What We are Seeking
by Cameron Reed
2026
What We are Seeking is a scifi novel set in a distant future when humans have colonies on a number of other planets, despite being limited to sub-light speed. The colony worlds are few, and are theoretically connected by a network of generation ships that travel between them, though in practice the visits are few, and each established world has suffered a collapse and long rebuilding, when their original Earth tech ran out, but before they could build anything comparable themselves.
We follow one young man as he arrives in a new place, learns about the existing community, and tries to find a place and make a life there. Author Cameron Reed has given us an impressive feat of world-building. The young colony, Scythia, is vividly imagined, both in terms of the alien wildlife native to the planet, and in terms of the colony's culture, which is just starting to blend the traditions of the two host planets. Every other society that a character hails from is still seen in realistic glimpses when relevant, starting on the first page with the culture of the ships, which alternate between a relaxed 'summer' when coasting at near light-speed and a stricter 'winter' when accelerating or decelerating.
The audience viewpoint character is John Maraintha, who comes from the verdant world of Essius, a forest world full of alien plants that are by turns medicinal and deadly poisonous. Essius is matriarchal and polyamorous, with children raised by the mother and her brothers. Men 'visit' other families for sex, but remain part of their mother's family for life. John is a doctor, and was orphaned by a wildfire while he was in med school, his whole family gone, which is how he ended up on a ship, and why he was chosen when Scythia messaged the ships to ask for another doctor for the colony. John's sexuality is seen as fascinating and threatening on Scythia, where both host cultures practice monogamy and patriarchy. Because of his own home culture, John finds it easier to get along with women, but now all his new friendships are viewed as suspect because he's assumed to be trying to visit everyone he becomes close to. For his part, John struggles to see marriage as anything other than oppression.
The native lifeforms of the planet Scythia are called 'dryads' by the colonists, because they alternate each generation between plant and animal bodies. So a bush might bloom with flowers that, when mature, fly off like butterflies that will egg-seeds in the soil, that will grow into more bushes. Some dryads beget insects (or rather, insect-like forms), some reptiles, some mammals. On Earth, ferns, mosses, and some parasites have alternating reproductive cycles, but nothing this extreme. The dryad ecosystem is robust, hostile to Earth plants, and dangerous to humans, which is why the colony is based in the desert, where dryads are sparse, instead of the forest. One species, called 'basket-men', might be a large, curious animal, or might be fully sentient.
The need to find out which is the reason for the other off-world visitor who arrived the same time as John. Subharma comes from a colony world where humans have formed a peaceful relationship with intelligent natives. He's come as a translator; he'll try to communicate with the basket-men, including eventually having high-tech brain surgery to make himself into someone capable of learning their native speech. John has a crush on Subharma and enjoys having him for a roommate. Subharma is super ascetic, follows a very strict diet, spends hours a day meditating, and seemingly has no interest in making friends, only in studying the basket-men.
The two host cultures that are starting to blend on Scythia are the Ishnurans and the Zandeheans. Ishnurna is only habitable at its two poles. Ishnurnans are very pale, and they have a culturally-recognized third gender. 'Jesses' use they/them pronouns, and we eventually learn that people we might think of as trans men, trans women, and nonbinary people all become jesses. Iren is currently the only Jess on Scythia, although a teen Zandahean wants to take the vows, which is controversial. Zandahea was colonized by Catholics, but during their collapse, the line of apostolic succession was broken (not a big deal for Protestants, but devastating to them). None of these groups is a monolith; Reed shows that they're internally diverse. We meet people with different perspectives on the basket-men, on jesses, on religion (the Zandaheans include some Renouncers), and despite the importance of marriage, we meet people having affairs, even closeted gay people in marriages of convenience. There are a couple people who are explicitly asexual, even though that term is never used, and in the same way that the others can't fully understand visiting, John is never fully able to wrap his head around that.
When John first arrives, he's annoyed to be sidelined by the doctor who made the original distress call, but has plenty more trainees now. He spends his time keeping house for Sudharma, learning about dryads, and becoming part of the local community. A key turning point comes when a basket-man arrives, then leaves, and John and Subharma follow it into the desert. This becomes like a descent into Hell when their van is damaged by wild dryads and their rations and water are ruined. Later John returns to the desert with Iren to catalog new species. He learns a lot more about them, and they become a much larger part of the story after that. This is mostly not an adventure story though, just people trying to shape their society into one that matches their values.
There are echoes of other scifi stories here. Human civilization being split between planets and ships is part of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. John's harrowing trip to the desert is a little similar to a trip to Mercury in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312. But most of what's here is either a unique feat of imagination, like the dryads, or else an extrapolation of how aspects of contemporary society might change over a long future. The breadth and inventiveness of Reed's world-building is really something special here. I enjoyed Reed's previous book, a cyberpunk novel called The Fortunate Fall, and I'm glad she was able to publish this one too.
