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09/18/2002: "Books I Want People to Read"

Typhon's Children by Toni Anzetti (Ann Tonsor Zeddies). Why read this? Besides "I say so?" Because there are some great characters. They're argumentative, they have different philosophies of what it takes to be human on an alien planet, and they won't hesitate to stand up for what they believe. Some are sarcastic, some are noble, some are manipulative blowhards. All feel very real. It's also a rip-roaring adventure novel. It opens by throwing the reader in with the remnants of a human colony on the planet Typhon. Their home world appears to have forgotten them. Their children either die or suffer from unpredictable birth defects. A large number of the adults have been killed in a natural disaster, and most of their technology has been destroyed. They're considering a forced breeding program to try and produce enough people to sustain themselves genetically, even while knowing this plan is probably doomed to failure. Then the real story begins. Oceanic aliens! Mysterious undersea gods! Genetic manipulation! Whee! There's some sample text at Del Rey's website here. It's unfortunate that this book is so hard to find--it was published in 1999, with its sequel, Riders of Leviathan, released in 2001; both are mass-market paperbacks. Get those browsers cranking and find yourselves some Toni Anzetti!