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Earthchild
She called herself Reee and she was the last human being on Earth. This was the one thing she was sure of. Because Earth was not a dead planet, not by a long way. There were all manner of strange plants and bizarre animals, and there were the blue boys who insisted they were human--but she always set fire to them.
There was however Indigo, the all-devouring protoplasmic ocean that was literally gobbling up everything in the world. And there was the enigmatic Emeroo to whom she owed her continued existence. There were also the so-called Martians--humans who had fled to Mars and only came back to Earth to scout for survivors and vent their futile furies on the the inhospitable homeworld.
There was however Indigo, the all-devouring protoplasmic ocean that was literally gobbling up everything in the world. And there was the enigmatic Emeroo to whom she owed her continued existence. There were also the so-called Martians--humans who had fled to Mars and only came back to Earth to scout for survivors and vent their futile furies on the the inhospitable homeworld.
204 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 17, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 9, 2009
I really do not even know what to say about this book.
I guess I'll start by noting the fact that Piserchia deserves to be as well-known as Philip Dick, given that she is as inventive as he is and just as (in)coherent, although she writes in a kind of folksy way completely at odds with her subject matter.
This book takes place in a far-future dying earth context, where some... thing called Indigo (an ocean of blue fungus?) has devoured much of the world, leaving mostly plains of moss resting on gargantuan trees. Oh also all the flora and fauna of Earth has either evolved a lot or been replaced by aliens... it isn't really clear (that's the theme of the book). Humanity, except for one (earth)child, has retreated from this madhouse to Mars, where they have become stunted and kind of crazed. The one left on Earth, named Reeee, has been taken in by Emeroo, who is the green fungus/alien/goddess/Gonzo the Great/who knows/whatever to Indigo's blue version. Anyway the two of them are engaged in a fight for survival against Indigo and the other monsters and to save the planet. Or something. It's less like Captain Planet than I've made it sound, I promise.
Reeee, by the way, is 14, and Piserchia does an excellent job of making her an incredibly frustrating protagonist: dense, self-involved, and completely irrational.
I'm still not sure what to make of the ending, but clearly I'm not really sure what to make of this entire book. I totally enjoyed reading it, though.
I guess I'll start by noting the fact that Piserchia deserves to be as well-known as Philip Dick, given that she is as inventive as he is and just as (in)coherent, although she writes in a kind of folksy way completely at odds with her subject matter.
This book takes place in a far-future dying earth context, where some... thing called Indigo (an ocean of blue fungus?) has devoured much of the world, leaving mostly plains of moss resting on gargantuan trees. Oh also all the flora and fauna of Earth has either evolved a lot or been replaced by aliens... it isn't really clear (that's the theme of the book). Humanity, except for one (earth)child, has retreated from this madhouse to Mars, where they have become stunted and kind of crazed. The one left on Earth, named Reeee, has been taken in by Emeroo, who is the green fungus/alien/goddess/Gonzo the Great/who knows/whatever to Indigo's blue version. Anyway the two of them are engaged in a fight for survival against Indigo and the other monsters and to save the planet. Or something. It's less like Captain Planet than I've made it sound, I promise.
Reeee, by the way, is 14, and Piserchia does an excellent job of making her an incredibly frustrating protagonist: dense, self-involved, and completely irrational.
I'm still not sure what to make of the ending, but clearly I'm not really sure what to make of this entire book. I totally enjoyed reading it, though.
May 12, 2016
After having read three other novels by Piserchia, my favorite 1970s West Virginian housewife sci fi writer, I have identified several elements characteristic of her work. First, her novels are really melodramas, and could be easily reimagined as dusty westerns. The characters are archetypes, one is either an agent of good or evil or a symbol of some basic human failing or virtue. Then there is the classic Piserchia heroine, a headstrong adolescent girl with a special power or who is simply special for her existence, as in this story, where Reee is the last indigenous human on earth. In lit crit, the Piserchia heroine would be called The Cosmic Gamin. She is not interested in True Love or fame, she is instead focused on Figuring It All Out and her own integrity, which involves living by her wits on a basic level, unattached to material things, but savgely devoted to her "familiar," which is generally a flying creature that she can ride. Another theme is Earth of the Far Future with Fantastic Creatures. That is a major element in this story, as it was in her previous novel A Billion Days of Earth. Whereas this novel is the Jonathan of the Piserchia ouvre, A Billion Days of Earth was Kurt Vonnegut. Weird, wonderful Piserchia.
