Reviewing Interference in SFRevu, Ernest Lilley called the book 'as good' and 'thought-provoking' as Semiosis. She said David Attenborough's documentary series, The Private Life of Plants also influenced many aspects of both Semiosis and Interference. When asked if there were any books that were a source of inspiration for Interference, Burke cited Manuel Lacarta's biography of Lope de Aguirre, Lope de Aguirre: el loco del Amazonas, the Spanish conquistador sent down the Amazon River to locate the mythical El Dorado. Burke added that she wanted Stevland to have 'an existential foe', but who or what that foe would be changed as she progressed with the novel. She also felt that the vast unexplored regions of Pax needed to be visited. Earth would want to know the fate of the mission to Pax, and she considered what impact a new mission to the planet would have on the original colonists. The seeds are planted on Earth and grow into a young rainbow bamboo named Levanter, who becomes aware of his sentience and soon learns how to exploit it.īurke said in an interview that ideas for Interference came to her while she was writing Semiosis. Once calm is restored to the city, most of the Earthlings return home with specimens of Pax's fauna and flora, including some of Stevland's seeds. Stevland takes remote control of one of the Earthling's heli-planes using their radio network and destroys the corals. The Earthlings, the Pax humans and the Glassmakers put aside their differences and unite with Stevland to fight the corals. There they discover colonies of sentient corals who begin infiltrating the city's territory. The Earthlings partake in an expedition with the Pax humans and Glassmakers to explore the plains surrounding the city. The Earthlings, as the new arrivals are called, interfere with this delicate balance, causing divisions in the colony and amongst themselves. Stevland oversees a fragile peace between the Pax humans and the Glassmakers.

On Pax the new arrivals find descendants of the original colonists living side-by-side in a glass city with alien arthropod-like Glassmakers, and Stevland, a sentient rainbow bamboo. Contact with the Pax colonists had been lost soon after they landed on the planet. The novel takes place on the planet Pax about 100 years after the events in Semiosis when a new expedition from Earth arrives.Ībout a hundred years after the events in Semiosis, a new expedition to Pax from Earth is launched. Interference was first published in October 2019 in the United States by Tor Books. It is the second novel of her Semiosis Duology series, the first being Semiosis (2018). Interference is a 2019 science fiction novel by American writer and translator Sue Burke.

Sue burke interference