“You can’t ruin them. They’ve travelled hundreds of years, and through many people to find you. Now, go make them your own.”
At the beginning of the novel, Petra is having one of the last moments with her grandmother before she gets aboard a spaceship that will leave the burning Earth behind. Petra’s main responsibilities will be to be a biologist and geologist like her parents, but she mostly wants to be a storyteller like her grandmother. Later on, Petra will follow Lita’s advice and make the stories her own, adapting them to her experiences that will touch people who don’t even have direct knowledge of the characters and objects she describes, people like Voxy.
“They’re not meant to be identical; they’re meant to complement one another. Differences make things beautiful as a whole.”
This quote is from one of Petra’s memories of searching for rocks with her father. Her father explains to her that every rock she picks is unique in its own way, but complements the whole. This is directly related to the Collective’s efforts to eradicate any differences between humans, starting with the physical and going further, with an effort to create more harmonious humanity, but it works in a completely different way, promoting evil, cruelty, and complete disregard for individual life.
“That, is home.”
The novel ends on a hopeful note for humanity. Petra, Suma, Rubio, Feather and Voxy, are left behind by the Collective on Sagan, but they are not alone. The humanity from the first spaceship survived and inhabited the planet, and the Collective failed to eradicate them because Javier sacrificed himself to destroy the poison. It ends with the group smelling smoke and hearing music and realizing that they are not alone after all.
