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''Dark Eden'' is a social science fiction novel by British author Chris Beckett, first published in the United Kingdom in 2012. The novel explores the disintegration of a small group of a highly inbred people, descendants of two individuals whose spaceship crashed on a planet they call Eden. The book won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel published in the United Kingdom in 2012. ==Plot summary== The novel begins about 160 years after two human beings, Angela and Tommy, were stranded on Eden. Their three companions—Mehmet, Michael, and Dixon—left in a damaged spaceship to get help. Years passed, and although Angela and Tommy held out hope for rescue, they began to raise children and form a new society which they named "Family". Frequent and regular incest among their descendants became common, with few children knowing who their father was. Social life centers around powerful rituals: Retelling of story of the stranding, the worship of what few relics remain, myths about Earth, and the need to stay close to Circle—the place where the landing vehicle is supposed to return to, and bring them back to Earth. Social norms are strongly adhered to in this matriarchy, and innovation is rare. Family's world, Eden, is so far from its sun that it is icebound. Only a small area, which the Family calls Circle Valley, is temperate. Eden's animals each have two hearts, green-black blood, huge and lidless eyes, six legs, and tentacled feelers around their mouths. The animal population, however, is not diverse. Trees tap into the heat just below Eden's surface, bringing up warmth and providing fruit and other food. Nearly all plant and animal life on Eden is bioluminescent, allowing the humans to see, while overhead the Milky Way can be easily seen at all times. The novel centers around John Redlantern, a "newhair" (teenager) who hates the deep social and technological conservatism of Family. Killing a deadly leopard proves to be an epiphany which opens his eyes to the Malthusian catastrophe facing Family, which has grown too large for its tiny valley. Supported by pretty Tina Spikestree and John's cousins (the somewhat passive teenaged Gerry and the club footed pre-adolescent, thoughtful Jeff), John engages in an series of iconoclastic acts which lead to the "breaking" of Family. Exile of John and his teenaged followers is only the first of many ramifications, as John leads a messianic quest for a land "over Cold Dark" where Family can grow and thrive. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dark Eden (novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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