The Terraformers

The Terraformers is a science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz, published on January 31, 2023. Environmentalism is a major theme.

Stats

• Title: The Terraformers
• Author: Annalee Newitz (Wikidata:Q4767817)
• Publication date: 2023-01-31
• OCLC: 1336991199
• Audiobook
  • ISBN: 9781250883001
  • Length: 13h17m
  • Narrator: Emily Lawrence
  • Publication date: 2023-01-31
  • Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
  • Publication year: 2023
  • Producer: Katy Robitzski
  • Post Production & Sound Design: Tim Franklin

Details

People

Ace

(c?) A city planner and constructiom worker of Angst. (c?) Beds Sulfur.

Acorn

(c?) A bioengineer (?) of Spider. Helps Zest make the first train people.

Charter

(c1) An unnamed Homo sapiens remote piloted by a Pleistocene fetishist who Destry discovers to be hunting and eating local fauna and destroying local flora in order to subsist on Sask-E. Is killed by Destry after refusing to identify themselves and threatening to hunt Whistle, Destryʼs moose.

Cimell

(c39) A game developer bot and friend of Moose. Shares with Scrubjay an aspiringly historically accurate game of the farm revolutions that created the ERT.

Contrail

(c37) A fellow train friend of Scrubjay and Peach.

Destry Senior

(c?) ERT ranger. Partner of Frenchie. (c?) Murdered by Verdance after they settle in a remote cabin away from La Ronge to live out the end of their natural lives.

Destry Thomas

(c1) ERT ranger. (C?) Daughter of Destry Senior and Frenchie. (c23) Destry has died, leaving Misha to carry on her work as network analyst.

Devin

(c2) Son of Lem Rackleworth. Was the pilot of Charter, the Homo sapien remote who Destry Thomas shot and killed.

Frenchie

(c?) Partner of Destry Senior. Parent of Destry. (C?) Killed with Destry Senior by a Verdance orbital laser after they decide to live out their retirement in their own settlement outside of La Ronge.

Ginkgo

(c38) An informant for Moose.

Hellfire&Crisp

(c2) A pair of drones familiar with Destry and Whistle. (C?) Friends with Jaguar.

Jaguar

(c?) A door (or spaceship?). Resident of Spider. (c?) Married to Hellfire&Crisp.

Misha

(c?) Destry Thomas's apprentice. Has a body equipped with painful surveillance sensors for Ronnie and Verdance.

Moose

(c37) A homeless data historian La Ronge cat. Writes for the La Ronge Messenger.

Nil

(c2) ERT ranger.

Lem Rackleworth

(c2) A wealthy investor in Sask-E. Their son, Devin, who was piloting the remote Destry shot, was considering purchasing land on Sask-E.

Peach

(c37) A fellow train of Scrubjay and Contrail.

Rocket

(c3) Nil’s research partner, a moose-shaped bot. (c?) A Spider resident who serves their 2-month treaty obligation with Zest, Sulfur, and Misha.

Ronnie Drake

(c2) Destryʼs boss in the Verdance organization. A Homo diversus. (c?) Orders Misha to create a transit plan. (c42) Has been fired by Verdance after Cylindra leaked the Spider treaty.

Scrubjay

(c37): A train servicing the Trans-Maskwa Eel Line. Child of Sulfur.

Sulfur

(c?) An Archean resident of Spider. (c37) Parent of Scrubjay.

Whistle

(c1) A moose. Destryʼs assigned mount.

Zest

(c?) A La Ronge cow and Misha's friend and mount.

Places

Forest View

See La Ronge.

La Ronge

The main base of operations for Verdance terraformer employees and ERT rangers such as Destry Thomas. (c37): Called “Forest View” by Verdance, but residents still use “La Ronge”.

Lefthand

(c26) A settlement Sulfur, Misha, Zest, and Rocket survey. (c38) Is where Cylindraʼs Ziggurat penthouse and office is located.

Lumsden Beach

Maskwa

Sask-E

The planet Destry lives on.

Spider

A mountain resembling a tropical tarantula.

Tether

(c37)

Tongued Forks, The

(c27) A Lefthand bar visited by Sulfur and Ace. (c40) Destroyed by Emerald.

Tooth

(c420 A conservation land trust established by Ronnie.

Tustin

Vertebrae Mountains

A mountain range in which Spider is located and along which the Eel River flows.

