A perceptive tale that astutely criticizes societal norms.
In Jones’ debut sci-fi novel, a spacefaring Scout’s latest mission results in her capture on a planet where men brutally oppress women.
Karel and Mik are part of the Survey Corps of the interstellar Federation. While scouting a habitable planet, the two find a “Lost Starship,” one of 25 legendary craft that left Earth many generations ago. While Mik stays with the Scoutship, Karel heads toward a village to initiate friendly contact with the locals. But Sang, the first man she meets, takes her captive. At the village, Sang’s “first-wife,” Mari, explains to Karel that the human inhabitants of this planet, New Earth, once held women sacred. But a rebellion led to many men forcibly taking women, whom they call “shes,” as wives—although Mari assures Karel that Sang isn’t as cruel as other men are. As a Scout, Karel knows that she’s supposed to respect other cultures’ customs, but captivity is more than she can tolerate, and she searches for a way to escape. She soon finds unlikely allies in tiny, telepathic creatures that the locals call “curls.” Karel also learns of other communities, such as the female-dominated Termans, and about conflicts that will certainly lead to war. Jones aptly employs assorted dialects to differentiate the communities of New Earth, making the shifting perspectives in the story easier to track; the men in the initial village, for example, have a bizarre but distinctive manner of speech; one inhabitant tells Karel, “in the afterness to it I made going to Term and took the first of my shes.” Similarly, the curls call themselves “the People” and refer to the humans as “two-legs.” Although the story features little action, it offers a scathing view on how women in some societies are treated, as men fight violently to ensure that females remain submissive. Meanwhile, Karel’s valiant attempts to understand the different cultures result in welcome bits of humor, as when someone mistakes her friendly gesture for a marriage proposal.
A perceptive tale that astutely criticizes societal norms.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-312-44959-6
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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