestic animals.... I was like, say what you want, but make up your mind!
I personally find the sci-fi scenario where humans are squished together in huge building complexes that they rarely leave, and all other lifeforms have been forced into extinction due to humanity's lack of caring or active malevolence, to be truly terrifying, as it is all too likely that that is truly the direction that we are heading in.
I thought Tepper's point that a race that cannot co-exist in its natural environment is unlikely to be able to co-exist with itself is also relevant....
I find it incomprehensible that the forces behind environmental destruction are often those also touting Christianity as a prerequisite for civilisation...
If an all-knowing, benificent god created all life on this earth, then is not wantonly destroying that life the worst blasphemy imaginable? An insult to god's creation?
But - that's what they're doing, and I liked how she linked the anti-environmentalists to far-right religious groups in her theoretical IGY-HFO group.
HOWEVER
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
WARNING! SPOILERS!
In the Companions, I thought Tepper really ruined the force of her message by, at the end, revealing that the aliens/gods had saved the thought-to-be-extinct animals by zapping them into heaven/alternate universe.
That was like, "don't worry about destroying species, I'm sure god will make sure we don't really do it..." I'm sorry, but gone is gone forever and there's no "feel-good" fix that can mitigate that all-too-real horror.
Also, I think that she didn't really do enough with the discussion of genetic tampering that was brought up with the use of Zhaar technology. Is it ethical to tamper with a creature's natural way of existence to "improve" it? Is it really "saving" the species? This is a complex and relevant issue, and it was mostly avoided.
Making the Simusi so wholeheartedly and irrevocably evil, after linking them with the lovable and benign dogs, also created some oddities in the plot, I thought. It seemed that Tepper couldn't make up her mind whether "pets" are enslaved or not. Sometimes it seemed like she was arguing FOR having domestic animals, with all the old saws about friendship between species, and maybe the dogs think they've domesticated us - then in the scenes with the Simusi and their human slaves, the parallels are drawn (very heavy-handedly) to indicate that we have terribly enslaved domestic animals.... I was like, say what you want, but make up your mind!
