The Children Star: Joan Slonczewski

Book III of The Elysium Cycle. The planet Prokaryon is harsh and alien, uninhabitable for normal humans - accessible only to those willing to be genetically altered, a long and painful process. This marks it as the perfect site for a colony of orphans. Founded by Brother Rod and his fellow Spirit Brethren, the colony offers them a chance to forge a new home in relative peace. But all is not seems on Prokaryon - sudden fortitous rainstorms quench forest fires and then rapidly dissipate. The entire planet's eco-system is highly structured - too structured to have been formed by the randomness of nature. But decades of research have turned up no evidence of any 'hidden masters' of Prokaryon. So when Proteus Unlimited, a greedy interstellar corporation plans to terraform Prokaryon - first mining it then making it habitable for humans and netting big profits - the search for native intelligent life becames a frantic race against time and in the shuffle of bureaucracy and greed, the simple colony of orphans could be wiped out. Cover art by Bob Eggleton.