Daughter of Elysium

Elysium Cycle #2

by Joan Slonczewski

The pristine city of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited by 'immortals' who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.

Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium, survive the corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless society.

And what of the consciousness of self-aware nano-sentient servitors and their quest for vengence?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Feminism, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Unfinished, Speculative Fiction

521 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joan Lyn Slonczewski is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Her books have twice earned the John W. Campbell award for best science fiction novel: The Highest Frontier (2012) and A Door into Ocean (1987). With John W. Foster she coauthors the textbook, Microbiology: An Evolving Science (W. W. Norton).

Reviews

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 A Door Into Ocean.

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.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Daughter of Elysium", Joan Slonczewski's second book set in the same universe, is a somewhat overwhelming, but amazing exercise in world-building and idea-wrangling. While the huge cast of characters is sometimes overwhelming, and at times I found it difficult to care which of the wealthy and influential banker-politicians are which, the world Joan Slonczewski has created was wondrous enough to offset that problem. This is a book for everyone who likes struggling with difficult ideas and various social systems - the amazing comparison between matriarchal and communal Bronze Skyans, quasi-immortal, egalitarian, but proud and disdainful Elysians, primitive, warlike, patriarchal (but strangely tolerant to 'sub-humans') Urulans and anarchist-communitarian Sharers raises many interesting moral questions.

The pace is slow - despite some moments of faster action, "Daughter of Elysium" is not a book for those who like stories to progress quickly. But if you want to take a breath-taking view at a complicated universe and to explore interesting moral quandaries - what makes a human? what makes a person? when genetic engineering is good, and when destructive? how about terraforming - when can we destroy an entire ecosystem to suit our needs? how can a culture change without destroying itself? - this is a book for you.

On a closing note, "Daughter of Elysium" is quite unique in one more aspect - motherhood and fatherhood are crucial both to the plot and to the worldbuilding, and children are neither an untenable burder to the heroic protagonist, nor a women's be-all and end-all. I liked this change of style, and liked the heroine for whom childbearing is a normal part of life, to be integrated in her career and life without taking over either.

[Camelia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Slonczewski is a biologist and she writes amazingly inventive yet plausible biology in her science fictions. I love every single one in the Elysium Cycle Series. The first book, A Door Into Ocean, is one of my all-time favorites. Daughter of Elysium is the second book in the series. It sets in a floating world on top of Shora, a thousand year after the first. Apart from the amazing marine creatures and biology (Slonczewski first wrote about gene editing in 1986, while CRISPR gene editing was invented in 2000s), there are also themes of gender roles, artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness (two different things). Another well-realized hard sci-fi by one of my favorite writers.

[Alexa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-plotted, fast-moving science fiction novel that deals with gender roles, the nature of intelligence, matters of diplomacy among diverse settlements, and questions of tolerance. Yet in the end much of it is about the day-to-day struggle to raise children while living ordinary lives, and some of the moral questions child-bearing raises. I loved it!

[Jean Triceratops · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Quick Take

Daughter of Elysium follows in A Door Into Ocean's footsteps when it comes to depth of character, world, and science, but the style of story is markedly different. Whereas A Door Into Ocean drives towards a dramatic problem/conclusion, Daughter of Elysium is much more interested in the incidental, the intellectual, and other asides that string together to build a nuanced narrative. If you like to read for the joy of the world/characters/ideas, no brainer, this is a great book. If you prefer to feel an element of tension and compulsion running through a novel, Daughter of Elysium might not match your expectations.

The Real Review

Centuries upon centuries after the events of A Door Into Ocean, the Sharers remain much the same. Shora is quite a bit different, though. Floating cities dot the ocean moon, filled with millions of people from a long-dead world. These Elysians have (mostly) conquered aging and lead indulgent lives confined only by their rigid social norms.

Blackbear Windclan, his "goddess" Raincloud, and their two young children have no stake with the Sharers or the Elysians. They leave their matriarchal, volcanic home planet of Bronze Sky for their jobs: Raincloud as an interpreter of an uncommon language and Blackbear as a doctor researching why "immortality" and infertility are linked. Daughter of Elysium is mostly their story.

It's a somewhat thin premise. We watch the Windclans meet colleagues and peers, adjust to high-tech life, and get settled into their new lives. Both Blackbear and Raincloud's jobs are a driving factor of the novel, but there's no real "hook" there.

Regardless, it makes a promise to the reader: Daughter of Elysium is an opportunity to get to know the Windclans and experience their immersion in new cultures and ideas.

This combination of a lack of solid hook and an open-ended promise affords Slonczewski incredible freedom in where she takes the book. We're not following along on a traditional three-act plot. There's no obvious hardship to overcome. The intrigue and joy of Daughter of Elysium come from the subtler things: the budding friendship of two very different characters, the relationship between Blackbear and his family, a slight yet profound change in the world. 

