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The Conqueror's Child
Sex, love and violence in a dystopian future
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The Conqueror's Child
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By Suzy McKee Charnas
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Tor Books
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$24.95/$35.95 Canada
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Hardcover, May 1999
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ISBN 0-312-85719-5
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Review by Tamara I. Hladik
 onqueror's Child is the fourth book in Suzy McKee Charnas'
Holdfast series. Like a smith at the forge, Charnas hammers out a
neo-rustic dystopia where males brutally dominate females through
rape-torture, forced labor and sadism.
Previously in the series, the fem-slave Alldera escaped from the men-cities
into the grassland wilderness, where she was adopted by the Riding Women.
This nomadic, genetically altered society is completely devoid of males--it reproduces without them and gives birth to only females. Members of
this society also ride fabulous beasts called horses (large
animals died off long ago in the Great Wasting). These females have never
known slavery and are clannish and fierce, deadly with the bow and lance.
With their help, Alldera invades the men-cities and frees the fems.
The Conqueror's Child begins here, with the story of Sorrel, Alldera's daughter. Rape-conceived during Alldera's slave-days but born and raised free among the Riding Women, Sorrel yearns for a relationship with her hero-mother.
Sadly, they hardly know each other. For years Alldera kept Sorrel safe
among the unisex riders while she built a new society in the former,
distant men-cities.
Though safe, Sorrel feels herself a misfit--a conqueror's daughter who
has never known battle. She bonds with a fellow misfit among the Riding
Women, an orphaned male child of another escaped slave.
Because he is shunned by the unisex horsewomen, Sorrel adopts him,
resolving to find him a better life. With the child astride behind her,
Sorrel rides out for the cities where fems now rule and men still live.
But the way is dangerous, for violent men still run free. And there's
danger too, in reunions. Sorrel will not only meet her mother, but will
connect with two men who raped Alldera. Either could be Sorrel's father,
and either could betray her.
When the slaves take over
The Conqueror's Child is a book whose appeal spans two genres. Readers of both science fiction and women's studies will find it a powerful read, in which
institutionalized violence is examined through its very personal effects.
Indeed, this is one of Charnas' strengths: the ability to show, whether
in the sweep of war or in the bilious comfort of an old, individual
grudge, that violence is always personal.
The writing of this series has taken some 30 years, which displays
some dedication to the oeuvre (among others, Charnas wryly thanks
misogynists for inspiring her to keep working). But this should not deter
anyone who has read none of the previous installments, Walk to the End of the World, Motherlines and The Furies. The Conqueror's
Child is a complete enough story on its own. However, the richness of this
world's past can only add to the understanding of the novel. Some
relationships (like that between Alldera and her rapists) churn the plot
forward and are just a small bit poorer if readers have not read
previous passages of betrayal, torture and endurance.
There is irony in Charnas' artistry, though. For all the skill in
conveying the rococo permutations of violence, its effects and surprising
pathologies, the characters as a whole could be crafted more vividly.
Some of the lesser characters suffer greatly and seem almost
interchangeable. If individuals could only be as rich as the epic, this
would be a more satisfying read. Nonetheless, the themes it dissects--sexuality, violence, love--are managed with ample talent. Charnas
illustrates, but never pontificates.
Indeed, this book and its series are--currently--vastly under-considered in
the pantheon of the SF greats. For all its vision in examining the
effects of technology on future life, SF has come up chronically short when it comes to extending that vision to relationships and sexuality. A puzzlement and embarrassment Charnas has been steadily correcting.
Now that the slaves have made themselves free, a new problem arises. How are
they to build a new society with the men who betrayed them? Synergy
between warring factions is always a thorny problem, with no easy
solutions, ever.
-- Tamara
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The Dragon's Eye
A spy comes in from the cold and turns up the heat
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The Dragon's Eye
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By Joel Champetier
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Tor Books
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$23.95/$34.95 Canada
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Hardcover, May 1999
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ISBN 0-312-86882-0
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Review by Nalo Hopkinson
 here is a habitable planet orbiting the orange star of the
Epsilon Bootis binary, only the fifth known extrasolar world that's capable of supporting life. But, because it has high
levels of radiation and low concentrations of metals, the
Western powers decide it would be too expensive to colonize.
Not so China. Rural Chinese want to return to the Taoist and
Confucianist teachings that had once made China great, and they
resent Beijing's governance, which imposes strict birth control
policies. They begin the "Great Leap" to the planet, which they
name New China. The colonists go heavily into debt to finance the
emigration, borrowing first from China, then Japan, then the
Europeans. These countries all infiltrate the leadership of New
China to keep tabs on the soundness of their investment. It's a
tactical game of spy and counter-spy.
Heating up the action of the novel is the titular Dragon's
Eye, an A2 blue-white dwarf that is one of the planet's two suns.
When outdoors, New China residents must be fully covered at all times with
protective clothing. The simple act of removing a hat is
dangerous. Many go blind every year from staring at the sun.
As the colony grows, so does resentment between New China and
its creditors. Rejean Tanner, a European agent, is sent to
contact another agent who has managed to secure a trusted
position at the highest level of New China government. Tanner's
contact is on the move and mysteriously silent. Disguised as Han
Chinese, Tanner tries to locate the contact as relations between
New China and Earth rapidly deteriorate. Tanner speaks the
language but doesn't really know the customs, he doesn't trust the
assistant he's been hastily assigned, and he has to make quick decisions
without any communications from his office. To make the
situation even muddier, he thinks he's falling in love with a
gangster's girl...
Analysis and action
In The Dragon's Eye, author Joel Champetier imaginatively projects how influences on
contemporary Chinese culture might affect the structure of a
Chinese colony in the future. His New China is a vividly drawn
collage that impacts on all the senses. The novel recognizes the
tensions, divided loyalties, and pressures that will
confront those who try to build a new world from the legacy of one of the
oldest, most accomplished cultures on Earth.
Champetier also uses the double-star system of New China to tantalizing
effect. The two stars create strange phenomena: ethereal auroras
that mask radio transmissions, and the increasing appearance of
devastating multiple tornados. It appears that New China has
surprises in store for its colonists, and there would be much to explore in a
sequel.
The Dragon's Eye also combines an analysis of a complex
society with an action-filled plot. Rejean Tanner is a loyal
employee just trying to a good job, but he ends up being an agent
of mayhem in the lives of the people he touches. He's a moral man
who does immoral things. That dilemma--combined with the novel's
sometimes gruesome high-tech toys--will prompt comparisons to the
earlier work of Champetier's fellow Canadian author Terence Green.
However, where Green's novels Barking Dogs and Blue
Limbo had a deliberately hard-boiled quality, The Dragon's
Eye maintains a formal decorum, even when describing
distressing events.
Readers might be tempted to put the formal tone of the novel down to its being a translation, but since Champetier's fluently bilingual, it's more likely to be a deliberate effect; one which nicely captures the alienation of the protagonist. Rejean Channer is a man trying to function in a society
that's foreign to him. His every act is an act of translation.
With his first novel in English, Joel Champetier will seem
like a newcomer on the Anglophone scene, but with 11 novels
in French already under his belt, his skill at building a story
to a strong climax is evident.
-- Nalo
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