Inter-Species Dynamics- How Groups Adapt to Survive

Children of God followed up on all the questions left by The Sparrow. We finally see all the workings of Jana’ata society from the inside, we see first-hand the Runa insurrection, we see the way alien contact works out with mercenaries instead of priests, and we see the dynamics of groups composed of multiple races against groups composed of a single race. What I thought was most interesting about the book was the way it forces us to re-examine our pre-existing notions about the Jana’ata.

The most interesting quote was on page 225, where Shetri reminds Danny Iron-Horse that “it was not only the Runa who were born to their fate- we all were!” Our sympathies are reversed. The Runa, who were once pitiable in their subservience to the Jana’ata, are now blood-thirsty rebels who follow Sophia and Supaari’s vengeful whims. The Jana’ata, who knew as little that they were doing wrong by eating children as the Runa knew they were by giving up children, are forced onto “reservations.” Their proud hunter society is forced to bow to the wishes of its prey.

The second interesting point of this book is the different alliances of species, and how they manage to work together. It seems that the two most dynamic groups in the novel are the Runa resistance and the Isaac/Ha’anala/Shetri party, both of which are composed of many different species. The strange fact that the Runa resistance is headed by a human being and a Jana’ata outcast leads me to think that the very impressionable Runa are being exploited for human and Jana’ata interests. When Supaari and Sophia both die, perhaps the Runa will be manipulated to some other purpose. Perhaps they are little better than intelligent pack-animals. But perhaps they are the more survivable species because they are better able to adapt.

Ha’anala and Isaac’s group is more complicated because it is led by a Jana’ata and a human who were raised in a Runa camp. They head a party that is mostly Jana’ata, is accepting of all species, and refuses to needlessly kill any sentient being. Somehow, the most morally righteous group in the whole book ends up being a group of disenfranchised Jana’ata, led by a Jana’ata and an autistic human who were both raised in a militant Runa camp. It seems that in Children of God, the most successful groups as well as the most sympathetic, are those that are able to adapt most quickly to changing species-relations.