Book description
A cynical and compelling tale of politics, exploitation and colonisation on another planet
The discovery of another habitable world might spell salvation to the three bitterly competing power blocs of the resource-starved 21st century; but when their representatives arrive on Jem, with its multiple intelligent species, they discover instead the…
Why read it?
1 author picked Jem as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I first read Pohl’s Jem when I was a kid, and his fatalistic, even cynical take on first contact and interstellar colonization, along with the works of Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick, and Ursula LeGuin, greatly informed my developing views on politics and society. A near-future Earth divided into three major power blocs discovers a world ripe for exploitation and populated by not one, but three, sentient species, It’s not long before each bloc is currying the favor of different species in order to set each against the other, with absolutely no one thinking beyond their own immediate needs or…
From Gary's list on The best books with cynical takes on space colonisation.
If you love Jem...
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Are you brave enough to read a book that is totally different from everything else?
With a dual female lead: both engineers, so not too feminist; they have to appreciate and get along with men. Set in the future but relevant to the present: how might artificial intelligence and humanity…
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