JUNGLE BEAUTY GODDESSES

Semimythological sisters return—and one may get too close to humans—in the lusty third book in George-Sturges’ SF series.

A group of sisters from the far-flung place called Ventopia tended to the delicate planet known as Earth in the first two books in this series. Earth was created by the girls’ parents—their father, DeMatter, and mother, Nebula—though it was their job as young goddesses to be “responsible for creating, protecting, and guiding various life forms” on the planet. One of the sisters, a girl named Afar, became a little too involved with humans; this book is, for the most part, her story. Simply put, Afar may be too attached to Earth’s first man, a figure known as Mada whose “masculinity was magnetic.” She experiments with Mada sexually (though avoiding intercourse) and, as he explains it, “stimulated me orally, extracted my DNA seeds, mixed them with her own, and planted them around the earth.” Afar even guides him to “Trees of Knowledge,” each of which holds “a secret that can be used for good or evil.” Mada was taught that a ruler should know how to control the masses, and after Afar makes him powerful, jealousy and murder erupt. The book ultimately revisits Afar’s sisters as well, taking up their stories where the second volume in the series left them. This installment, however, has a more earnest tone than the first two books, which involved horrors like rape and murder without losing their whimsical nature. The narrative here exchanges much of the earlier whimsy for the kind of heartfelt sentiment evident in Afar’s early feelings for Mada: “The more she watched him, the more she found herself falling in love with him.” As the romance develops, such passions can become tedious, though the sexual and other action keeps things lively. What will become of this man and his goddess? Though readers familiar with the previous books know that what will eventually happen won’t be good, how the story gets there proves a strange, lust-filled path.

A unique SF romance, though less free-wheeling than earlier books in its series.