Synopsis
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?
KLIATT
Finally, more than 20 years after Sargent wrote her classic Earthseed, her sequel has arrived. The story opens a logical generation later with two factions trying to survive on their adopted planet Home. While the majority of the people settled north where the Ship dropped them off, rebel Ho took his contingency south and to the shore—until a large storm drove them inland. When the northerners came south to trade, many of Ho's group died from sickness. A decade later Ho's daughter Nuy spies Chiang scouting the area, she is curious about him and his people. Because he promises food and help to the nearly starving little band, Nuy brings Chiang back to her people, only to witness him being immediately killed. For her efforts, Nuy herself is cast out. How will she survive? Will Chiang's people kill her in revenge? Can the two groups ever rejoin? That is the dilemma for the Ship's "offspring." \Sargent writes a suspenseful survival story that addresses the struggle against nature and against man, with the ultimate message that man needs to cooperate in order to survive the ravages of nature. While some of the characters are well drawn, others are hard to distinguish, and the subplots seem to take away from each other rather than add to the general theme. The tone of the story seems to echo Native American practices; a few gadgets are mentioned, such as a medical diagnostic instrument, but the overall tone has a primitive feel. Nevertheless, readers of Earthseed will welcome this sequel, and hope for a trilogy in the not-too distant future.