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Song of Scarabaeus Mass Market Paperback – Bargain Price, April 27, 2010

by Sara Creasy (Author)

4.1 142 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Scarabaeus

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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“A powerful debut….Gripping characterization, non-stop action, fascinating biological speculation, and a dash of romance. Don’t miss it!”
—Linnea Sinclair

Remember the name: Sara Creasy. With Song of Scarabaeus she takes her place alongside Ann Aguirre and Linnea Sinclair, staking her claim as one of the most exciting new writers currently rocketing across the science fiction universe. Seamlessly blending action, romance, intrigue, technology, and a tough, complex, and unforgettable heroine in the vein of Elizabeth Moon, Creasyboldly goes where few have traveled before. No wonder author Vonda N. McIntyre declares that “Sara Creasy is a new writer to watch, and Song of Scarabaeus is a novel to read and enjoy.”

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This brilliantly conceived debut heralds a significant new talent. The secretive interstellar government called the Crib unleashed its biocyph terraforming technology on the planet Scarabaeus, but something went very wrong. Only sensitive, talented Edie Sha'nim, an orphan raised by the Crib and taught to program biocyph seeds, knows what happened. Rebel Fringe colonies, determined to escape the Crib's clutches, send freedom fighters to kidnap Edie, telepathically link her to handsome thug Finn, and promise her liberty if she shows them how to prevent the biocyph seeds' annual deactivation. Edie wants to trust Finn and help the rebels, but she doesn't dare explain her part in Scarabaeus's transformation into a planet of horrifying death. Creasy's convincing scientific speculation, appealing characterizations, and eerie alien landscapes make this science fiction romance deeply satisfying. (May)
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“This brilliantly conceived debut heralds a significant new talent....Creasy’s convincing scientific speculation, appealing characterizations, and eerie alien landscapes make this science fiction romance deeply satisfying.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

“Traditionally, readers of fantasy are looking for well-developed characters while SF fans want plot and action. Song of Scarabaeus definitely has both going for it.” (Robin Hobb )

“The tension never lets up, both in the action and between the characters, from the first page to the last.” (Trudi Canavan, New York Times bestselling author )

“A powerful debut…gripping characterization, non-stop action, fascinating biological speculation, and a dash of romance. Don’t miss it!” (Linnea Sinclair )

“A writer to watch. … The biological speculation rings with truth and possibility, the terraforming-gone-wrong creates an environment of delicious creepiness, and Creasy’s imaginatively-constructed universe draws the reader in.” (Vonda N. McIntyre )

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00A1ACLGK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (April 27, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.19 x 0.92 x 6.75 inches

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4.1 142 ratings

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Sara Creasy

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Sara Creasy grew up in a tumbling-down Victorian house in the Midlands, UK, tapping out her first stories on a tiny blue typewriter. After moving to Melbourne as a teenager, her love of all things fantastical hooked her on escapist drama. Then she grew up—but she still plays with words.

The Wynter Wild series, starting with Little Sister Song (2019), is a bittersweet family drama for adult readers, featuring musical siblings from bad beginnings who are navigating together through unanticipated life changes, revived family secrets, and the many meanings of love.

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Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2014

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The Nitty Gritty: Technically speaking the book was well written for the most part. I only caught one typo—otherwise the narrative was clean, easy to follow, and moved along at a decent pace. There weren’t any noticeable grammar errors or huge plot holes, and to be honest, I enjoyed it tremendously.

I will admit, the beginning was a little hard to get into. Great world building—but hard to sink into. A lot of technical jargon was being thrown about with little explanation of what it actually meant, and for the first few minutes I slogged through the pages trying to piece together what was going on. Once I got past that, things moved along quite well. I really enjoyed how Edie’s talent with biocyph translated out almost as lines of music that she had to move around and compose as a way of hacking through the code. It made the technology seem more organic and beautiful than most coding sessions you read about in science fiction—and certainly easier to visualize.

The characters were well-written and with the exception of Haller (who I hated with a passion) and Cat (who I didn’t trust for some reason), they were easy to fall in love with. The chemistry and dynamic between Edie and Finn was amazing. Their conversations were filled with tension and an underlying sexual frustration that made their relationship work well.

