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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Ruined by the unbearably obtuse second novella. He's going for mythic, but accomplishes only the sketchy formlessness of a barely-remembered dream. Truly a shame, because the implications of the first novella are fascinating.
Three interconnected novellas about identity and the rumors of aboriginal life on a pair of twin planets colonized by humans. I loved the first and last ones, though really disliked the middle one, hence only three stars. (After the last novella, the middle one makes a lot more sense and is more interesting in context, but that didn't help when I was struggling through it.)
The worldbuilding was good and interesting (the way the society is revealed to the reader is particularly good in the first novella), and it was fun seeing the twists I'd suspected gradually come clear, as well as the connections between the three stories.
This was written in 1972 and generally holds up well, though bits seem dated: having the planets originally colonized by the French seems kind of hilarious now. If this were written today surely it would be by China or India or somebody besides France. And I sure wish the women had been more than just sex objects. Glad I read it, though, since it was definitely not what I'd expected.
The worldbuilding was good and interesting (the way the society is revealed to the reader is particularly good in the first novella), and it was fun seeing the twists I'd suspected gradually come clear, as well as the connections between the three stories.
This was written in 1972 and generally holds up well, though bits seem dated: having the planets originally colonized by the French seems kind of hilarious now. If this were written today surely it would be by China or India or somebody besides France. And I sure wish the women had been more than just sex objects. Glad I read it, though, since it was definitely not what I'd expected.
I love a good puzzle book, books where often not only the answer has to be deduced from the text, but so has the question. Books like The Quincunx, House Of Leaves and...um... I wish I knew more of them. Anyway, this is one, three linked novellas set on twin colony worlds where identity is fungible and we can't be sure whether the humans are aliens, the aliens are human or if the aliens really exist at all. What does it mean to be alien? What does it mean to be human? Are you a son or a brother or a twin or a clone? Has someone else replaced you or are you the replacement? Is the truth a tool of dystopian oppression? Does slavery set you free? One can have one's head wrecked by a book, be utterly chilled and yet emerged cleansed and confused. Being alive is a puzzle, after all, and we don't want to jump to the ultimate answer too soon.
This is a book about twin planets, on one of which the human colonists wiped out the native intelligent species. Or did they? Perhaps the natives wiped out the colonists and took their place as shapeshifters. Frankly, I still don't know. There are three stories that make up this book and I didn't really like or understand any of them. I don't know if this is just me being a bit dense or what, but I didn't enjoy this book at all.