The novel “Starseed” by Spider and Jeanne Robinson was published for the first time in 1991. It’s the sequel to “Stardance“.

Rain “Morgan” McLeod had been a dancer for many years, until her body started having problems that forced her to give up dance. For her that wasn’t just a job but her dream so giving it up it was awful. The only hope for her is to turn to Starseed Foundation to become parto of the Stardance and join with a symbiotic life form.

To recapture her dream, Rain McLeod joins the Starseed Foundation’s program and, together with a group of other candidates, travels to its space station. There, she has to learn to dance again, this time in the absence of gravity, and also to prepare herself mentally to get to the moment in which she has to decide if she wants to go all the way with the program and have the symbiosis. On Earth, however, there are those who want to stop the Starseed Foundation at all costs, even with violence.

“Starseed” was written several years after “Stardance” and also in the story time has passed since the end of the first novel. The contact with the aliens, the revelations made by them and especially the offer of the possibility for humans to become space creatures has changed many things.

Joining with symbiotic life forms is a sort of metamorphosis for a human being. It’s a bit like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, with the difference that after the symbiosis a human can only live in space and can no longer return to Earth. It’s a huge change that requires adequate preparation and for this reason the Starseed Foundation was created.

The preparation for the symbiosis is an inner journey, spiritual but not religious path. This is a key part in “Starseed”, in which the story is very philosophical. However, the component of the Stardance isn’t forgotten, so much that once again the protagonist is a dancer.

To Rain McLeod, who at one point calls herself Morgan, dance was a way of life and when her physical problems forced her to stop it was terrible. Going into space, to the Starseed Foundation’s base, is for her above all a way to be a dancer again.

The impression might be that “Starseed” is similar to “Stardance”, actually it’s in some ways developed the opposite way. The first novel started with an incredible intensity that told the Shara Drummond’s story and only later became more cerebral, with its pace slowing down.

This sequel begins with a slower pace and is devoted especially to the inner journey of Rain McLeod and the other candidates to symbiosis. In the final part the pace gets faster and the protagonist’s inner journey leaves room for a lot more action and intensity.

The contact with the aliens and the possibility to join in a symbiosis changed many things in the world and yet humans are still basically the same so the old problems remain too. Now humans have the possibility to transcend and become part of a space community and yet many of them still cling to old pettiness.

The consequence is that there are those who want to stop the Starseed Foundation, even with violence. The novel shows clearly that the choice is between going over the old patterns and ways of thinking to transcend or stay the same humans and risk self-destruction.

The message is that humans have great potential but must strive, mainly working on themselves, to fulfill it. In the end, it’s a potential even bigger than it appears at the beginning or at least that’s the only explanation for the novel’s ending.

With the development of these themes, in “Starseed” Spider and Jeanne Robinson expand the foundations laid in “Stardance”. This second novel is narrated in first person as well, this time from the Rain McLeod’s point of view. The authors are good at still developing other characters, which allows us to discover their personality but also their desires and motivations throughout the story.

“Starseed” doesn’t reach certain peaks of intensity that can be seen especially in the original novella that started the saga but I think it’s a good novel so if you liked “Stardance” I recommend this sequel as well.