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archergal's review
3.0
Full disclosure: I picked up this book because of another Goodreads review (from Scott, who gives GREAT reviews. I'm jealous.)
I think of Robert Charles Wilson as a dependable writer. He comes up with interesting ideas and works through them in interesting ways.
Here the Big Ideas are 1) a really, REALLY toxic planet and 2) life in the universe.
There's an outpost on the planet Isis. Isis is the toxic planet. A human who has even a short exposure to the atmosphere/organisms of Isis can expect a rapid and painful death and deliquescence as their cells are broken down and destroyed. And the planetary organisms are getting better and better at attacking the seals that keep the humans somewhat safe on the surface of the planet.
Into this mix comes Zoe, who's the last living part of a clone group. Zoe is basically on Isis to test a new kind of environment suit plus physical modifications to allow the humans to move more safely on the planet's surface. Basically, she's a guinea pig, a test subject. Woven around her and Isis are the planet's administrator, a bureaucrat who is trying to keep his status by keeping bad news away from his superiors; Zoe's (unknown to her) lack of an implant that smooths her emotions, so she's experiencing FEELINGS now; the cascading collapse of installations on the planet; etc.
This was a really interesting book to think about. One thing that boggled me a little: this world has access to almost instantaneous travel, but it requires the destruction of an asteroid or similar planetesimal to accomplish it. Not easy OR cheap, which makes you wonder why they've spent so much time and money on a planet that is so hostile to human life. Sunk cost fallacy, maybe? Sure, there's lots of life there, but WE CAN'T LIVE THERE. At least, not in the short term.
There's no big happy Star Rangers Save the DAY!! ending. But is does have a way of making you think about life and its place in the universe. I liked it.
I think of Robert Charles Wilson as a dependable writer. He comes up with interesting ideas and works through them in interesting ways.
Here the Big Ideas are 1) a really, REALLY toxic planet and 2) life in the universe.
There's an outpost on the planet Isis. Isis is the toxic planet. A human who has even a short exposure to the atmosphere/organisms of Isis can expect a rapid and painful death and deliquescence as their cells are broken down and destroyed. And the planetary organisms are getting better and better at attacking the seals that keep the humans somewhat safe on the surface of the planet.
Into this mix comes Zoe, who's the last living part of a clone group. Zoe is basically on Isis to test a new kind of environment suit plus physical modifications to allow the humans to move more safely on the planet's surface. Basically, she's a guinea pig, a test subject. Woven around her and Isis are the planet's administrator, a bureaucrat who is trying to keep his status by keeping bad news away from his superiors; Zoe's (unknown to her) lack of an implant that smooths her emotions, so she's experiencing FEELINGS now; the cascading collapse of installations on the planet; etc.
This was a really interesting book to think about. One thing that boggled me a little: this world has access to almost instantaneous travel, but it requires the destruction of an asteroid or similar planetesimal to accomplish it. Not easy OR cheap, which makes you wonder why they've spent so much time and money on a planet that is so hostile to human life. Sunk cost fallacy, maybe? Sure, there's lots of life there, but WE CAN'T LIVE THERE. At least, not in the short term.
There's no big happy Star Rangers Save the DAY!! ending. But is does have a way of making you think about life and its place in the universe. I liked it.
christytidwell's review
4.0
Robert Charles Wilson's Bios is a short but rewarding novel about the exploration of Isis, a distant planet that is earthlike in many important but that is also toxic to humans. Humans can only leave the protected outposts in bulky and not always reliable containment suits. Until Zoe arrives. Zoe brings with her new technology, both external (a new type of suit) and internal (she has been biologically modified in order to better withstand the toxic environment of Isis). The book is concerned with the scientists who are living on the planet and trying to understand its dangers and its promise, Zoe and her place as a pioneer and an unwitting experiment, and the bureaucrats and managers who live and watch all of this from a space station orbiting Isis. Over the course of the book, one crisis after another arises as Isis rejects the newcomers, breaching their defenses and killing them, sometimes one by one and sometimes en masse. In the end, the question is not whether any of them will survive but what the future will bring for Isis and for humanity as a whole, how this doomed expedition might affect the lives of each and what it can reveal about life in its entirety.
Bios is ultimately about the fragility and the strength of life itself. The novel illuminates the fragility of human life in the context of a foreign and hostile world, in the presence of biological hazards and unfamiliar life forms, while simultaneously revealing the strength of life itself, in all its many forms. Zoe asks,
"Why do humans worship gods, Tam?"
Because we're descended from them, Zoe thought. We're their mute and crippled offspring, in all our millions. (205)
For Wilson, in this novel, conscious life, whether seated in planets like Isis or humans like ourselves, is what is truly sacred. It can be damaged and, at least on the individual level, it can be taken away, but it is nothing less than the center of the universe.
Bios is ultimately about the fragility and the strength of life itself. The novel illuminates the fragility of human life in the context of a foreign and hostile world, in the presence of biological hazards and unfamiliar life forms, while simultaneously revealing the strength of life itself, in all its many forms. Zoe asks,
"Why do humans worship gods, Tam?"
Because we're descended from them, Zoe thought. We're their mute and crippled offspring, in all our millions. (205)
For Wilson, in this novel, conscious life, whether seated in planets like Isis or humans like ourselves, is what is truly sacred. It can be damaged and, at least on the individual level, it can be taken away, but it is nothing less than the center of the universe.
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