Semiosis
A novel of first contact, a multi-generational story about colonists on a planet where plants are the dominant life forms – and they see animals, including humans, as their pawns.
• SFFWorld: Best of the decade list 2011-2020
• Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018 shortlist
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist
• Locus Best First Novel Award nominee
• New York Public Library – Best of 2018
• The Verge – Best of 2018
• Thrillist – Best Books of 2018
• Vulture – 10 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2018
• Locus 2018 Recommended Reading List
• Chicago Review of Books – 10 Best Science Fiction Books of 2018
• Texas Library Association – Lariat List Top Books for 2019
• Forbes Best Science Fiction Books of 2018-2019
Interference
The Semiosis story continues in Interference as the colonists and a team from Earth confront a new and more implacable intelligence.
Over two hundred years after the first colonists landed on Pax, a new set of explorers arrives from Earth on what they claim is a temporary scientific mission. But the Earthlings misunderstand the nature of the Pax settlement and its real leader. Even as Stevland attempts to protect his human tools, a more insidious enemy than the Earthlings makes itself known. Stevland is not the apex species on Pax.
“Essentially, Sue Burke has turned on its head the more usual way we think about plants, that humans are in charge, and plant life is subservient to our whims and wishes.” — Botany One
“Interference is as good as Semiosis, which is no small feat for the sequel of a book whose strength lay in its thought-provoking concepts. Like Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, Sue Burke elevated a good story with a great idea.” — SFRevu
Read or listen to an excerpt here.
Article by Sue Burke in Slate Magazine: Trees of Knowledge.
Usurpation, the third book in the trilogy, is coming in October 2024.
Stevland, the dominant sentient lifeform of Pax, has clandestinely sent some of its progeny to Earth. To explore, to spread, to report back. Since their germination, Earth has been a powder keg. Human rebellion, robot uprisings, and global pandemics have created chaos, distrust, and deaths.
As more and more conflicts break out across Earth, Stevland’s children work in the background, in an attempt to control human behavior and perhaps, bring peace to the planet. Stevland took control of Pax. Earth shouldn’t be too difficult…
Rainbow bamboo grows everywhere on Earth, and it wants to dominate — with compassion.
But carnivory isn’t the worst thing a plant can do.
Immunity Index
- Bustle’s 40 Best New Books May 2021
- Amazon Best of the Month May 2021
In a US facing growing food shortages, stark inequality, and a growing fascist government, three perfectly normal young women are about to find out that they share a great deal in common. Their creator, the gifted geneticist Peng, made them that way — before such things were outlawed. Rumors of a virus make their way through an unprotected population on the verge of rebellion, only to have it turn deadly. As the women fight to stay alive and help, Peng races to find a cure—and the cover up behind the virus.
Links to buy it are here in hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
“Immunity Index is eloquent, elegant, cutting and kind. It is a perfectly assembled puzzle box of a story, made to be twisted apart again and again, losing no appeal in the understanding…. I cried at the ending. I think many of you will, too.” — Seanan McGuire
“Hopeful, heartbreaking, and compelling at every turn.” — Library Journal starred review
“Burke endows her characters with distinct personalities and conjures a frighteningly real sense of national destabilization as events spiral out of their control.… This hits close to home.” — Publishers Weekly review
“A fast-paced hard-sf thriller … within a dramatic and thought-provoking story of inequality, humanity and family.” — Booklist
Read an excerpt here.
Listen to an excerpt from the audiobook.
Read an article by Sue Burke for Uncanny Magazine: “Why we shouldn’t de-extinct woolly mammoths”
Dual Memory
Antonio Moro lost everything to global pirates. Now he’s a refugee, alone in a city on an Arctic island with the chance to fulfill his life’s dream to be an artist. He also has the chance to spy on pirate sympathizers and stop a future attack on the island. When things look bleak, he discovers an unusual ally, his new personal assistant program, Par Augustus. It’s insolent, extroverted, moody, and a not-quite-legal nascent artificial intelligence. Together they create a secret rebellion from the least likely recruits with the hope of defending the island.
Links to buy the book in hardcover, trade paperback, ebook, and audio book — and to read an excerpt — are here.
“[W]hatever vantage you choose to appreciate this book, you will be richly rewarded with both a thrilling adventure and a reflective philosophical presentation.” — Paul Di Philipo, Locus Online
“Dual Memory confirms Sue Burke as a modern SFF master.” — Matthew Keely, Tor.com
“If Ursula LeGuin had written about AI machines, it would have looked a lot like this marvelous fable.” — Booklist (starred review)
Semiosis 