Plot: 5/9. I would give a higher score if Blish could render it in the form of mystery where mannikins fought together for their discovery of their origin story with more thrillers and suspenses in a quicker tempo and lesser words.

Pilot thought their air accident and imminent death would be God’s vengeance upon their hubristic mission of propagating adapted human across planets. Doctor declared that an adapted kind of life forms carrying their own genes and resembling them a lot in intelligence and characteristics would be invented here without any of their instructions or supports. So Doctor canvased crews for the best initial settings to the colonists as follows:

  • freshwater creatures
  • webbed extremities with thorns
  • modified pituitary glands
  • book-lungs with intercostal spiracles
  • nasal cavity changed into otological system
  • add a membrane between larynx and nose to get oxygen without circulatory system
  • sporulation
  • breeding cycle of about six weeks
  • definite break of duration in active years
  • winter over shells
  • microscopic as the size of rotifier
  • haploid

They also left metal records for their colonists hoping someday these mannikins could puzzle them out.

1.1

Paras, one of the Protos, aka Eaters’ natural enemies, woke Lavon, aka the avatar of Pilot, up from his shell, because they planned to drive Flosc, one of Eaters, out of their castle.

Noc guided them to find hibernated Shar, aka the avatar of the doctor as well as the smartest thinker among them, and Phil who hibernated near Shar.

Dicran, one of Eaters, hunted them out of the blue. Shar and Phil escaped in time, though unfortunately Lavon was caught in its fine net. One Para tried to liberate Lavon with its tricocysts. Noc elaborated illuminated the whole space to draw Dicran’s attention from Lavon and recall Didan, a potent fighter with poor vision.

Didan was killed by Dicran’s poisonous ram. Lavon told them to destroy Eaters’ spheroids to wipe out the entire species eventually.

1.2

Lavon led his clan including over 200 humans to break through the thermocline. His army then usurped caddis-worm’s sandcastle by driving the poor worm away together.

Shar who seemed to have survived the first awaking wondered their origin and therefore decoded the plates persistently.

1.3

When they drove Flosc and Dicran out of their colony, Shar I lost one of his precious plates in the battle.

The annual debacle of the fall overturn forced him into hibernation before they could annihilate the Eaters wholesale.

2.1

Para told the new Lavon that people came to their world out of the blue before they created miracles again and again. Shar XVI informed him of the information on the plate that they were designed intentionally by someone from another universe.

Lavon felt it boring and threatened to throw away the plates if Shar doted on this useless stuff. Para who had already feared human would left them one day to find their ancestors gladly obeyed and took the last plate off immediately ignoring Shar’s desperate objection.

2.2

Frustrated with the loss of the plate subconsciously and curious about the universe outside the sky, Lavon felt obliged to climb and see. But near the water surface, he was suddenly sucked out of water by a strong force and drowned by the air.

2.3

Lavon recovered himself in his spore. After convalescence, he and Shar planned to make a crawling ship and an outside expedition from the Bottom.

Some of his workers quitted from this crazy plan, but more young human were willing to devote themselves to this project.

2.4

Lavon rejected to give back the plate as usual yet accepted to go along with them for the sake of surveillance.

They hauled up the wheels to break through the great tension along the space-mud interface. Eventually, they landed on the ground with their tiny bottle-like tank for the first time.

The scorching sun killed lots of their mates and therefore they had to hurry to canyon for fresh water by starlight that they witnessed for the first time.

2.5

As they entered the rivulet of the canyon, Lavon saved a girl reminiscent of his previous incarnation from atrocious Eaters. The girl was curious about the weapon they used to beat Eaters and Lavon said that’s cooperation.

Para was impressed that human succeeded in leading them to conquer the space despite their stymie. It was about to die yet in an ignited confidence of knowledge. So it finally concealed the real location of the plate.

Shar doubted whether they actually conquer the space, which was trivial to Lavon who was currently lusting after the girl.

Core: 6/9. Blish wasn’t the first to write on pantrophy, but he was definitely one of the best to describe it in credible detail. His circumstantial account on the fictitious discipline called Pantrophy clearly demonstrated his deep knowledge of zoology and biology. I would give a higher score if he could write a better plot though.

Were there any other expeditions who came here to find them or collect their carcasses? It’s so cold-blooded otherwise.

How were the original crew? How did they die? Was it possible that these microscopic colonists one day would find their relics and their spaceship?

Was it possible that these microscopic colonists one day could welcome human beings who came to investigate the original accident?

Were the plates too difficult to be decoded? Why did they not inscribe more pictures or illustrations? Why did Doctor leave so few plates behind? What kind of information did other descendants hold?

By the way, would it be okay if the number of women was less than men for a civilisation?

How did these haploid propagate? If it was by gametogenesis as indicated in the context, then would the title be passed to these who didn’t have any resemblance of their original owners?

Plus, how did the savage girl understand Lavon’s language immediately since they had never met before? Protos knew the language because they were taught before but how did the girl know?

Character: 4/9. Their characteristics were not impressive enough to make a good plot. In addition, women here appeared absolutely inferior to men. By the way, why were the Proto here more impressive than most of the crew members?

  • Proto: They supported human staunchly but stymied human’s attempt of seeing outside by hiding their plate, yet in the end one of them was touched by their feat and intended to give back the plate before death.

    “We have always been there for you. Push your folly to the uttermost. We will benefit in the end, and so will the man.”

    “This organism dies now. It dies in confidence of knowledge, as an intelligent creature dies. Man has taught us there is nothing that knowledge cannot do…”

  • Pilot: Paul la Ventura/Lavon, the typical intrepid hero
  • Doctor: Chatvieux/Shar, the senior on this expedition, the wisest man here that could interpret the metal and develop technology here.
  • Midshipwoman: Joan Heath/ , Pilot’s vase girlfriend
  • Communicator/Communication Officer: Philip Strasvogel
  • Doctor’s Senior Assistant: Saltonstall
  • Ecologist: Eunice Wagner
  • Delegate from the colonization council: Eleftherois Venezuelos

World and Others: 8/9. It was impressive to observe the distinct extraterrestrial natural world and spectacular flora and fauna from the perspective of local microscopic creatures in a small pond. However, I would give a higher score if more amazing wonders like surface tension were described here.

Types of local species:

  • bacteria that human could eat
  • Protos that could serve as their allies
    • Para: human’s strongest supporters for generations but they also hided human’s records arbitrarily for the sake of their mutual survival; have tricocysts
    • Noc: flagellate that could emit blue light
    • Dudin
    • Stent
    • Syn: plants
    • diatom
    • algae
  • Eaters whom human and Protos fought against and got their houses eventually
    • Dicran: rotifier
    • Flosc
    • caddis-worm

Overall: 6/9. The work had better world-building than story-telling.

The work had a huge potential in improvement because it had better world-building than story-telling. For example, I would give a higher score if Blish could omit the wordy prologue or change it to the epilogue, render the story in the form of mystery where humans fought together for their discovery of their origin story with more thrillers and suspenses in a quicker tempo and lesser words.

From the perspective of a reader, after reading the prologue, I expected that it could tell how little humans won their place in the cruel nature by unique wisdom and cooperation, how they interpreted their origin story arduously from generation to generation, how they found the relics of their original antecedents and marvelled at their huge bodies, and how they consolidated themselves into the current civilization of human beings again with the help of lost technology and finally fulfill Doctor’s original wish. Therefore I’m disappointed of a scale from the pond to the ground in stead of a range from the pond to the space.

I hope his later work would have better characters and plots than this one.