The world building was rich, and once past the initial jargon-slog, was relatively easy to sink into. I liked that the story was told on a variety of stages—markets, ship interiors, decimated planets… it was nice to get to see so much of the world Ms. Creasy had imagined. These days it seems like a lot of books tend to be a little more insular, with characters confined into one or two locations throughout the book, and it was a welcome change.

I don’t want to give too much away about this book because it was such a wonderful read, but I will say that it was a beautiful story, filled with fantastic characters, and in a way, it was also a bit of a tragedy. My heart broke for Edie when they arrived on Scarabaeus. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Science Fiction adventure tales with a twist of romance. It was an excellent read, and I’ll certainly be going on to read the next book in the series.

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2015

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I decided to do the unusual and review two novels with one review. I do this out of necessity, as I read Song of Scarabaeus and Children of Scarabaeus in succession — this resulted with the two novels becoming one consistent novel in my head. I am pleased that I did not skip over this series after Amazon recommended the first book.

The author, Sara Crease, crafted a unique future which inspired my imagination. I was taken with the concept of Biocyph and found the overall idea quite clever. The story was delivered with skillful precision and managed to keep my focus – a heroic feat. I could have done without the romantic entanglements but I feel that others who like a little mush would quite happily enjoy these sections. I chose to skim over them. The weakest element in the story is the mixed messaging, but this did not hinder my enjoyment. The universe in the novels was filled with strong characters, each multidimensional and provoking.

I am always delighted to discover new stories which foster my imagination. Ms. Creasy established a future with fascinating concepts, like the aforementioned Biocyph. Biocyph is a form of programmable living matter, which brought a new level to typical programming concepts. I appreciated how the protagonist envisioned the programming as musical symphonies – her programming style was to keep the program in harmony. An outstanding accomplishment for Ms. Creasy is her method of presenting key pieces of exposition without overloading my senses. Important information was given in small pieces throughout the series, which came together like a jigsaw puzzle to create an elaborate picture. This was a contributor in holding onto my slippery attention.

Any author who can keep my focus, as Ms. Creasy accomplished with Scarabaeus, deserves a medal. The pacing throughout the novels was superb. The author kept tension throughout each scene in various forms. It could be personal tension, or character related drama, or high-octane action – each given an appropriate amount of time and never overstaying its welcome. I am begrudged to admit this also includes the romance sprinkled throughout each novel. I will say this about the romance, Ms. Creasy made it difficult for the protagonist and her lover to get to the romance done. It was a humorous twist on the normal romantic tension in traditional stories.

The underlying theme in the novels ended up being a tangled mess. An explicit concept presented is the ability to choose rather than have a large unfeeling government make the choices. This was not supported very well by the actions of the protagonist. She made several important choices for others without their consultation. She even made a choice that will impact billions of people without seeking their consent (in her defense, it was a time sensitive choice). I did discover an emergent theme asking if it were possible for individual identity within a collective, which would have been fascinating if there were more story elements exploring the concept. Ultimately the messaging did not impact my enjoyment of the two novels.

Now to cover my favorite part – the characters. Edie, the protagonist, is a strong female character who underwent significant character growth. I found her to be a pragmatic sensible person with a large heart. It was nice to see her discover that not everything in the world was as she thought. Finn, the second most important character, was a nice complement to Edie. I really liked his character arc – going from a savage prisoner to regaining his humanity and dignity. There are too many characters to cover in this review but every character, in both novels, exhibited realistic motivations. These motivations helped ground them as actual humans despite being fictional characters in a novel.

Sarah Creasy devised an excellent science fiction universe, populated with interesting characters and imaginative concepts. The excellent pacing kept my focus through two novels. At the conclusion of the overall story I was fairly satisfied. A strong theme could have transcended the overall story from an enjoyable space romp to a more elevated form of science fiction. In the end both novels proved an exciting science fiction adventure which should not be missed.

