Seeders, a Novel

The novel Seeders by A. J. Colucci was recommend in an article called “Nature’s Revenge: Ten Tales of Eco-Horror for Earth Day” by author Keith Rice (April 17, 2018) on the site called Unbound Worlds.  The book Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood were also recommended in this article.   I consider both of those books to be excellent and was interested to see what other books on the list were like.

The description of the novel from the book jacket is as follows:

“George Brookes is a brilliant but reclusive plant biologist living on a remote Canadian island.  After his mysterious death, the heirs to his estate arrive on the island, including his daughter, Isabelle, her teenage children, and Jules Beecher, a friend and pioneer in plant neurobiology.  They will be isolated on the frigid island for two weeks until the next supply boat arrives.

There are books that you read through quickly because you enjoy the story.  Other books you read quickly because you have to know what happens or you won’t be able to sleep at night.  This is the second type of book.  Eco-Horror is a good description for this novel.  The terror starts in the Prologue and keeps building all the way through the novel to the Epilogue.  This book may even inspire agoraphobia and/or botanophobia.

The premise of this book is based on serious science.  It has been scientifically proven that plants can communicate with each other.  For example, the poplar tree when attacked by hungry caterpillars will produce a chemical repulsive to the insect and release another chemical through it’s leaves to cue other surrounding trees to do the same.

“The lovely smell of fresh-cut grass is actually your lawn screaming.” Jules Beecher, paragraph 3, page 27

What if plants could talk to us?  What would they say?  Would they be angry with humans for mowing their lawns and clearing cutting forests?  If they could organize themselves, would they?  What would they do?  This novel explores those questions.

This is a very interesting novel.  But it is not for the squeamish.  There are graphic violent sequences.  Like I said earlier in this review, this novel may induce agoraphobia and you may never look at the green world the same way again.