Semiosis: A novel of first contact

‘Up there with the best of Le Guin in terms of beautiful, engrossing, brilliantly imagined sci-fi’ VULTURE ‘SEMIOSIS combines the world-building of Avatar with the alien wonder of Arrival, and the sheer humanity of Atwood. An essential work for our time’ STEPHEN BAXTER NOMINATED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD Escaping conflict on Earth, an idealistic group of settlers arrive on a distant planet – Pax – with plans for a perfect society. The world they discover is rich with life, but this is not the Eden they were hoping for. The plants on Pax are smart – smart enough to domesticate, and even slaughter, its many extraordinary animals. To survive, the colonists realize that they must strike bargains of their own. But if they are to make Pax their home, they must go further, searching for a way to communicate and coexist with these utterly alien intelligences. Burke's SEMIOSIS is a hard-hitting exploration of the human spirit, set against the backdrop of a distant, genetically rich planet. The settlers journey from idealistic explorers to pragmatic survivors is a thrilling adventure that will captivate any science fiction enthusiast. For fans of Becky Chambers (The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet), John Scalzi (The Kaiju Preservation Society), Peter F. Hamilton (Exodus), Tade Thompson (Five Stories High), and Andy Weir (Artemis).