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Recent reading
Nov. 7th, 2014 11:09 pmIn the Mothers' Land by Elizabeth Vonarburg (originally in French, read in English)
Oooh, shiny. This is one of those "only women are left alive" feminist SF books (or at least, only a few men are left alive). But it's got none of the "women are a nobler class of people and would make the world a conflict-free utopia" tendencies that such books sometimes have--in this one, things are complicated, people have different goals and political opinions, and history is written by the victors. The writing (and translation, I guess!) is excellent, and the characters and their relationships are engaging, too. Major themes are: gender issues, family organization, how historical and personal narratives form, long-post-apocalypse society. There's some pretty cool language stuff, too. Recommended! Although the epilogue kind of fucked with my head and I almost wish it hadn't been there.
The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley
Read for my fannish book club. It's SF from the '90:s which is set on a mining planet with a pseudo-Islamic religion which oppresses women, and it's about a group of women who rebel. I seemed to be the one who liked this least? Not from political considerations, but just because the writing didn't draw me in that strongly (although there were definitely bits that I liked). It rather suffered from being read alongside In the Mothers' Land--the worldbuilding felt so much thinner in this book.
Oooh, shiny. This is one of those "only women are left alive" feminist SF books (or at least, only a few men are left alive). But it's got none of the "women are a nobler class of people and would make the world a conflict-free utopia" tendencies that such books sometimes have--in this one, things are complicated, people have different goals and political opinions, and history is written by the victors. The writing (and translation, I guess!) is excellent, and the characters and their relationships are engaging, too. Major themes are: gender issues, family organization, how historical and personal narratives form, long-post-apocalypse society. There's some pretty cool language stuff, too. Recommended! Although the epilogue kind of fucked with my head and I almost wish it hadn't been there.
The Terrorists of Irustan by Louise Marley
Read for my fannish book club. It's SF from the '90:s which is set on a mining planet with a pseudo-Islamic religion which oppresses women, and it's about a group of women who rebel. I seemed to be the one who liked this least? Not from political considerations, but just because the writing didn't draw me in that strongly (although there were definitely bits that I liked). It rather suffered from being read alongside In the Mothers' Land--the worldbuilding felt so much thinner in this book.
