"There's no sun, but so many plants and animals glow and can see!"

[conuly]

"I just don't understand why light sources and vision would evolve on a lightless planet!"

This is your problem with the setting? Once we accept a habitable planet with no sun* and no light, why wouldn't much of the native life evolve to glow and see by their glows/the glows of other organisms? Sight is an enormous selective advantage**! And once one animal can see or one plant can attract pollinators by sight, the arms race is well and truly on.

"But I don't get why the people are so dependent on light producing plants and animals! Wouldn't it make more sense for them to adapt to use their other senses?"

In ~200 years!? Exactly how fast do you think evolution works? Also, the parts of their world that don't have glowy plants are too cold to settle in, so there isn't much incentive to practice their echolocation for realsies.

* It's possible the planet is not literally sunless but simply tidally locked. Our viewpoint characters have absolutely no way to know this, or even comprehend the distinction.

** So says a member of a species that heavily relies on sight. Still....

Comments

[gale_storm]

"Exactly how fast do you think evolution works?"

Yeah, for this to have gone through to a new version being released, the developers would have to work super-overtime!

:-)

[conuly]

And then it'd be all buggy.

[gale_storm]

Ah. That well explains the result after a week in development for this place we call Earth.

[rhoda_rants]

Okay, but I legit want to read this book.

[conuly]

Dark Eden. I enjoyed it. Most reviewers that didn't were irritated at the fact that the characters utilize reduplication for emphasis.

[rhoda_rants]

OOooh, that title!

[redsixwing]

Oooooh! Is it a chemosynthetic system? *nerds out* How fun is that!*

Even if the local glowy critters have only the simplest of light-sensing pseudo-eyes, a fully-sighted being is not THAT far out.

*very fun!

[conuly]

The narrators - and therefore the reader! - have no way to know what makes them glow.

[redsixwing]

Ooh interesting. :D

That's the sort of thing that gets me to wander around in the story world trying to figure out what makes it tick.

[conuly]

Me too. I'm not sure the setting is plausible, but then, neither is the UT on Star Trek, and I can overlook one thing if the story is good enough.

[redsixwing]

Yup. A certain amount of impossibility for a good story is just scaffolding.

[conuly]

And then there's this one dude's review which is all "C'mon, how could they really survive on this planet, what are the odds they'd be able to eat anything at all?" and it's just... I don't know the odds, but neither do you! WHY ARE YOU READING SCI-FI SET ON OTHER PLANETS IF THIS IS YOUR CONCERN!?

[cellio]

Yeah, "survive in unfamiliar settings" is a common theme; if that's your concern, just give up on the genre now. Sheesh.

[conuly]

And self-evidently, the answer to "why are so many plants/animals on this planet edible" is "because otherwise this would have been a very short book".

[redsixwing]

..?! Okay, if he wants to read "exploration party has a short grisly voyage," he can go somewhere else.

[chanter1944]

Pffft, says the blind gal typing this comment. Sight as a selective advantage my... well... eye. XD

Not at all snarking you, for the record. I'm goofing around.

[conuly]

:D

[randomdreams]

It would be interesting to see what happens on a planet with a more or less opaque atmosphere: maybe a lot of stuff like dolphins and bats.

[conuly]

Or lanternfish.

[randomdreams]

A race to develop the brightest possible source would make for a very interesting world.

[conuly]

Setting is, indeed, very interesting.