October 12, 2015
Recently I read an ill-informed "article" (clickbait sort of thing) that ridiculed the use of "naked green women" on the covers of science fiction books. I can't say I recall seeing much of that in my long history of being an SF reader, but in this case it is simply a matter of the cover artist being faithful (as Michael Whelan always is) to the story. In fact, I only knew of this novel because the cover art (or a variation thereof, probably reworked after the publisher was done with it) appeared in Whelan's first monograph.
Earthchild is the story of Reee (two syllables), the last human being alive on Earth. Much of the planet has been overrun by an ocean-like parasite called Indigo, and Reee is protected by her own survival skills and by another mysterious, shape-shifting entity called Emeroo. The rest of humanity left for Mars ages ago, but now they are coming back for the legendary last human on Earth. But Reee doesn't want to be rescued.
This is an unusual and sometimes just plain weird fable that provides an interesting examination of what it means to be civilized. Who is the savage, the girl who runs around naked and lives in harmony with nature, or the advanced culture that makes war and tries to kill everything?
Earthchild is the story of Reee (two syllables), the last human being alive on Earth. Much of the planet has been overrun by an ocean-like parasite called Indigo, and Reee is protected by her own survival skills and by another mysterious, shape-shifting entity called Emeroo. The rest of humanity left for Mars ages ago, but now they are coming back for the legendary last human on Earth. But Reee doesn't want to be rescued.
This is an unusual and sometimes just plain weird fable that provides an interesting examination of what it means to be civilized. Who is the savage, the girl who runs around naked and lives in harmony with nature, or the advanced culture that makes war and tries to kill everything?
November 22, 2011
A well-written but strange book about an Earth taken over by extra-terrestrial life forms as viewed by the last human inhabitant, a little girl.
November 28, 2017
►WHY'D YOU READ THIS BOOK?
I saw and liked the cover artwork by Michael Whelan after @70sscifiart tweeted it on Twitter. I often choose books by their cover.
►WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
There’s much I liked about this story. I love the main character, Reee. Her lone existence on an Earth forsaken by humans is intensely difficult as she befriends the elements. Reee’s thoughts and conversations often reminded me of the ever-present dialogue and conversations I have in my own head. A strong theme of loneliness persists throughout. Here’s an example: “‘I’m pretty well satisfied with my life except for the fact that there’s a vacant place somewhere in it.’”
The author makes the reader work hard for the first few chapters. I was grasping at every assumption I could, no matter how far-fetched, just to make sense of things. All the hard work pays off because you find that you survive the story just like Reee survives the hostile conditions of her environment but only for things to get worse, yet you soon realize you’re in good hands with Reee—the little toughie.
I found the story to be open to different types of interpretation, although I was too beat after reading each chapter to take a decent stab at the deeper meaning. Instead I languished in the intrigue of the relationship between Reee and Emeroo, Emeroo being a Mother Nature sort of presence. However, at the end of the story, I was satisfied with my interpretation of things.
Finally, I liked some of the many pithy mentions and quips throughout the text. Here are examples:
►WHAT DIDN’T YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
Oh, it doesn’t matter. I hate to even say it, but maybe there were a few missing commas here and there.
►DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO OTHERS?
No, not at all. This book is not for run-of-the-mill readers who may rate it poorly. No, instead this book is for acetylcholine-saturated folks who will appreciate swift-moving imagery, the sentiment of symbols, and a plethora of interpretation-worthy ideas.
I saw and liked the cover artwork by Michael Whelan after @70sscifiart tweeted it on Twitter. I often choose books by their cover.
►WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
There’s much I liked about this story. I love the main character, Reee. Her lone existence on an Earth forsaken by humans is intensely difficult as she befriends the elements. Reee’s thoughts and conversations often reminded me of the ever-present dialogue and conversations I have in my own head. A strong theme of loneliness persists throughout. Here’s an example: “‘I’m pretty well satisfied with my life except for the fact that there’s a vacant place somewhere in it.’”
The author makes the reader work hard for the first few chapters. I was grasping at every assumption I could, no matter how far-fetched, just to make sense of things. All the hard work pays off because you find that you survive the story just like Reee survives the hostile conditions of her environment but only for things to get worse, yet you soon realize you’re in good hands with Reee—the little toughie.
I found the story to be open to different types of interpretation, although I was too beat after reading each chapter to take a decent stab at the deeper meaning. Instead I languished in the intrigue of the relationship between Reee and Emeroo, Emeroo being a Mother Nature sort of presence. However, at the end of the story, I was satisfied with my interpretation of things.
Finally, I liked some of the many pithy mentions and quips throughout the text. Here are examples:
“‘Science,’ she said, ‘was all right when you could afford to pay attention to it, otherwise the logical course was superstition.’”
“‘I like you this way,’” I said, smiling. “‘You’re innocent.’”
“‘Don’t be offensive. You know you mean ignorant.’”
“‘Did it ever occur to you that you can’t always be right? It’s against statistics.’”
►WHAT DIDN’T YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
Oh, it doesn’t matter. I hate to even say it, but maybe there were a few missing commas here and there.
►DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO OTHERS?
No, not at all. This book is not for run-of-the-mill readers who may rate it poorly. No, instead this book is for acetylcholine-saturated folks who will appreciate swift-moving imagery, the sentiment of symbols, and a plethora of interpretation-worthy ideas.
October 19, 2024
On a far future Earth from which nearly all humans have fled to Mars and which is dominated by a vast blue creature called Indigo which has been consuming everything, a fourteen-year-old girl named Reee lives alone. Years before, her mother had been snatched away by a Martian space ship. For all the years since Reee has been protected by Emeroo, a shapeshifting green entity who communicates with Reee telepathically. Periodically human like forms whom Reee calls blue boys try to fool her into leaving the safety of her surroundings. Ree also has a flying (what? lizard? dragon?) to help her move about the world. In fah she has two, Belios to begin with, then later Bellis.)
Fairly often Martians fly to Earth in their spaceships to snatch any humans that are left or else to try to exterminate Indigo with fire, (which of course doesn’t work.)
On one of these expeditions a Martian – ie one of the humans who now live on Mars – is left stranded and becomes a companion for Reee. He is disturbed by her nakedness but she has never worn clothes and finds them irritating to her skin when she eventually does wear any. Later still she is taken away to Mars and is bemused by everything she finds there, before returning to Earth again.
Oh, and there are intervals of time in which Ree is suspended for five hundred years.
If all the above didn’t make much sense or seem to sum to anything that pretty much describes the book.
There were times when I detected echoes of A Voyage to Arcturus or Solaris – but only faint echoes – however overall Earthchild is an odd piece without really any of the compensations which fiction usually provides. Full of ideas certainly, but fiction needs more than just ideas to be fulfilling.
Fairly often Martians fly to Earth in their spaceships to snatch any humans that are left or else to try to exterminate Indigo with fire, (which of course doesn’t work.)
On one of these expeditions a Martian – ie one of the humans who now live on Mars – is left stranded and becomes a companion for Reee. He is disturbed by her nakedness but she has never worn clothes and finds them irritating to her skin when she eventually does wear any. Later still she is taken away to Mars and is bemused by everything she finds there, before returning to Earth again.
Oh, and there are intervals of time in which Ree is suspended for five hundred years.
If all the above didn’t make much sense or seem to sum to anything that pretty much describes the book.
There were times when I detected echoes of A Voyage to Arcturus or Solaris – but only faint echoes – however overall Earthchild is an odd piece without really any of the compensations which fiction usually provides. Full of ideas certainly, but fiction needs more than just ideas to be fulfilling.
