'''Lovelock''', published in 1994 by Tor Books, is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card & Kathryn H. Kidd. Although originally conceived as the first book of a trilogy, as of 2007 the subsequent volumes have not been published, however '''Rasputin''', book two in the series is listed as a work in progress on Card's website.

Contents

Plot introduction

Plot summary

Trivia

Plot introduction

''Lovelock'' is set in a near-future in which mankind is preparing to send out its first interstellar colonization ship, called the ''Mayflower''. The story is written from the first-person viewpoint of the eponymous protagonist Lovelock, a genetically- and cybernetically-enhanced Capuchin monkey. Lovelock is Carol Jeanne Cocciolone's "Witness", an assistance animal whose job it is to record every waking moment of the life of a prominent member of society. As the ''Mayflower's Gaiaologist (a scientist specializing in the field of Gaia Theory), Carol Jeanne is responsible for managing the extensive terraforming their new planet will require, integrating the terrestrial species needed for the colonists' survival with the planet's existing ecology.
Like all Witnesses, Lovelock has been indoctrinated to love and obey his owner unconditionally.

Plot summary

When the book begins, the Cocciolone family is packing for their new life aboard the Mayflower. The family consists of Carol Jeanne, her husband Red, their daughters Lydia and Emmy, and Red's parents Mamie and Stef. They take a shuttle to the Ark, during which Lovelock is ashamed of his primitive, terrified response to free-fall.
Aboard the Mayflower, the Cocciolone family begins to integrate themselves into the society of the Ark. When Lovelock meets a scientist who attempts to communicate with him via sign language, Carol Jeanne explains that she hadn't taught her Witness sign language because she didn't want him "chattering to [her] all the time."^[1] This event marks Lovelock's first feelings of furious rebellion.
Lovelock begins to long for a mate, and children of his own. After learning about a supply of cryogenically frozen capuchin monkeys, he steals a young female monkey and hides her in the low-gravity poles that support the Ark. Unfortunately, she grows up stunted and sickly. Lovelock, realizing that should his actions be discovered he would be put to death, begins to write his story in a hidden file on the Ark's computer.

Trivia

Carol Jeanne named her witness for James Lovelock, the noted environmentalist who proposed the Gaia hypothesis.

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