Earthseed, its sense of both connectedness to all other nature and its refusal to give in to despair, does feel like it's in resonance with that "A Half-Built Garden"s Watersheds do. Only they're stubbornly staying, while Earthseed wants to get out.
Maybe it's the Ringers' religion or belief system?
There's a lot I liked, and a lot I thought about; that's always great. The ending involves talking to each other and finding compromise; great, I love that!
The one weakness, at least for me, was that I don't really buy the Ringers' urgency. Sure, they found civilizations which have died out. But they're awfully sure about the inevitability of that without ever presenting any evidence, a contradiction that's never addressed.
(4/n, n=4)
Well, not if you're a watershed person. They're the first to stumble onto the alien Ringers after they land, and get first negotiation dibs.
The premise is great; so are the society's details (similar-yet-different from @adapalmer's Hives); the Ringers, actually two species, are well-developed and their giving nursing mothers the highest status is an amazing concept. There are interesting thoughts on gender here, a very diverse cast, and babies being babies.
(3/n)
Sounds good, doesn't it? Humanity finally pulled itself out by the bootstraps and nature is healing, even if the corporations use indentured servitude and the network the Watersheds rely on is susceptible to malware attacks.
In barge Aliens. And not just Aliens, but Aliens on a rescue mission: they believe planetary civilizations always die out through climate change, and want to bring humanity into space.
Also potentially sounds good, doesn't it?
(2/n)
So. "A Half-Built Garden" by @r_emrys. Earth has been changed by climate change, but profound social changes have led to humanity being able to remediate some of that: nation states and their institutions still exist, but their power is limited; corporations are limited to their own islands, where they play at a version of capitalism. Additionally, there are the Watersheds, collectives devoted to environmentalism and connected by the Dandelion Network.
(1/n)
Another random thought: on the other hand, "The Mimicking of Known Successes" could be what happens if the Watersheds in "A Half-Built Garden" are forced off earth, build a habitat, and then try to re-build what they lost.
So many connections π
Random thought: "A Half-Built Garden" could be the backstory of "The Terraformers": the corporations go to space and do their capitalist thing, the Watersheds, power diminished, become the ERT. They are allowed to retain some of their lifestyle and interests, but in the end are just another type of indentured or enslaved workers.
Okay, that's a very nasty thought about a hopeful book.
So... if the Corporations with their competitive attitude decide to go to the Rings, and no one forces the Watersheds out...
...that means the meek will inherit the earth, right?
As much as the Ringers object to forced labor during the Seder, I'd have thought the Watersheds would have milked the Corporations' use of it (well, indentured labor, but it's similar enough) more to show them in an untrustworthy light.
Come to think about it, it's remarkable we haven't actually seen any of these workers. They'd be the ones building the habitats and doing the mining; we should see them.
At first, I disliked Asterion's island being called Zealand - New Zealand is called "new"* for a reason, Zeeland** is already there!
But then again, there's been climate change and a change in sea levels; maybe it /isn't/ there anymore. Even if I guess if anyone can save a land from rising seas, it's Dutch water engineers...
*as in, "new to the colonizers". Plenty people knew it was there.
**in the Netherlands.
Jules