ONE PLANET TWO WORLDS

In Tabor’s SF novel, a scientist’s quest to confirm octopus intelligence gets him drafted into a galactic conflict.

The author casts octopuses as sentient, sensitive beings caught in the crossfire of an interstellar alien war between the True-People and their militaristic archenemies, the Sun Slayers. Of course, these goings-on come as a rude shock to the hero, Dr. Miguel Joseph Phillips, who’s unable to find any support for his theory, based on a trip to the Marianas Trench, that the tentacled creatures are intelligent and self-aware. Having lost his university job, Miguel simply wants to find someone to back his theory (“Facing life doing anything else, did not feel like life”), and then a pair of surprise visits—first, from the True-People, and then from operatives of the federal government—upends his expectations. He soon realizes that his quest for “Octo Sapiens” is part of a much larger mission involving saving the planet, as well as Zia, Quixian, and their fellow True-People, from an all-out assault by the Sun Slayers. Doing so will require Miguel to find a way of communicating with his beloved octopuses—a task that’s often thwarted by his absent-minded professorial ways. What follows is a narrative that shifts time and space, populated by characters who change names and shapes, which is sure to keep readers on their toes. If that’s not challenging enough, the narrative periodically backtracks into extended musings on Octo Sapiens and True-People history. Exposition is a critical aspect of any SF story, of course, but these moments could have used some tightening, especially in light of an ending that feels highly compressed. Overall, though, these are minor complaints, given the preponderance of well-drawn, memorable characters and the artful execution of such an unusual premise. Overall, it will prompt readers to reimagine the octopus’s garden, figuratively and literally.

A complicated but artful blend of SF and suspense.