Seed by Rob Ziegler - Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Apr 06, 2013 Baal Of rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

A fascinating, imaginative story set in the USA after ecological collapse set off by a combination of climate change and war. The idea of the sentient, flesh city is just plain cool, and I found myself wanting the city to win at the end of the book, partially because the remaining dregs of humanity are so unlikable. This is a brutal world, and humanity has responded in a realistic way by becomeing brutal itself. There are some serious problems with the book, mostly around the poor editing, with...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Nicky Sherry rated it 3 of 5 stars

In the 22nd century climate change has turned North America into an inhospitable land: scorching desert in the summer, frozen wasteland in the winter. The remaining populace migrate up and down the country, scraping a living from the ground with seeds given to them by the post-corporation Satori. It's a beautifully imagined word and Zeigler throws you straight into it. The reader needs a certain level of SF-(or science)-literacy as Zeigler doesn't bother explaining how or why the world came to b...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Ryandake rated it 2 of 5 stars

it's always a pity when a book has some really innovative ideas, then fails to be well-executed for other reasons.

in this book, we get the discarded of postapocalyptic america, many of whom have are punk teenagers with hispanic roots; a badass black, female special ops warrior; some way fun genetic engineering; and a sentient lifeform that may be a plant, may be an animal, that is able to produce the last viable seed for food crops in climate-change-devastated north america (alas, we don't reall...more it's always a pity when a book has some really innovative ideas, then fails to be well-executed for other reasons.

in this book, we get the discarded of postapocalyptic america, many of whom have are punk teenagers with hispanic roots; a badass black, female special ops warrior; some way fun genetic engineering; and a sentient lifeform that may be a plant, may be an animal, that is able to produce the last viable seed for food crops in climate-change-devastated north america (alas, we don't really know what happened to the rest of the world). it's a great setup.

but then it pretty much all devolves to shooting.

the body count in this book rivals that found in war porn. people get shot, stabbed, nuked, chewed apart, dismembered, etc etc and with one exception (and that only barely), for the most part, we really haven't been given much cause to care. our spec ops heroine is the most efficient killer, and while it's nice to see a woman in that role, it's not nice to see her be just a guy with breasts and an armory.

the hispanic punks and their nonstandard argot are interesting, except that the main character's depth seems to have disappeared. he has a past, which we are dutifully shown; he has a brother, whom he tries to protect; he has needs and desires, even if they never get much beyond sex and food. but a reader never gets a grip on what moves him beyond these surface things; his heart remains entirely opaque.

so our two main characters--the spec ops warrior and the hispanic punk--are altogether too similar and between them have less depth than a puddle.

and more tropes: (view spoiler)

and one thing for which i will unmercifully dun the editor, proofreader, and publisher of this book: the typos and misspellings are awful. nauseated characters kept "wretching," which was miraculously corrected 2/3 of the way through the book, and then showed up again in the last chapters; the man whose skin "pealed off," and so on. and editor? mr. or ms. editor? you really should have called out the truly excessive use of truncated language in this book. a battery is always a "bat," a zeppelin is a "zep," even poor Colorado Springs, in its one cameo appearance, is "C-Springs." ya, i get that it's fun to mix it up with language, but one should be wary of becoming a one-trick pony.

and a final word, which i will put in bold so that it can't be missed: it's just hateful that the book's standard collective noun for women is "bitches"!(less)

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Oct 10, 2012 Stephen Ormsby rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel. It’s a post-apocolyptic world and everybody is struggling surviving it. The three story lines seem to be unconnected until we ultimatelye reach the point where it all starts to come together.

There is Brood, who has the darkest life. Agent Doss, who brings the law in her own incredibly wonferul fashion, but of them though, the new humans, or I suppose post-humans, are very strange to fathom, but it needs to be understood that we have no basis of comparison for these p...more

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May 01, 2012 Paul Genesse rated it 5 of 5 stars

Review of Seed by Rob Ziegler (No Spoilers)

Seed is a brilliantly crafted post-ecological apocalypse novel set in the 22nd century where the starving remnants of humanity are dependent on the Satori corporation, which produces the seeds that can withstand the harsh climate that has turned most of North America into a barren wasteland during the summer, and a freezing tundra during the winter. Most of the population has become seasonal migrants, moving from north to south and planting and harvesti...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Matthew Stepp rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reading-list

Quick review. Read this entirely over two long plane flights across the country and the best word I can use to describe it is "OK." There is a solid idea in this book - post-apocalyptic climate change fundamentally changes everything and the world is "saved" but by new technology (the GMo, artificial seeds) that its creators use to harshly control the world.

