I never read science fiction, but several years ago a friend gave me a sci-fi/fantasy book to read that made such a big impression on me. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the book or the author. Let me describe the book and the parts that made such an impression. Hopefully someone will recognize this book.

The book was about a group of people that travel to this planet that has other life on it. The book describes in great detail the different types of beings, what they look like, how their society functions, the varying "gender roles," even how the different types of vegetation affect the visitors from earth. The book was brilliant in that it didn't just take some form of life and earth and change it a bit, and it didn't describe martians or anything like that, but the descriptions were very vivid and startling in how different they were.

In the book there was also a part where it described the energy or force that flows from each of us. For example, when two people interact, one person could take energy from the other and deplete that person's energy to try and feed their own. Or the two people could feed on each other's energy and mutually build each other up. The person observing this could actually see the "auras" around people and how it was either built up or depleted by another person. I think there was some type of garden involved in this scene as well.

I wish my memory would serve me better on more of the details, but I read this book four to six years ago. The person who lent it to me gave me the impression that it sold pretty well.

I sure do hope that someone remembers this book and can help me out. The images from this book have stuck with me for years.

Thanks!

The part about energy exchange sounds like The Celestine Prophecy.

I'm wondering if the book I am thinking of used ideals from The Celestine Prophecy, because I remember looking through this book a little after reading the one I'm thinking of. The Celestine Prophecy takes place in Peru, but the book I read takes place on another planet. A small group of people from different scientific backgrounds go to the planet. I remember that they had an entirely different type of culture that was fascinating to read about (I can't believe that the author had such an imagination), and the society had a very strict form of stratification with some slavery involved. I also remember that the inhabitants of the planet did not look like "martians" but actually resembled a hybrid form of animal. And the author described in vivid detail trying to learn their language and nonverbal communication which was entirely different to ours.

Thanks in advance for the help. I really hope to find this book.

Wow - when you do find it I want to read it!

It sounds a bit like a series of books written by Anne McCaffrey called Powers That Be, Power Lines, Power Play and her newer series The Twins of Petaybee which is about a living, sentient planet that is just "growing up.

There's also one by James Alan Gardner called Expendable which is about a planet that is terraformed and genetically modified - and it also comes into a life of it's own. One of the most memerable characters is a woman named Oar who is made of glass.

Do either of these sound familiar?

Michelle,

I don't think this was part of a series. The planet was not just developing or "growing up." It was already extremely developed. There was a group of people from Earth who went together to the planet, I think with the understanding that it was so far away that when they made it back everyone they currently knew would be gone. There were so many vivid images and scenery that I wish I could describe them. This is driving me nuts that I can't remember the title of this book.

I think when they first landed they started exploring the vegetation and they experimented with tasting different things and saw strange reactions when the touched and ate them, so they began to catalog everything. I believe one of the members of the team was a botanist or biology specialist, while another was a language specialist and interacted with the planet's inhabitants to find a way to communicate with them. I am pretty sure that at least one or two members of the team died from some kind of clash with the biology/culture of the planet.

I hope someone out there knows this book so we can all read it. It really was such a mindboggling and vivid book. It would be great for a book club or even for us to read and discuss in the forum.

Karin was it C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet from Lewis' Space Trilogy? A man who is a philologist (a linguistics guy) gets abducted and taken into space to visit Malacandra (Mars).

Here is a copy of my review I did for my church newsletter a while back and I recently posted it at one of my blogs.

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Thank you, Violette, but that's not it. I believe it was a pretty new book back when I read it, so it was probably written less than ten years ago. It was not a Christian book, I don't think. It is a group that goes voluntarily to this other planet.

The book you are talking about does sound interesting though. I never heard of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. I've never considered myself a fan of sci-fi or fantasy, but I suppose I haven't really given it a shot. Maybe liking this book so much should be an incentive for me to try more of the genre. But I still want to find this book first!

Thanks again.

It is funny because the different groups of beings in the Space Trilogy were so well thought out. You probably would really like it. Plus it was a real attention grabber to have some poor guy abducted off the street by another crazy scientist in the neighborhood.

Have you tried the AbsoluteWrite forum at www.absolutewrite.com/forums/

They probably have a scifi section and I'll bet any number of authors there could help too.

Let us know when you find it.

It sounds a bit to me like either Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, or Greg Egan's Schild's Ladder?

Wow, I think you've stumped us. I second Violette's suggestion. Someone at Absolute Write might know.

Are we all going to get a copy of the book and do a club reading when she finds it...LOL.

This isn't the same book, but it jarred a memory, you might like it -

Childhood's End; Arthur C. Clarke

The Earth is being overseen by a group of Aliens. The Gov't tries to cover them up. When they show themselves they are misunderstood as being evil because they looked like what we would interpret as a devil and just happened to be there during Armegedon, when in fact they had previously hovered over the Earth trying to protect us from our own human destructiveness of the planet and predjudice which in itself was responsible for the fall.

They carried with them small globes/balls that held enlightenment, proving among other things to us, that each of our religious icons were false and fed a sense of lonliness and separation depleting our energies while feeding ego. They urge us to evolve into a species of energy and describes us each as islands in the ocean and when we come to true evolution the ocean disappears and the islands are connected.

There's a spaceship, if I remember, and a group of underground people who do know about them, trying to destoy the aliens with one of them sneaking on board. One of the aliens knows the person is there and takes them on a journey of other planets they have helped by gifting them their energy. When children sang on some of these planets, it was really how the energy was channeled. Depending on the planet, the form the aliens would take would differ. Kind of makes you wonder why we got the Devil..lol.

I can actually see something like this happening, really...

Elleise
Clairvoyance Editor

Hey Karin, Have you figured this out yet? I keep thinking about it. I come across books that have a part similar to what you remember, but not all of it. This part:


reminds me of Hurricane Moon by Alexis Glynn Latner, except there's no recognizable inhabitants on that planet. I reviewed it here. And the energy flow sounds familiar too (in fact I use something like it in the fantasy novel I'm writing).

No, still haven't figured it out (and now I'm mad at myself for not keeping a list of every book I've ever read!). But I might just have to read more science fiction now since everyone has some suggestions that sound intruiging. Definitely still want to find that book though - I'm determined!