Perhaps the novel's most concrete "point" is ecology on a galactic scale and the intersection of cultural ideals from the four prominent worlds:

the anarchistic, communal Sharers

the egalitarian, aloof Elysians

the "salt of the earth," family-oriented Bronze Skyans

the violent yet surprisingly nuanced Urulites

This creates a rich and complicated galaxy full of seeming incongruities. It's one of those rare books where there is no "enemy," there are only creatures doing what makes the most sense to them given the realities of their day-to-day lives. It's lovely and also frustrating. More than once, I wanted both sides to "win."

This aspect of Daughter of Elysium is markedly different from a Door Into Ocean, where the Valedon colonizers murder non-violent Sharers for corporate interests. And with this difference comes a substantial change in the reading experience.

While the opening chapters of A Door Into Ocean still contains Slonczewski's trademark depth and characterization, it has a clear hook: how will Valedon's disagreement with Shora end? And as we explore this question and watch the increasing stakes, discovering the answer becomes a tense compulsion.

I had to know if the Sharer's non-violent techniques would work. I had to know if the characters I grew attached to would survive, or do the right thing, or develop into the people they could have been all along. Don't get me wrong, I loved the characters and the world, but more than that was the compulsion to see how each strand of the story wove together to answer the hook of "will Shora be able to withstand Valedon?"

Conversely, I read Daughter of Elysium because I loved the characters, the world, the philosophies, and the arguments that made me stop and question my own ideas. I didn't "need" to read another chapter even though it was far past my regular bedtime; I wanted to.

Well, for most of the book, anyway.

The last 60 pages take a turn. The incidental storytelling becomes incremental with clear stakes on a significant scale. 

I won't spoil it; this is too good of a book to blow open like that, but I will say the ending was the weakest point. It's not that Slonczewski sprung it on us; the puzzle pieces are all there. I can't even fault its suddenness; if every POV character is shocked, we should be too. And yet, it did feel rushed. I think it's because while, intellectually, everything checks out, emotionally, this section was flat. As the rest of the novel is intellectually and emotionally nuanced, the emotional component's loss was palpable. It's like the book lost a dimension.

This is a shame because the ending isn't a throwaway existing only for the tension; it seems undeniable that the next book will build on these ideas, and I'd love to return to them with the same fondness with which I returned to the Sharers.

Thankfully, this isn't a damning problem. I had no expectations for the end of Daughter of Elysium. It could have ended with the Windclans eating dinner some ordinary evening, and I'd have been happy. As mentioned, the book's promise was getting to explore ideas, places, and characters through the experiences of the Windclans; we get that aplenty. Slonczewski fulfilled her promise.

And the last 60 pages, rushed though they felt, didn't—couldn't—detract from that because they didn't undermine the promise.

I've barely mentioned the Sharers here, but rest assured they play a prominent role in the novel. While Daughter of Elysium isn't a direct sequel to A Door Into Ocean, it's not entirely standalone, either. I loved this tangential connection. Sometimes, when a sequel follows too close on its predecessor's heels, it can cheapen the first book. Daughter of Elysium reverently references the past and builds on top of it but doesn't exploit it for easy emotional wins while still giving us access to the Sharers that we've grown to love. I wish more series followed this approach.

Daughter of Elysium is a delight, and I'm so glad a reader recommended this series to me.

[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]

[Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski This is a challenge to write a review of this, let’s start with it’s good I’ll give it four stars and it’s part of the Elysium Cycle Series the first of which is A Door Into Ocean Excellent book. Took me awhile to getting around to reading the second in the series which is this one and while it continues the story it goes off in a completely different direction this expanding the governing and different cultural and natural resources stresses and differences physically and politically of four different worlds the Sharers of Shora coexist with the Elysiums who both live on Shora but are very different in every respect. The Elysiums are DNA enhanced humans who live thousands of years they don’t reproduce and they live in elevated cities floating above the oceans of Shora with all their physical needs met by a army of advanced Servo’s the Sharers who were so central to the first story are more in the background in this one. I believe this is hundreds of years in the future from the first story here we are following Blackbear Windclan Doctor and scientist his mate Raincloud who is a linguist and their two small children Sunflower and Hawktalon they from the volcanic world of Bronze sky a more primitive world technologically than the Elysiums of Helicon but where Blackbear was invited to work in the longevity laboratory while Raincloud works as a translator of Urulan for the Elysium foreign affairs department. Urulan is a world outside the free fold and is feared for it’s primitive and warlike nature. The book is complex and immersive and many political themes of how people and systems work through a crisis mirror what we see in our daily lives, but only occasionally this is science fiction which while this is wildly imaginative and very well thought out it’s still a fictional story of a fictional future multi-cultural muti-world crisis Let me just say it someone didn’t listen to the scientist again. (Isn’t that always the case) anyway I enjoyed the read but not as much as Door into Ocean. Feminist science fiction still rocks but at times there were so many threads of subplots and cultural conflicts that it was distracting I felt as a reader at times a little hard to follow but had some excellent insights into behavior and so much good science, I know a coupld of science teachers I would like to turn them on to these books. If you kind of like that sort of thing you might like this book as well.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful, thoughtful social SF that, even at over 500 pages, deserves a less rushed third act.

