[amazon_link id=”0804138680″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Dark Eden
Author : Chris Beckett
Genre : Sci-fi
Publisher : Broadway Books (Crown Publishing)
Pages: 448
Publish Date : April 1st, 2014
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 4/5

Dark Eden reminded me of Shaman. But while Shaman was of evolution on earth, Dark Eden is about the evolution of human life on another planet Eden. The 532 humans on Eden have descended from Tommy and Angela, earth people who landed on Eden in their “Landing Veekle” and couldn’t get back home. The Family has been divided into groups – Blueside, Batwing, Brooklyn, London etc. and all of them come together on “Any Virsry” to mark the day Tommy and Angela landed, remembering the planet they all supposedly came from with it’s “lecky-trickity” and it’s “telly visions” and it’s glorious, warm sun.

It has been 163 years since Tommy and Angela came to Eden, but the Family still lives close to the spot where the “Veekle” landed, afraid to move away and spread out in case earthmen come back to the original spot and miss them. They have evolved into hunters and foragers, trying to make do, in the hopes of rescue. Their society is primal and un-evolved, spending time and effort mostly to survive (food, shelter and procreation); there is time for little else. And thus it continues, year after year, until John Redlantern rebels against the traditional order.

Beckett’s story is about evolution – how people survive on a sunless planet, evolving and changing and finally questioning. Dark Eden traces through the life of the Family, from the “Oldest” who believe that life on Eden is an endless wait for rescue, to the snippy, rebellious “newhairs” who have accepted the fact that their saviors are never coming.

Beckett writes in a very stylized voice, with his “hmmmph hmmmph hmmmph went the trees” and his curious use of double adjectives : “she was pretty pretty . . . she knew it well well”. The language gets pretty basic (and graphic) but it sets the tone of the novel very well and brings an aura of authenticity, pulling us into this rudimentary, unsophisticated world. His characters ring true – John RedLantern, Tina Spiketree and all the others are very well drawn; one might easily believe that this is how evolution happened. Along the way, Beckett makes a fine point about the equality of the genders, and the fight for control and power.

Dark Eden is a very interesting read for lovers of hard sci-fi; recommended.