This book, for me, comes attached to a story. Around seventh grade, I read a collection of short stories, including The Loch Moose Monster. It was a collection aimed at teens, checked out of the public library in the town where I went to school, and the authors note said or implied that there were more stories, perhaps a book, set on the same wonderful world.I remembered that the author had also written one of my favorite Star Trek novels, Uhara's Song...and that was it. This was pre-web, and at the very beginning of online catalogs, and when I went back a few years later for a re-read I went from one end of the alphabet to the other and couldn't find the collection. I tucked the information away in the back of my mind--this is still, mind you, pre- or very early Web, and well pre-Google, and there was no easy way to satisfy this tickle in the back of my mind.Fast forward a few years--to 1997 or thereabouts, when I was at a science-fiction convention, doing my usual dig through the used booksellers. The author's name twigged some memory, and I pulled it out...and lo! the first story in the book was my missing story, and there were all the rest, and it was a WHOLE BOOK.It took me about ten seconds to pay the nice man, and dash up to the nearest corner suitable for reading (a rather random armchair in a stairwell that I happened to know of because the elevators at that con were notoriously sluggish). I then ignored the next two hours of my schedule in favor of reading from cover to cover.With a leadup like that I could hardly fail to love the book, and I did indeed adore it. I have an extremely soft spot for the initial conceit, of a colony fleet sent not only with embryos and gene banks but with the genes for different species stored in the unused portions of the DNA for others, so that every so often your dandelions might flower red and hatch out dragonflies. Or, given that genes have this unfortunate tendency to mutate, you might end up with the Kangaroo Rex, somewhere between Kangaroo and Tasmanian Wolf. It is certainly not the hardest science fiction out there, but it it a lovely combination of characters (particularly some of flora and fauna native to the planet--my favorite character in the book is Mabob, short for Thingamabob, three feet of dodo-shaped, green-scaled, orange-eyed eccentricity with an ear-splitting "GRONK"), setting, science, and humor. (see the kangaroo rex and Mabob...) It is, in short, just the sort of light, fun, well-written science fiction that I most enjoy.
This playful work of ecological sf is considered a small classic. I read it years ago and was vaguely underwhelmed. I recently received a copy again and re-read it. I’m still a bit underwhelmed.The planet Mirabile is a couple generations into being colonized. The original colonists built species redundancy into their gene banks, so that nothing can ever go extinct: cows sometimes give birth to deer, which in turn breed true except for when they give birth to goats, etc. But as always occurs, something went wrong en route and a lot of information was lost, including the instructions for how to stop animals and plants from unexpectedly producing different species. There are also problems with mutants and chimeras (Dragon’s Teeth), and interactions with the local flora and fauna. It’s up to ecological troubleshooter Mama Jason (Jason is both name and job title) to sort things out.This is a fix-it novel, based on a set of independent stories. In each story, an ecological problem comes up and Mama Jason either comes up with a solution or points out to people that the ecology is working just fine on its own. There’s a lot of cute names, like kangaroo rexes, odders, and tulip bats. It’s refreshing to see a middle-aged heroine. And the worldbuilding is fun. My two big problems with the book were that most of the characters are barely characterized chess pieces to be moved around to make the ecological puzzles work, and that the ecological puzzles aren’t all that cool: a basic fire ecology with the twist of a plant that sets itself alight, and several “you can’t kill that pesky creature because it’s eating another and even peskier creature/plant.” Kagan was very talented and I wish she’d written more, but I like her Star Trek novel Uhura’s Song (which borders on original sf) best, and her linguistic sf novel Hellspark better.
What do You think about Mirabile (1992)?
Mirabile is a set of interconnected short stories about Annie Jason Masmajean (affectionately known by the kids of Loch Moose Lodge as Mama Jason). The stories are light and delightful, but smart, too. It's science fiction that gets the biology right, for once. The host of characters are warm and welcoming, and Annie has a gruff, curmudgeonly charm.The stories are set on a colony world in the far future - Earth sent colonists on generation ships that travelled for hundreds of years before finally settling on Mirabile. Geneticists on Earth wanted to make sure future generations didn't lose any species or any genes that could potentially be useful - they had no idea what kind of world the colonists would eventually find - so they tucked the genes for one creature into the genes of another, as a back-up. Which means that daffodils can sprout biting cockroaches and deer can spawn wild boar. It's up to the Jasons like Annie to keep the Earth wildlife under control, while they try and learn as much as they can about the local Mirabilan life as well. And the stories include run-ins with all new creatures like the Kangaroo Rex and the Loch Moose Monster.I adore this book. It is comfort reading for me. Tragically, the book is no longer in print, but if you can get your hands on a used copy, it is well worth it. Janet Kagan sadly passed away in 2008, and it breaks my heart that there will be no new stories from her. She only wrote three books, but each one of them is among my all-time favourites. If you'd like to try a sample of Janet Kagan's short stories (unrelated to Mirabile), there are three up at her website:Standing in the SpiritLove Our LockwoodandFermat's Best Theorem
—Kithica
This book is a treasure I've re-read just about every year for a couple of decades. I had to quit loaning it out because it was just too hard to replace and everyone I loaned it to loved it so much they kept my copy! It's funny, and heartwarming, and the heroine is a cranky middle-aged scientist who like to make out with her boyfriend whenever she gets a chance, which both amuses and appalls her teenage daughter.If you demand that your science be likely, don't bother- it's very amusing but highly unlikely. If you like funny character driven stories with loveable people who don't kill anyone or blow anything up, but do watch out for one another and build lives for themselves you might well envy- this one is well worth searching for!
—Tgarfield