[Invadozer Misothorax Circular-thallus Popewaffensquat · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you haven't read Dune, skip it, read this.
This gal takes the best elements of Dune, stretches it
out to 500 pages and makes it a water planet with
immortality and overpopulation issues. She's a biologist too
so..there's a lot of fetus experiments going on in the book.
These immortals who live in danger proof bubbles on a
water planet is full of bored extravagant fops who walk
around with scampering robot cape carriers swinging
deals and flowing money. In Dune everyone wants the
spice for immortality, in Daughters OE they will make a
fetus immortal and dump it into an orphanage run by
nanny robots. There's so much political juggling around
the different messed up worlds I am not going to go
into it too deeply. Fighter's world, Builder world-can
build worlds, Shapers who work with organics existing
on worlds, Native Americans from India on Volcano
world, and the Overpopulated world. All these places
have their own messed up ideas of what's right, all
life is sacred to kill the defects, keep the
population down. The have and the have-nots. If you look in
a mirror,recognizing yourself you are sentient so
fish can be non-sentient? When should life be killed
automatically when other lives are threatened...should it be
random etc... I was reminded of "The Diamond Age"-Stephenson with the education of the kids in this book which
is a better book with all the gimmicks, politics and
ideas being thrown out. This book gets bogged down in
some parts with babies and butterflies, repeated
experiments of mediocre responses and meditations passed
around.

It's a big book, there's a lot of names,
it's pretty good.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Elena Johansen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ pg 100. I can't believe the sheer amount of repetition of detail in this book. If I see someone adjusting their train or letting out their train or the trainsweeps folding a train one more time, I will go bonkers. I get that when you're worldbuilding entire alien cultures from scratch, these details are important, but this was heavy-handed.

[Detre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Slonczewski már az "Ajtó az Óceánba" c. SF-regényével megszerettette azt a különleges, bámulatos és számomra elvarázsoló világot, amit kitalált.

Az Elízium-ciklus második könyve után még jobban megszerettem a Cserék pacifikus és filozófiával teli életmódjukat. - Noha ez a könyv nem a Cserék szemszögéből, hanem egy új "faj", a Kattogók életén keresztül mesélt egy történetet.

Politikai és gazdasági problémák a valóvilágban (is) összetett dolgok és sokszor nehéz kiigazodni azon, hogy mi az igazság és mi a fikció.
Joan Slonczewski írónő biológiai tudásával egybevegyítve kiélte magát a szereplőkön keresztül - véleményem szerint.

Feketemedve, a Szélklán család Kattogó apuka, egy sejtlaborban dolgozott, ahol a halhatatlan és nemzésre képes nemzedéket kutatták. A szakma rejtelmeibe is belevitt minket, amit (többé-kevésbé) érthető módon vizualizált az olvasóval. Nem éreztem úgy, hogy amit olvasok az csupa szakszavak és olyan fogalmak, amiket nem ismerek és soha nem hallottam róluk. Inkább képek jelentek meg előttem, mi hogyan és miért úgy nézett ki - és ez volt igazán élvezetes.
Nem úgy éreztem, hogy szakirodalmat olvasok, hanem a története része is vagyok egy picit.
Mintha Én lennék Feketemedve.

Esőfelhő, a Bronz Égbolt-i Kattogó anyuka, aki nyelvészként az aktuális nehézségekkel küszködő helyzeten segített a fordításaival és a poliglott lényével. Urulan (Elizíum és Valedon mellett) új világként repült elénk, ahol egy elmaradott ország élt - akár Harmadik Világnak is lehetne nevezni. Az Elízium által adott kölcsönök, amiket l'liiek és az urulaniak elszegényedett világa azonnal magába szippantott, majd felélte a két világ korrupt politikája - fegyverekre, rakétákra költötték, a politikusok fényűző életmódjuk szinten tartásához. A kiadott kölcsönök átformálták a véleményeket és politikai állásokat Elíziumban. Esőfelhő oktatója az Urulanról szökött szim, akinek génjei egy részét az őshonos gorillák tették ki, bölcs és mélyreható tudással látta el, ami egyre jobban visszatért a tudatába a folyamatosan újulandó Urulani fordításokkal.

