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Seed Beetle
In a climate changed future, Canada is thought to be a promised land. But in southern Ontario, the promise and the land are exhausted: industrialization has led to widespread destruction, desertification and food insecurity. So when Utopic Robotics promises growth and presents a community with a swarm of automated beetles that will revitalize the land and rebuild utopia, community members rally behind the corporation and its message of hope. But technological solutions often come with secret risks.
This collection of illustrated poems explores those risks inherent in utopia and the idea that through science alone we can solve our environmental problems. Through femme and queer perspectives, Smith lays bare the social implications of a technological savior, and creates a blueprint for co-opting technology in the name of community and connection.
This collection of illustrated poems explores those risks inherent in utopia and the idea that through science alone we can solve our environmental problems. Through femme and queer perspectives, Smith lays bare the social implications of a technological savior, and creates a blueprint for co-opting technology in the name of community and connection.
- GenresPoetryScience Fiction
128 pages, Paperback
Published May 15, 2025
3 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Mahaila Smith
10 books8 followersMahaila Smith (they/them) is a young femme writer, living and working on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Ontario. They are one of the co-editors for The Sprawl Mag. They like learning theory and writing speculative poetry. Their debut chapbook, Claw Machine, was published by Anstruther Press in 2020. Their second chapbook, Water-Kin was published by Metatron Press in 2024. Their novelette in verse, Seed Beetle, is forthcoming with Stelliform Press.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 24, 2025
Brief but powerful collection of narrative poetry.
Severe climate devastation in a farming town brings a large corporation with promises of restoring the land. Corporate overreach leads to unexpected consequences (or success - depending on whose side you’re on).
We are all the things we’ve ever been.
A lineage of becoming and unbecoming
Mahaila Smith writes beautiful poetry, touching on real-world issues in a way I’ve not experienced before. A queer and femme commentary of climate change and late-stage capitalism. Plus, it has robots, oligarchs, community, nature — all wrapped into one story.
Thank you Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Severe climate devastation in a farming town brings a large corporation with promises of restoring the land. Corporate overreach leads to unexpected consequences (or success - depending on whose side you’re on).
We are all the things we’ve ever been.
A lineage of becoming and unbecoming
Mahaila Smith writes beautiful poetry, touching on real-world issues in a way I’ve not experienced before. A queer and femme commentary of climate change and late-stage capitalism. Plus, it has robots, oligarchs, community, nature — all wrapped into one story.
Thank you Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
December 8, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC.
A really cool idea to tell a scifi story about the dangers behind climate change and capitalism, and how we can return to caring for our environment and our community, all told through poetry. Some details got lost, but overall really interesting.
A really cool idea to tell a scifi story about the dangers behind climate change and capitalism, and how we can return to caring for our environment and our community, all told through poetry. Some details got lost, but overall really interesting.
March 27, 2025
Disclosure: I edited this book.
An unflinching poetry collection that uses its form and narrative to stunning effect in examining how bodies and environments are modified for capitalistic ends. Smith's language is always clever, and always lives in the multiplicity of knowledge that the duality of poetry can provide, all while using that duality as metaphor for the cyborg protagonists in their work. Hopeful, but not unrealistic about how art can be a complicated balm to even intergenerational trauma. This is a phenomenal and complex debut.
An unflinching poetry collection that uses its form and narrative to stunning effect in examining how bodies and environments are modified for capitalistic ends. Smith's language is always clever, and always lives in the multiplicity of knowledge that the duality of poetry can provide, all while using that duality as metaphor for the cyborg protagonists in their work. Hopeful, but not unrealistic about how art can be a complicated balm to even intergenerational trauma. This is a phenomenal and complex debut.
July 19, 2025
Thank you so much to Stelliform Press for the gifted copy!
There’s a line early in Seed Beetle that stuck in my chest: “It was never my dream to write precariously close to nothing.” That ache—of trying to make meaning inside collapsing systems—echoes across this hybrid, haunting novella-in-poems by Mahaila Smith, a speculative meditation on climate grief, femme labor, and the dangerous seduction of technological salvation.
