“Phoresis” by Greg Egan

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

An interesting story of discovery and survival set in a system where two small worlds circle each other, and they orbit a sun together. The worlds are cold and covered by ice, but the tidal forces between the worlds ensure their interiors are heated and some heat breaks through the ice in the form of geysers, bringing with it life giving chemicals and material. And there is life living on the worlds.

The story is told in three parts and starts with intelligent life struggling to live on one of the worlds. On that world, no geysers have erupted for ages and the farmers who live on it are struggling to survive. Then one farmer proposes an audacious plan. To grow an ice tower high enough to launch gliders from it and glide to the neighbouring world, where life is known to exist and geysers are still erupting. The first part deals with the farmer struggling to convince the various communities to come together and build the audacious structure, which will take generations.

The second part starts with the completed tower and the first expedition launched to cross the gap and land on the other world. It turns out to be a hospitable place, but with unexpected difficulties when it comes to trying to grow the crops they are used to instead of eating the native plants. Then comes the problem of sending a message back to the people waiting for a signal that the expedition is a success.

The third and last part deals with a return expedition back to the home planet, hoping to find survivors among those that have decided not to emigrate. It will be a bleak world to return to, yet there may still be hope in parts of the planet that cannot be seen from the other world.

While the story is primarily about how the people there survive and make the journey between worlds, Egan does hint that the people aren’t human but have an alien physiology. For one thing, all the intelligent people are females. Males are present, but they aren’t intelligent (apart from having instinctive behaviour) and the way the males depend on the females isn’t revealed until a mating scene is described in the story. It is then that the alien biological nature of the people in the story is revealed.

An interesting story, set in a believable situation about survival on two worlds.

Book read from 2018/08/20 to 2018/08/26