Intriguing book about a starship sent from Earth, orbiting a strange planet, where the story, or rather the setting, is told via interviews with employees; both humans and human-alike androids.
I know the smell of oakmoss because you've planted it inside me, just as you've planted the idea that I should love one man only, be loyal to one man only, and that I should allow myself to be courted. All of us here are condemned to a dream of romantic love, eventhough no one I know loves in that way, or lives that kind of life. Yet these are the dreams you've given us. I know the smell of oakmoss, but I don't know what it feels like to the touch. Still, my hand bears the faint perception of me standing at the edge of a wood and staring out at the sea as my palm smoothes this moss on the trunk of the oak. Tell me, did you plant this perception in me? Is it a part of the programme? Or did the image come up from inside me, of its own accord?