Set in a future Ontario scorched by environmental collapse and corporate overreach, Seed Beetle unfolds as a found document: fragments from the lives of Gemma and her daughter Nebula, survivors and storytellers living in the shadow of Utopic Robotics, a company that promises to rebuild the land with mechanized beetles and cortical wellness updates. But behind these glittering “neoservices” is a familiar violence—one that demands women become machine-like, that memory be erased in favor of efficiency. In this world, labor and love become entangled with circuitry, and even acts of resistance leave a trail of data.
Smith’s language is elliptical, sensuous, and unafraid of fragmentation. The poems slip between lyric and archive, bodily tenderness and cybernetic detachment. They write, “You are loved by many information systems,” and it reads both as satire and devastating truth. Yet beneath the text’s disjointed surface thrums something ancient: longing, lineage, land. Through Nebula’s eel studies and Gemma’s slow breakdown, we’re reminded that resilience isn’t always sleek or new—it’s relational, rooted, full of memory.
At its core, Seed Beetle rejects easy narratives of salvation. It mourns what’s been lost and warns against forgetting, but also dares to imagine communities built beside water, beetles returned home, tenderness coded into the soil. It doesn’t answer every question—nor should it. Instead, it offers a quiet, queer blueprint for surviving the end of the world together.
📖 Recommended For: Lovers of speculative eco-poetry, queer resistance, archival storytelling, and readers who don’t mind feeling a little lost on the way to liberation.
🔑 Key Themes: Climate Grief & Corporate Control, Femme Labor & Resistance, Technological Alienation, Ancestry & Ecological Memory.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Fire (minor), Animal Cruelty (minor), Medical Content (minor), Medical Trauma (minor).
There’s a line early in Seed Beetle that stuck in my chest: “It was never my dream to write precariously close to nothing.” That ache—of trying to make meaning inside collapsing systems—echoes across this hybrid, haunting novella-in-poems by Mahaila Smith, a speculative meditation on climate grief, femme labor, and the dangerous seduction of technological salvation.
Set in a future Ontario scorched by environmental collapse and corporate overreach, Seed Beetle unfolds as a found document: fragments from the lives of Gemma and her daughter Nebula, survivors and storytellers living in the shadow of Utopic Robotics, a company that promises to rebuild the land with mechanized beetles and cortical wellness updates. But behind these glittering “neoservices” is a familiar violence—one that demands women become machine-like, that memory be erased in favor of efficiency. In this world, labor and love become entangled with circuitry, and even acts of resistance leave a trail of data.
Smith’s language is elliptical, sensuous, and unafraid of fragmentation. The poems slip between lyric and archive, bodily tenderness and cybernetic detachment. They write, “You are loved by many information systems,” and it reads both as satire and devastating truth. Yet beneath the text’s disjointed surface thrums something ancient: longing, lineage, land. Through Nebula’s eel studies and Gemma’s slow breakdown, we’re reminded that resilience isn’t always sleek or new—it’s relational, rooted, full of memory.
At its core, Seed Beetle rejects easy narratives of salvation. It mourns what’s been lost and warns against forgetting, but also dares to imagine communities built beside water, beetles returned home, tenderness coded into the soil. It doesn’t answer every question—nor should it. Instead, it offers a quiet, queer blueprint for surviving the end of the world together.
📖 Recommended For: Lovers of speculative eco-poetry, queer resistance, archival storytelling, and readers who don’t mind feeling a little lost on the way to liberation.
🔑 Key Themes: Climate Grief & Corporate Control, Femme Labor & Resistance, Technological Alienation, Ancestry & Ecological Memory.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Fire (minor), Animal Cruelty (minor), Medical Content (minor), Medical Trauma (minor).
May 2, 2025
This is a book for readers drawn to liminal forms and layered meanings. For those who appreciate the melancholic surrealism of Severance, the lyrical density of Ocean Vuong, and the urgency of eco-political discourse. Smith’s debut doesn’t just imagine another future, it asks what kinds of futures are still possible, and what it means to care for something fragile when the world is breaking open.