Esőfelhő nyelvészeti többoldalúsága, hogy tudott beszélni elíziumiul, cseréül(!) és urulaniul(!) is, megnövelte bennem a nyelvek iránti szenvedélyt. Én is beszélni akarom ezeket a nyelveket, megismerkedni a sajátosságaikkal a különlegességeikkel és különbségeikkel. Egésznap kattognék [a Kattogók nyelvén] és cserélnék [a Cserék nyelvén].

Úgy gondolom, hogy az "Ajtó az Óceánba" és ez a könyv között van érzéki különbség. Az írónő megtartotta a kellemes, könnyen olvasható és részletekben gazdag stílusát, ami csak még jobban megszerettette velem magát, és a könyveit.

Aki olvasta az Ajtó az Óceánba c. SF-regényt, annak merem állítani, hogy az Elízium lánya is tetszeni fog neki, vagy nem. Ki tudja?

[Zone Farmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

warning: got out of bed and wrote this with no editing. It's a raddling madpersons review.

Why won't good reads let me do decimals? I'd give this a 3.5 as it waivers between liked and really liked. I was excited to contiue in Slonczewski's universe after having finished Door Into Ocean. This book continues on the same planet but centuries later. The sharer people now seem far less important in the novel other than their ideology which has now been parabolized in a story called "The Web" and a race known as Elysians rely on their approval to continue their occupation on shora. The Elysians are referred to as immortals because they live for several centuries (up to a millennia.) A husband and wife duo are the main protagonists, immigrants from the Bronze Sky. The mother Raincloud is an exceptional linguist who has been hired from afar to specialize in Urulite a language of supposedly savage people who idealize warrioship as their culture. She just also happens to be fluent in Sharer. Blackbear the father is a doctor and scientist who is helping the Elysians in genetic experiments to create even greater longevity in their people. There are also L'ites , and the Valans play a role in supplying most of their servo technologies. There becomes indeed quite a "web" of relations between all of these groups of people. The book takes a long time to get any where with it, and I'd say a lot of the world building was slow and kind of a drag for me. I'm still into Sloanczewski's universe and will contiue reading more but, I found this one quite a slow burn with not a lot of reward. Some reason the fact the "scent of passion flower" was mentioned at least half a dozen times but I think maybe more drove me crazy. There were a lot of other redundancies. Many ethical quandries were presented about overpopulation (did J.G. Ballard not already describe this as a cliche of sci-fi by the 70's? I haven't read enough sci-fi to say, but it does seem a bit cliche.) Which I find really sad considering there seems to be so much use of technology and the problem is again too many people rather than, say, the responsibility for people to use technology to benefit others. The only solution seems to be, in a spacex fashion, to terraform more planets. Which shora people for example see as unethical. I could go on but I wont ruin the book for you. I will say as far as moralism goes, this book is even more vague and blurry than Door Into Ocean. Which is fine, but why such a long slow build up to go nearly nowhere? It seems you have to be in it for the dynamic of the universe more than for any real moral development.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raincloud Windclan is from the planet of Bronze Sky where women are called goddesses, and have the dominant role in society. She has come to Elysium with her family to avert a confrontation between its inhabitants and the apparently aggressive planet of Urulan. Elysium is a city established on the water-world of Shora but separate from the raft dwellers of that world familiar from Slonczewski’s previous novel A Door into Ocean. Raincloud’s husband Blackbear is a scientist set to investigate the possibilities of restoring fertility to Elysians, whose “children” - known as shonlings from the crèche-like shons where they are brought up - are artificially generated since Elysians’ longevity treatment has modified their chromosomal DNA and conferred sterility. By treaty with the Shorans, though, the numbers of Elysians are meant to be kept steady.

Elysian society is attended to by genetically modified creatures known as sims, and artificially intelligent servants much given to intoning, “Please refer any fault to...”

There are, then, several conflicts built into this scenario as well as, in the persons of the Blue Skyans, a contrast with the gender norms of the time when Slonczewski was writing. Raincloud is an adept practitioner of martial arts, which gives her honorary male status in the eyes of the Urulite Ambassador to Elysium. Later, on Urulan itself, subjected to an attempt to murder her companions she muses, “Men were supposed to be wholesome nurturing creatures, not predators.”

