Phytosphere

by Scott Mackay

After settlement negotiations between humanity and the alien Tarsalans go horribly wrong, the Earth is engulfed in a mysterious green sphere-blocking all sunlight from reaching the surface. Only two scientists-one isolated on the Moon's lunar colony, the other trapped on a dying Earth-possess the minds and the means to destroy the sphere before it renders the world completely barren...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 5, 2007

About the author

Award-winning author Scott Mackay has over thirty-five published short stories to his credit and four novels: OUTPOST, THE MEEK, A FRIEND IN BARCELONA and COLD COMFORT, which was nominated for the 1999 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. He lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Daniel Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summary on the back of Phytosphere makes it a very compelling novel: what if aliens bent on destroying the Earth encapsulated it in a sphere that blocked out the Sun and gradually killed off all plant life on Earth? Add to it that the novel promised compelling characterization, and it feels like you might have another Spin on your hands.

Well, not quite. As it stands, comparing Scott Mackay to Robert Charles Wilson is unfair. To be frank, Mackay’s writing and characterization are not on par with Wilson’s. Ultimately, I was able to appreciate the novel once I got over comparing it to Wilson’s works, and it did offer up some strong pulse-pounding moments.

Phytosphere follows the lives of Gerry, his wife Glenda, and his brother Neil, as they come to grips with the Sun-blocking sphere deployed around the Earth. The novel starts on a weird note, as when the green material starts to be deployed, nobody in the novel is panicking about it. They’re all just looking at this insane astronomical turn of events as if it were a mere distraction, and go on about their personal lives. This is a maddening start to the novel that does disservice to its fantastic premise. It also served to render the main characters unsympathetic for caring more about their recovery from alcoholism, for instance, than about the imminent threat to Earth.

None of the characters in the novel start out sympathetic, but they do build up to it over the course of the story. Glenda, for instance, is plunged into the thick of the chaos that soon takes over Earth, and puts up a brave and desperate fight to protect her two children from hunger; the resulting trials end up changing her and her children in gut-wrenching ways. Neil, a brilliant physicist, is so arrogant as to think he can solve the Phytosphere problem in a matter of days; his fall from grace and ultimate realization of his misplaced confidence is tragic and terrifying.

But then there’s Gerry. Gerry is the “Designated Hero” of the novel; that is, he’s the good guy only because the writer wants us to think so. He’s a recovering alcoholic who fled to the Moon when his wedding started to fall apart, and the narrative telegraphs to us very early on that he will be the one to sort out this nasty mess. Only problem is, Gerry is on the Moon, and so is very far away from the chaos and the destruction. He spends his time fighting for the Moon to grant him resources, while giving very little thought about the fact his wife is down on Earth shooting neighbors to protect her dwindling food supply. Gerry whines that nobody listens to him, and yet, he does so little and is so uninspiring that you can’t blame the others for losing faith in him. And while his brother is trying to protect his family, he’s busy turning down the advances of a cute showgirl. See what he has to put up with?

If the story had only been about Glenda and Neil trying to survive in the chaos of the world, the story could have maintained a lot more traction. But it’s frustrating to know they are only there to hold out long enough for Gerry to figure it all out. His slow pace means at least half the Earth’s population dies, but hey, he still gets the hero’s welcome anyway.

Gerry is the product of the aforementioned inferior characterization. Many attempts are made to make Gerry the Designated Hero (he’s a recovering alcoholic, he loves his wife, he’s grown up in the shadow of his brother), and Neil the villain (he’s too sure of himself, he’s the one who won the Novel Prize.) There’s even moments that are infuriating in the way they go about doing this: in one instance, Neil thinks up a very clever way of delivering a virus to the Phytosphere; but rather than give him an ounce of intelligence, the writer prefered to have him figure it out using a “game theory” program, and have him claim the credit. Ultimately, the novel would have felt much stronger if the characters had simply been given a chance to be themselves, and not serve as protagonist and antagonist in some sort of moral fable.

Phytosphere is still a cool SF novel, and the tale of Glenda is ultimately pretty satisfying. The aliens are interesting in that they’re depicted as technologically superior, but having the crippling fault of being unable to comprehend basic human traits. The overall story is satisfying and compelling, but it could have clearly been much, much more, based on the strength of its premise.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, there's good science fiction, which is obviously nice to read, and there's bad science fiction, which ironically can also be very entertaining, but then there's mediocre science fiction.

Mediocre science fiction is the worst.

This book is a prime example of mediocre science fiction.

Aliens have made contact with Earth and want to immigrate here. After years of negotiations they have not yet been offered what they think are suitable terms for their immigration, so they deploy this "shroud" that covers the Earth, blocking out the sun, killing all the plants, and basically causing the Apocalypse. Two scientists- brothers with a lifelong rivalry (one is a successful and powerful adviser to the President, the other is a drunk) struggle to get rid of the shroud and save humanity.

Well, ok, that's...only mildly interesting.