There is a good science fiction aspect to the story as the purveyors of the seeds and the biodomes in which they live are genetically grown...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was sold to be as absolutely amazing and "all that."

It wasn't.

It was quite good, and I need to resist being disappointed because it wasn't actually superbly great.

This is a post-soft apocalypse book, much like Soft Apocalypse, in some ways, but ultimately more upbeat.

It follows three or four (depending on how you look at it) different groups of characters. The first, and in my opinion least enjoyable/relateable, are a group of scavengers living in the great American desert that sprung...more

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Jan 09, 2013 C.E. Kilgore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apoc-dystopic

Where to start. This is not a casual read by any stretch of the imagination. This is a thick stew of descriptive adjectives and figurative language floating in a pool of brown earthen gravy. I can understand how some of the reviewers were turned off by the style and the, sometimes overused, figuratives, which at times did leave the story feeling a bit heavy. It left me reminiscing of Huxley or Atwood's Oryx and Crake, and it filled a barren spot in my imagination that had formed from the reading...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Lianne Burwell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: apocalypse, sf, library

3 1/2 stars, but GoodReads doesn't allow half stars.

Seed is a book that was both frustrating and intriguing.

Set in a future where oil has run out after wars were fought over the last supplies (it sounds like much of the middle east is now a nuclear wasteland after the US fought China there). What vehicles there are are now all nuclear powered. Zeppelins are favoured for air travel.

Meanwhile, climate change has led to higher temperatures and many droughts. Most of the US population is now migrant...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Adam Rakunas rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm biased, because I read the first fifty pages of an earlier draft and loved the hell out of them. But you know what? You want my biased opinion, because it is as awesome as this book.

This is every bit the ass-kicking adventure as it is an ode to the a lost world. It's the beginning of the 22nd Century, and things suck, all thanks to us in the 21st Century. The government has collapsed, as has business (so, looks like Grover Norquist has had his way, then been eaten by the bathtub), so the sur...more

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Dec 23, 2011 RK rated it 3 of 5 stars

Seed tries to do a great deal with several great ideas but overall I think it falls flat because a few things:

Just too damn depressing. As in, read this book at the beach on a sunny day so you can say you're miserable life is so much better than the people in this book. Call it the Saving Private Ryan numbness. But sooner or later the characters need to have a nice day.

The characters are interesting but they never seemed to connect with me. The Army Agent sent after the deserter from Satori is p...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: random-comments-review

...Night Shade Books reeled in another talented author with Rob Ziegler. Seed is a convincing début that will no doubt please fans of the post-apocalyptic sub genre. What impressed me most was the way the author combines the Buddhist sense of calm and being part of a greater whole, with the pent up aggression and inevitable, lethal conclusion that follows from their mastery of genetics. Satori is disturbing on many more levels than the environmental issue of producing sterile seed. Seed incorpor...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-debut, read-2011, 2011-release, dystopia, night-shade

http://staffersmusings.blogspot.com/2...

My self imposed hiatus on Night Shade Books failed miserably this past weekend when I couldn't resist their latest novel, Seed by Rob Ziegler. I was going to try to take a few weeks away from Night Shade to get at some of my rapidly overwhelming back catalog. While I did finishDiving Into the Wreck and started Midnight Riot and Shadow Prowler, they all fell to the side once I dug into Seed. Zeigler's novel is as haunting as it is believable.

Much like Nigh...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Dustpuppy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: not-worth-finishing

Spare yourself the effort -- don't bother.

To begin with, I was not drawn into the story at all. The action was muddled, there was no clear protagonist, and I didn't give a damn if the characters lived or died. Granted, I only read 35 pages in, and it's a highly complex world, but I should have at least wondered what happened next and I didn't, but that's only half of why this is on my "not worth finishing" shelf.

The other half of why I didn't read past page 35 is the egregious errors. I counted...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Dave Connis rated it 1 of 5 stars

I started, couldn't understand anything that was going on. Stopped, restarted and tried again.