Things

ERT

(c1; a.k.a. Environmental Rescue Team) An ancient environmental conservation movement.

Farm Revolutions

(c?) A game made by Cimell meant to teach players about the eponymous revolutions that birthed the ERT and began the Great Bargain.

Flying Train Fleet

(c37; a.k.a. Sasky Transit) The public coöp train service of Sask-E.

H. diversus

(c2) A derivative of Homo sapiens capable of surviving in, among others, anoxic environments. “a catchall subspecies name for hundreds of customized hominin builds”

GeneTrix

(c38) A defunct corporation that Moose believes sold Verdance stolen H. sapiens genetic templates; the legal problem threatens many Verdance and Emerald legal contracts.

gravity mesh

(c1) An anti-gravity material that permits moose such as Whistle to fly.

Great Bargain

(c2) An ongoing societal event that results in personhood being granted to animals beyond those descended from Homo sapiens of Earth. Does not include moose such as Whistle, much to Destryʼs annoyance who treats Whistle as a person anyway.

La Ronge Messenger

(c37; The Messenger) The continent's largest news server.

League, The

(c1; a.k.a. League space) A collection of planets in which Verdance is a member.

Sasky Transit

See Flying Train Fleet.

Sunbuilders

Flare

(c37) A game played by Scrubjay, Contrail, and Peach.

Narrative

Opening matter

0:00:00

Dedication

0:01:05

Epigraph

0:01:15

Part I: Settlers

0:01:32

1. Pleistocene Fetishist

0:01:48

ERT Ranger Destry Thomas detects a remotely-controlled Homo sapien eating fauna and destroying flora in order to fulfill a desire to claim their birthright to live as ancient humans once did. Destry shoots and kills the remote for failing to identify itself, damaging the ecosystem, and threatening to hunt Whistle. Destry flies Whistle back to base.

2. La Ronge

0:23:35

Destry returns to La Ronge on Whistle and shares a meal with Nil. Destry shares that she shot and killed a Homo sapiens remote who was a Pleistocene fetishist damaging the ecosystem. Nil proposes a journey to investigate a lava tube collapse at Spider Mountain; Destry is noncommittal. Nil proposes an intimate sleepover with Destry who is attracted but too tired. Destry is awoken sore and tired by a call from Ronnie who tells Destry the remote she shot was controlled by Devin, the son of a wealthy investor named Lem Rackleworth. Ronnie warns Destry that she may not be able to protect Destry from being sacked.

3. Fieldwork

0:45:40

Destry takes up Nilʼs offer to investigate a seismic event near Spider. Based on satellite imagery, they discover near a recently collapsed lava tube evidence of an ancient habitation that is still active. Destry and Nil meet up with others above La Ronge before departing for Spider.

4. Homo Archaea

0:57:00

5. A Very Angry Door

1:15:46

6. The Eel

1:38:48

Lucky shows Destry and company environmental data about the drought Ronnie's dam is causing.

Nil proposes redirecting the Eel river along an older path closer to Spider that would refill the aquifer.

Long is skeptical about the plan to redivert the Eel river. Long believes Verdance should be informed. The rest of Destry's group does not approve of informing Verdance which is likely to evict Spider's Archean inhabitants.

7. A Real Heartbreaker

1:51:50

8. Choring

2:16:15

9. The Boring Fleet

2:29:45

Crusher, a member of the boring fleet, takes Destry and company on a journey through magma and rock to show how magma flows may be redirected.

10. The Trouble with Plate Tectonics

2:48:19

Long hurriedly awakens Destry and Nil. He confronts them with public Spider documentation that Archeans control planetary plate tectonics. Heating filaments installed in the planter's crust originally to jumpstart the carbon cycle are still regularly tested by the Archeans. Nil asks for Long to calm down. Destry argues the Archeans do not seem inclined to destroy the biosphere of Sask-E. Long storms off in a huff, frustrated that they are not more worried at this existential threat to Verdance operations.

11. Decanting

2:58:37

Nil and Destry wake to find Long and Midnight missing. Whistle meets with them, wet after a morning swim with Midnight. Whistle is sad since Midnight said she had to leave with her partner, Long.

Whistle chooses an undecanted cat's color: moose brown.