But that's not even half the problem. It's just that this is, in general, not a very good book. The exposition is clunky and the dialogue is.... oh my. The dialogue.

Here is the only line of dialogue you really need to hear from this book:

"Kids, Aunt Louise is dead. Just so you know."

I did a spit take at that one. Just so you know! FYI lol but srsly she's ded.

Most importantly, the scientists behave nothing like scientists. They are confronted with a brand new phenomenon that no one knows nothing about and they all go around all day going "Let's try this, I am 100% positive it will work" and then the other one responds with "I am equally positive it won't work." Uh, has this author ever even taken high school chemistry? That is emphatically not how scientists, even really bad ones, behave.

Also, why is it that science fiction authors always manage to write books that technologically take place 300 years in the future but socially take place 3 decades in the past? The only women in this book are housewives and showgirls. (No really, showgirls. With bizarre cosmetic alterations like in The Hunger Games. Her skin is blue or something. I forget, because I really, really didn't care.) Also, there's a gay character who stays in the closet until 3/4 of the way through the book, because apparently society's acceptance of homosexuality will actually regress over the coming centuries.

But hey, the book was free at a library bag sale, so I'm not complaining. (And now I know why.) Just warning the rest of you.

[steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent enough science fiction story, if eminently predictable. World gets covered up by a living, floating fungus, and the biosphere begins to collapse as the greenhouse effect goes spiraling out of control.

And, of course, there are the two brothers -- one a respectable self-assured genius who has the ear of the President, and the other the humble no-account scientist with some wild and crazy ideas. Go ahead, guess who saves the day.

A lot of pages are dedicated to showing how much the people on Earth are affected by the environmental (and thus societal) decay. Probably some sort of anvilicious Aesop, but I wasn't paying much attention. I preferred the bits where the two brothers would bump heads trying to figure out how to bring the phytosphere down.

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise in the back of the book seems intriguing. Aliens using a blanket of shroud to bring darkness to earth.

Things I liked about this book:
-Strong female characters. Glenda actually turned out to be a strong character at the end, and the showgirl Stephanie was actually either smart or provide an outsider perspective, while able to have connections of her own.

-Mitch turned out to be gay and have a partner on earth? moon? but too bad he died heroically. (no happy ending sigh)

While I did enjoyed the read of apocalypse and alien invasion (or refugee?) of an alien species who seems to be smart and have upper hand all the time, the ending felt like.... it could be a bit more fulfilling on other characters to me. Yes, Gerry was the main character, but i invested time to learn about how the moon colony worked too, and other characters who contributed to the plot. what happened to mitch's partner who only had a geography on Gaspra that they named after? What did Stephanie feel about Ian? What about the mayor on the moon?

I don't read enough apocalyptic sci fi to get a good taste yet but 4 star for now~

(ok the rest might be a bit more negligible.)

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dual brained visiting alien species requests immigration rights to earth using a mixture of diplomacy with the promise of superior technology and finally surrounding earth with a terrible weapon. Not surprisingly the American politicians are not too keen on immigrants so at first favour concessions but one plucky overlooked scientist decides paranoia and pure scientific method may defeat them.
As society panics over food security and the default world of Lord of the flies rears its inevitable head Armageddon ensues.

A fascinating descent into the horror lurking a few days off in modern society I was left wondering if current ecological and climatic crises were couched in these terms in 2023, could humanity come to its senses in time to save the earth, instead of breeding itself into extinction by inertial apathy and frivolous displacement activities.

The science is fairly nuts, the effect of the weapon deployed would probably have rapidly reduced our population to 20% of current levels and wiped out most animals plants and insects !

[Brian Gaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book on an alien encounter which goes bad. A good read.

[Sensitivemuse · Rating 4 out of 5]

These kinds of books never cease to amaze me. Maybe because I’m into bleak books and the struggle to survival is something I look to enjoy for an entertaining read. Although, sometimes I get these types of books and read them so that I can learn to appreciate what’s around me more and to not take things for granted all the time (in other words, so I can learn how to count my blessings once in a while). You certainly feel this way when you read through Phytosphere. Naturally of course, this is something that’s virtually impossible to picture happening to us (although, you’ll never know!). Yet the lessons are still noted and although not fully learned, you do feel as if you need to appreciate something, or someone to feel good after reading this book.

It’s pretty bleak. Especially with Glenda and her kids. The moments where she confronts the ‘policemen’ are especially chilling and very realistic. I cannot quite picture how I would deal with this situation myself, but Glenda proves to be strong and manages to keep it together with her children. It’s admirable and although the kids play cliched roles, the story arc involving them and Glenda provides a good read. You can also feel the frustration and helplessness of Gerry as he’s millions of miles away (literally) and his much more ‘smarter’ and more successful brother undermines Gerry’s ideas, refuses to listen to him and persuades others to ignore them. It’s a little obvious to the reader what might befall Neil (Gerry’s brother) in the end, but you can’t help but feel that certain satisfaction when it does happen.