The writing, was, like this. Choppy. Terse, maybe sharp. Always. Couldn't, follow.
Between the writing style, the Spanish, undefined terms and words, introduction to a new world, the amount of unecessary swearing and a bunch of nouns, I couldn't
Follow worth a penny. I have never given up on a book before. Even if I hate it, I always try to finish it. The problem is, this book might be good. But, I cant...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Sarah (Workaday Reads) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011, netgalley

I had high hopes for this story. It has a great cover, and has a very interesting synopsis. It is a little long for a summary, but there is a lot going on in this story. Too much maybe. An one point I thought about stopping because there was just so much to keep track of.

This is definitely not a happy story. It only took a few pages for the bleak, stark, gritty feel of it to come alive. The people in it are starving and desperate, and the landscape is desolate. Everything really comes alive, and...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book after I picked it up on a whim at my library. Something about the cover artwork and the small blurp on the back hinted about the possibilities within. This book was an excellent read; a fast-paced, unapologetic, often brutal glimpse at a near future that is well within the realm of plausibility.

Well-paced, action packed story-telling with characters that you become invested in and a story that won't let you stop reading. A fantastic debut from a new au...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Bree rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, 2012, dystopian

I had a really hard time getting into this one at first, I have to admit. I felt that the book started without much of an explanation of what was going on, and I was confused and admittedly, a little bit bored. I couldn’t understand why these people traded Seed like money and lived a nomadic lifestyle instead of stopping and planting it somewhere and setting themselves up. It gets explained a little further on in the book, but at first I felt confused and frustrated by it.

Once I got past that an...more I had a really hard time getting into this one at first, I have to admit. I felt that the book started without much of an explanation of what was going on, and I was confused and admittedly, a little bit bored. I couldn’t understand why these people traded Seed like money and lived a nomadic lifestyle instead of stopping and planting it somewhere and setting themselves up. It gets explained a little further on in the book, but at first I felt confused and frustrated by it.

Once I got past that and started understanding what was happening, the story got a lot better. There were several seemingly unconnected plot lines running at the same time, and while a little disorienting at first because of their stark differences to each other – one a nomadic group consisting of 2 boys and an old man, another a military officer in DC, and then the Satori (the source of Seed) and it’s DNA-spliced “children”. But as the plot moves along, all three come together at an amazing pace and I was left reeling.

There are some very awkward scenes in this book – like when the Satori engineers (who are genetically created twins and siblings) “connect”, if they are actually siblings it’s incest and pretty gross to think about. But, I think what the author was trying to get across is that these weren’t human beings, they were genetically modified with animal DNA and they weren’t normal.

The idea of Satori was really well done – this odd dome-like area that is actually living, breathing, thinking. It cares for those inside of it, provides “meat” and seems all-knowing. The people *running* Satori were corrupt, but in a world that was as bad this dystopian future, Satori itself was something powerful and good.

The characters were not that likeable at first, but they grew on me with time. Brood and Pollo are wandering like so many others, what they are looking for is not really clear. They are thieves, taking what they want or need under the cover of darkness. But through the story, the author tells about their past and Brood starts shaping up as a good kid (Pollo as well). Sienna Doss is military and has some very bizarre ideas about right and wrong, but I ended up admiring her personality towards the end. I also really liked the “rogue bio-engineer”, I felt she was trying to do the right thing away from Satori, and was upset with the way society and government decided to deal with it.

Ultimately, this was really well written. While it doesn’t seem like something feasible like some dystopian stories, the world was so intricately created and well-told that I felt I was there in that society, hoping for something good to come out of the corruption. I almost wish it *was* real. If you like dystopian stories, then you should definitely pick this one up!(less)

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Mar 04, 2013 Jason Pettus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, sci-fi, dark, smart-nerdy, personal-favorite