12. The Worst Council Meeting

3:14:41

Destry and Nil attend an ERT council meeting at Lerange (?). Long argues a conspiracy theory that the Archeans are planning to use volcanoes to convert the atmosphere into one breathable by Archeans only. Pine argues against Destry, saying the Archeans are squatters and criminals against Verdance who will be executed just like Destry's parents. Destry is taken aback. Long and others confirm that Destry's parents did not die in a chemical reactor explosion accident but were killed by a Verdance orbital laser strike for quitting their jobs, breaking their contract. Pine and/or Long argue that Verdance had the right to kill Destry's parents because Verdance paid to create them. Pine reveals she doctored the report of Destry's parents's deaths so Destry would not know that Verdance murdered her parents.

Destry and others of Lerange that support Spider's plans to divert The Eel win the Lerange ERT Council vote against telling Verdance about the Archeans. Their concession is that the Spider supporters must permanently leave Verdance. Destry and her allies agree.

Destry reminisces about her first conscious experiences with her parents.

Destry walks with Midnight who speaks as if supporting Long but quietly accompanies Destry on her walk to her barn as if they were friends.

13. Revisionist History

3:34:04

Kim hypothesizes to Destry and Nil that Long, a historian, may feel that Spider's well-hidden existence up until now conflicts with Long's preconceived notions about what Sask-E history should be; instead of reëvaluating history, Long wishes for Spider to simply go away.

14. Dogs

3:43:36

15. Ronnie’s Retort

3:54:45

16. Drones and Hominins

4:10:49

17. An Old Bed

4:19:19

Whistle suffers a grave cranial injury. Midnight leads a charge of reinforcing moose aeronauts. Verdance remotes are sabotaged at scale.

18. Damage

4:31:08

The doctor healing Whistle chastises Destry for creating Whistle without modern integral cellular healing technology. Destry regrets choosing to have Whistle made with limited mental capabilities. (?) Midnight defends Destry, blaming Verdance for mentally and physically disabling Whistle from birth.

19. Whistle and Midnight

4:44:17

20. The Eel River Treaty

4:49:14

A description of coalition democracy as applied to the treaty negotiations between Verdance, Spider, and La Ronge. How three-quarter majority is required as well as a guaranteed concession from the losing minority.

Destry and Ronnie confront one another. Ronnie requires Destry remain a Verdance slave. Ronnie asserts that the Archeans will eventually all be killed for their crime of refusing to submit to Verdance's extinction order a thousand years ago. Destry predicts that Spider City's people and culture will outlive Verdance.

Destry signs the treaty, putting it into effect.

21. Swimming

5:03:22

Destry swims with the people of Spider who celebrate their ability to enjoy the outdoors. Some Spider people set up wireless transmitters.

Whistle, Nil, and Destry set out on a week-long trip along the Eel River to drop off Destry and Nil at La Ronge.

Interregnum: Virgin Land

5:15:32

Ronnie informs other Verdance executives about the existence of the Spider Archeans. In the meeting are:

• Ronnie
  • Terry, Ronnie's assistant.
• Cylindra, an engineering manager in an muscular blue jaguar body.
• Glat
• Helic

Helic proposes that the Spider Archeans be sold to prospective buyers as a simulation of the Neanderthals who were hunted down and killed by Humans back on Earth. Ronnie accepts the proposal.

Ronnie secretly decides to never reveal nor publish the treaty she cryptographically signed with Spider. Ronnie fears the treaty would end her career. Ronnie hopes the Spider inhabitants will eventually leave Spider to become employees in other settlements, leaving the treaty to become void due to lack of political support.

Part II: Public Works

5:29:04

22. Two Months with H. Sapiens

5:29:22

Rocket and Sulfur meet Zest and Misha. Misha is Destry's successor, for their two months of treaty servitude. Misha relays Ronnie's orders to not only perform an environmental impact analysis of a planned trabsit project, but also to finalize said plan as well as to create and implement a program for coordinating with local leaders regarding the project. Sulfur is very annoyed at the increase in work scope. Misha seems quietly resigned to receiving verbal abuse from Sulfur for being Ronnie's representative.

23. On the Road to Angst

5:44:43

Rocket mentions to Sulfur that Misha may be sad because of Destryʼs recent death.

24. Emerald Cities

5:57:22

Rocket, Zest, Sulfur, and Misha encounter some stranded construction workers at a small settlement named Angst. The workers had sent a drone looking for help due to their gravity lift failing. Rocket and company eat dinner with the Angst workers. They learn of Emerald buying up many Sask-E cities.