While it is gratifying to a Chemistry graduate like myself to read of acetyl and methyl groups and glucosamine in an SF novel and there is a concentration on domestic life usually absent in such genre works this one is marred by excessive information dumping. Another flaw is that we don’t meet the indigenous inhabitants of Shora till well through the book. The enmeshing of all the elements of the set-up into the plot and its resolution is well-done though.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speculative fiction (SF/F/H) has an unfortunate history of orientalism or "Othering"; giving a group designated as "the enemy" all the characteristics of, say, the indigenous cultures of Africa, or the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, or whoever is the "them" in the "Us and Them" paradigm the author has set up, the "Us" being patriarchal capitalist Anglo-Americans. As much as I've enjoyed reading Tolkien, I have to admit that his orcs follow this pattern; they are described as relatively unintelligent, degenerated, almost atavistic humanoids straddling the line between ape and man, whose unnatural unions with humans produce mongrel creatures that are "horrible: man-high, but with goblin-faces, sallow, leering, squint-eyed." All of which, to put it mildly, duplicates the rhetoric of racism and prejudice with an alarming degree of accuracy. Tolkien even, in a letter, directly said that the facial features of the orcs are modeled after "degraded and repulsive versions of the ... least lovely Mongol-types." From what I've heard, Robert Jordan's Trollocs are cut of the same cloth; certainly Paolini's horned, barbarous Urgals are. (Ignore the five-star rating I gave Eragon, I did so when I was a lot younger, hadn't read much fantasy, and was in awe of the fact that a teenager got a novel published. Nowadays, my rating would probably be more like a three; I still respect Paolini's accomplishments and think that it's a pretty good book, but I'm also more aware of all the cliches. But that's beside the point of this review.) There are plenty more examples, many of which also feature the related problem of essentialism, assuming that all members of a race share the same characteristics.

However, the gold metal of Othering, as Marie Brennan and other intelligent authors and scholars have pointed out, belongs to the drow. These are the dark elves of Dungeons and Dragons and the novels that have spun off of the game. In all depictions, they are matriarchal, clan/caste-stratified, slave-owning, violent, devious, dark-skinned worshippers of (among other deities) a malevolent spider goddess. In other words, they are a collection of stereotypes imperialists associated with non-white cultures (particularly stereotypes associated South and Southeast Asian ones, though not exclusively), projected on to a fantasy race described quite explicitly as, with a very few exceptions, pure evil. Needless to say, this is decidedly problematic.

And this is one big reason why I love Daughter of Elysium. Because although it's science fiction, not fantasy, it also features a family of matriarchal, communal, goddess-worshipping dark-skinned people .... except they are sympathic, realistic protagonists whose culture serves as a supportive fabric. Blackbear and Raincloud Windclan are not drow-style Black Devils, nor are they Noble Savages, but an intelligent scientist and translator (respectively) trying to make ethical choices in an environment utterly foreign to them. There's an minor but interesting subplot about their daughter Hawktalon's absorption of both the Clicker culture she receives at home and the Elysian ideas at the shon. Neither culture is perfect, and in the end both make their mark upon her, but the particularly relevant thing is that neither is demonized. In fact, that's a common thread throughout the novel. The lifestyles and civilizations of the Elysians in their floating cities, the Sharers on their rafts, the Clickers on Bronze Sky, the L'liites ... are all written from a position of equal respect. Even the Urulans, the closest thing this universe has to a "bad" culture (laden with militarism, sexism, hierarchy, etc) are still shown to have a number of redeeming features. Ditto the various expressions of parenthood and sexuality throughout the novel; community raising of children, individual education, single motherhood, gay and lesbian monogamy, heterosexual monogamy, and promiscuity are all featured here, and none are valorized or demonized.

I also really enjoyed the nano-sentient revolution towards the end. Revolt by AI or robots is, of course a common theme in science fiction, but this was a somewhat unusual portrayal, led as the revolt is by teaching robots, and the eventual resolution is an optimistic, although not particularly fleshed-out, vision of biological-mechanical coexistence.

Lastly, I have to mention the philosophy. Blackbear and Kal have some really interesting discussions about whether reproduction should belong to the individual (with Blackbear's perspective sometimes verging on nihilism) or the republic (with Kal's perspective occasionally drifting into etatism.) The Clickers have a subversive retelling of Genisis that I appreciated. And there are a number of excerpts from The Web, a dialogue written thousands of years earlier which provides a nostalgic glimpse of Merwen and other characters from A Door Into Ocean as they debate the nature of compassion. I'm not going to pretend that I entirely understood The Web - sometime soon I'd like to go back through and reread it - but it made me think more than I have while reading entire books on the topic.

