Reefsong by Carol Severance

Title: Reefsong
Author: Carol Severance
Format: Kindle and Paperback

I love water based fiction. There is so little of it. I first read reef song when I was in middle school. It was a book that I picked up at the library. It was also one of the books that catapulted me from Young Adult stuff into more intense, conflict and character driven science fiction.

I looked for this book for years. Finally, I went to a book forum and asked if anyone had ever heard of the story. It took about six posts before someone came up with the name. I did a search and to my amazement, it had been published a few months before on Kindle.

Reefsong is about a very driven woman who is pushed from one element into another. She has to deal with problems and she does it without spending excessive amounts of time bemoaning her own loss and change. She is not happy but that does not mean she is going to put aside her task and whine about life not being fair.

The main feel is colonial vs big company.

The cast is an interesting mesh of adult and juvenile. The evil people are evil and greedy and it is satisfying to see them loose. The science is fun and it works in the story. It is a very satisfying read.

Spoilers:

The main character is a forest ranger in the near future when there is not a lot of forest left. She is basically set up to be hurt and her life mortgaged to the big company that is the evil bad guy of the book, to go to this world and deal with their native population problem.

They want a genetic secret the planets population is hiding and expect her to give it over to them. Of course, because she is the hero and has a spine, she does not. It is interesting watching her make her decisions, figure out the people, and go to battle. She is not perfect but she is pretty much on the straight and narrow morally.

I love the book. I was happy to buy it.