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A review by mediaevalmuse
Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
4.0
This book has been on my TBR pile for a while, and I finally got around to picking it up. I hadn't read anything by Griffith before, so I was curious about her as an author. Overall, I like the way she writes and I think Ammonite works well in conversations with books like The Left Hand of Darkness. My 3.5 rating, though, is because there are some plot points that I'm not sure how I feel about; otherwise, this was a worthwhile read.
WRITING: Overall, Griffith's prose felt effortless and elegant, balancing showing and telling while flowing well. The pace was fairly quick, and even in the more drawn-out moments, I felt like Griffith made good use of the time for exploring character interiority.
At times, some of the terminology did get confusing for me, but Griffith helpfully provides a glossary at the back of the book.
PLOT: The main plot of this book follows Marghe, an anthropologist who is sent to a planet called Jeep. Jeep has an all-female population and colonists who set foot on the planet are infected with a virus that kills all men and 25% of women. Marghe arrives to not only study the people of Jeep, but to test a vaccine made by a private firm identified only as Company. As she encounters different residents of the planet, she begins to realize what matters to her and who she is meant to be.
One thing I appreciated about this book is that all the women felt varied. Griffith doesn't present women as all-peaceful, loving, druidic figures, and she also doesn't make them seem so strange that Marghe can't connect to them as humans. In that sense, it felt less like I was reading about aliens and more about multi-cultural humanity.
I also liked the subtle exploration of what it meant to be an immigrant to Jeep (could be colonist, but colonization doesn't actually happen), as well as how tradition and the refusal to change can lead to downfall. Not only is this message apparent in Marghe's personal journey, but it pops up in the story of the Echraidhe and the people of Port Central.
But even so, there were some things that I'm not sure about. For one, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the part of Marghe's arc that has her negotiating the peace. It felt a lot like making the stranger to the world more effective than the Indigenous peoples, and she partially achieves her task by claiming to be a god. It felt a little icky, but I'm not sure of my gut reaction is correct.
There were also more minor things that were bothersome. For one, I don't think the goth were nearly important enough. Griffith seems to set up their presence as a sort of mythological tinge to the story, but the goth didn't haunt the narrative enough to make them feel deliberate. For two, I think Griffith could have made Marghe's role as an anthropologist more useful. As it stands, Marghe doesn't strike me as overly scientific or detached (like she claims), and she may has well have been a diplomat or something else for all the anthropology skills she uses. For three, I think the ending wrapped up too neatly, especially since there was so much violence. I didn't quite expect peace to come as easily as it did, so it felt a little too convenient. And lastly, I'm not entirely sure Company got enough flack. Maybe the point of this book wasn't to get into the weeds of capitalism and exploitation, or about how companies and governments can be in cahoots. But still, it felt like they were always in the background, lurking but unacknowledged.
CHARACTERS: There are a lot of characters in this book, so I'll take a look at a few individuals and then speak about groups more generally.
Marghe, our protagonist, was sympathetic in that she arrives on an unfamiliar world carrying a lot of baggage from her past. Not only has her mother died, but she has a strained relationship with her father and experienced mistreatment by Company on another planet. I wish more of her backstory was integrated into her character arc; it starts out ok, but after arriving at Ollfoss, there's not really any exploration of how Marghe's past becomes irrelevant or how it fuels her transformation.
Hannah Danner, the acting commander of Port Central, has a few chapters details her side plot with the spy. I found her to be sympathetic in that she is very aware of her responsibilities and struggles with who she might be if she wasn't part of the military. I also found her plot to be a little weak in that the spy stuff didn't really resonate with me emotionally, but I did like how her personal anxieties about adapting to like on Jeep fit with the themes of change.
The Echraidhe are a tribe of women who live in the cold parts of the region. They are fairly "traditional" and put tribe before individual, which causes some problems both with Marghe and with one of their own. I liked that there was internal conflict within the tribe; Aoife, who is essentially Marghe's jailer, recognizes the dangers posed to her tribe and yet tries to protect Marghe. She was perhaps the most interesting of the bunch and I liked the complexity of her emotions.
By contrast, the family Marghe joins in the north is very kind and affectionate. I loved the way she bonded with Gerrel and Thenike, and I also liked the tension with Leifin. Their varied personalities made the world seem richer and less archetypal.