In Seed Beetle, Mahaila Smith delivers a genre defying collection that blends speculative poetry with eco-political urgency. Set in a world unraveling under environmental strain, the text pulses with a quiet tension, lyrical and precise, yet grounded in the physical realities of collapse, resistance, and adaptation.
Told through a nonlinear poetic narrative, the collection traces the life of a single figure navigating the aftermath of unchecked industrial decay, all stitched together to create a mosaic of one person’s struggle and persistence. The speaker’s voice evolves in subtle, deliberate ways, mirroring the broader transformation of both body and land.
Smith’s command of form is striking: the language is dense but never inaccessible, and metaphors are layered with meaning without being opaque. Moments of tenderness are balanced with unease, and the speculative elements are imaginative without ever losing emotional weight. There’s a strong sense of lineage in the work, artistic, political, and ecological, that situates it within a long tradition of radical futurisms while still feeling entirely its own.
This is a bold, intelligent debut that rewards close reading. It doesn’t offer easy answers, but it does offer care, imagination, and a blueprint for how we might think differently about survival and connection in the face of ruin.
Big thank you to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
now everyone please go read this!!
In Seed Beetle, Mahaila Smith delivers a genre defying collection that blends speculative poetry with eco-political urgency. Set in a world unraveling under environmental strain, the text pulses with a quiet tension, lyrical and precise, yet grounded in the physical realities of collapse, resistance, and adaptation.
Told through a nonlinear poetic narrative, the collection traces the life of a single figure navigating the aftermath of unchecked industrial decay, all stitched together to create a mosaic of one person’s struggle and persistence. The speaker’s voice evolves in subtle, deliberate ways, mirroring the broader transformation of both body and land.
Smith’s command of form is striking: the language is dense but never inaccessible, and metaphors are layered with meaning without being opaque. Moments of tenderness are balanced with unease, and the speculative elements are imaginative without ever losing emotional weight. There’s a strong sense of lineage in the work, artistic, political, and ecological, that situates it within a long tradition of radical futurisms while still feeling entirely its own.
This is a bold, intelligent debut that rewards close reading. It doesn’t offer easy answers, but it does offer care, imagination, and a blueprint for how we might think differently about survival and connection in the face of ruin.
Big thank you to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for the ARC!
now everyone please go read this!!
May 22, 2025
Seed Beetle is a story in poems, the writings of main character Nebula Armis in the mid-twenty-first century. It’s an Ontario ravaged by climate change and locally overtaken by the corporate interest Utopic Robotics. This isn’t an implausible near future, which makes the ideas hit close to home.
There is a strong feminine narrative that sets the tone. Part 1, “Gemma,” contains the story of Nebula’s mother, who takes a job on the factory line assembling “seed beetles,” and opts in (under some pressure) to have an implant called the Cortical Update, which is a nanotech colonisation of the human body. The kids playing around the factory-contaminated stream are also colonised.
Smith's use of language is fantastic. In “Hi! I am your Cortical Update!” there’s some humour and excellent word play, and all the while I could feel the thrum of threat: “I hunt down zombies and hide the evidence between daydreams. / I play games guessing your innermost secrets / and reorder them into anagrams.”
Nebula is a scientist and writer, and ultimately works against the corporation. I loved that the seed beetles also had a voice! And it’s not only Earth’s flora and fauna that are at risk, but polar lifeforms on Mars. Perhaps what struck me most about this book was the theme of colonisation. Mothers and children are colonised by technology, the earth is colonised by seed beetles in a way, and life on Mars will be colonised by rich oligarchs.
There’s a satisfying arc to this collection, and a lesson that time is the queen of change and will not be denied. There is both hope and despair in this book, which I think is pretty right on for the truth of the way things are. This “novelette in verse” took me to a sci-fi near future of nanotechnology and a ravaged climate, and I loved the journey.
Thanks to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for a gifted copy.
There is a strong feminine narrative that sets the tone. Part 1, “Gemma,” contains the story of Nebula’s mother, who takes a job on the factory line assembling “seed beetles,” and opts in (under some pressure) to have an implant called the Cortical Update, which is a nanotech colonisation of the human body. The kids playing around the factory-contaminated stream are also colonised.