Daughter of Elysium does have some flaws. The prose, while lovely, can get somewhat repetitive. The Urulan subplot drags on for a bit too long, in my opinion, and the idea of gorillas being reclassified as a different kind of human seemed farfetched. Worst of all, in the Web, which was presumably written not long after the events of A Door Into Ocean, there's a reference to a half-Valan Sharer. The hell? I realize that it's intended to show that Spinel settled down and had a happy life with Lystra, but it's explicitly stated more than once in the first book that Sharers were incapable of having children with Valan males, because after centuries of living without men, their bodies had altered to the point where heterosexual intercourse would cause toxic shock to their internal organs. The inconsistency annoys me. Nevertheless, this is a great novel, and a worthy sequel to its predecessor. I recommend these to anyone tired of drow (and their equivalents) who wants to read a thoughtful, complex story about love, parenthood, multiculturalism, population control, and the rights and revolts of AI.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a huge disappointment. I really enjoyed the first in this series, but here the writing was weak, the characters are ridiculous, and the story (such as it is) is so obvious that the conclusion is a complete anticlimax.

I think it is interesting to explore alternate gender depictions, but the author takes 19th century Victorian gender roles and just swaps the sexes - this would be embarrassing in a high-school writing class, much less in a published novel.

I also think it is cool to work in more real-world life, as in the issues of child-rearing, nursing, etc. But where the author added it here, it felt more than a little random, and made the characters quite a bit less likeable (their parenting approach was the alternate universe equivalent of TV as babysitter, and being too absorbed in their own work to really think about what their kids need).

I very nearly quit at a number of points, but stayed with it hoping for a surprise or a turn-around, but none came. Foreshadowing is one thing, but clearly signaling the resolution half-way through is pretty weak. Oh well.

[Scarlett · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels rough giving this book a three but Daughter of Elysium just didn't grab me the way I wished it would have.

My main issues are with the pacing and the focus of the narrative. The story was too meandering, the concepts and perspectives too broad. I would have liked to see the pov stick with a more intimate set of characters.

Similarly, the concepts broached were interesting, but lacked cohesion. Joan Slonczewski is obviously a brilliant microbiologist and they bring that passion to the content. But there was just too much discussion of intricate genetic processes that, in the end, wasn't pertinent to the story.

The last chapters of the final act have so much energy and momentum. I wish I could have seen this throughout the book.

I do want to say, experiencing the writings of a non-binary author from generations ago is really very meaningful. Especially when reflecting on the gender dynamics within their world building. I loved the first book in this series for that reason, and will continue to read the others despite my frustrations with this particular novel.

[Jeanette Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's entirely possible that late 20th Century feminist science fiction is my favourite genre. I felt truly happy whilst reading this book, and am slightly annoyed that it's taken me this long to find out that 'A Door Into Ocean' has sequels. It's like finding out that your favourite frock has pockets, but you didn't know until the 20th time of wearing it.
So, Daughter of Elysium ... in depth exploration of the problem of wanting to extend human life but also to have kids, lots of kids. Philosophical exploration of 'compassion' and who it's owed to. What is sentience? Who is human?
To come from the first chapter of Book One, with pairs of Sharers visiting Valedon, twin planet to their own Shora, to decide if the human inhabitants were 'human' by Sharer criteria, to the last chapter of Book 2 where 'humanity' has just got a whole lot bigger, has been a vastly entertaining and interesting ride. I absolutely loved this book, and I've dived straight into Book 3.

[Madalina Neagoe]

I enjoyed many of the ideas in the book, from the matriarchal society, to the webbed Sharers. However, what I loved most was the symbolism of the child. It was the presence of the child that made Doggie self-aware. Nanas were the droids most prone to developing thoughts and feelings because they worked in the close proximity of children. Only a child’s voice could end whitetrance, etc.
The idea that self-awareness is sparkes by feelings, and feelings are stirred by children was laid out so beautifully!
It did drag, though, and too many characters were built and left to wander. Tragedy struck quickly and ended abruptly, and no big sacrifice was made. Some points were raised and abandoned or explained away quickly. The tension build throughout the book, but the climax in almost nonexistent.
A good read, nonetheless.

[ambyr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sprawlingly complex, and yet thinly populated, this novel unfortunately sometimes gives the impression that there are only a handful of people with agency in the galaxy. It works best for me when it focuses in on the private lives of those characters, showing how the broader philosophical questions impact their day-to-day lives.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book just as much as the first even though it is drastically different. The world and character building are fantastic just as the first but this book has a wider narrative with a lot more side building. Despite this it never felt tedious or confusing. Can't wait to read the third one.

[Rachelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm probably not going to finish this, 1/4 of the way through and it's really not grabbing me. There are some great concepts, but unfortunately the writer's style is putting me to sleep and I'm not wanting to turn the page.

[Myha Heaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Slonczewski has a serious talent for creating a deeply visual experience & enchanting the reader. I love her writing style!

