cover image Genesis: An Epic Poem

Genesis: An Epic Poem

Frederick Turner. Saybrook Publishing Company, $19.95 (303pp) ISBN 978-0-933071-24-7

In this epic science-fiction poem, set 100 years in the future, a group of scientists and technologists is called upon to conduct a survey of Mars. Using theories from the Gaia hypothesis (the biosphere of Earth acts as a single organism to maintain the stability of the planet's atmosphere, oceanic environment and temperature), the team introduces genetic bacteria into the Martian environment with the hope of making the planet suitable for human life. Turner, former editor of the Kenyon Review, approaches this 10,000-line poem with ambition, daring and a capacious imagination. In addition to breaking up the poem into five acts of five scenes each, he provides reference material, explains his methodology (""the unwritten poem is the barren planet, and the composition of the poem is its cultivation by living organisms""), describes his dramatis personae and includes a genealogy and chronology. Remarkably dense with factual information and detail, Genesis sustains control and rhythm. The overwhelming size of the work is made manageable by a readable and often engaging text with language that is straightforward and colloquial. (October)