[3] Semiosis is about colonists starting a new life on the planet Pax and their alliances with sentient indigenous plant species.

To escape war and ecological disasters on Earth in the 2060's, a group of colonists attempt to forge a new life on a distant earth-like planet they name Pax (Latin for "peace").

Over time, the colonists learn to converse with Stevland using signs, and an uneasy, but mutually beneficial alliance is formed.

[11] This formed the basis of the essay, which was published as "The Photosynthetic War" in 1997 in a science fiction magazine, Terra Incognita.

[12] In 1996 Burke participated in a Clarion Workshop, and the instructor gave the attendees a writing prompt about a wall that materializes between two warring armies.

In an attempt to generate interest in the universe she had created, Burke wrote two short stories, "Spiders" and "Cinderella Faraway".

[19] She said the book's central theme is about power and its use and abuse, with a "deep vein of kindness" that probes the "weaknesses and flaws of all sentient being".

Bourke praised the author's "excellent grasp of voice and characterisation", despite Stevland coming across as "a little too human for an alien plant".

[19] She called the book "a very strong debut, and well worth checking out", but felt it could have been even "stronger" had not all the central characters been "cisgender straight [people]".

[19] Bourke opined that being a story about a "future attempted-utopian society", the absence of "queer people rather strains at my disbelief".

[20] But it felt that the novel's periodic jump to the next generation makes it feel like a collection of short stories in a shared universe.

The book "feel[s] rushed", plot threads "end abruptly", and "genuinely engrossing characters" remain underdeveloped.