August 12, 2021
Similar to John Robert Russell’s work, this little novel is bursting at the seams with interesting ideas but it feels completely directionless with them. The pacing is all over the place and the moment you get a handle on what’s happening, there’s a time jump or some other major event that totally scrambles things. Nobody talks like a real human being would and the conversations feel stilted as a result. A lot of people complain about the unsatisfying ending, but I can’t understand that complaint. Sure, there was no buildup to it, but there was no buildup to ANYTHING! It’s 204 pages of just stuff happening. It’s incredibly creative stuff that I doubt I’ll forget any time soon, but it just reads like a collection of great ideas with no cohesive throughline.
I will admit there’s a decent chance that this just isn’t my kind of prose. What it lacked in story, it did make up for in mood. The frustration, depression, and lashing out by the protagonist felt unreasonable and overdramatic, but in a way that is honestly more accurate to being a teenager than most teen fiction.
I will admit there’s a decent chance that this just isn’t my kind of prose. What it lacked in story, it did make up for in mood. The frustration, depression, and lashing out by the protagonist felt unreasonable and overdramatic, but in a way that is honestly more accurate to being a teenager than most teen fiction.
July 2, 2022
not a very satisfying read. quite a lot happens to the heroine, but since she always manages to escape or is rescued, just to encounter the next event, it all felt pointless and inconsequential. indigo and emeroo (the green and blue entities) were interesting concepts. i also thought the post-human earth was original.
April 4, 2025
Picked this up after enjoying a short story by Piserchia in the wonderful collection "The Future is Female! Volume 2." Unfortunately, I had to stop reading this after struggling through the first 100 pages. It was so repetitive, the writing was terrible, and the story was going nowhere. Plus, I lost count of the number of times I thought to myself "I wonder what drugs she was doing when she wrote this?"
April 12, 2023
I dig Piserchia but can understand why she might tire some. Vague suspicions she might have been ADHD. The lady never met a heroic narrative she couldn't deviate from to explore the existential musings of the monster the heroine's supposed to fight. This is mediocre Piserchia but still fun. Repetitive as hell tho.
April 29, 2021
Another strong showing from Piserchia, marred only by its trite happy ending.
July 9, 2021
Summary:
A pretty good entry into the "inexplicable scifi things happen to some benighted soul" genre, along with Son of Man, A Voyage to Arcturus, and Sirens of Titan. Reee, being a chaotic, combative, often petulant teen meshes well with the tumult that her life is. Any bizarre circumstance she can be thrown into, she just has a brief breakdown and gets on with things. She's the only common thread throughout, other than the peripheral presences of Emeroo and Indigo. All other human characters hardly last two chapters, and almost everyone she meets is a parasitic asshole (though one chapter where she was practically putty in the hands of a very pretty blue boy was amusing). Conversations are always of the confrontational or talking past each other types, and usually end with Reee or her interlocutor walking off in a huff. She spends half of her time raging against Emeroo for controlling her life, and the other tearfully begging Emeroo to save her when she gets herself in over her head. All told, a near perfect picture of a young teenager.
We only ever see things through Reee's eyes, so the mysteries of Emeroo and Indigo are opaque to us. We can only discern what Reee herself knows, and the exact motivations for Emeroo's actions are unexplainable (much like any teen feels about their oh-so-stupid parents). The book also has an odd sense of pacing, where it will linger on a scene, then move to the next with as little downtime as possible. Sometimes things that would take half a chapter in another book are dealt with in a line or two. The pacing toward the end starts to get seriously bumpy, even in comparison to the book's baseline, with the last couple of chapters seeming like afterthoughts. Still, a nice jaunty read, so I'll give Piserchia's other material a shot.
A pretty good entry into the "inexplicable scifi things happen to some benighted soul" genre, along with Son of Man, A Voyage to Arcturus, and Sirens of Titan. Reee, being a chaotic, combative, often petulant teen meshes well with the tumult that her life is. Any bizarre circumstance she can be thrown into, she just has a brief breakdown and gets on with things. She's the only common thread throughout, other than the peripheral presences of Emeroo and Indigo. All other human characters hardly last two chapters, and almost everyone she meets is a parasitic asshole (though one chapter where she was practically putty in the hands of a very pretty blue boy was amusing). Conversations are always of the confrontational or talking past each other types, and usually end with Reee or her interlocutor walking off in a huff. She spends half of her time raging against Emeroo for controlling her life, and the other tearfully begging Emeroo to save her when she gets herself in over her head. All told, a near perfect picture of a young teenager.