Misha explains to Sulfur their sensory disorder that makes them unable to ignore sensor networks. Misha explains that Zest helps him by being a mount that can carry him while minimizing contact with sensor networks.

25. Sinkhole

6:12:34

Rocket saves Ace, an Angst, construction worker, who slips while descending a cliff. Ace is surprised that Rocket has a physical network node interfaces on their body.

Sulfur realizes they are physically attracted to Misha.

Zest proposes accompanying the workers for now while they recover from being shaken up by the near-miss event.

26. The Suburbs

6:24:22

Misha and company ride in a truck with Ace and company. They arrive at Left Hand Zigarrat (?). The settlement is having a party.

The truck accidentally strikes a pallet dragged by a self-important H. Sapiens woman who demands Misha order his servants to haul her construction materials in the pallet to her plot. Misha asks Zest and Ace volunteers to help.

Sulfur flirts with Ace.

27. The Tongue Forks

6:42:20

Sulfur wanders through the settlement, against Misha's protests that they sleep early to prepare to meet Ronnie's rushed schedule. Sulfur documents the stroads, cul-de-sac dead-ends, and other anti-pedestrian aspects of the urban labyrinth. Sulfur plans to go on a date with Ace.

Sulfur finds a bar called The Tongue Forks. Sulfur finds Ace there. Sulfur is amazed at the particularly licentious hominid performance there, which amused Ace. Sulfur says Spider has bars but not this spicy.

Ace sexually stimulates Sulfur at the bar.

28. Cylindra’s Office

7:08:09

Misha, Sulfur, and Zest meet Cylindra at her Ziggurat office to talk about Verdance's transit plans. Misha opens by saying Ronnie has plans but the mere mention of Ronnie throws Cylindra into a rant. Cylindra throws shade at Sulfur's Archean ancestors who she says were programmed to go extinct after the land they bonded with changed; Cylindra says a bug in Archean templates causes them to bond to hot rock instead. Sulfur is privately disturbed that Cylindra, who deployed the original Archeans from templates she designed, may have a point since she never questioned why Spider Archeans continued to decant people with the need for Archean respirators.

Misha attempts to push Ronnie's preference for trains at Cylindra but she is uncoöperative.

Sulfur notices that Cylindra is not hostile to the train plans themselves but against Ronnie and Verdance, who Sulfur hypothesizes betrayed Cylindra somehow in the past. Sulfur points out that Ronnie's specific preference is for trains. Cylindra immediately says trains are a terrible idea. Cylindra leaves, the meeting time having run out.

Misha thanks Sulfur for the political assist. Misha, Zest, and Rocket hope that Ronnie's preference for unsustainable trains will be derailed by Cylindra.

Sulfur privately thinks Misha may have some good in them.

29. Natural Milky

7:25:45

Zest meets a mute cow while surveying.

Misha, Rocket, Zest, and Sulfur survey local residents to determine public transit demand. They visit a bar. They discuss transit solutions. Rocket supports an anti-grav solution. Misha says only people should control anti-grav.

30. Worms

7:52:38

Zest helps some naked mole rats debug some intelligence settings in Verdance earthworm templates. Zest removes language limiters that referenced missing Verdance software libraries. The petitioning mole rat says earthworms were intelligent enough to solve the travelling mammal problem but couldn't talk about their discoveries.

Zest helps various local non-Verdance workers by removing intelligence limiters. Misha is okay with it so long as the workers are not slaves to Verdance.

31. Mounted

8:12:26

32. Fluid Structures

8:28:24

33. Barriers

8:48:00

34. Government

9:09:09

Rocket proposes flying train people to fulfill the need for a planetary transit system. Boring fleet representatives concur. Misha initially pushed back against the idea, highlighting the complexity and moral hazard of making people to be workers. The Boring Fleet assert that the trains need not be slaves and could choose what work they do, be it software engineering, game design, or, hopefully, carrying other people from station to station. Misha relents and tries to brainstorm ways Ronnie could wreck the plan.

35. A Promise

9:26:31

Sulfur sees a new train being built by Zest and others at Spider. Sulfur emotionally bonds with a growing train's trellis that squeezes her finger before attaching itself to a skeletal rib.

