Teranesia: A Novel - Softcover

Greg Egan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1597805432 ISBN 13: 9781597805438

Publisher: Night Shade Books, 2015

Synopsis

Discover the mystery of the island of Teranesia, where peculiar biological evolution has created a world both beautiful and deadly. On the small uninhabited island of Teranesia, Prabir and his younger sister Madhusree live with their biologist parents, who are there to study the strange signs of evolutionary mutation in the island's butterfly population. But their peaceful time on Teranesia is cut short when a civil war breaks out in Indonesia, forcing Prabir and his family to flee. Twenty years pass, and Madhusree is now studying biology. She wishes to follow in the path of her parents, hoping to pick up where their research had been halted. Prabir, still feeling a great responsibility over his sister, highly advises her not to go back to Teranesia. But the mutations that happened during their time on the island overpower Madhusree's curiosity, and she goes against her brother's wishes. Struck with overwhelming feelings of responsibility, Prabir finds it as his duty to follow his sister, and travels back to Teranesia for the first time in twenty years. Not knowing what to expect, Prabir discovers the island to be more enchanting, and dangerous, than he could have ever imagined.

About this title

Review:

Early next century Prabhir spends his childhood on a small Indonesian island where his biologist parents are investigating anomalous butterflies:

"The butterfly--a female twenty centimetres across, with black and iridescent-green wings-- clearly belonged to some species of swallowtail: the two hind wings were tipped with long, narrow 'tails' or 'streamers'. But there were puzzling quirks... the pattern of veins in the wings... and the position of the genital openings... How could this one species of swallowtail been isolated longer than any other butterfly in the world?"

A childish prank leads to Prabhir's blaming himself for the violent deaths of his parents, and he devotes the rest of his life to protecting his young sister. At the age of nine he sails with her to safety and later abandons his education to give her a home. Maddie becomes a biologist and takes an interest in the strange creatures now proliferating in the islands; when she goes on a field trip, Prabhir feels obliged to follow... Greg Egan's recent books and short stories of the near future-- Distress and Luminous--have combined their intellectually challenging scientific speculations with a good deal of human drama, and Teranesia continues this trend in his work. Prabhir's irrational guilt and obsessive protectiveness make him a memorable flawed protagonist. In the end, though, the point is the wonders. Egan comes up with some fascinating speculation on mechanisms whereby evolution could suddenly go into overdrive and has the good sense not to push conclusions too far; the reader's informed imagination continues well beyond the book's end. All this, and some scathing satire on Critical Theory and Cultural Studies too. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

Cognitive wonder at its challenging best.” Locus

About this edition

• Publisher: Night Shade Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1597805432
• ISBN 13: 9781597805438
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304