Scan barcode
ejimenez's review against another edition
4.0
The conclusion to this series is excellent - thoughtful and self-aware.
Things I especially appreciated:
I like the tacit acknowledgment at the end of the book that the Riding Women, a society that McKee Charnas created, were a fantasy. The utopian female separatist colony is not sustainable or realistic - and is, in fact stagnant. They are literally reliving the same lives over and over again. Such a thoughtful insight for McKee Charnas to apply to her own story.
Things I especially appreciated:
Spoiler
While the women are constantly worried that D Layo and the Ferrymen are going to take back over and destroy what they have built, it becomes clear to a reader much clearer than it is to the women that D Layo has no chance. McKee Charnas doesn't overemphasize his power or the threat from him in order to increase dramatic tension - the drama comes from the interpersonal moments and the fate of individual characters more than our fear for the whole project of liberation.I like the tacit acknowledgment at the end of the book that the Riding Women, a society that McKee Charnas created, were a fantasy. The utopian female separatist colony is not sustainable or realistic - and is, in fact stagnant. They are literally reliving the same lives over and over again. Such a thoughtful insight for McKee Charnas to apply to her own story.
nwhyte's review against another edition
4.0
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3488524.html
The setting is an isolated world where men and women live as separate tribes, often brutalising each other when they have the opportunity; Sorrel, the narrator of some chapters, is the daughter of Alldera, the central character of earlier volumes, who is now trying to construct a lasting society for women that will be robust against male attack. Some readers see the author's take as utopian; I don't think so, I think she is showing the warts-and-all out-working of idealism, and in particular in Sorrel's relationship with her son Veree, and how she can bring up a boy in a society of women. I don't think it is an optimistic book, but it identifies the challenges of liberation in detail.
The setting is an isolated world where men and women live as separate tribes, often brutalising each other when they have the opportunity; Sorrel, the narrator of some chapters, is the daughter of Alldera, the central character of earlier volumes, who is now trying to construct a lasting society for women that will be robust against male attack. Some readers see the author's take as utopian; I don't think so, I think she is showing the warts-and-all out-working of idealism, and in particular in Sorrel's relationship with her son Veree, and how she can bring up a boy in a society of women. I don't think it is an optimistic book, but it identifies the challenges of liberation in detail.
More...