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Whenever I think of the term "cyberpunk," easily my favorite literary genre back in the '80s when I was a teenager, I think of a very specific combination of qualities -- four or five different storylines that all merge into one at the climax, set in a day-after-tomorrow dystopia, one where the dizzying sc...more (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Whenever I think of the term "cyberpunk," easily my favorite literary genre back in the '80s when I was a teenager, I think of a very specific combination of qualities -- four or five different storylines that all merge into one at the climax, set in a day-after-tomorrow dystopia, one where the dizzying sci-fi inventions of Mid-Century Modernism have been turned on their heads, so that what the author is really exploring is the ways that cutting-edge tech has trickled down in a corrupted and heavily modded form to the street level of the lumpen proletariat, with the story's style and characters heavily influenced by the underground culture of its times (so in the case of classic '80s cyberpunk, for example, American and British punk music, which is how the genre got its name in the first place). And all of these things can be said about Rob Ziegler's contemporary Seed as well, a superlative cyberpunk novel but one you might not even recognize as such at first; for instead of revolving around pale computer hackers in London, Seed's heroes move among the decidedly sweatier circles of Mexican skaters in the American Southwest, and instead of being obsessed with virtual reality, this book deals with the much messier proposition of intelligent wetware and the coming agricultural apocalypse. Set in a world dealing with an unnamed past catastrophe where normal plants can no longer grow properly, the plot in general is fueled by the conceit that one private company eventually became the sole saviors of the entire American populace, by being the first to create an artificial intelligence that not only could genetically engineer seeds that would grow in this post-apocalyptic environment, but also literal living buildings made out of biological skin and bone, maintained by a small army of sub-intelligent clones who all operate under a hive-mind system. The various small storylines we follow throughout the book, then, all deal in one way or another with this central conceit -- there are the scrappy Latino brothers trying to survive in an anarchic, gray-market society, there is the "manager clone" who is thinking of defecting from the company (and taking all its confidential intellectual property with it), there is the disgraced military commander who has been ordered by a now cuckolded White House to go find this runaway clone, and on and on in this vein, each of them giving us a small specific look at this grandly epic universe Ziegler has built up step by step.

Now, just to be clear, like most genre novels Seed is filled with things that will drive non-fans of that genre a little crazy -- the dialogue can be a little stilted at times, some of the characters a bit too corny, and of course you need to be into bizarre science-fictional concepts in the first place to enjoy it at all -- and let's also be clear that even SF fans that aren't necessarily into cyberpunk will find some faults with this too, a book that can sometimes fixate too much on the action sequences rather than the "big picture" topics being discussed. But if like me you are a fan of early William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross and other established cyberpunk authors, you will find this an incredibly satisfying read, nearly perfect at hitting all the beats that a story like this needs, while maintaining a fast pace and constantly offering up unique little speculative nuggets for your brain to chew on for a while. (I especially loved the reveal of who exactly is behind all these sinister goings-on at this shadowy company, but for the sake of spoilers I will leave that a surprise.) A book only for a niche audience, but a niche audience who will passionately love it for what it is, Seed will almost certainly be making CCLaP's best-of lists at the end of the year, and it comes strongly recommended to those who think in advance that they might be interested in it.

Out of 10: 8.9, or 9.9 for cyberpunk fans (less)

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Jul 16, 2012 Kelsey rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: tree huggers, hipsters, vegans, ecofeminists, sf fans

Rob Ziegler's Seed is a pretty entertaining piece of speculative fiction/eco lit; postulating a world about 100 years in the future where the effects of global warming have finally become catastrophic and civilization-altering. Ziegler acknowledges the influence of Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which is evident in the novel's subject matter, themes, and general atmosphere, but I think he succeeds where Bacigalupi failed in that Seed is an engaging story about sympathetic characters first,...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Brett Boerner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

First off, this isn't just another dystopian science fiction book. I enjoyed it quite a bit, even though I sometimes had trouble figuring out who the sympathetic figures should be. I'm guessing this was by design, as there weren't any characters in the book (maybe one exception) that weren't responsible for a significant amount of bloodshed and violence.

The underlying concepts of the book had some familiar elements, but for the most part were really fresh and new to me. I liked the idea of Sator...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Stefani rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

I don't know quite how to put this best so I'll just come right out and say it, full disclosure, I could not stand this book. I prayed that it would be over practically from the beginning. Okay, maybe not the beginning but definitely page fifty for sure. I have had good success with Night Shade publications in the past and the cover and synopsis of this drew me in and made me want to see what it was all about. Being a huge fan of sci-fi and dystopian fiction I thought this would be a slam dunk....more I don't know quite how to put this best so I'll just come right out and say it, full disclosure, I could not stand this book. I prayed that it would be over practically from the beginning. Okay, maybe not the beginning but definitely page fifty for sure. I have had good success with Night Shade publications in the past and the cover and synopsis of this drew me in and made me want to see what it was all about. Being a huge fan of sci-fi and dystopian fiction I thought this would be a slam dunk. Oh, how I was wrong.

Let us start with the good things. Mr. Ziegler is very imaginative. I found myself struck several times at the level of creativity shown in the characters and some of the action scenes. I also really loved Sienna Doss. She is a kick ass woman and I loved her in every scene even when she seemed to be doing nothing more important than picking her nose. I also really enjoyed her cohorts Jake and Casanova. They provided some real laughs and probably were some of the most memorable moments in the book.

My first issue with this book was the complexity of the plot. I don't mind complex plots as long as everything makes sense and I can keep track of it all. Now, I don't consider myself a stupid person (though I know one author for certain who may disagree, but it's not Mr. Ziegler), and I can track a lot of information that might leave other readers scratching their head. But this book flipped between different stories and different characters so fast I had a hard time keeping up. In addition, none of the narrations really seemed to be going anywhere so I had zero comprehension of what the actual plot was. I probably read the synopsis of this book twenty times over the course of this book because I honestly couldn't remember what the point was supposed to be. I'd read the synopsis and think, "Oh yeah, that's who that Doss woman is and why she's important. Well when is she going to do that?!" I wanted to like this plot and the characters but I just couldn't.

Issue number two is the fact that half the book seems to be written in Spanish. Now, I do not speak Spanish but this book was supposed to be in English. Half the characters seem fluent in Spanish and use that to my disadvantage. I wouldn't have cared if the Spanish being used is the typical Spanish phrases and words that most people are familiar with and so they are easily comprehended. I couldn't follow what several of the characters were even talking about without getting a Spanish-English dictionary or becoming fluent in Spanish before reading. Neither of those things was I willing to do just for this book. So instead I spent my time wondering just what the hell these people were talking about and just tuning it out and deciding it wasn't important enough to find out.

Issue number three was the world building. I had no idea how the world got this way, just that it did. I had no idea how Satori came into existence or why, just that it did. It was never revealed what exactly the Fathers were planning or trying to do or anything regarding their motivations. Basically you are just thrown into this world without being given any details about it at all. I didn't need to know everything down to a hour by hour breakdown, but at least give me the broad strokes!

Next was the big problem I had with the descriptions of Satori. I don't consider myself squeamish by any means, but these parts just grossed me out. Satori is a semi-sentient city that produces the seed that the rest of the world lives on and its Designers care for her and the Fathers who created her. So basically we have a whole city of flesh and muscle and bone. If someone wanted to sit, a lump of flesh appeared. If they needed a door then an orifice appeared for you to walk through. Sex was presented between these Designers in quite possibly the most unsexy way possible. "The Designer decided he wanted to connect with her and stuck it in her." That isn't an exact quote but it's pretty close! Not sexy or enticing at all, just more discomfort on top of the city's orifices.

My last problem with this book was the lack of emotion I had for any of it. I couldn't feel empathy for the characters because I couldn't understand them most of the time. I couldn't have feelings about the plot because I kept forgetting what it was. The only real emotion I had toward the book was, "When will this be over!". It is a worthy attempt at a first novel, but falls woefully short of being audience ready.

Rating: 1.5 of 5 stars.(less)

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Mar 01, 2012 NJMetal rated it 1 of 5 stars

Plain and simple, I did not like SEED by Rob Ziegler. It's a little more difficult to pinpoint exactly why the story did not do it for me. It felt not dry exactly but the action seemed flat when it wanted to be exciting. The plot points were confusing when they wanted to be mysterious. The prose was just words and not windows into the world of SEED.

Out of the gate the story quickly did not really fit expectations. I was looking for a different type of story entirely. This point alone may have m...more Plain and simple, I did not like SEED by Rob Ziegler. It's a little more difficult to pinpoint exactly why the story did not do it for me. It felt not dry exactly but the action seemed flat when it wanted to be exciting. The plot points were confusing when they wanted to be mysterious. The prose was just words and not windows into the world of SEED.

Out of the gate the story quickly did not really fit expectations. I was looking for a different type of story entirely. This point alone may have more to do with my disappointment then anything. I can usually understand when a story I don't like still would have merit through the eyes of others but this one I'm just not sure how anyone could truly enjoy it.

The story is set in the moderately distant future. One of the first things to rub me wrong about the story was they way it would hold back mysterious information. I was left for far to long wondering about what all these futuristic things really were. Withholding information is sometimes useful in story telling but the information was withheld for too long and often the explanations were still vague. I felt confused far too much during the course of the story.

