Semiosis

For the first hundred or so pages, this book is an interesting eco-survival thriller about settlers exploring an unfamiliar planet. It's a challenging world with strange plants and animals, but the story becomes truly interesting when they encounter an intelligent plant species.

I very much enjoyed these early chapters of first contact between the humans and the plants, the attempts at communication and the palpable excitement of the humans interacting with something so alien. Big shades of Stanislaw Lem!

A big narrative shift happens when the humans meet the aliens they've long suspected of inhabiting the planet among them. Suddenly it becomes a kind of reverse Xenogenesis story, where the humans first try to make peaceful contact but soon realize they're a danger to humans and themselves, and decide to imprison and control them. At the same time, the intelligent plant becomes a rogue AI type character with a very bossy personality.

A fantastic book, honestly. Very much looking forward to reading the sequel.