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Dimple

I lovely sci-fi space saga with biotechnology

Reviewed in India on January 14, 2019

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I read quite a few reviews on Amazon before I finally paid for this book because this is not a very well-known author of the book did not come overall cheap.
I'll start by recommending the book, I have given it five stars not because it is the best book I've ever read but because there is not much that I can criticise about it. There is the largest techno babble which I think perhaps could have been reduced but it is fairly simple to understand and definitely adds to the newness and uniqueness.
As per the main characters whose story we were to follow where male and female I thought that they would end up being a couple and they would be romance in this book. There is hints of it but it is not the main focus of the story.
We follow EV and Finn, but the point of you is hers alone.
This really is her story, and at times you wish it would expand a little bit tomorrow of the ship. As you continue reading the book which is approximately 35 characters Long, I see it gave us time to acclimatise with this reality, not just of space travel but nodes, and biotechnology et cetera.
All in all it is like an episode of Star Trek next generation, because it thinks of the moral implications in detail and has my recommendation of being I lovely sci-fi space saga with interesting villains and I look forward to exploring all that in the next book. From what I can make out it is Dullegy.

javelinx

Klasse Debut

Reviewed in Germany on July 28, 2010

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Edie Sha'nim ist eine außergewöhnlich talentierte Hackerin, seit Kindheit von dem mächtigen Wirtschaftskonsortium Crib darauf gedrillt, mit einer speziellen Technologie Planeten zu terraformieren. Daß durch die Monopolstellung des Consortiums dabei immer mehr Randwelten verarmen und in Sklaverei gewzungen werden, stört ihre "Mentoren" bei Crib genausowenig wie Edies völliger Verlust an persönlicher Freiheit.
Als Rebellen aus den Randwelten Edie kidnappen, um ihre Fähigkeiten für sich auszunutzen, scheint es für Edie erstmals eine Chance zu geben, sich aus den übermächtigen Krallen des Crib zu befreien. Allerdings hatte sie nicht damit gerechnet, daß ein versklavter ehemaliger Freiheitskämpfer gezwungen wird, als Bodyguard und Zielscheibe zu agieren - wenn Edie stirbt oder Finn sich zu weit von ihr entfernt, explodiert ein Chip in seinem Gehirn. Keine gute Basis für ein gegenseitiges Vertrauensverhältnis...

S. Creasys SF-Debut bietet eine überraschend innovative Rahmenhandlung mit einer ausgewogenen Balance zwischen wissenschaftlichen Ideen mit einer individuellen ökologischen Note und einer Space-Opera-Komponente mit einigen Cyperpunk-Elementen. Die beiden Hauptfiguren sind zwei sehr gegensätzliche Charaktere, deren Aufeinandertreffen und Aufeinander-Angewiesensein für jede Menge Spannung sorgt: Edie als hochqualifizierte Cybertechnikerin, die allseits begehrt, zwar geschützt, aber auch wie eine wertvolle Ware behandelt wird, und dabei manchmal erschreckend naiv und weltfremd agiert; auf der anderen Seite der verbitterte und versklavte Finn, der allen Idealismus durch schlechte Erfahrungen verloren hat, niemand mehr vertrauen will, und der dazu gezwungen wird, eine "Herrin" mit seinem Leben zu verteidigen, die ihn durch einen einzigen Gedanken erniedrigen und schmerzhaft disziplinieren kann.

Wie die beiden lernen, einander in einer Situation zu vertrauen, die vor Intrigen, Verrat und Profitgier nur so strotzt, und ihre eigene Integrität und Ideale zu bewahren suchen, ist vor dem Hintergrund der drohenden ökologischen Katastrophen und gewissenloser Manipulationen spannend und geradlinig erzählt und glaubhaft in Szene gesetzt, mit reichlich Action, ohne logische oder inhaltliche Einbrüche.
Der Plot erinnert an eine Mischung aus Ann Aguirre und Linnea Sinclair, wobei S. Creasy ihren ganz eigenen Stil entwickelt. In jeder Hinsicht lesenswert; auf die Fortsetzung darf man gespannt sein.

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Mrs Sz

Really Good! A must read if you love SF and even if you don't.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2010

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Edie has been trained by the Crib government since childhood to be a cypherteck, a world terraforming expert. And she is the best. Now, because of these skills, Edie has been kidnapped by mercenaries who want to utilize her skills on the Fringe worlds. As part of the plan to protect and control Edie, the mercenaries leash a serf, Finn, to her implant. If he goes too far from her or she dies, then he dies. The problems Edie has with this plan arise when she realises the whole plan hinges on getting the "seeds" from the first planet Edie tried to terraform, a world she tried to save - Scarabaeus. The process taking place there and the lead-up to getting there make this book one you will not be able to put down. Enhanced by the fresh SF ideas and the developing relationship between Edie and Finn, Song of Scarabaeus holds your attention from start to finish, and leaves you wanting more.

