Chapter by Chapter

Earthseed was…amazing! Seriously, it was so good. It’s no wonder that Paramount Pictures has teamed up with Melissa Rosenberg (the adaptor of the Twilight films) to release Earthseed through Tall Girl Productions as a major motion picture. I am so curious to see what they will come up with!When I first read the synopsis, I thought that Earthseed was going to be a read similar to that of Beth Revis’ Across The Universe. Although there are a few similarities, Earthseed stands up on its own. Think of a story that is a mixture of Across The Universe meets Hunger Games meets Lord of the Flies.Earthseed follows the lives of a group of teens aboard a spacecraft that they lovingly call “Ship”. Ship acts as the parental figure in the lives of these teens. With them from their birth, and guiding them as they grow up, Ship is a huge figure in their lives. With sensors scattered all throughout the space craft, Ship is able to monitor the activities that occur onboard, and is always available for guidance when needed. The main objective for this mission from Earth is to take the “seeds” of the people and scatter them throughout space on other liveable planets. Ship must travel throughout space in search of habitable land that does not have intelligent life on it yet, where this group of teens must learn to live and create a new world.Among the teens on board, Earthseed focuses primarily through the eyes of female protagonist, Zoheret, a strong character that I loved reading about. We watch her interaction with the other teens on board, and are introduced to the ways of life aboard Ship. As is human nature, groups of kids have become closer with others forming their own clique. And as it is in high school, a teen story is never complete without its own fair share of bullies. Enter Manual and Ho. Using their strength and influence to get what they want, everyone knows to stay on their good side, doing their biding. As it is done every year, Ship holds a type of competition among the group, whether it be through Q & A, or physical exertion. This year’s competition is one of significant importance. Aboard ship, there is an area known as the Hollow. And it is in this Hollow that the groups must traverse from one end of the Hollow to the other. Sounds simple enough…but with the need to win, groups will stop at nothing to come out the victor. And it is from this competition that former alliances break down and turn into something darker.At the completion of the competition, Ship informs the group that the time for their decent to a new land is fast approaching, and they must learn to live on their own as a tribe. They must learn how to grow their own food, become civilized in an unknown land, and learn to live with each other and co-exist. And with this experiment, Ship has agreed to not monitor the Hollow allowing them to fend for themselves. This is just an experiment waiting to go wrong… I only wish that rather than start a new “part” in the book, that we could have seen the beginning days of their new way of life.This book was completely unput-downable. I completely devoured it! The multiple twists and turns that author, Pamela Sargent, has put in the pages kept me up late at night. I needed to know what was going to happen the minute a plot twist presented itself. There were various parts in the book that I did not even guess was coming! I was shocked on multiple occasions. Sargent has poured in so much emotion into the characters of this book that all of them will stand out and won’t soon be forgotten. The world building that was found in the pages was amazing. I could see the different images clearly in my mind as I was reading…the movie playing out in my head. Broken down into 3 parts, each part surpassed the one before. I am totally looking forward to reading the next installment to this trilogy, Farseed.Fans of Sci-Fi and Dystopian reads will completely devour Earthseed. For those who like to read the book before the movie comes out, don’t hesitate on this one. You won’t be disappointed.