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Lädt ... Daughter of Elysium (Original 1993; 1994. Auflage)von Joan Slonczewski (Autor)
Werk-InformationenDaughter of Elysium von Joan Slonczewski (1993)
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Not exactly a sequel, Daughter of Elysium is the second book in the Elysium cycle, following Door Into Ocean. Like Door, Daughter takes place on Shora, but many centuries later. Several new "races" of humans are introduced: the beautiful and long-lived but detached Elysians, to the Goddess-worshiping, family-centered, martial arts experts from Bronze Sky -- the Clickers, the impoverished & overcrowded L'liites, the testosterone-dominated Urulites, and the servos -- who aren't actually human, but may or may not be sentient. This is a very ambitious bit of SF -- there are a lot of balls in the air and I'm not sure I believe that she lands them all soundly. Then again, some may be deliberately left alight for the next book in the series? I don't know. That aside, it was nice to be back in the Sharer world again, though most of the worldview this time was filtered through the eyes of the Clickers. Much of the focus in this book was on reproduction and population management. It was somewhat frustrating that there was a complete absence of the theory that given the empowerment of women and a stable economic environment, women will limit their own reproduction and population growth will tend toward zero. Still, there were interesting ideas here and intriguing characters aplenty. Enough to make me seek out the next book in the series, anyway. Generations after the Sharers refused to accept Valen control, there is a new struggle for freedom on Shora. Centuries ago, the Sharers allowed the Elysians to settle on their world and learn lifeshaping from them. The Elysians chose to exchange their own ability to bear children for near-immortality. Over the course of the book, they come into conflict with many different societies. Having more money than they could ever use, they grant huge assistance loans to the L'lii, who could never repay them. The Urulan are a warlike, very sexist people who bred with their simian slaves over the years, and are as against the Elysians' use of simian embryos for lab experiments as the Elysians abhor the Urulans' sexism and agression. And the Elysians' own utopia turns against them, when their own nano-servors achieve sentience and demand rights. Negotiating between and around all of these conflicts is a immigrant family from Bronze Sky, who have their own blind spots and cultural assumptions. And threading through it all is the shared text of The Web, a philosophical treatise written shortly after [b:A Door Into Ocean|121606|A Door Into Ocean|Joan Slonczewski|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312029708s/121606.jpg|2640708]. The book is slightly over-ambitious: many of the plot threads are dropped for the climactic show-down between nanon-servors and the Elysians, and there are a few too many characters to keep track of. But I love the philosophical discussions and problems posed by this book, and the wide array of mind sets, societies, and lifestyles that make it up. It's all so fascinating! I love how non-traditional this book is; it never does what I think it will. Daughter of Elysium is an interesting novel set in the same universe as Door into Ocean and Brain Plague. The central characters, The Windclans, are credible as a family unit in a genre that tends to push family relationships to the margins. Much of the novel works on the contrast among the various cultures. The Windclans come from a matriarchal culture that values children. Through Raincloud's role as a translator, we're introduced to the nearly immortal people of Elysium, the feminist anarchy of The Sharers, and the feuding patriarchal people of Urulan. Rather than treating any of the cultures as a utopia, Slonczewski raises credible virtues and flaws among all of them. Perhaps where this story is weak is that it tries to address too much. Ecological relationships, responsibility for uplifted species, cultural conflict, post-human longevity, religious diversity, economic policies of developing nations, and ethics all become important themes, only to drift away as the narrative changes. The final confrontation felt slightly anticlimactic and rushed. But overall, it was a good read about credible characters in a rich universe. Slonczewski does a fair job of trying to blend the personal, social, and scientific aspects of science fiction. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Gehört zur ReiheElysium Cycle (2)
"A modern classic, Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean earned the author overwhelming critical acclaim, and comparisons to such respected science fiction luminaries as Frank Herbert and Ursula K. Le Gain. Now, once again, she opens wide the portals into the remarkable ocean world of Shora - and ushers the reader into a breathtaking realm of scientific and ecological wonders...where death-hastening perils hide behind deceptive veneer of harmony and peace." "Across the galactic Fold, Raincloud Windclan and her family wend their way toward Elysium - a pristine, technologically advanced city of scientists, teachers, politicians and intergalactic bankers that floats serenely on the surface of a water world. A Clicker "goddess" from an environmentally unstable tribal planet, Raincloud has come at the request of Elysium's leaders, who urgently need her linguistic and diplomatic skills to help avert an impending war with the barbaric Urulites. But it is scientific knowledge that attracts her husband, Blackbear, to this strange, incomprehensible city. For he fervently wishes to share with his own people the Elysians' greatest achievement: immortality." "For centuries the pleasure-loving Elysians have co-existed with the Sharers - Shora's enigmatic, compassionate "lifeshapers," living precariously on natural "rafts" outside the urban limits." "But greed and complacency have bred among the ageless city dwellers contempt for their treaties and agreements with the true masters of their planet...and for the intelligent machines that attend to their every whim. Yet only a chosen few - the foreigner Windclans included - recognize the internal corruption that is destroying the eternal society...and the devastating resentments and future-threatening hatreds brewing within a dangerous community of nano-sentient "servants" empowered by the awesome might of the words "I am.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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In Daughter, there is political conflict but nothing so dark and grim. Hundreds of years have passed. The Valans are still villains, but they have gone corporate and are mostly off-stage. Shora has been colonized by the Elysians -- genetically engineered to live thousands of years but unable to breed -- who live in bubbles floating on Shora's ocean. The outside observers to tour Elysium are patterned after Native Americans.
The pace of Daughter is leisurely. The big conflicts are about overpopulation and terrraforming and who counts as human, but these themes, some present in Door, are developed slowly. The mode is debate, with many chapters reading like chapters from Walton's Thessaly cycle. It's not that things are less black and white than they were in Door so much as that the path to seeing what's black and white is more of a challenge for the characters.
The author's biological expertise is more clearly on display here, as one of the main characters works on a genetic engineering project to restore fertility to the Elysians.
Recommended for its world building and intelligence, but if you really love Door, you may be disappointed in the change of style here. ( )