The Disestablishment of Paradise

by Phillip Mann

Overview

Something has gone wrong on the planet of Paradise.

The human settlers - farmers and scientists - are finding that their crops won't grow and their lives are becoming more and more dangerous. The indigenous plant life - never entirely safe - is changing in unpredictable ways, and the imported plantings wither and die. And so the order is given - Paradise will be abandoned. All personnel will be removed and reassigned. And all human presence on the planet will be disestablished.

Not all agree with the decision. There are some who believe that Paradise has more to offer the human race. That the planet is not finished with the intruders, and that the risks of staying are outweighed by the possible rewards. And so the leader of the research team and one of the demolition workers set off on a journey across the planet. Along the way they will encounter the last of the near-mythical Dendron, the vicious Reapers and the deadly Tattersall Weeds as they embark on an adventure which will bring them closer to nature, to each other and, eventually, to Paradise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780575132641
Publisher:	Orion
Publication date:	02/21/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Phillip Mann (1942 - 2022)
Phillip Mann was born in Yorkshire in 1942. he studied English and Drama at Manchester University and later in California. He worked for the New China News Agency in Beijing for two years, but since 1969 has lived principally in New Zealand, where he held the position of Professor of Drama at Victoria University, Wellington, until he retired in 1998. His first novel, The Eye of the Queen was published in 1982 and was followed by seven others including the 'Story of the Gardener' and 'A Land Fit for Heroes' sequences. He has had many plays and stories broadcast on Radio New Zealand, which also adapted his Gardener novels Master of Paxwax and Fall of the Families. He died in September 2022.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/09/2014
Richly textured and warmly resonant, this saga of relationships between humans and aliens is presented through multiple viewpoints that give readers room to both experience exciting action and ponder its consequences. Dr. Hera Melhuish is stationed on the planet Paradise, examining its rejection of plants and animals from Earth. She’s outraged when authorities shut down her project and recall her team of experts, citing increasing danger from the inhospitable planet, and she decides to stay behind and continue her work alone. She is joined by Mack, a construction worker who’d labored to remove traces of humanity from the world; he’s both attracted to Hera and drawn by Paradise’s psychic energy. Willing to see what Paradise truly is, beyond their preconceptions, the two experience peril, wonder, and love. Their direct experiences are put into perspective by a writer’s musings as she tries to turn Hera and Mack’s story into a popular narrative, and made more real by jottings from Paradise’s settlers and scientists. This novel, Mann’s first in 15 years, manages to be simultaneously exciting, romantic, and contemplative—quite a remarkable performance. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly