Lovelock is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd. It is the first novel in The Mayflower Trilogy. The novel's eponymous narrator takes his name from James Lovelock, the scientist-inventor who formulated the Gaia Hypothesis. The Gaia Hypothesis figures heavily in the book. Lovelock is set in a near-future in which humanity is preparing to send out its first interstellar colonization ship, called the Ark. Lovelock, a genetically- and cybernetically-enhanced Capuchin monkey relates the story in the first person. Lovelock serves as the "Witness" for Carol Jeanne... Cocciolone, meaning that his job is to record every waking moment of the life of a prominent member of society. As the chief Gaiaologist of the Ark, Carol Jeanne is responsible for managing the extensive terraforming their new planet will require, integrating the terrestrial species needed for the colonists' survival with the planet's existing ecology. In the speculative future described by the novel, a new field of science, Gaiaology, has come into existence, based on the Gaia Hypothesis. Like every Witness, Lovelock has been indoctrinated to love and obey his owner unconditionally.
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