TL;DR: Ammonite is a fascinating look at the necessity of change and what it means to belong, focusing on the story of one woman on an alien world. Though some of the plot was questionable, this is a good addition to sci fi novels about gender and learning to adapt to other cultures.
WRITING: Overall, Griffith's prose felt effortless and elegant, balancing showing and telling while flowing well. The pace was fairly quick, and even in the more drawn-out moments, I felt like Griffith made good use of the time for exploring character interiority.
At times, some of the terminology did get confusing for me, but Griffith helpfully provides a glossary at the back of the book.
PLOT: The main plot of this book follows Marghe, an anthropologist who is sent to a planet called Jeep. Jeep has an all-female population and colonists who set foot on the planet are infected with a virus that kills all men and 25% of women. Marghe arrives to not only study the people of Jeep, but to test a vaccine made by a private firm identified only as Company. As she encounters different residents of the planet, she begins to realize what matters to her and who she is meant to be.
One thing I appreciated about this book is that all the women felt varied. Griffith doesn't present women as all-peaceful, loving, druidic figures, and she also doesn't make them seem so strange that Marghe can't connect to them as humans. In that sense, it felt less like I was reading about aliens and more about multi-cultural humanity.
I also liked the subtle exploration of what it meant to be an immigrant to Jeep (could be colonist, but colonization doesn't actually happen), as well as how tradition and the refusal to change can lead to downfall. Not only is this message apparent in Marghe's personal journey, but it pops up in the story of the Echraidhe and the people of Port Central.
But even so, there were some things that I'm not sure about. For one, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the part of Marghe's arc that has her negotiating the peace. It felt a lot like making the stranger to the world more effective than the Indigenous peoples, and she partially achieves her task by claiming to be a god. It felt a little icky, but I'm not sure of my gut reaction is correct.
There were also more minor things that were bothersome. For one, I don't think the goth were nearly important enough. Griffith seems to set up their presence as a sort of mythological tinge to the story, but the goth didn't haunt the narrative enough to make them feel deliberate. For two, I think Griffith could have made Marghe's role as an anthropologist more useful. As it stands, Marghe doesn't strike me as overly scientific or detached (like she claims), and she may has well have been a diplomat or something else for all the anthropology skills she uses. For three, I think the ending wrapped up too neatly, especially since there was so much violence. I didn't quite expect peace to come as easily as it did, so it felt a little too convenient. And lastly, I'm not entirely sure Company got enough flack. Maybe the point of this book wasn't to get into the weeds of capitalism and exploitation, or about how companies and governments can be in cahoots. But still, it felt like they were always in the background, lurking but unacknowledged.
CHARACTERS: There are a lot of characters in this book, so I'll take a look at a few individuals and then speak about groups more generally.
Marghe, our protagonist, was sympathetic in that she arrives on an unfamiliar world carrying a lot of baggage from her past. Not only has her mother died, but she has a strained relationship with her father and experienced mistreatment by Company on another planet. I wish more of her backstory was integrated into her character arc; it starts out ok, but after arriving at Ollfoss, there's not really any exploration of how Marghe's past becomes irrelevant or how it fuels her transformation.
Hannah Danner, the acting commander of Port Central, has a few chapters details her side plot with the spy. I found her to be sympathetic in that she is very aware of her responsibilities and struggles with who she might be if she wasn't part of the military. I also found her plot to be a little weak in that the spy stuff didn't really resonate with me emotionally, but I did like how her personal anxieties about adapting to like on Jeep fit with the themes of change.
The Echraidhe are a tribe of women who live in the cold parts of the region. They are fairly "traditional" and put tribe before individual, which causes some problems both with Marghe and with one of their own. I liked that there was internal conflict within the tribe; Aoife, who is essentially Marghe's jailer, recognizes the dangers posed to her tribe and yet tries to protect Marghe. She was perhaps the most interesting of the bunch and I liked the complexity of her emotions.
By contrast, the family Marghe joins in the north is very kind and affectionate. I loved the way she bonded with Gerrel and Thenike, and I also liked the tension with Leifin. Their varied personalities made the world seem richer and less archetypal.
TL;DR: Ammonite is a fascinating look at the necessity of change and what it means to belong, focusing on the story of one woman on an alien world. Though some of the plot was questionable, this is a good addition to sci fi novels about gender and learning to adapt to other cultures.