Smith's use of language is fantastic. In “Hi! I am your Cortical Update!” there’s some humour and excellent word play, and all the while I could feel the thrum of threat: “I hunt down zombies and hide the evidence between daydreams. / I play games guessing your innermost secrets / and reorder them into anagrams.”
Nebula is a scientist and writer, and ultimately works against the corporation. I loved that the seed beetles also had a voice! And it’s not only Earth’s flora and fauna that are at risk, but polar lifeforms on Mars. Perhaps what struck me most about this book was the theme of colonisation. Mothers and children are colonised by technology, the earth is colonised by seed beetles in a way, and life on Mars will be colonised by rich oligarchs.
There’s a satisfying arc to this collection, and a lesson that time is the queen of change and will not be denied. There is both hope and despair in this book, which I think is pretty right on for the truth of the way things are. This “novelette in verse” took me to a sci-fi near future of nanotechnology and a ravaged climate, and I loved the journey.
Thanks to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for a gifted copy.
June 27, 2025
Seed Beetle is the most stunning book of speculative poetry I have ever come across. Over the course of reading it, I have found myself reexamining my own relationship with technology and artificial intelligence, pondering questions such as what I stand to sacrifice for the sake of the conveniences that so-called modern achievements have to offer and what precious aspects of myself are at risk as our Earth plummets towards a future that is manipulated by corporations under the false pretenses of protection, security, and stewardship.
The dire situation that is the premise of these poems is not too far off from reality, and Mahalia Smith challenges their readers to reevaluate the world that they are living in. This poetry is for contemplative readers who enjoy non-linear storytelling. It becomes even more insightful upon additional readings.
I want to also encourage readers of all types to give this collection a try. If you find it hard to follow the narrative, the author includes notes at the end that provide all the details you need in order to reread the poems from a more informed point of view. It is also extremely insightful that Smith provides their inspiration by attributing the work of several writers, artists, and musicians. At the end, Smith provides a wealth of resources to explore if you are inclined (as I was) after reading!
I want to note that I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I am looking forward to reading more work by this talented writer and wouldn't hesitate to purchase anything by them in the future!
The dire situation that is the premise of these poems is not too far off from reality, and Mahalia Smith challenges their readers to reevaluate the world that they are living in. This poetry is for contemplative readers who enjoy non-linear storytelling. It becomes even more insightful upon additional readings.
I want to also encourage readers of all types to give this collection a try. If you find it hard to follow the narrative, the author includes notes at the end that provide all the details you need in order to reread the poems from a more informed point of view. It is also extremely insightful that Smith provides their inspiration by attributing the work of several writers, artists, and musicians. At the end, Smith provides a wealth of resources to explore if you are inclined (as I was) after reading!
I want to note that I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I am looking forward to reading more work by this talented writer and wouldn't hesitate to purchase anything by them in the future!
August 8, 2025
This story-through-poems collection tells of a community experiencing desertification through climate disaster, and the technology brought to and borne by the people. Both the climate disaster and the technological “solution” are uncontrolled variables – at times beautiful and esoteric, at others simply harmful.
I think I enjoyed the Notes section the most, honestly. I found myself wanting this to be a lyrical, fictional narrative instead of the skipping and jostling poetry given. While that atmosphere of disjointed experiences and fracturing narratives absolutely suits the topic, the story underneath became hard for me to find and follow, and I really wanted to invest in the characters and their affected lives and relationships. At times, reading this felt like trying to hold rain.
Having said that, there were moments of poignancy and poetry that hit hard. One of my favorite stanzas: “I do not need to consume/ continually;/ it is a craving turned habit. And one of my favorite poems in the collection was titled, Reviled, with this line: “There is a rivulet/ I actively bottle,/ beneath the formal narrative.” This is probably a collection enjoyed most as a re-read with contemplation and even as a book club, and possibly best in a print version—but I always feel that way about reading poetry.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for an e-arc in return for an honest review.
I think I enjoyed the Notes section the most, honestly. I found myself wanting this to be a lyrical, fictional narrative instead of the skipping and jostling poetry given. While that atmosphere of disjointed experiences and fracturing narratives absolutely suits the topic, the story underneath became hard for me to find and follow, and I really wanted to invest in the characters and their affected lives and relationships. At times, reading this felt like trying to hold rain.
Having said that, there were moments of poignancy and poetry that hit hard. One of my favorite stanzas: “I do not need to consume/ continually;/ it is a craving turned habit. And one of my favorite poems in the collection was titled, Reviled, with this line: “There is a rivulet/ I actively bottle,/ beneath the formal narrative.” This is probably a collection enjoyed most as a re-read with contemplation and even as a book club, and possibly best in a print version—but I always feel that way about reading poetry.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for an e-arc in return for an honest review.
April 3, 2025
Mahalia Smith’s Seed Beetle toes the line between poetry, academia, and novella in verse. Crafting a unique – but not that far from our own – future of climate devastation, Smith’s characters work through forgotten history, corporate overreach, and uninhabitable lands through community, family, and, yes, poetry.
I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into this strange world and was intentionally unsettled by its parallels to our own. The foreword does an excellent job setting the stage of both this dystopia and its characters. Framed chronologically as the lifetime experiences of one particular activist, it covers a range of social and personal events and their resolutions. The tone of the poems changes appropriately throughout these phases too, each section bearing its own particular flavor and style.
The seed beetles, their concept, and their personification were one of my favorite parts of this book, as was the first section about one of Nebula’s mother’s experiences working with the beetles. I have a fondness for sci-fi poetry, and this collection blends a cool idea with a positive message of hope, humanity, and restoration.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into this strange world and was intentionally unsettled by its parallels to our own. The foreword does an excellent job setting the stage of both this dystopia and its characters. Framed chronologically as the lifetime experiences of one particular activist, it covers a range of social and personal events and their resolutions. The tone of the poems changes appropriately throughout these phases too, each section bearing its own particular flavor and style.
The seed beetles, their concept, and their personification were one of my favorite parts of this book, as was the first section about one of Nebula’s mother’s experiences working with the beetles. I have a fondness for sci-fi poetry, and this collection blends a cool idea with a positive message of hope, humanity, and restoration.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
May 28, 2025
I requested and received this book from BookSirens. My opinions are my own.
This poetry collection packs a massive punch. I highly recommend reading it. Be warned though, there are many moments in this book that are enraging. Moments that parallel things that have happened and continue to happen in real life.
I want to say I never thought I'd become emotionally attached to robotic beetles, but I did. It is so easy to love the characters in these poems. They are just like us: angry, overworked, lonely and scared but somehow still hopeful.
The way Mahaila Smith writes inspires me. I hope the read more soon.
This poetry collection packs a massive punch. I highly recommend reading it. Be warned though, there are many moments in this book that are enraging. Moments that parallel things that have happened and continue to happen in real life.
I want to say I never thought I'd become emotionally attached to robotic beetles, but I did. It is so easy to love the characters in these poems. They are just like us: angry, overworked, lonely and scared but somehow still hopeful.
The way Mahaila Smith writes inspires me. I hope the read more soon.
April 15, 2025
Thank you to Stelliform Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A collection of poetry exploring a climate- changed future and the dangers of destructive industrialisation.
I enjoyed how the poems linked together to form a narrative of sorts, and they were beautifully written.
In the author's notes they mentioned that they were inspired by the future that Octavia E Butler imagines in the excellent Parable of the Sower, and I could definitely see its influence here.
All in all, this was a welcome surprise.
A collection of poetry exploring a climate- changed future and the dangers of destructive industrialisation.
I enjoyed how the poems linked together to form a narrative of sorts, and they were beautifully written.
In the author's notes they mentioned that they were inspired by the future that Octavia E Butler imagines in the excellent Parable of the Sower, and I could definitely see its influence here.
All in all, this was a welcome surprise.
April 24, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for providing me this ARC!
An intricate, beautiful story with prose that takes place in the future. I enjoyed exploring this world so much and felt so connected to the characters. Some of these pieces made me cry and I love how Mahalia has this characters connect to the outside world.
This was a quick read, and really great for anyone who likes science fiction and poetry!
An intricate, beautiful story with prose that takes place in the future. I enjoyed exploring this world so much and felt so connected to the characters. Some of these pieces made me cry and I love how Mahalia has this characters connect to the outside world.
This was a quick read, and really great for anyone who likes science fiction and poetry!
June 1, 2025
Though I am not one to normally read poetry, the illustrated cover for Seed Beetle by Mahaila Smith grabbed my attention right away, and then I couldn’t get the synopsis out of my head. I read this collection of poems in between re-listening to audiobooks of Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries, and they paired well together. I’m looking foreword to reading more of Mahaila Smith’s work. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
September 11, 2025
What a mind-tickle this collection turned out to be. These words inspire, unsettle, and IGNITE. I WILL be returning to use this as kindling to keep my own writing alive. These are pearls worth sitting with. Rake them over the coals of your mind, and watch the smoke rise as you take up “The Invitation to Burn.”
Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a different spin on the dystopian lit/poetry. 🤯
I’m now a fan of Smith and look forward to more of their work!
Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a different spin on the dystopian lit/poetry. 🤯
I’m now a fan of Smith and look forward to more of their work!
April 14, 2025
Seed Beetle by Mahailia Smith is a captivating and thought-provoking work that combines rich world-building with an intriguing storyline. The premise is unique, offering a fresh take on themes of nature, survival, and the consequences of human intervention. Smith does an excellent job of creating a vivid world that feels both strange and familiar, drawing you into its complexities.
While there were a few moments where I felt the plot could have been explored more deeply, overall, Seed Beetle is a strong, thought-provoking read. It’s a great choice for fans of speculative fiction who enjoy stories that challenge the status quo. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Mahailia Smith does next
Thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC.
While there were a few moments where I felt the plot could have been explored more deeply, overall, Seed Beetle is a strong, thought-provoking read. It’s a great choice for fans of speculative fiction who enjoy stories that challenge the status quo. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Mahailia Smith does next
Thanks to NetGalley and Stelliform Press for the ARC.
Read
April 15, 2025Arc review.
This was not it for me.
I did not understand much, if I'm fair..
I think it could be an amazing poetry book.
But I did not feel connected to most of these.
Which is okay! Everyone's taste is different.
Please give this a try.
Thank you to everyone involved for the arc!
This was not it for me.
I did not understand much, if I'm fair..
I think it could be an amazing poetry book.
But I did not feel connected to most of these.
Which is okay! Everyone's taste is different.
Please give this a try.
Thank you to everyone involved for the arc!
April 19, 2025
Brief and beautiful speculative sci-fi narrative poetry of the not-so-distant future. Enjoyed how the themes of connections were explored with multiple narrators. Wish it were a little longer, but it ended on a wholesome and hopeful note. Considering that it was bordering onto dystopian, it's a whimsical turn that I appreciated. Hope to read more from Smith.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
May 30, 2025
Excellent read! Seed Beetle is a thoughtful, intelligent, and emotional look at important topics affecting our real lives told through a fictional lens.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 2, 2025
So entirely unique - I enjoyed both the narrative, and the poems - the progression in the story through the work. I was delighted to see something presented in a different way then I'm used to.
This little book has stuck with me months later.
This little book has stuck with me months later.
April 9, 2025
So incredible. I'm speechless.
A NetGalley ARC review
A NetGalley ARC review
April 18, 2025
This collection of poetry was such a great surprise! The way it touched on climate in such a poetic beautiful way kept me wanting to read through this collection as quickly as I could!
May 28, 2025
Mind blown.
May 14, 2025
Seed Beetle de Mahaila Smith parte de una idea interesante: un futuro marcado por la devastación climática, el avance corporativo y una comunidad que intenta resistir. Pero lamentablemente, la ejecución no me terminó de convencer.
La estructura en forma de poesía narrativa prometía algo original, pero me costó conectar con el estilo. Muchos poemas se sienten más académicos que emocionales, y aunque hay destellos de belleza, la lectura me resultó distante, casi fría. El intento de mezclar ciencia ficción, activismo y lírica es ambicioso, pero no siempre logra sostener el equilibrio entre lo conceptual y lo narrativo.
Los temas —capitalismo tardío, cambio climático, identidad queer— son relevantes y valiosos, pero sentí que la forma en que se abordan no terminó de profundizar ni emocionar. Me hubiera gustado ver un desarrollo más claro de los personajes y una conexión más fuerte entre los distintos fragmentos.
En resumen, Seed Beetle tiene buenas intenciones y momentos destacables, pero como experiencia de lectura, me dejó bastante indiferente.
La estructura en forma de poesía narrativa prometía algo original, pero me costó conectar con el estilo. Muchos poemas se sienten más académicos que emocionales, y aunque hay destellos de belleza, la lectura me resultó distante, casi fría. El intento de mezclar ciencia ficción, activismo y lírica es ambicioso, pero no siempre logra sostener el equilibrio entre lo conceptual y lo narrativo.
Los temas —capitalismo tardío, cambio climático, identidad queer— son relevantes y valiosos, pero sentí que la forma en que se abordan no terminó de profundizar ni emocionar. Me hubiera gustado ver un desarrollo más claro de los personajes y una conexión más fuerte entre los distintos fragmentos.
En resumen, Seed Beetle tiene buenas intenciones y momentos destacables, pero como experiencia de lectura, me dejó bastante indiferente.
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August 3, 2025I galloped through this, hooked by Smith's characters and imagined future. The foreword of the book is dated 2102 and purports to be an introduction to poems by Nebula Armis. Then the main text consists of said poems by the fictional Nebula Armis. These collectively paint the science fiction future inhabited by Nebula's mother and Nebula herself. It's a world of severe climate change and invasive cortical updates. The eponymous seed beetles (which I loved) are giant robotic beetles designed to rehabilitate land after desertification.
The narrative whirled me along. I went too fast to think about the poems *as* poems -- whether they were lyrical, the word choices, et al. I found them easy to read, fascinating, inventive, often dark, sometimes very moving. I love the sideways glimpse they offer of this imaginary future. I love that the bleakness of environmental woes and corporate misdeeds is balanced by sympathetic characters and a community coming together. Plus, as mentioned already, I love the seed beetles.
The one place I stumbled is in the last lines of the last poem, where I thought the author might be pointing at a meaning that eluded me. The wording is pretty, but I didn't glean any particular significance from it.
Update: 8/3/2025. Re-read this. Very good. I love the layers of fiction (poems written by Nebula, a fictional woman living in an SF future, poems in which she sometimes imagines herself as her mother or a seed beetle). The worldbuilding -- which is excellent -- is seen slantwise though Nebula's poems. Severe dystopic elements are mingled with humanity, tenderness, and the fantastic seed beetles.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit an overall star rating.
The narrative whirled me along. I went too fast to think about the poems *as* poems -- whether they were lyrical, the word choices, et al. I found them easy to read, fascinating, inventive, often dark, sometimes very moving. I love the sideways glimpse they offer of this imaginary future. I love that the bleakness of environmental woes and corporate misdeeds is balanced by sympathetic characters and a community coming together. Plus, as mentioned already, I love the seed beetles.
The one place I stumbled is in the last lines of the last poem, where I thought the author might be pointing at a meaning that eluded me. The wording is pretty, but I didn't glean any particular significance from it.
Update: 8/3/2025. Re-read this. Very good. I love the layers of fiction (poems written by Nebula, a fictional woman living in an SF future, poems in which she sometimes imagines herself as her mother or a seed beetle). The worldbuilding -- which is excellent -- is seen slantwise though Nebula's poems. Severe dystopic elements are mingled with humanity, tenderness, and the fantastic seed beetles.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. In the case of poetry books, for various reasons, I often omit an overall star rating.
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