There are quite a number of thrilling action moments, which makes the reading of this book go faster and more exciting. I would have to say, although the majority of the plot is very good and I had fun reading it, it just sounds too cliche and could make for a cheesy sci fi flick shown on television. Also, although there was a good description on the Tarsalans and their behavior I wanted to know more about them. There wasn’t much information except they wanted access to Earth and have been negotiating with regards to immigration. There’s a bit of information given here and there throughout the novel but it still doesn’t feel like a complete explanation. Unless there’s a book that precedes the events before Phytosphere (which I am not aware of, and if there is one, please let me know) it feels as if there’s information lacking and you’re left with a tidbit of information on the aliens when there should have been more offered to round out the story a bit more.

A cliche storyline, with its thrilling moments, and its bleak moments. A few holes in the plot, however with all of this, the book is still worth a read. Do give this a try. It’s worth it, just for an entertaining read.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phytosphere is a tale of alien invasion and postapocalyptic survival in the distant future. And, why yes, it is a good combination.

When negotiations for immigration rights fail, the alien Tarsalans surround the Earth with a mysterious green, light-blocking shroud, dubbed the phytosphere. The Tarsalans consider the phytosphere a teaching tool, while Earth considers it a declaration of war. The action follows the Thorndike brothers, Gerry and Neil, as they try to discover a way to eliminate the phytosphere. Gerry is on the moon when the Phytosphere is put into place while Neil is on the Earth. Also stuck on the Earth is Gerry's family, wife Glenda and their two children.

The group on the moon trying to discover a way to eliminate the phytosphere follows Gerry's leadership at first, while on the Earth, Neil, Gerry's arrogant brother and scientific advisor to the president, summarily discounts any information that comes from the moon, believing he is the only one who could possibly discover a solution. The back and forth debate on how to destroy the phytosphere between the brothers could have easily become boring but Mackay keeps the story moving along by following Glenda and her children's harrowing tale of survival amidst chaos as society breaks down. Glenda's story really is the more compelling one until the end, and it creates some real tension and a sense urgency for one of the brother's to discover a solution.

Personally, I appreciated the hard science fiction elements along with the postapocalyptic tale. Mackay expertly wove the stories of the various characters together. The main characters were well developed and the suspense kept building right up to the end. (While I could get nit-picky over a few minor details, following my suggestions wouldn't have made the story any better.)
Highly Recommended; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is five hundred years in the future. Humankind has expanded into the solar system, building colonies on the moon, Mars and elsewhere. But along with human expansion, others outside our system are also growing. And they want Earth.

The alien Tarsalans at first, negotiated with humans for Earth, but that didn’t work. So they decided on passive aggression and a dark green shroud enveloped Earth, killing plant life. Chaos erupts and food becomes scarce. There are only two scientists who may be able to help. One has the ear of the President. He is brilliant, rich, and charismatic. The other, his brother, though also brilliant, is a down-on-his-luck recovering alcoholic. Which one would you put your faith in?

Mr. Mackay has written a thought-provoking, entertaining tale. While I was reading, I kept seeing scenes from various movies in my mind – Armageddon, any “disaster-of-the-week” film, Terminator, Independence Day, and several others. This is not a bad thing since I enjoyed all these movies, as I did this book. It just pointed out similarities between some scenes and characters and ones I had already come to like. There was action, chaos, adventure, desperate measure being taken, and a kick-ass soccer mom who shows everyone how to be strong and what a woman will do to protect her family.

Mackay’s world building is perfect, his characters believable and his story-telling entertaining. If you like hard science fiction, this is definitely one to add to your library.

[Eric Johannson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story idea had more potential than was realized in the writing. In the end, the aliens (who were >supposed< to be so very smart) turned out to be one-trick ponies & all the positive (aka save-the-humans) events that occurred did so because they were brought about by humans.
Most of the characters in the book seem to have learning disabilities...as in they had trouble learning from experience.
All in all, I was excited with what could have been written and was disappointed with what actually was.

[Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome! It was also kind of a time sink because I could not put it down. This book has everything, futuristic premise, original end of the world ideas, emotional impact, a story that clips along at the right pace, well-rounded characters and suspense. Mr. Mackay is a great writer and I may be on the lookout for more of his stories.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good science fiction novel, with an interesting story. The characters are a bit cardboardy, but there are some reversed and switched cliches in the tale that make you not mind so much. The ultimate resolution is a bit far-fetched, but this book brings to mind some of the fun sci-fi of the fifties to seventies.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting thoughts on what happens when the sun disappears for a long time, and how the world would collapse. Kind of Independence Day-ish, but still entertaining.

[Bucky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting cross of sci fi and survivalists. I highly recommend it to people who like sci fi and think they don't have an interest in survivalists. Good story and characters.

[Justanotherbiblophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars, only for interesting premise and some fillips. Character actions/decisions/characterization, on micro and macro scale were unrealistic. Dialogue sucked, etc.

[Adwhite · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good sci-fi end of the world book.