Sara Creasy has written a fantastic debut novel, I look forward to the sequel.

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Merle

Top Science Fiction !

Reviewed in Germany on March 10, 2013

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Sehr spannender und gut geschriebener Science Fiction-Anfang.

Die 23-jährige Edie Sha'nim ist eine Halbtalanerin, das heisst, sie ist auf dauernde Zufuhr eines Neurotoxins ihres Heimatplaneten angewiesen, ansonsten sie sterben muss. Aufgrund ihrer besonderen geistigen Fähigkeiten, sie kann auf molekularer Ebene Einfluss nehmen, wurde sie seit sie 10 Jahre alt war, dazu getrimmt, das Leben auf Planeten zu formen. Monopolisiert wird dieser Prozess von einer Industriemacht, die Edie's Leben völlig in ihren Händen hält und Milliarden von Lebewesen ausbeutet. In dieser Situation wird sie entführt, Rebellen wollen sich ihre Fähigkeiten sichern. Ihr neuer Bodyguard ist Finn, der seit einem Aufstand der unterdrückten Völker versklavt ist. Jetzt hängt sein Leben davon ab, das von Edie zu schützen, ansonsten in seinem Kopf eine Bombe explodiert.

Die Story ist sehr gut aufgebaut und von Anfang bis Schluss spannend, überraschend und unvorhersehbar. Die Charaktere sind überzeugend, die Geschichte interessant und macht Lust auf mehr. Sehr empfehlenswert!

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Bookgirl

Sci Fi with a bit or romance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 27, 2011

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Song Of Scarabaeus is a Science Fiction book written by Sara Creasy. Edie Sha'nim was born on the planet Talas to a native father and human scientist mother. Abandoned by her parents at birth and thought of as an outcast by the other natives Edie grew up in one of the camps where she displayed a natural talent for talking to tech. As a teenager she is rescued by the Crib they insert an implant into her arm that gives her a dose of the special neurotoxin that natives of Talas need in order to stay alive and she is trained to become the best cyphertech there is with an outstanding talent for biocyph seed technology. It is now some years later and Edie reluctantly works for the Crib travelling from planet to planet terraforming them with her biocyph expertise so that humans can inhabit the planet, whilst the Crib bleeds the inhabitants dry. The story begins with Edie kidnapped by renegade mercenaries who want to free the terraformed planets from being under the Crib's control whilst also making some money themselves. In order to keep Edie safe and to ensure that she complies with the mercenaries demands they assign her an escaped freedom fighter now captured slave called Finn. Finn has a chip is in head that is linked to Edie's chip so if Edie dies or is further than 2000m away Finn will die too. The mission that the mercenaries have kidnapped Edie for is to go to the planet Scarabaeus and retrieve the non-working BRAT's that Edie put there seven years ago.

I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little bit of time to get into it as I thought the start was a bit slow but once we get into the action the pace soon picked up. I like Edie she isn't your feisty action hero girl but more or a nerdy geeky one, she seems to have had a pretty sheltered life at the hands of the Crib and she relies on the protection of others. And then there is the gorgeous brooding tough guy Finn who plays the reluctant hero. I have a huge soft spot for him and I wouldn't have restrained myself like Edie did when they find themselves alone together. The supporting characters were very interesting too especially the navpilot Cat who could have a book in her own right. Despite the sexual chemistry between Edie and Finn there wasn't that much romance going on. Their relationship and banter between them reminded a lot of Mac and Barrons from the Fever series. So if you are looking for steamy scenes you will be disappointed but if like me you love it when an author builds the sexual tension rather than just have characters go at it like bunnies you will enjoy this book. I hope this continues to be the case in the next book until we get a sexual explosion of major proportions. The science parts of the book were hard science in my opinion and sometimes I was a bit lost with all the descriptions but I still managed to get the gist of what was going on. I loved visiting the planet Scarabaeus Ms Creasy created a fascinating place along with horrifying descriptions of the events that follow. I will warn you now, there is a big cliffhanger ending but that is ok becasue the second book Children Of Scarabaeus is already out so you don't have to wait to find out what happens next. In fact I am off now to purchase it. I would like to give this book 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend this to people who like Sci Fi who like a little bit of Romance.

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Song of Scarabaeus Mass Market Paperback – Bargain Price, April 27, 2010

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