Another aspect that turned me off was the action. This didn't come across as necessarily a 'literature' piece. It wanted to be exciting. It had action beats. They just didn't pace well. It all seemed flat and uneventful. Not nearly as exciting as it intended to be. Ho hum.

The biggest problem I had was that I just wasn't able to step into the world of SEED. When you read a story you enjoy, even mildly, you find yourself unaware of the words. You step into the words, the page. With SEED I just saw the words on the page. I never really got sucked into the page. It was tedious reading.

When all is said and done, I can not find a silver lining to SEED. I was eager to read it based upon the synopsis but the story inside just did not play out as well. Rob Ziegler may have a way with words but I think he needs to aim at the soul a bit better.(less)

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Aug 12, 2012 Deana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, 2012, 4-5stars

This book was really awesome! I think there were a few things that could have been done better, hence the 4 instead of 5 star rating, but I really enjoyed the plot and the way the story line all fell together.

The book takes place in a future where large cities have been reduced to rubble, gangs rule the open roads, and food and water are hard to come by due to the climate changes that are slowly roasting the citizens. In the midst of all this is Satori, a company whose goal is to genetically eng...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Courtney rated it 3 of 5 stars

More reviews at Rondo of a Possible World: YA Book Reviews

Rob Ziegler does a great job on divulging his view on a post-apocalyptic tale. A dreary and devastated world with characters struggling with the hardships and the eruption of a company that has accumulated large amount of power and dictation.

For the most part I liked the descriptions, the view of the world Ziegler had created. The only thing that put me off was the overindulgence of information and characters given to the reader. I felt...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Lauren Smith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-review-copy, to-review, science-fiction, genetics, biopunk, reviewed-on-blog

It’s the 22nd century. The world’s oil supplies have finally dried up, but humanity has done the damage and the climate has risen by a devastating 5⁰C. North America is a wasteland, with most of its people reduced to starving migrants wandering across the land in the constant search for food and water.

The only viable course of food is Sartori – a massive, sentient, bioengineered city made of living flesh and bone. Its inhabitants are all post-human, genetically engineered beings whose main purpo...more It’s the 22nd century. The world’s oil supplies have finally dried up, but humanity has done the damage and the climate has risen by a devastating 5⁰C. North America is a wasteland, with most of its people reduced to starving migrants wandering across the land in the constant search for food and water.

The only viable course of food is Sartori – a massive, sentient, bioengineered city made of living flesh and bone. Its inhabitants are all post-human, genetically engineered beings whose main purpose is to design, produce and grow seed – a climate-resistant seed whose crops are now America’s only means of survival.

Then Pihadassa, a Sartori Designer (geneticist), defects from the living city in order to play out her own plans for sustainable life. Among the migrants, Pihadassa becomes known by the rumour of ‘the Corn Mother’ – a woman who will save them all from starvation. To Brood, a Latino teenage orphan, it’s just a rumour. He and his austistic brother Pollo, along with Hondo, an old man, get by as small-time thieves and Brood has no interest, or faith, in a search for a different life. Nevertheless, circumstances put him on the path to the colony that the Corn Mother is supposedly establishing, where fresh food is freely available.

Also on the hunt for Pihadassa is Agent Sienna Doss, the soldier who never Fucks Up. The US government – or at least the remaining scraps of it – want to get the Designer under their control so she can create seed for them. The government resents the power and necessity of Sartori, especially since its only remaining function is to distribute seed around the nation – a function Sartori could easily perform on its own. It’s a government “afraid of its own obsolescence” and Pihadassa represents an opportunity for it to reclaim power.

In the meantime, within the flesh walls of Sartori, Pihadassa’s mate Sumedha suffers the pain of his partner’s absence, while continuing with a series of genetic experiments that will affect both Sartori and the future of the human population.

Brood, Doss and Sumedha’s stories slowly move toward each other in an interesting and relevant novel that depicts a painfully plausible environmental future, the possibilities of genetic engineering, and the many ethical conundrums that are inevitably raised.

Read the full review on my blog Violin in a Void (less)

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Nov 05, 2011 the golden witch. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, arc-galley, net-galley, tomorrowland, post-end-of-the-world, reviewed, biopunk

If there's something that we definitely need more of as a sub-genre in adult sci-fi these days, it's biopunk. "Seed" delivers it, and delivers it hard with a delicious side of dystopian almost-post-America. "Seed" is intensely creepy while being both surrealistic and incredibly realistic at the same time. If you're looking for something new in sci-fi to wet your whistle, this is it.