Misha apologizes to Sulfur for being against bringing trains into the Great Bargain. Misha confesses being in lover with Sulfur and in being afraid of making people (the trains) for the purpose of fulfilling a corporate contract, like he was made and designed for Ronnie and Verdance to collect information. Sulfur says she will defend the trains from being exploited by Verdance. Sulfur decides to make the reward of her two months treaty servitude to be a parent of the new trains to prove her will to protect the trains.

36. Birthday Party

9:43:53

Interregnum: Blessed

9:50:48

Part III: Gentrifiers

10:04:46

37. Scrubjay

10:05:03

Scrubjay, a train, carries passengers along the Trans-Maskwa Eel Line route. A homeless data historian cat named Moose working for the La Ronge Messenger confesses that they need a place to stay. Scrubjay offers to carry them temporarily.

38. Home on the Route

10:25:18

Scrubjay works their route, occasionally playing Sunbuilders with Peach and Contrail. Moose chats with passengers.

Moose shares an ancient scandal that may threaten the legitimacy of Verdance and Emerald: GeneTrix, the company that sold Verdance H. sapiens genetic templates may have stolen said templates.

39. The Robot Kinksters of La Ronge

10:44:23

Moose takes Scrubjay to an Indie game arcade. Moose introduces Scrubjay to Cimell who invites Scrubjay to play their resource allocation game set in the time of the Farm Revolutions. Scrubjay learns that much of what they know about the origin of the ERT and the four legendary founders (Wasakeejack, Muskrat, Irontooth, and Sky) is likely anachronistic propaganda created centuries after the revolution.

Scrubjay receives an emergency notice of a disaster at Lefthand.

40. Lefthand Is Burning

11:05:36

Scrubjay flies to the disaster site, communicating with Peach. Scrubjay and Moose learn that the fires are linked to Lefthand residents protesting eviction by Emerald.

Scrubjay gets help from a former sex partner, Renelf, to bring their remote and Moose back to their main train body.

Two ERT rangers, Bruiser and Legs board Scrubjay. One of the rangers gives Moose expensive limited wormhole network access to gather information from outside of the planet.

Moose learns that Emerald has completely shut down most data and mass transport to Sasky from space.

Emerald begins forced eviction by orbital laser of several housing districts, massacring residents who did not leave. Scrubjay is sickened by the scenes of gore and destruction.

Ignoring no-fly orders and anti-aircraft installations, Scrubjay dives into the battlefield to pick up victims being herded by Emerald security forces.

Moose vows to relay victim sentiments as Scrubjay flies them away to safety.

41. The Moose Report

11:26:24

42. Destiny

11:49:56

43. That Goddamn Fucking Memo

12:12:20

44. Train Party

12:31:04

45. Burn It All Down

12:49:09

46. Public Planet

13:02:59

47. Meta Pew

13:09:15

End Matter

13:16:21

Quotes

ERT Handbook

Quotes from the fictional Environmental Rescue Team Handbook which are included at the start of most chapters in Part I.

Chapter 1

When in doubt, don’t kill anyone.

Chapter 2

Home is a bargain with nature.

Chapter 3

We are living beings, and that is why we want to survive.

Chapter 4

We are not humans and animals. We are allies in the Great Bargain.

Chapter 5

Inside every conflict, a friendship waits to be born.

Chapter 6

Water management is where the land meets politics.

Chapter 7

In the Great Bargain, we must accept that some people will not be pleased to meet us.

Chapter 8

A successful community requires thoughtful participation, hard work, and a healthy appreciation for the absurd.

Chapter 9

You cannot measure a person’s intentions, but you can measure their contributions.

Chapter 10

Everything is a part of nature.

Chapter 11

Don’t build a person if you do not intend to be their ally.

Chapter 12

Always be prepared for a disaster, so that you can prevent it.

Chapter 13

Your only job is to keep everything in balance.

Chapter 14

Rivers might turn out to be people. Don’t make any assumptions.

Chapter 15

Private property is the smallest unit of warfare.

Chapter 16

H. sapiens always figures out a new way to implement caste systems.

Chapter 17

Sometimes a muskrat saves the world.

Chapter 18

Our bodies are ecosystems.

Chapter 20

Land use treaties fail for two reasons: they are made in secret, or they are made without full consent of all parties.

Chapter 21

We do not make sacrifices, but we do make bargains. Pay attention to the difference. One path leads to a simple death, and the other to a complicated life.

See also

• Wikipedia:The Terraformers

External links

• bk4, reboil.com