[Ward Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Masterful story"-Library Journal * "Magnificently detailed"-Chicago Sun Times The pristine city of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited by 'immortals' who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.* Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium, survive the corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless society. And what of the consciousness of self-aware nano-sentient servitors and their quest for vengence? * * "An enormously impressive achievement...A marvelous array of cultures presented in astonishing depth"-Kirkus Review "A thoughtful, well-crafted novel...Memorable...Intricate...Rich and Detailed...Touchingly Real"-Publishers Weekly

From Publishers Weekly

Like its predecessor, A Door into Ocean , this thoughtful, well-crafted novel is set on the ocean world of Shora. Shora's original settlers, the Sharers, are peace-loving women who live in close harmony with nature. They now share their world with the 12 floating cities of Elysium, a society of nearly ageless humans who live surrounded by wealth and advanced technology. The Windclans, a family hailing from a pastoral, underpopulated world where children are highly prized and women revered, come to work in one Elysian city. But as they try to adapt to the Elysians' unfamiliar ways, family members find themselves caught up in the political intrigues among the Elysians, the Sharers and their friends and enemies on neighboring planets--culminating in a confrontation with a potentially lethal adversary from within Elysium itself. Slonczewski's settings and alien cultures are rich and detailed, her characters memorable and often extremely endearing. Even against such an intricate plot and exotic backgrounds, her depictions of relationships, especially family life, are touchingly real.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A fistful of cultural conflicts centered on the ocean-covered planet Shora, where a thousand years have passed since the actions described in Slonczewski's hardcover debut novel, A Door Into Ocean (1986). Sharing Shora with the raft-dwelling, all-female, genetic-whiz Sharers are the floating cities of Elysium; the Elysians, immortal but sterile, are the leading bankers of the scattered human colonies of the Fold. Hearing disquieting reports of nuclear missiles on Urulan, a planet of warlike barbarians, the Elysians have invited translator Raincloud of the volcanic planet Bronze Sky to visit the Elysian city Helicon, to research Urulan goings-on; Raincloud's doctor husband, Blackbear, will help with Elysian research into reproduction and longevity. Numerous long-standing problems eventually threaten the status quo: a new supreme ruler emerges on Urulan, whence Raincloud must journey to defuse a threatening situation; various Heliconian secret banking projects become public knowledge, and the Sharers show their disapproval in traditional, nonviolent protests; the ubiquitous machines of Helicon, having become sentient and self-willed, make a bid for independence; meanwhile, a volcanic eruption on Bronze Sky wipes out most of Blackbear's family. A marvelous array of cultures presented in astonishing depth: an enormously impressive achievement, despite Slonczewski's inability to dramatize events rather than simply report them. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for a fine novel of world-building, in the vein of Herbert's Dune, and characters nuanced, new, yet familiar, like Niven's Known Space tales? Slonczewski offers up the five worlds of The Fold: Urulan, L'li, Bronze Sky, Valen,and Shora, all fascinating, all unique, all that remains of humanity after the destruction, long ago, of "Old Torr."

This is a story of cultural immersion, points of view slowly and subtly developed, and the fact that despite the trappings and traditions of societies dearly held, deep down everything is just a twist on basic human beliefs. The Story of Worldbeginning related by young Hawktalon on the Day of the Child holiday is a perfect example. The whole of Hawktalon's culture, on Bronze Sky, is another.

For all the beautifully rendered details of life on Shora, Bronze Sky, and the norms and values of all the planets, the whole novel revolves around the ancient and eternal question of what is human. As Kal Anaeashon, an Elysian, and Hawktalon's father, Blackbear, discuss on p.206:

"For Sharers," Kal went on, "to be human is to share; no other relation exists. For you Clickers, to be human is to serve..."
"To serve children, and one's goddess, and the Dark One."
"And the Dark One. Now, in Elysium, who serves?"
Blackbear thought for a moment, then he smiled. "No wonder your machines seem more like humans."
"More human than the humans, you mean [...]Now, the Urulite view is exactly the reverse of the Clickers: To be human is to master, to master men, women, and chattel... The Valans, now, are like tamed Urulites; instead of mastery, possession of material goods...but for L'liites, to be human is to suffer...they will suffer on...and never come to stand on their own feet."
"And Elysians?"
"To be Elysian is to rejoice. To pursue joy forever. If we don't age, what other pursuit makes sense?"

To the author's credit, as philosophical as this book's foundation is, it is not devoid of action and adventure. Mystery, romance (illicit and accepted), intrigue, deceit, and revolution all can be found in this far-flung story as intricately woven as the long, black braids of Blackbear's "goddess" and Hawktalon's mother, Raincloud.

Come, enter The Fold, and be entertained for light-years.

[TammyJo Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "A Door Into Ocean" by Joan Slonczewski years and years ago and this novel set on the same planet has been on my wish list for a long time. I got it as a gift this Christmas so I was finally able to read it.