We only ever see things through Reee's eyes, so the mysteries of Emeroo and Indigo are opaque to us. We can only discern what Reee herself knows, and the exact motivations for Emeroo's actions are unexplainable (much like any teen feels about their oh-so-stupid parents). The book also has an odd sense of pacing, where it will linger on a scene, then move to the next with as little downtime as possible. Sometimes things that would take half a chapter in another book are dealt with in a line or two. The pacing toward the end starts to get seriously bumpy, even in comparison to the book's baseline, with the last couple of chapters seeming like afterthoughts. Still, a nice jaunty read, so I'll give Piserchia's other material a shot.
June 5, 2022
New Wave Sci-Fi was cool and for a short-time it laid the groundwork for a style that was hard to pin down genre-wise, it moved in surprising ways and read like surface pop lit but had deeper winks along the way.
R.A Lafferty is the most well known of these writers, Avram Davidson another, but Doris Piserchia was only really discovered in retrospect and she was the queen of this style.
Earthchild is about the dying and re-birth of the planet earth and this dualist symbology is everywhere.
(A tiny bit similar to Le Guin but not really, but kinda.)
Thos is personified by two seemingly at war organisms, one blue and one green, that have inherited an exhausted environment. Blue eats and destroys everything while Green tries to preserve what is left and safe-guard it for the next generation.
Enter the Earthchild.
I found the plot to be a bit “i do this, then i do that”. Until I read Doris’ biography later and noticed that she had a degree in childhood development. Since then, I think all her plots, at least the ones i’ve read so far, are actually the stages of development.
Her name is Reee (which is kinda puny now because of the meme, especially} in her very impulsive stage) and her first memories were of abandonment, her mother being taken from her and then her subsequent adoption by the perseverer organism. With the nurturing and protection of Green and her hyper-aggressive bird-thingie, the dying earth is Ree’s oyster.
She feels a responsibility to both her mothers to fight the encroaching Blue wherever and however she can and does this mainly by sniffing out and killing Blue Boys.
Until she this quest brings her to stumble upon a human other than herself. This serves as the mystery that puts the plot into action. Ree was the only human left on earth, the earthchild, wasn’t she? Who was lying to her and Why? Where are the other humans? etc.
The other humans in the book are still in a struggle with the natural world, one that is very different from Reee's and in a few different situations you can feel the retribution of the natural world as they themselves become as exhausted as their home-world.
What comes around...
With all these themes going on, Reee has to come to terms with each bit of the mystery that she unravels, and we see her development along the way but mainly her maturing emotionally and psychologically.
This has so few of the usual sci-fi conventions that I’m not sure who it would appeal to. There is little Jack Vance as with most dying-earth but if you like idiosyncratic writers like me, then this will blow you away!
R.A Lafferty is the most well known of these writers, Avram Davidson another, but Doris Piserchia was only really discovered in retrospect and she was the queen of this style.
Earthchild is about the dying and re-birth of the planet earth and this dualist symbology is everywhere.
(A tiny bit similar to Le Guin but not really, but kinda.)
Thos is personified by two seemingly at war organisms, one blue and one green, that have inherited an exhausted environment. Blue eats and destroys everything while Green tries to preserve what is left and safe-guard it for the next generation.
Enter the Earthchild.
I found the plot to be a bit “i do this, then i do that”. Until I read Doris’ biography later and noticed that she had a degree in childhood development. Since then, I think all her plots, at least the ones i’ve read so far, are actually the stages of development.
Her name is Reee (which is kinda puny now because of the meme, especially} in her very impulsive stage) and her first memories were of abandonment, her mother being taken from her and then her subsequent adoption by the perseverer organism. With the nurturing and protection of Green and her hyper-aggressive bird-thingie, the dying earth is Ree’s oyster.
