Terraformer – Colleen Houck

Nome: Terraformer
Autor: Colleen Houck
Lançamento: 2020
ASIN B084Z551M6
Páginas: 536
Edição: Inglês 

No futuro, uma nave terraformadora pousará em um planeta perfeitamente verde.
Dois jovens perfeitos, um líder de uma colônia em construção, o outro engenheiro, competem pelo afeto de uma jovem botânica em treinamento.
O único problema?
Ela não é perfeita.
Astra tem um segredo.
Um grande segredo.
E alguém ou alguma coisa talvez esteja tentando matá-la por isso.


Toxinas mortais podem estar escondidas dentro das flores mais bonitas.

Foi o que a famosa mãe biofísica de Astra Meador lhe ensinou.

Como aprendiz de sua mãe, Astra desenvolveu habilidades em botânica, química, medicação e, o mais importante, em guardar segredos.

Na realidade, manter o segredo de Astra foi a razão pela qual sua família decidiu deixar a Terra e se juntar a uma missão de terraformação para colonizar um planeta distante chamado Crillain IV. Mas quando Astra acorda antes em sua cápsula de hibernação, ela descobre que sua mãe nunca conseguiu entrar a bordo, seu pai morreu durante o trajeto e seu corpo foi ejetado da nave, e ela suspeita que ela não é a única acordada dentro da nave.

Quando a nave finalmente aterrissa e ela se reunir com o seu irmão, Nash, Astra espera se estabelecer em uma nova vida, especialmente quando ela conhece o charmoso jovem engenheiro, Jax, e é recrutada pelo comandante da missão para treinar ao lado de seu belo filho bonito ser uma futura líder da pequena colônia.

Então Astra descobre que ela não é a única com um segredo sombrio.

Enquanto ambos os jovens lutam por sua afeição, Astra procura respostas, tentando descobrir em quem confiar. Mas com roubos e assassinatos ocorrendo na colônia junto com o desaparecimento repentino de seu amado irmão, Astra não pode ouvir os sussurros do seu coração, especialmente quando alguém ou algo mais no planeta está sussurrando para a sua mente ainda mais alto. 

*O termo “terraformação” é comumente utilizado como sinônimo de engenharia planetária, embora alguns considerem um erro este termo mais genérico. O conceito de terraformação desenvolveu-se tanto no âmbito da ficção científica quanto no da ciência de fato.*

Mais um ARC recebido do Netgallery e de uma autora vocês já conhecem. Terraformer é uma nova série da autora Colleen Houck e foi lançado apenas em e-book. É difícil eu ler livros de ficção científica, mas como era uma autora que eu já conhecia pela série Maldição do Tigre e a dos Deuses do Egito, eu não pensei duas vezes antes de ler.

Bem escrito, ela foca em um vivência fora da Terra, já que ela chegou aos limites de seus recursos naturais. Não é a primeira missão dos humanos fora da Terra, mas eles também conseguiram esgotar os recursos de outros planetas. Ela é a primeira tripulante da nave que acorda por um defeito em sua capsula. Ao perceber que seu pai não estava em sua capsula e nem na nave, ela começa a checar os registros gravados durante o trajeto. Ela percebe que falta informações nestes registros. Astra nasceu com um defeito em seu pulmão e precisa de um medicamento para que ele possa funcionar normalmente. Porém esse medicamento foi criado pela sua mãe com meios naturais. Ninguém além de sua família saber sobre isso

Ao chegar no planeta Crillain IV, os tripulantes começam a construir a base e usam um produto que destrói a terra do lugar. Eles começam a perceber que a natureza do local tem vida própria. Os canos para a rede hidráulica são perfurados pelas raízes das árvores; sementes de frutas, legumes e vegetais vindos da terra não florescem na terra destruída. Astra nota que ela tem mais facilidade para respirar nesse novo planeta. Cada tripulante tem sua função e Astra se descobre sendo chamada para ser vice líder junto ao filho do capitão da nave. Com isso ela tem acesso a mais alimentos e documentos, mas não o mesmo acesso do que o Capitão da Nave. Seu irmão começa a agir de forma estranha e acaba se afastando dela.

Astra é o tipo de personagem que quer se dar bem com todo mundo, líder da equipe de botânica e quer paz entre todos. Seu irmão Nash e seu companheiro de vice-liderança, Thane, se estranham desde o início. Com isso, ela acaba se aproximando de Jax, um dos engenheiros da tripulação.

Resumindo, Astra é o tipo de personagem principal que eu acho sonsa. Mas bem, eu estou acostumada a personagens femininas fortes, que não tem paciência pra briguinhas e ciúmes. Mas apesar disso a história acaba sendo intrigante, pois assassinatos vão acontecendo, a máquina de criar animais terrestres através dos genes deles desaparece, Nash some. Então ela e Thane precisam saber quem está matando os membros da tripulação e por que parece que o Planeta não quer eles ali.

Com vários plots, traições e descobertas sobre o planeta, a história nos lembra de nunca irritar a Mãe Natureza.

Eu achei o final bem blé, com as Astra virando híbrida para poder salvar o planeta de invasores que ameaçaram o pai de Thane, o sacrifício do Nash para salvar ela, ela “perdoando” os tripulantes que não quisessem ficar no Planeta Crillian IV depois que ela virou “um monstro”. Fora que quando ela vira híbrida, ela fica bem esnobe, se achando a última água do deserto.Achei que ficou alguns buracos na história. O motivo do Nash ter fugido é um deles. Os personagens também não tiveram carisma o suficiente para me conquistarem. O fato de focar no meio ambiente e a ideia de que as árvores tem sentimentos foi o que mais me conquistou nesse livro, pois minha mãe me ensinou que conversar com as plantas ajudam elas a florescerem. Minha suculenta que o digo, quando eu achei que ela tinha morrido, ela ressuscitou numa escada de pedra e agora tá gigante e com quatro crias e uma nascendo. Tudo das folhas que caíram no vaso e renasceram.

O livro vale ser lido pelos plot twists, traições e reviravoltas. E pela boa escrita da Colleen Houck que faz você não querer parar de ler, mesmo tendo vontade de chacoalhar a Astra em 100% do livro.

O livro pode ser adquirido em formato e-book na Amazon clicando na imagem abaixo:

We swayed together in storms, springs, and ice, growing resilient, growing…aware. Spreading our seeds on the wind, we populated the planet, and then others across the cosmos. Branches split off, creating new life forms, but we guided the simple-minded fauna, yoking them to our will. We blew our breath into the night sky and tasted the mineral freshness of space.

Ignoring the computer, I scanned quickly through the pod stats. “No,” I whispered, thumbing through the data. “It can’t be.”
PASSENGER HUDSON MEADOR PERISHED TWO MONTHS INTO THE JOURNEY. HIS BODY WAS EJECTED INTO SPACE.
“No! No! No!” I slammed my hand against the dome of the empty pod until my hand stung. Fat tears streaked the glass as I slid down to the floor. Pulling my knees to my chest, I sobbed for my father, for my mother, and for myself.

(…) when life got difficult, and you didn’t like what you saw in the world around you, the best thing to do was blind yourself with science.

They were filed under a fake name no one would ever search for—Astralabe—it was her own personal joke. She named the plant after me, saying I was the celestial body the plant bestowed upon her and my dad.

“Okay, tree girl.”
“I don’t think tree girl is a flattering designation,” I said, drawing my hand away. “Right,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “How about botany babe?” “Cut it out,” I said, grinning and punching his arm lightly. “Sprout?” he said as we continued walking through the trees. I grimaced. “Really?”“Poison Ivy?” He laughed at my expression. “Everyone needs a nickname, Astra. If you won’t choose one, I’ll have to pick one myself.”

He was standing close, so close I could feel the warmth of his body. His scent mingled with the flowers and I found myself even more intoxicated than before. This was more than sharing lunch with Thane. This was…more.

“Because there are some things in life you shouldn’t try to explain away with science.” “But everything can be explained with science,” I argued.
“Not everything.”
“Really? Name one thing.”
“Fine. Love.”
“Love,” I scoffed.
“Yes, love. It’s intangible. It can’t be explained.”

“The fact that not everything in this world or any other needs to be explained. Sometimes things can exist that aren’t logical, systematic, or definable, and that’s okay.” He cupped my cheek.
“A little magic never hurt anyone, Astra,”

By the time I entered the ship, Jax was gone. I headed back to my room only to find Thane leaning against the door with his arms folded across his chest. Great, I thought, another irritated young man to contend with.

“Do you remember when my father said your testing meant you needed to be trained alongside me?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Well, there was more to it than that. It’s not just that we are compatible as leaders, Astra, we’re compatible genetically, as well.”

“Astra,” he said, clutching my hands. “We’re not on Crillian IV.”

I got up to run the shower and wiped the steam from the mirror, frowning as I noticed the flower in my hair. Reaching up, I tugged on the stem and howled as it ripped away from my scalp. The stem had planted itself into my skin and was now covered with blood. What was even more interesting was that it was still as lovely as it had been in the forest.

I liked him. I just wasn’t sure I liked him in that way. On the other hand, every time Jax entered the room, I stopped breathing, literally. His hair was often unruly, and his hands were covered with dirt, grease, and callouses, rather than being perfectly manicured like Thane’s. But his eyes had a glimmer of warmth in them every time he looked at me, even when he was angry, which he always seemed to be, especially when he saw me with Thane.

Perhaps my tea was laced with fertility hormones. I scoffed at the very idea that I could be in love. I was too young to pair off. Yes, my hormones were likely raging, but I was in charge. I was strong-willed.

Pointedly, I looked away from his face and down at his hands, gripping my tablet. They were strong and tanned. The kind of hands my parents had, with dirt under the fingernails and in the creases. They reminded me of warm days in my mother’s garden and handing tools to my father. They looked like…like love. Now where did that thought come from? I wondered.

Are you feeling lonely now that Delenna is bunking with her family? I imagine you’re missing your brother.” I glanced up at him. He was so perceptive. I hated being alone. Nash knew it but he avoided me anyway, which hurt a lot more than I let on.

My mouth opened and closed like a fish before I finally acknowledged to myself that Jax had not only seen everything but saved my life, and asked, “How did you know?”
Jax winced. “Nash.”

His thumb grazed the curve of my neck and my breath hitched. His eyebrows rose and he glanced down at my chest, a question in his eyes. I gave a slight shake of my head and laughed breathily.
“It’s not the serum’s fault, or even my lungs,” I said. “That was all you.” I frowned.
What on earth made me say that?

“Your pulse is racing,” he said. “Is this dangerous?”
Narrowing my eyes, teasing him, I said, “I think you’re dangerous, Jaxson Preston.”

He was like a brewing storm on the horizon. I knew I should take shelter from those electric eyes and avoid his lightning touch, but what I really wanted to do was to head directly into that tempest and let it rain down on me, consequences be damned.

It was as if he was a burning sun that banished the cold and warmed all the frozen parts of me that had stilled when my dad died, my mom had been left behind, and my brother had all but abandoned me.

Maybe our colony dying out was the best thing for the planet after all.

“Oh, yeah? Well, you, you put on a shirt.”
Looking down, he plucked at his shirt, then lifted his head and grinned.
“If it offends you so much, I’ll try to remember to take it off next time you come around.”

“Yes. I know about how you registered at sixteen and how you were selected. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The DNA had to come from a close relative of yours. Your uncle was your guardian. He’s here, isn’t he?” Jax gritted his teeth and then exploded.
“What was I supposed to do?” he asked wildly.
“Leave him behind? He refused all the standard vaccinations and ended up with advanced neurodegeneration. He’s harmless, but he never would have qualified for the trip, even if I had convinced him to register.”

“Astra,” he breathed my name in a whisper, “Can’t you see? You’re perfect in your imperfection.”

Technically, Thane was more polished, more traditionally beautiful than Jax, but I found it was the tiny imperfections I saw in Jax that I liked the most.

“You won’t believe how angry they were,” he said. “They nearly destroyed my home with their quaking. Thought they were about to do me in. But I reminded them that our human memories were lost when we passed out of existence, and without the trees, the important life lessons we learned couldn’t be shared with the next generations. When they heard that, they settled down. The old one saying, ‘That’s as it should be, then.’”

“Then we’ll say they were compromised, contaminated. It’s not like we can’t survive without apex predators anyway, right? We have the herds for food. That just means more food for us.”
“Yeah, until the rodents take over the planet. We need them all. Ecosystems must be carefully aligned. Throw one monkey wrench like missing apex predators into the mix and all of us could go extinct. Populations will become unbalanced. Animals will die, including us. The food chain exists for a reason. We can’t just reinvent the wheel, Thane.”

But who knows how many native species we might have made extinct in the process? Remember Earth’s rainforests? The only natural green left on the planet was in the areas protected by the so-called anti-stabbers. It took decades for us to turn it around, and even then, countless species were lost in the wild. Whole ecosystems were destroyed, no more to be found except in old Earth history files. Thane, you do realize that most of our embryos are the descendants of animals born in captivity? The loss of those apex predators is a big deal. It’s extinction.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now. You’ve made the call. Widened our very ugly, very large footprint on this planet. Maybe there was a plant that had the power to help us breathe underwater or one that stopped aging or one that turned our hair purple, but now we’ll never know.”

The DNA sample came up on our tablets. It was a strange mishmash unlike anything we’d ever seen. It definitely had some of the markers of a lion from Earth, but it also had plant DNA mixed in. Had Nash been able to manipulate the embryos somehow? It didn’t make sense. This kind of genetic alteration was not only way out of Nash’s area of expertise and impossible in any practical sense, but it veered on a Dr. Moreau level of creepy.

“Maybe. But there’s only one you.” He picked up my hand and played with my fingers. “If you were my fiancée, you can bet I’d come after you.”
“Even through trackless miles of wilderness?” I asked.
“Knowing there are ferocious mega beasts hiding in the trees?” Jax shrugged. “They’d just make me run faster.”

We should have known. We’re getting old.
Speak for yourself. I’m one thousand cycles young. And half as beautiful.
Well, your top half is as lovely as a mushroom that’s dropped its spores.
Hush, you two. She’s blocking us.
Wouldn’t you? If I could block out your whiny voice, I would.
I’m not whiny!

She chose well. The boy is brave. And strong for an animal.

You must understand, Astra Meador, the eldest tree said, that because we have seeded the universe, we have spies that are literally planted on every world. They are watch guards, a young voice added. They protect us. Safeguard our planet.

We are the origin of life, sprung from chaos. Our offspring are called the children of the aether. We are the giver of gifts, the first to come. But deep within my trunk lies a truth I have harbored since my first ring.

They were right. As much work as my mother did on Earth, there was too much that we’d lost. Too many species had gone extinct. The rainforests were gone. The lush evergreen forests in the northwestern Americas had perished long ago. The Amazon River was dried up and lifeless. There were only pockets of green left on our planet now and they were carefully preserved and cultivated.

After he headed into the trees, I bit my lip, wishing I had some sort of privacy screen. The trees responded immediately, creating a barrier of vines and brush all around the pool. Jax shouted from beyond them, “I wasn’t going to peek. You didn’t have to summon reinforcements.”

Humans were the same. We heard of tragedy in distant places and felt sorry for those affected, but when something happened in our own town or neighborhood, our emotional response was heightened.

The planet Gaia was an Eden. A utopia. The loss of the origin planet would impact not only this world but all worlds.