I'll need to reread the first book again but this second novel seems to be set at least a thousand years after the first, possible thousands of years later. The Sharers are still there but the novel focuses on newcomers Raincloud, her husband Blackbear, and their two children who have been hired in one of the floating cities that make up Elysium. Thrust into a world unfamiliar, we get to see the culture, society, and science of the world through their participation in this new world and as part of a greater galactic community. I'm not a huge hard science fiction fan but Slonczewski is one of those authors that balances the descriptions so common to hard science fiction with a look at social issues and the personal lives of our viewpoint characters.

The book is divided into four parts that function as almost four shorter novels even though they built on each other. Before parts 2-4 we get sections from The Web, a collection of writing from a Sharer who was part Elysium (perhaps a connection to "A Door Into Ocean") and thus is trying to understand her world. The role of The Web is complex and a bit confusing both while you are reading it and how it functions into the plot; I felt a bit like it could have been left out, made an appendix, or simply woven into the rest of the stories instead of set aside at the end of each part.

A lot of things are coming to a head during the year this novel is set and it really felt like too much. I don't want to give away too much about the story but the final part also felt unnecessary to me as a reader, it could have been another sequel frankly. Also the fourth by trying to get to one of the major threads really seemed to leave the initial thread, threats from another planet, the very reason Raincloud is brought to Elysium too conveniently wrapped up. Spend more time on that issue, the Elysium longevity issue that Blackbear is working on, and the Sharers.

I did really like the book, I found the family unit as our viewpoint characters very engaging, I really liked how I didn't feel bored by the hard science, and I'd read more Slonczewski books based on this one and the prequeal.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raincloud and her husband, Blackbear, leave their homeworld of Bronze Sky for the world of Shora - inhabited by Elysians and sharers. But the Elysians are very different to other people - they've mastered longevity at the cost of fertility. They live in a small society where children are raised in large creches by robots and studying at university can take decades.

I struggled with this book and read it in fits and starts. On the one hand, its contrasting societies are very interesting. Bronze Sky is a world of true matriarchs where women are known as "goddesses" and men are perceived as the natural care-givers. The Elysians are fairly gender-neutral society with children being raised centrally, while the Sharers are an all-female society. Urulan, which is the most aggressive society, is very patriarchal with a strange under-current due to having mixed their DNA with simian DNA.

The contrasts between these varying societies is very interesting and I can see why this book is seen as a classic work of feminist science fiction. I liked how the characters were all complex and how the conflicts arose very naturally in the novel from all the different societies and their varying outlooks. What I struggled with is the pacing. It often lags as you read through Raincloud and Blackbear's "normal" days on Shora and there are extended extracts from "The Web" which is a key philosophical text on Shora. The philosophy and insights of the novel are great. Even the plot is good, though it lags at times.

I would definitely recommend this book but with the caution that you can't expect a roaring pace.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although others praise this, i found it to be a negative that the story was terribly slow moving. What took most time were pages of description; enough so that one could create a movie from it with no other writing being done.

The characters were varied, but hard to get to know and impossible for me to like. And the things that seemed to fascinate the author just didn't resonate with me. All in all it was a bad fit or me from the start, and the endless time spent on meaningless minutia was painful.

I'm putting it aside in favor of something that hopefully won't make me keep wondering why I'm still spending time reading this when there are so many other books out there. It may be perfect for someone else but not for me.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Loved this book!! The writing and character development was superb. I loved that the everyday child-rearing was done (mostly) by the Dad and that is was integrated into the whole plot line. Evan the small children had important parts to the story. I loved that real science( microbiology) was part of the story, also. But mostly I loved the two protagonists and how they related to each other and the society, so very different from their own, that they become a part of. I loved the contrast between the Elysiums and the people of Shora and how it mimics so many conflicts in our own world. Highly recommended!

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did make it to the end of this novel, but I felt there was quite a bit of trudgery on my part. I am used to " walking" in different worlds; years of Pern, Darkover, Asimov, Heinlein, David Weber. I did not find any of the characters completely compelling, or any of the concepts new. I got rather tired of reading the religious text, the Web. I found the main focus family that insisted on carrying their children constantly with their fixation on braids somewhat annoying. The only character I ended up being fairly fond of was Doggie. Each group of aliens had their own distinctive beliefs; many of these beliefs just seemed somewhat silly to me.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 2.5 stars book but I rounded up to a full liked it.

Joan seems to take forever to get to the point and even the climax is not action filled but there is a lot of interesting detail about this very unusual world. If you like action do not touch this book.

The climax feels abrupt. Do the sequels take off from here? The Sharers work their magic again and broker an implausibly clean solution.

This book is really about getting to the singularity where it stops. Still I liked it better than Accelerando which tried to describe life after the singularity.