|
|
Shadow Man
A complex tale of gender politics times five
 |
Shadow Man
|
|
By Melissa Scott
|
|
Tor Books
|
|
$11.95/$14.95 Canada
|
|
Trade Paperback, Dec. 96
|
|
ISBN: 0-312-86206-7
|
|
|
Review by L.R.C. Munro
 arreven Stiller is a Most Important Man on Hara, but only by legal designation. In reality he is not a man at all, but a herm -- one of five possible human genders in this future -- and his struggle for recognition on his own terms, on his own world, is the central conflict of Shadow Man.
In this future, faster-than-light travel has been achieved and humanity has expanded into the universe but at a price. After the first wave of colonists goes out, humans discover that a widely used FTL-related drug causes children to be born with indeterminate genders and various combinations of genitalia. Space expansion is halted while the Concorde worlds deal with the problem. When the dust settles it is determined that humans now come in five distinct sexes -- man, woman, mem, fem and herm -- and that these must be recognized as legitimate.
Warreven's world, however, is not so progressive. Hara is a distant First Wave colony that lost communication with the Concorde worlds when the FTL crisis began. In its isolation, Haran culture chose to treat the sexual mutations as abnormalities and to recognize only the two traditional genders. The so-called "oddbodied," like Warreven, must try to live as one or the other sex. When contact and trade with the Concorde is reestablished, however, this system is challenged. Friction builds between traditionalists and those who want change. By virtue of his gender, his political affiliations and his past, Warreven finds himself at the center of the growing storm.
Fascinating exploration, but no resolution
Shadow Man is a well-drawn portrait of an "alien" human society within a larger, even more changed human universe. Melissa Scott has a fine sense of the complexity of culture and her attention to detail makes Hara come alive. She has undertaken a fascinating exploration of the process by which humans redefine such fundamental concepts as "normalcy" and "humanity," and she's done this in a personal and affecting way, through the tale of an individual engaged in defining his/her own place in the world.
The beginning of this novel must contend with the difficulty of introducing not only new genders, but new gender language. This is confusing at first, but Scott does a good job of setting out the ground rules (including a glossary) and things become clear in short order. Scott then goes on to create a number of strong plot threads, alternating between Warreven's point of view and that of a peripherally involved off-worlder, Mhyre Tatian.
Scott does a terrific job of setting up her conflict -- the political maneuvering and personal grudges of the players are nicely interwoven into the colorful setting, and tension builds naturally. What Scott fails to do is bring things to a satisfying resolution. At a certain point the story loses confidence in its convictions. The climax feels rushed, arbitrarily violent and more negative than warranted by preceding events. In the end, even the characters seem to be making excuses for rushing off, promising to return later to set things right.
Despite the ending, though, Shadow Man is excellent sociological science fiction.
One of the most intense explorations of human gender since Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness. --LRC
Back to the top.
Deception Well
The son of a charismatic cult leader is called to take his father's place...
|
Deception Well
|
|
By Linda Nagata
|
|
Bantam Spectra
|
|
$5.99/$7.99 Canada
|
|
Paperback, Feb. 1997
|
|
ISBN: 0-553-57629-1
|
|
|
Review by Clinton Lawrence
hen Lot Apolinario was eight years old, his father Jupiter led a failed invasion on the city Silk. Silk lies at the top of a space elevator, 200 miles above the planet Kheth, and Jupiter believed the planet's strange properties were the Communion (a sort of enlightened paradise). The residents of Silk, on the other hand, fear the planet as a place where alien biology and nanotechnology have run amok, referring to it as the Deception Well. The first residents of Silk all perished, and the new inhabitants believe the planet killed them.
Jupiter had the ability to manipulate emotions, and the leaders of Silk have detected the same ability in Lot. They have isolated him from the rest of the cult refugees since the invasion, and have told him that Jupiter died. But the refugees consider Lot their leader, and Kona, leader of the council, begins to allow Lot some interaction when he reaches his 18th birthday. The refugees expect Lot to eventually lead them down to the Communion.
In Silk, only those more than 100 years old have the right to vote. But those under (referred to as "ados" for adolescents) are arguing for the vote. Lot, as Silk's most famous ado, becomes leader of the campaign. As the refugees and ados both rally around him, he discovers his father may not be dead. And he's learning how to use the manipulative abilities he inherited. Meanwhile, the council reveals that Silk is running out of resources, intensifying the political crisis already fermenting.
Missed opportunities in a fascinating setting
In Deception Well, Linda Nagata suggests a rich background, full of interesting history. Unfortunately, a good deal of it remains unrealized, particularly through the first half of the novel. In particular, the political and cultural conflict in Silk never seems to rise above a simplistic case of agism and the fear of Jupiter's influence. There are a few snippets of life in Silk, but for the most part, the daily life of the city remains unseen. Since the driving conflict of the novel depends almost entirely on these cultural and political stresses, the first half of the novel seems weak without actually being bad. Lot's struggles with the appropriate use of his power become the most interesting elements in the early part of the book.
Nagata saves the novel in an excellent second half with a very exciting section on the planet's surface, as Lot and two friends search for Jupiter while facing the planet's dangers, and the government above tries to kill them. For a fairly long section, it reads almost like a science fictional Deliverance. Though Kheth is a wilderness, the detail on the planet is more fully realized than anything in Silk. To Nagata's credit, the final resolution is far from simple.
Despite its weaknesses, Deception Well is an entertaining novel. Whether it successfully explores the important questions it raises is another matter. It is a book worth reading, if only for its second half, but it's easy to see how it just missed being much better.
Despite the problems with Nagata's depiction of Silk, her universe is interesting enough that I'd like to see her take another shot at a novel set in it. --Clint
Back to the top.
|
