Courtship Review
Jun. 2nd, 2009 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So the other day I finished up Courtship Rites by Donald Kingsbury. This book has been out of print for awhile, although I've heard interesting snippets about it on the internet. I was pleased to discover a used copy down at TE about a month ago and have been slowly working my way through. In part because I've been kind of busy lately, but also because the book is very good and I wanted to take it slow.
The basic premise is that humans fled a war-ravaged planet and put down on the planet of Geta. Some disaster throws them back to the stone age (except for a few pieces of carefully maintained genetic tech) and they worship their orbiting colony ship as a god. Geta itself is a harsh world -- the native flora and fauna are all poisonous and require lots of processing to make edible. There are no animals from Earth, just 7 basic types of grains (and some honeybees to pollinate them). So life is pretty hardcore vegan...until the droughts hit and the crops fail and starvation stares everyone in the eye and it's time for the weak to make the ultimate sacrifice for the strong. Everyone is constantly tested and rated for their survivability and if you don't make the grade, you make the menu.
Actually, although this is discussed at some length, it's not something that happens within the course of the book. There is a funeral feast where the honored dead are consumed (apparently Creutzfeldt-Jakob isn't a problem for these folks), but that's about it.
The book revolves around three clone-brothers Gaet, Hoemei, and Joesai and their attempts to improve their standing and to also complete their six-marriage. Yeah, there's a fairly intricate system of polyfidelity and it's handled well. The treatment isn't idealized, but it does show all partners making a constant attempt to love/care/aid one another. The brothers look to their wives for advice and assistance and treat them as real partners and the wives pass the Bechdel test at least once during the course of the book.
The love story plays out alongside political maneuvering as the Prime Predictor of the brothers' clan orders them to take over a coastal territory and cement the deal by marrying Oelita, an atheist who preaches against cannibalism. Meanwhile, other forces are also making a play for the coastline and the long-forgotten past is quickly being uncovered.
It was a fun and interesting read. I fear my synopsis doesn't really get at that since there's a lot of stuff that gets deftly unpacked in the text that's hard to summarize here. There's also a lot of stuff running in parallel and it all gets juggled neatly with short, punchy chapters that pull you along. Probably one of the better books I'll have read this year.
later
Tom
So the other day I finished up Courtship Rites by Donald Kingsbury. This book has been out of print for awhile, although I've heard interesting snippets about it on the internet. I was pleased to discover a used copy down at TE about a month ago and have been slowly working my way through. In part because I've been kind of busy lately, but also because the book is very good and I wanted to take it slow.
The basic premise is that humans fled a war-ravaged planet and put down on the planet of Geta. Some disaster throws them back to the stone age (except for a few pieces of carefully maintained genetic tech) and they worship their orbiting colony ship as a god. Geta itself is a harsh world -- the native flora and fauna are all poisonous and require lots of processing to make edible. There are no animals from Earth, just 7 basic types of grains (and some honeybees to pollinate them). So life is pretty hardcore vegan...until the droughts hit and the crops fail and starvation stares everyone in the eye and it's time for the weak to make the ultimate sacrifice for the strong. Everyone is constantly tested and rated for their survivability and if you don't make the grade, you make the menu.
Actually, although this is discussed at some length, it's not something that happens within the course of the book. There is a funeral feast where the honored dead are consumed (apparently Creutzfeldt-Jakob isn't a problem for these folks), but that's about it.
The book revolves around three clone-brothers Gaet, Hoemei, and Joesai and their attempts to improve their standing and to also complete their six-marriage. Yeah, there's a fairly intricate system of polyfidelity and it's handled well. The treatment isn't idealized, but it does show all partners making a constant attempt to love/care/aid one another. The brothers look to their wives for advice and assistance and treat them as real partners and the wives pass the Bechdel test at least once during the course of the book.
The love story plays out alongside political maneuvering as the Prime Predictor of the brothers' clan orders them to take over a coastal territory and cement the deal by marrying Oelita, an atheist who preaches against cannibalism. Meanwhile, other forces are also making a play for the coastline and the long-forgotten past is quickly being uncovered.
It was a fun and interesting read. I fear my synopsis doesn't really get at that since there's a lot of stuff that gets deftly unpacked in the text that's hard to summarize here. There's also a lot of stuff running in parallel and it all gets juggled neatly with short, punchy chapters that pull you along. Probably one of the better books I'll have read this year.
later
Tom
