Heliox examines ‘Semiosis: The Intelligence We Never Saw Coming’

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Helios, a substack that goes deep on big ideas, has taken a look at my novel Semiosis:

“For centuries, we’ve measured intelligence through a profoundly narcissistic lens. We’ve built entire philosophical and scientific frameworks around the idea that cognition is a uniquely human trait — a linear progression of thinking that starts with simple organisms and culminates in our own supposedly superior consciousness.

“Sue Burke’s Semiosis isn’t just a science fiction novel. It’s a radical dismantling of those comfortable delusions.”

Besides an article and podcast, there are study materials: References, Executive Summary, Briefing Document, Quiz, Essay Questions, Glossary, Timeline, Cast, FAQ, Table of Contents, Index, Polls, 3k Image, and Fact Check.

You will find spoilers — and a lot to think about.

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My translation of “The Coffee Machine” by Celia Corral-Vázquez has been nominated for the 2024 Best Translated Short Fiction Award by the British Science Fiction Association. It was originally published at Clarkesworld Magazine. Read it here. See the full list for the awards here. The winners will be announced at Eastercon, April 18 to 21.

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A new review of ChloroPhilia by Cristina Jurado, which I translated, is at Strange Horizons Magazine. Reviewer Rachel Cordasco writes: “ChloroPhilia — an unsettling, enticing novella about evolution in overdrive — is Cristina Jurado’s most recent work in English. Like her collection Alphaland, which came out in English in 2018 and then was reissued in 2023, ChloroPhilia offers readers Jurado’s unique vision of the world, in which the bizarre and grotesque erupts into the mundane world.…”

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