Mirabile by Janet Kagan

[lightreads]

Stories from a cryptobiologist on the isolated colony world Mirabile. The book explains it thoroughly in the first five pages, so suffice it to say that Annie's job is a bit complicated seeing as how planting a tulip on Mirabile might produce a butterfly, and the butterfly might lay an egg that hatches a wasp.

Another mosaic novel, each piece a snapshot of introducing unstable Earth plant and animal life into the alien ecology of Mirabile. Sweetly transparent, simple, startlingly wholesome. Startling because I liked it; I was thoroughly charmed, actually. Seriously -- Kagan telegraphs every outcome five pages in and dropped an enormous infodump at the beginning by having Annie explain things to a character who couldn't possibly not already know them. And yet I was charmed. Otters that give birth to Odders -- ooh, and Mabob (as in thinga--) for an alien pet. It's one of those times where science actually does look like magic, and that's really cool. (Usually when people say that they're talking about quantum mechanics, and I'm like 'uh no, that just looks like science that you don't understand'.)

Totally a comfort book, sweet but not saccharine.

Comments

[fairestcat]

I always forget how much fun Mirabile is. I reread Hellspark every couple years or so and love it more every time, but for whatever reason I always forget how much I love Mirabile too.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

I haven't read Hellspark. And apparently she has a Star Trek tie-in, too.

[fairestcat]

Oh, you MUST read Hellspark, it is fabulous. It's the only SF novel I've ever read where the plot centers entirely around the difficulties of Intercultural communications. Which was exactly the concentration of my major in college, so that probably has something to do with how much I utterly adore the book *g*

I keep meaning to pick up a copy of the Star Trek tie-in, even though I pretty much never read them, but I haven't gotten around to finding one yet.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I love *Mirable*, because the weird science had interesting consequences that made sense -- the Kangaroo Rexes in particular were a nice example. I kind of wish that she wrote more set there, because it was so interesting.

I think being a Jason would be one of the greatest jobs ever.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

It really put me in the mood for biogenetics, so I picked up Greg Bear's Darwin's Radio. Very different sort of thing -- it's hard SF about the actual mechanism of punctuated evolution in humans. I think you'd like it -- the science is very clever.

[readerjane]

I loved Mirabile. Discovered it through Asimov's magazine, where it was serialized years and years ago. I especially liked the consternation when the characters made the [spoilery] discovery about the taxonomy index.

Janet's other novel, Hellspark, is also interesting, though a little more uneven. I like what she says about language.

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

I'd never even heard of Kagan or Mirabile until a few weeks ago when I was talking about how much I liked New Amsterdam, a mosaic novel by Elizabeth Bear, and a friend pointed me at Mirabile. (They're completely different books, but the form is similarly executed). Now I want to track down her other book.

More Janet Kagan

[(Anonymous)]

I first encountered Janet Kagan's work in her Star Trek novel "Uhura's Song" way back when it first came out (1985?). At the time, I thought it was head and shoulders above the other ST novels, especially in her world- and culture-building, but also because of her characterizations of the familiar characters.

I was particularly impressed by her fresh takes on the usual cliche's: She actually makes Kirk likable, and gives Uhura something more to do than open hailing frequencies. There's an interesting couple of alien cultures, and an OFC that is quite a Mary Sue but still enjoyable.

I guess she used the ST novel as a stepping stone into publishing her original stories. I was not surprised to discover that she was trained as an anthropologist. I loved "Hellspark". I sometimes assign that book in my linguistics classes, still.

I, too, first encountered the "Mirabile" stories in IASFM, but found the assembled book of the stories a little bit of a letdown, maybe because the structure meant it didn't hang together as well as Hellspark.

So, maybe you'd like Hellspark, too. I wish she would write more.

--R. Barr

Re: More Janet Kagan

[lightreads.livejournal.com]

Yeah, people keep telling me her Star Trek novel is pretty good. I haven't read ST novels in years, and I don't recall if I ever got to hers. Then again, my favorite ST novels when I was eight were all the terminally dreadful Saavik ones, so my taste is suspect.