The realism of a broken America complete with the breakdown of the central government, FEMA somewhat in charge (and...more If there's something that we definitely need more of as a sub-genre in adult sci-fi these days, it's biopunk. "Seed" delivers it, and delivers it hard with a delicious side of dystopian almost-post-America. "Seed" is intensely creepy while being both surrealistic and incredibly realistic at the same time. If you're looking for something new in sci-fi to wet your whistle, this is it.

The realism of a broken America complete with the breakdown of the central government, FEMA somewhat in charge (and obviously failing the people), while admitting that it's only in control to "distribute (Satori's) seed" to the newly-migratory American people was like a punch to the gut. It's so very disturbingly possible, and with Ziegler's brief, punchy style it kind of hits each point home without wasting words or energy. It really feels like Katrina one hundred times worse in terms of politics and tragedy, and it makes you ring hollow inside with how awful it is. At least, that's what it did to me. That's definitely a sign of awesome writing, if ever there was one.

All of America is now at the mercy of Satori, a bioagra-genetics company started by four guys (who picked the name "Satori" not because they're Japanese but because it sounded good to consumers), who create Designers, post-humans who create more post-humans to keep up the Satori empire (by creating weather-resistant plant seeds, hence the title), Designing more and more to keep it alive. In particular, it is mainly the journey of post-human Designer Sumedha (and to a lesser part, his sister/wife) to make sure the empire of Satori survives, no matter what. It is the journey through his grief and madness when his sister/wife defects, trying to "Connect" with other siblings, only to find despair at not being able to match up with them as perfectly as he did his twin. And on America's side, it is the joint journey of Agent Doss and migrant ex-La Chupecabra gang member, Brood, and how they meet in order to stop the spread of Satori and try to get America back up and running again in terms of being able to feed its own people. All of these characters finally meet in the end, and it's extremely explosive. It will leaving you thinking hard about how our environment and government are starting to break down now - and all of the what-ifs that may happen in the future. I definitely had a deep period of reflection about all of this because it shook me so much.

There are four main POVs (all written in 3rd-close), so the book is a bit hard to keep track of at first, but once things really start getting going around 1/4th of the way in, it's quite easy to track who is who and where is where, what is what. I found the descriptions of the living empire of Satori extremely creepy, but it was well worth it. I haven't seen a more creative use of biopunk in a very long time. It's one of those really neglected but awesome sub-genres that desperately needs new blood pumped into it (much like steampunk got that boost a few years ago). This version of a broken America that's not even a century in the future is just so eerily possible that I did have nightmares about it after completing the book, and about the Designer's creatures (especially the Advocates) chasing me in them.

The way Ziegler put together all of these sub-genres really worked. Biopunk and dystopia put together is usually a win-win scenario, but when you put current real politics into it, it gets even better. I just really enjoyed this read, even if it scared the hell out of me. So go ahead and give this one a try, guys. Biopunk needs some more love. Won't you feed it?

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and witchoftheatregoing.wordpress.com)(less)

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Nov 10, 2011 Katy Stauber rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is way too good to be a debut. The details of the SEED world are fully formed and the characters practically crawl off the page so they can rummage through your fridge and Bogart the remote for the TV. I read plenty of books in the post-apocalyptic genre and this one was a stand out. It's not a nice pretty happy story but the ending rings true. These days I almost never finish a book in less than a week and I burned through this one in two days because I could not put it down.

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Apr 17, 2012 Scottsdale Public Library added it

Shelves: adult, fiction, sci-fi-fantasy

This fast paced post-apocalypse dystopia novel is packed with violence and need. What's left of humanity is nomadic after years of war, resource depletion, and extensive climate change. What's left of our government is a puppet for Satori, the company that genetically engineers the seed that keeps everyone from starving. Woven together are the stories of three different groups trying to survive. Readers who enjoyed The Hunger Games and Blood Red Road will enjoy this.

-Alexis S.-

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Jul 01, 2012 Rrain rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, apocalyptic, speculative-fiction

Here's the thing: while it averages out to three stars, I would give the first half of this book two and the last half four, that's how differently I felt about them. It took me ages to really get involved in it and to care what happened to anyone. It wasn't until the threads started to weave together more tightly, and we got a sense of just how extensive the genetic engineering was, that it started to work for me. And when it worked, it really did work.

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