Rainbow Man

by M.J. Engh

From the acclaimed author of Arslan and Wheel of the Winds comes a powerful cautionary novel in the manner of The Handmaid's Tale.

Liss, a starfarer weary of traveling, decides to settle down on the quiet planet of Bimran. Forbidden to love by the planet's harsh moral code, Liss must battle for her freedom when she becomes a target of fanatical religious rulers.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Religion, Gender

253 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

About the author

M. J. Engh is a science fiction author and independent Roman scholar. In 2009, Engh was named Author emerita by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She is best known for her 1976 novel Arslan, about an invasion of the United States.

Reviews

[Jersy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part dystopia, part Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, this is a quiet, almost plotless discussion of ideas and an alien culture with engaging character relationships.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book raises an astonishing number of interesting ideas and then does almost nothing with them. For example: the main character is a woman who's had sterilization surgery performed, which on the planet where the novel is set--a planet on which only heterosexual marriage between proven-to-be-fertile partners is acceptable--makes her legally both a man and ineligible for marriage. We get one paragraph that deals with the wider implications of this on society (and a fascinating paragraph this is); beyond that, issues of gender identity are relevant only inasmuch as they prevent the protagonist (to her frustration) from having sex with anyone.

In general, the protagonist is exasperatingly incurious and lacking in introspection. It's a consistent, believable characterization, but I still wish we'd had a viewpoint character who was a little more aware of the world around and inside of her. Then again, if we'd had such a protagonist they presumably would have seen the warning signs from a lightyear off and never tried to immigrate to Bimran in the first place. And Bimran is interesting, even if I'm still not sure what Engh was trying to say with its totalitarian fundamentalist libertarianism. I am pretty sure any message that is packed away in here is not pro-libertarian, however, despite the book's curious honor as a finalist for the Prometheus Award. At least, I don't think "libertarianism works--as long as the constant threat of lifelong torture is dangled over the participants in the system" is a positive.

In many ways I think this would have worked better as a novella, given Engh's lack of interest in exploring the world beyond the protagonist's highly personalized concerns. Instead, it ends up feeling like a skeleton for a longer novel, all philosophical arguments with no story tissue to hold it together. And yet, it was emotionally compelling enough to keep me turning pages quickly. I don't know why it works, but it does.

[Peter Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Rainbow Man,” by M. J. Engh (Tor, 1993). A theological argument disguised as a science fiction novel. Starships travel among the stars, but the distances are so great and the paradox of faster-than-light speed means that a spaceshipper who spends a few days on a planet and leaves can never return to the same planet: everyone they knew will have died long before they can return. Liss, a spaceshipper, lands on Bimran and is the Rainbow Man because she wears clothes of many colors in a world where everyone dresses in somber tones. She enjoys wandering around on this planet, where everyone seems so friendly and carefree. There are no laws, no government, nothing but the Migration Control officers. She begins to think she will stay here. There are some odd things: because she has been sterilized and cannot have children, she is considered a male. She makes friends: Sarelli is one, happy to take her all over the city of Northtown and just talk. Then there is Doron, who is just gorgeous: Liss wants him badly, and he seems to respond to her. But he cannot move forward. Bimranners are very prim about sex. Liss makes another friend, Leona, also a starshipper who has lived on Bimran for 12 years of so, a bit of a wise earth-mother. But things get strange. Doron is a Selector. He is one of those who select Bimranners for Bliss or Punishment: a person is made blissfully happy or is tortured horribly for as long as they can be kept alive. How is Selection made? There are Four Commandments, passed down by revelation over the millennia. They seem to come from the Bible, because one surviving document describes Abraham bargaining with God over the fate of Sodom. Then begins the theology: Bimranners believe in one God, who is just, and therefore punishment is part of God’s plan but God doesn’t choose, humans must do that. There is the argument from design: only a divine being could have created this complex universe. Gradually the theological argument becomes real. It seems that Liss has caused many problems in the world by her presence; so much so that even though spaceshippers are not eligible for Selection, they may make an exception for her. Finally, unexpectedly, the story turns into a thriller with a breathless, and tragic, denouement. All told in 253 pages. Odd, powerful little book.

http://www.mjengh.com/rainbow_man_779...

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rainbow Man, M.J. Engh's third and latest (but not-very-recent) novel, is just as interesting as her prior efforts. Arslan was about a harsh dictator in a troubled world. Wheel of Winds told the story of a woman circling her planet, twice. While the two were substantially different, both offered credible, down-to-earth characters dealing with life in extraordinary situations, and with a fair admixture of philosophy.

Rainbow Man deals with a woman who gives up her home on a starship to spend some time groundside, on a planet with unusual traditions. Bimran is extraordinarily pleasant, but of course has a dark secret of strict policies. It's all interesting, but in this case, Engh doesn't pull it off quite as well. There's a lot of discussion of the nature of god(s), good, and nature. But here it feels awkward. It's as if, rather than reading a speculative story, you're sitting in on series of earnest debates. The ideas are interesting, but not particularly novel. And rather than being intriguing ornament to the personal story, it feels more as if the personal side is an excuse for speculation on metaphysics. It's readable, but after a while stops being much fun. This is worsened by an ending that, while partly satisfying, leaves a fairly substantial number of loose ends.

