Cecelia Hollands's : Floating Worlds, 1976 reprint, the cover i have is not suitable for this forum!!
In Floating Worlds, Paula is a woman to reckon with on several planets. Lover of the Prima of the Styths and mother of his son, she has tremendous galactic powers, and many mighty foes: rival factions on Styth; the fascist Sunlight League of Mars; the treacherous Committee members; and, most crucially, the mysterious Tanuojin who has healed her with his hands and has read her thoughts. Alone, she accomplishes what no one else could, until final choices, for herself and for mankind, must be made.
a large and complex storyline, covering numerous locations and characters. Our heroine is maybe too lucky in explosive situations she finds herself in, managing to survive to the end even though she is physically frail against the characters/aliens that surround her.
the author picks a heroine from a future earth that has gone politically Anarchist, then feeds in a genetically modified race from earths past exploration, mining and settling of the solar system that has turned around on it's previous masters, blaming them for everything. our heroine aligns herself with this race, scheming to place the race in power, without any real explanation of why she does it, in the process wrecking her home planet and most of humanity in the solar system.
the use of sex, diplomacy and physical power of the race she has aligned herself with constantly reminded myself of white women i know/knew who have been attracted to the immigrants from jamaica and other african countries. this is not a racist comment, but an acknowledgement of certain women who played and still play a dangerous game, risking their own identity and respect. it's alright for races to mix and marry, have children. there is no problem there. but when a citizen turns her back on her own people and looks to destroy them, ending up with nothing themselves, then you know the actions taken are morally and humanely wrong.
this story is not for kids or even teenagers. the storyline is too adult and explosive. i'm shocked to find a female writer producing a story like this which if anything can only lead to a damaging of womens rights. but since the story was written in the early to mid 1970's i suppose it was a different world then.
if this story hadn't had the interplanetary travel and conflict, the occassional science devices stuck in the story without any indepth look at them, this would be a fantasy book easily. i always see fantasy as putting ourselves in the past, with more aggressive, testosterone laden character interactions. scifi is not the place for this story and i can't recommend this book to anyone.
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Ben Bova's : Millenium. second of a trilogy about an independent nation, on the moon.
I used to appreciate Ben Bovas work, which tends to be Earthers reaching out into space, with politics and human emotions easily related to. Unfortunately as i've gotten older i just don't feel the same, his work has cardboard characters who we can't relate to on a human basis normally. They aren't normal people in that they always manage to have abilities, contacts and facilties open to them that we maybe don't like to see. Adversity, defeat and loss are part of life. Thats normal.
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Gregory Benford : The Sunborn
a good hard science book. two of the main characters in the book are both female, then one of the main aliens in the book is female also. a pattern interesting in deciding how the writer decides which characters he uses. this is Benfords latest book, i have another : Beond Infinity, a 2004 release, that i am reading now to get some compairosn on his writing and themes.
the author has a doctorate in plasma physics and knows his stuff regarding the hard science side of things. also this first novel i have read is structured well with all the ideas in the book tied in together making a comprehensive storyline.
this book is worth reading, lets see if more of his is also the same.