She feels a responsibility to both her mothers to fight the encroaching Blue wherever and however she can and does this mainly by sniffing out and killing Blue Boys.
Until she this quest brings her to stumble upon a human other than herself. This serves as the mystery that puts the plot into action. Ree was the only human left on earth, the earthchild, wasn’t she? Who was lying to her and Why? Where are the other humans? etc.
The other humans in the book are still in a struggle with the natural world, one that is very different from Reee's and in a few different situations you can feel the retribution of the natural world as they themselves become as exhausted as their home-world.
What comes around...
With all these themes going on, Reee has to come to terms with each bit of the mystery that she unravels, and we see her development along the way but mainly her maturing emotionally and psychologically.
This has so few of the usual sci-fi conventions that I’m not sure who it would appeal to. There is little Jack Vance as with most dying-earth but if you like idiosyncratic writers like me, then this will blow you away!
April 4, 2016
Would give it 3.5 stars if possible.
Well. That was...strange.
I'll be honest here, the four stars are largely personal preference. I like this sort of oddball, experimental sci fi with bizarre living landscapes, very ALIEN aliens (or genetically-engineered things?) and ecosystems that remind me of the forest in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. It's probably why I was willing to overlook what is admittedly a haphazard plot that goes all over the place before it abruptly ends (with an AWFUL final chapter) and a main character who seems to swing from belligerent to whiny and self-pitying at the drop of a hat.
Reee really does impress at first, an angry but determined girl who has made it a personal mission to keep Indigo from infiltrating Mars. Unfortunately, an early time skip basically serves to make that moot, and instead we watch her experience different eras of an altered, warped Earth. Reee speaks of wanting freedom, then finds herself lonely and miserable before begging Emeroo to take her back and protect her again. This happens over and over, during which Reee really never matures or learns anything. But maybe that's intentional? Who knows.
The other characters weren't much better. The humans all came across like petulant teenagers. (At least Reee really IS a teenager. What's up with all the adults?) Emeroo remains distant and inscrutable to the end. I did love Indigo, especially when we started seeing more of her vainglorious, petty and yet lonely personality. The parts where she and Reee interacted were some of the best in the book, though like everything else it's resolved in a quick anticlimax.
Anyway, I enjoyed it overall but I would only suggest it to someone who loves very strange sci-fi, as that's the main attraction here.
Well. That was...strange.
I'll be honest here, the four stars are largely personal preference. I like this sort of oddball, experimental sci fi with bizarre living landscapes, very ALIEN aliens (or genetically-engineered things?) and ecosystems that remind me of the forest in Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. It's probably why I was willing to overlook what is admittedly a haphazard plot that goes all over the place before it abruptly ends (with an AWFUL final chapter) and a main character who seems to swing from belligerent to whiny and self-pitying at the drop of a hat.
Reee really does impress at first, an angry but determined girl who has made it a personal mission to keep Indigo from infiltrating Mars. Unfortunately, an early time skip basically serves to make that moot, and instead we watch her experience different eras of an altered, warped Earth. Reee speaks of wanting freedom, then finds herself lonely and miserable before begging Emeroo to take her back and protect her again. This happens over and over, during which Reee really never matures or learns anything. But maybe that's intentional? Who knows.
The other characters weren't much better. The humans all came across like petulant teenagers. (At least Reee really IS a teenager. What's up with all the adults?) Emeroo remains distant and inscrutable to the end. I did love Indigo, especially when we started seeing more of her vainglorious, petty and yet lonely personality. The parts where she and Reee interacted were some of the best in the book, though like everything else it's resolved in a quick anticlimax.
Anyway, I enjoyed it overall but I would only suggest it to someone who loves very strange sci-fi, as that's the main attraction here.
December 11, 2013
One of my favorite sci-fi books! The anime "Nausicaa" reminds me a little of this book...very interesting setting :)
March 11, 2015
1988 grade C+
February 16, 2009
A little-known sci-fi work. I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews