SOLVED. Adult Science Fiction. Faraway planet with trees that communicate by releasing pollen & scents, considered uninhabitable. Female char. arrives on planet, slowly learns trees' vocabulary & grammar. Non-carbon based aliens on nearby planet. [s]

[SBC]

Someone else's post about sentient trees got me thinking about this adult science fiction novel that I read sometime in the last twenty years. I don't remember much about it, but it was a futuristic science fiction in which there were well-established colonies on planets and space travel, etc.

There was a particular planet that I think had never been settled as it was out of the way and considered uninhabitable. A female character either visits or gets stuck there and learns that the trees are sentient and communicate through releasing pollen and scents, etc. It takes her a while to figure things out and learn how to communicate with them, and they'd been trying to get people's attention for a long time to communicate that they didn't want to be chopped down, and possibly give them some other kind of warning. I remember that they could spread information really rapidly amongst themselves.

There may have been a neighbouring planet with alien beings that were not recognised as life forms because they weren't carbon-based - they may have been something like sulfur-based life forms, and the two planets may have been at war or there was some kind of movement of our human character/s between the planets.

I'm not very confident of the details but hopefully this might be enough to ring a bell for someone?

[SamSpayedPI]

It sounds a bit like Ursula K. Le Guin's Vaster Than Empires and More Slow but that is a short story, not a novel. It's collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters.

[SBC]

Thank you for the suggestion - it doesn't ring a bell at all at this point but the plot looks promising - I will check it out and see!

[SBC]

Thanks, SamSpayedPI - I read Vaster than Empires and More Slow and the story I'm looking for is definitely not that.

[Okpianocat]

Could it be one of the Orson Scott Card series that follows Ender's Game? There was a book in the series about sentient trees...

[SBC]

Thanks, but I'm sure I haven't read those and I just checked with my husband who has, and it's not the same story.

In the story I remember there was quite a bit of attention given to trying to figure out the particular scent/pollen vocabulary and grammar of the trees, and then I think the human character replicated it with a machine to talk back to them.

I'm also feeling more confident that the non-carbon based aliens were also important to the story.

I thought it had the feel of something like Anne McCaffrey's Brainship series, but I can't find one that fits this plot, so I guess something along those lines...

[Sue]

The Companions by Sheri S Tepper fits some of your details.

[SBC]

Thanks Sue! I've read most of Tepper's books and I thought this was one I hadn't read yet, but it does look like it might be it so I may well have read it already! I will move this thread to possibly solved for now until I read it to make sure.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Bumping since SBC posted today.

[Martini]

Semiosis?

[beichst]

The trees were recognized as sentient from the beginning so that doesn't quite match. But, other points (within the last 20 years, well established colonies, regular space travel, intelligent trees, rapid communication across distances, other elemental alien life forms, etc.) can be found in Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns series starting with the 2002 novel Hidden Empire. Below is a brief synopsis. Does any of this look familiar?

"As the series begins, the arrogant Hansa Chairman Basil Wenceslas begins grooming a replacement for the aging King Frederick. Basil looks to expand the human empire further through the discovery of alien technology from the extinct Klikiss race that will allow scientists to create a new star from a gas giant, turning cold moons into planets ripe for colonization. The most prominent human world aside from Earth is Theroc, a planet covered in semi-sentient worldtrees that is quietly independent from the Hansa. Theroc's "green priests" are able to commune with the trees and communicate telepathically across space when touching a treeling, making them indispensable for instantaneous communication across the galaxy. The Roamers are clans of industrious humans living a clandestine existence in the fringes of space, managing a profitable economy centered on the sale of the valuable stardrive fuel ekti and other commodities. The ignition of the gas giant Oncier reveals the existence of the elemental hydrogues, "

[Kris]

SBC, I added some details to the header/topic title. You can update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header. This only works on the full Desktop website - not the Mobile website or app. (On the Mobile website, click the "Desktop version" link at the bottom of the page.)

[SBC]

Thanks Martin, Brad, and Kris. I haven’t read those authors but I’ve read a lot of Tepper’s work. I’ll add The Companions to my reading list for this year so I can confirm one way or another about that!

[beichst]

YW. Good luck in your search.

[Sarah]

It does sound like Semiosis... especially with the computer talking back..

[Sarah]

There were weird plants in An Oath of Dogs and it starts out with a woman arriving on an alien planets and she has a dog with her. Lots of weird plants and weird life forms. But it's the plants you remember in this story.

[SBC]

Solved! The book I was thinking of was Tepper's The Companions. I finally got around to reading (rereading!) it. Thanks, Sue, for the solution, and to everyone else who offered suggestions!