All in all, it's still a good book, but one that feels more like a draft than a finished product. I'm sorry to say it, because Engh's other books are terrific, and I'd love to see more of her work. Here's hoping that she gives up on Roman history (her other pursuit), and comes back to speculative fiction soon.

[Jes Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending really pushed this out of 3 and into 4 for me

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an unexpected treat. I didn't expect much of the novel--it had sat on my bookshelf for years unread waiting for me to get to it. It's by an author I not only had never read, but never heard of--bought probably because the novel was shortlisted in the Promethean Awards. The narrative style and structure was simple and smooth, I liked the voice of the first person narrator, and above all I liked how this was very much a novel of ideas.

This book is very much set in a universe of Einstein Relativistic Physics without such devices as Faster Than Light travel--that's important, because space travel means that once you've left a planet for all intents and purposes you can't ever go back. Before much time has passed on board an interstellar ship, everyone on the planet you left behind would be dead. Thus leaving or staying on a planet has important consequences.

The narrator, Liss, is a starshipper looking to settle down, and she liked the look of Bimran, a planet that claimed it had no law. As a native puts it, it's a planet with "no war, no government oppression, no famines, no plagues, no overpopulation." But there's a dark side, hinted at right from the start when to her bemusement she finds out when registering at Migration Control--the seemingly only governmental organization--that as an infertile woman she's defined as a man. And with her colorful attire in a place where the natives affect shades of black and brown, she finds herself known at sight as "Rainbow Man."

The planet doesn't seem to have religion either--but that proves deceptive. What it has is a religion with Revelations and Commandments but without ritual and without a belief in Hell or Heaven--or more precisely they don't believe in leaving that up to God in some afterlife and that has chilling consequences. I don't think the novel came across as didactic, but the way it played with ideas about arguments for God from design, the problem of evil and suffering given a just God and monotheism made me think of arguments I've read in books by C.S. Lewis. The novel provides a thoughtful critique not just of theism but gender relations and sexual morality through the system of the world of Bimran and the events of the book. I liked how Engh handled the slow and ultimately shocking reveal of the nature of this society. I'd definitely would be happy to read more of the author.

[Juniper Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘It doesn't take a cabal of power-hungry tyrants to make a tyranny; a consensus of active moralists is good enough.’

To starshipper Liss, who has lived her entire life aboard a starship, the low technology planet of Bimran seems like paradise. There are a few hiccups, such as her being classed as a man due to her birth control implant, and the fact that the locals wear only neutral colours, but Liss is ready for a slower pace of life and the cheerful locals embrace her. Until, of course, Liss finds herself caught up with a Selector, one of the religious police on Bimran.

This felt like it could have been written by Ursula Le Guin, and that’s about the best praise I can give any author ever.

[Drac · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent sci-fi examination of queer rights and religion. Liss, a lifelong spaceship traveler, is reassigned male when she leaves her spaceship to explore a new port. Her explorations of romance are immediately frustrated on this planet; so long as Liss is considered male, she can’t legally date another male. Worse still, one of her romantic interests is a Selector, a religious authority responsible for monitoring citizens for signs of perversion or idolatry and passing judgment on the rare few who are proven guilty.

For much of this book, I felt like the characters themselves and the explorations of religion and sexuality were disappointingly shallow; the ending absolutely changed my mind.

[Karolina Arancibia valuskova · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been years since I read this book, but I still think about it every now and them.

[Lijessiy6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engulfing myself in novels was a childhood thing to do. Fiction no longer had its power over me nbow that I'm older and wiser - much less fanciful. But this novel revived my love for novels. I have never read a book that was so scientifically, psychologically, and philosophically challenging. Amidst the beautiful writing and intellectual make up of this book, this novel stays very close to reality. It will challenge all your beliefs, simple or pertaining to your sense of purpose and self, and introduce new ways of thinking in everyday situations.

I actually had to place the book down after every chapter just to breathe, intake, and digest the fresh content.

**SPOILER ALERT**

In regard to love. I have never read a book where the romance hit me out of nowhere. Romantic novels always started off with leads in the romantic story. I cannot express how powerful it is when the romantic story is told in a way where the beginning and middle of the book was a complete different genre. In real life, people fall in love inconspicuously. That is exactly it in the story. The ending was so exciting and fresh and different from the rest of the book that I was completely captured by the romance.

This will be the first story ever (novel, movie, or show) that I will re-experience.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engh is fantastic. It's an essay on religion and the nature of belief disguised as a fantasy/SF novel. Not as intense as Arslan, but still very good.

[RW · Rating 4 out of 5]

re-reading...i guess.

[Falbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best mix of sci-fi and religion I've read in a long, long time. Leaves you wanting much more.