We follow one young man as he arrives in a new place, learns about the existing community, and tries to find a place and make a life there. Author Cameron Reed has given us an impressive feat of world-building. The young colony, Scythia, is vividly imagined, both in terms of the alien wildlife native to the planet, and in terms of the colony's culture, which is just starting to blend the traditions of the two host planets. Every other society that a character hails from is still seen in realistic glimpses when relevant, starting on the first page with the culture of the ships, which alternate between a relaxed 'summer' when coasting at near light-speed and a stricter 'winter' when accelerating or decelerating.
The audience viewpoint character is John Maraintha, who comes from the verdant world of Essius, a forest world full of alien plants that are by turns medicinal and deadly poisonous. Essius is matriarchal and polyamorous, with children raised by the mother and her brothers. Men 'visit' other families for sex, but remain part of their mother's family for life. John is a doctor, and was orphaned by a wildfire while he was in med school, his whole family gone, which is how he ended up on a ship, and why he was chosen when Scythia messaged the ships to ask for another doctor for the colony. John's sexuality is seen as fascinating and threatening on Scythia, where both host cultures practice monogamy and patriarchy. Because of his own home culture, John finds it easier to get along with women, but now all his new friendships are viewed as suspect because he's assumed to be trying to visit everyone he becomes close to. For his part, John struggles to see marriage as anything other than oppression.
The native lifeforms of the planet Scythia are called 'dryads' by the colonists, because they alternate each generation between plant and animal bodies. So a bush might bloom with flowers that, when mature, fly off like butterflies that will egg-seeds in the soil, that will grow into more bushes. Some dryads beget insects (or rather, insect-like forms), some reptiles, some mammals. On Earth, ferns, mosses, and some parasites have alternating reproductive cycles, but nothing this extreme. The dryad ecosystem is robust, hostile to Earth plants, and dangerous to humans, which is why the colony is based in the desert, where dryads are sparse, instead of the forest. One species, called 'basket-men', might be a large, curious animal, or might be fully sentient.
The need to find out which is the reason for the other off-world visitor who arrived the same time as John. Subharma comes from a colony world where humans have formed a peaceful relationship with intelligent natives. He's come as a translator; he'll try to communicate with the basket-men, including eventually having high-tech brain surgery to make himself into someone capable of learning their native speech. John has a crush on Subharma and enjoys having him for a roommate. Subharma is super ascetic, follows a very strict diet, spends hours a day meditating, and seemingly has no interest in making friends, only in studying the basket-men.
The two host cultures that are starting to blend on Scythia are the Ishnurans and the Zandeheans. Ishnurna is only habitable at its two poles. Ishnurnans are very pale, and they have a culturally-recognized third gender. 'Jesses' use they/them pronouns, and we eventually learn that people we might think of as trans men, trans women, and nonbinary people all become jesses. Iren is currently the only Jess on Scythia, although a teen Zandahean wants to take the vows, which is controversial. Zandahea was colonized by Catholics, but during their collapse, the line of apostolic succession was broken (not a big deal for Protestants, but devastating to them). None of these groups is a monolith; Reed shows that they're internally diverse. We meet people with different perspectives on the basket-men, on jesses, on religion (the Zandaheans include some Renouncers), and despite the importance of marriage, we meet people having affairs, even closeted gay people in marriages of convenience. There are a couple people who are explicitly asexual, even though that term is never used, and in the same way that the others can't fully understand visiting, John is never fully able to wrap his head around that.
When John first arrives, he's annoyed to be sidelined by the doctor who made the original distress call, but has plenty more trainees now. He spends his time keeping house for Sudharma, learning about dryads, and becoming part of the local community. A key turning point comes when a basket-man arrives, then leaves, and John and Subharma follow it into the desert. This becomes like a descent into Hell when their van is damaged by wild dryads and their rations and water are ruined. Later John returns to the desert with Iren to catalog new species. He learns a lot more about them, and they become a much larger part of the story after that. This is mostly not an adventure story though, just people trying to shape their society into one that matches their values.
There are echoes of other scifi stories here. Human civilization being split between planets and ships is part of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. John's harrowing trip to the desert is a little similar to a trip to Mercury in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312. But most of what's here is either a unique feat of imagination, like the dryads, or else an extrapolation of how aspects of contemporary society might change over a long future. The breadth and inventiveness of Reed's world-building is really something special here. I enjoyed Reed's previous book, a cyberpunk novel called The Fortunate Fall, and I'm glad she was able to publish this one too.
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