cover image Dreams of an Unseen Planet

Dreams of an Unseen Planet

Teresa Plowright. Arbor House Publishing, $16.95 (273pp) ISBN 978-0-87795-863-5

The colonies on the planet Gaea have been established as the last bright hope of a deeply troubled Earth. Their inhabitantsenthusiastic young scientistshave weathered enough troubles from the first days, when the surface of the planet proved uninhabitable and all communications with Earth were inexplicably lost. After seven years, a cold war continues between the Americans and their Soviet and Chinese counterparts, and the American governing board is hiding other failures from its citizens. Cellular biologist Miera Tull delves beneath the obvious human infertility to find that vital crops and animals are also dying off. Her empathetic, almost telepathic connection with Gaea offers the one chance for survival. This well-written first novel neatly melds the '80s social dilemma of regulating biological clocks with the venerable SF imagery of a sentient red planet, ambiguously threatening or promising. (December 19)