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Mission Child
Mission Child is an expansion of Maureen McHugh's "The Cost to Be Wise," a fascinating novella from the original anthology Starlight 1.
Janna's world was colonized long ago by Earth and then left on its own for centuries. When "offworlders" return, their superior technology upsets the balance of a developing civilization.
Mission Child follows the journeys of Janna after she and her young partner escape marauders who attack their hometown. The girl, fast becoming mature beyond her years, sets off across the planet on an odyssey of adventure, poverty, hard work, war, famine, and rebirth. Janna uses her meager skills to eke out a living in a changing world; she gains and loses a husband, a child, friends, jobs, and more.
McHugh weaves together anthropology, sociology, psychology, and gender relations in this wondrous journey. Janna assumes the guise of a boy for protection, but eventually becomes "Jan" to herself as well as others. Reminiscent of Ursula K. Le Guin's insightful works set in the Hainish universe, Mission Child will doubtless be nominated for a Tiptree Award for its exploration of Janna's gender identity. --Bonnie Bouman
Janna's world was colonized long ago by Earth and then left on its own for centuries. When "offworlders" return, their superior technology upsets the balance of a developing civilization.
Mission Child follows the journeys of Janna after she and her young partner escape marauders who attack their hometown. The girl, fast becoming mature beyond her years, sets off across the planet on an odyssey of adventure, poverty, hard work, war, famine, and rebirth. Janna uses her meager skills to eke out a living in a changing world; she gains and loses a husband, a child, friends, jobs, and more.
McHugh weaves together anthropology, sociology, psychology, and gender relations in this wondrous journey. Janna assumes the guise of a boy for protection, but eventually becomes "Jan" to herself as well as others. Reminiscent of Ursula K. Le Guin's insightful works set in the Hainish universe, Mission Child will doubtless be nominated for a Tiptree Award for its exploration of Janna's gender identity. --Bonnie Bouman
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
857 people want to read
About the author
Maureen F. McHugh
119 books283 followersMaureen F. McHugh (born 1959) is a science fiction and fantasy writer.
Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang (1992), was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. In 1996 she won a Hugo Award for her short story "The Lincoln Train" (1995). McHugh's short story collection Mothers and Other Monsters was shortlisted as a finalist for the Story Prize in December, 2005.
Maureen is currently a partner at No Mimes Media, an Alternate Reality Game company which she co-founded with Steve Peters and Behnam Karbassi in March 2009. Prior to founding No Mimes, Maureen worked for 42 Entertainment, where she was a Writer and/or Managing Editor for numerous Alternate Reality Game projects, including Year Zero and I Love Bees.
Her first published story appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 1989. Since then, she has written four novels and over twenty short stories. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang (1992), was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award, and won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. In 1996 she won a Hugo Award for her short story "The Lincoln Train" (1995). McHugh's short story collection Mothers and Other Monsters was shortlisted as a finalist for the Story Prize in December, 2005.
Maureen is currently a partner at No Mimes Media, an Alternate Reality Game company which she co-founded with Steve Peters and Behnam Karbassi in March 2009. Prior to founding No Mimes, Maureen worked for 42 Entertainment, where she was a Writer and/or Managing Editor for numerous Alternate Reality Game projects, including Year Zero and I Love Bees.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
July 15, 2013
This is my favorite, favorite, favorite kind of science fiction. Social SF, or sociological SF, as seen through the observations of a protagonist who does not have the whole picture. A world explored through the eyes of a single character, often limited by language or situation. This book belongs on my shelf with Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and Nicola Griffith's Ammonite.
I got to talk with Maureen McHugh this past weekend. She said she wasn't a plotter. She preferred "gardener" as opposed to the "architects" who plan their books. She said she wasn't much good at plot, and tended to sprawl. I said that Mission Child sprawled but sprawl seems appropriate for a book with a scope of years and continents. Lives sprawl.
"Actually," she said, "Mission Child is a trilogy crammed into one novel." Which makes sense. Definitely a work of character-tending rather than rigid plot structures.
I had planned to sleep on the plane last night, but instead I read the last sixty pages, finishing just as the wheels touched down. As tired as I was, I couldn't put the book down.
I got to talk with Maureen McHugh this past weekend. She said she wasn't a plotter. She preferred "gardener" as opposed to the "architects" who plan their books. She said she wasn't much good at plot, and tended to sprawl. I said that Mission Child sprawled but sprawl seems appropriate for a book with a scope of years and continents. Lives sprawl.
"Actually," she said, "Mission Child is a trilogy crammed into one novel." Which makes sense. Definitely a work of character-tending rather than rigid plot structures.
I had planned to sleep on the plane last night, but instead I read the last sixty pages, finishing just as the wheels touched down. As tired as I was, I couldn't put the book down.
June 15, 2022
Janna is a young girl living in Hamra, a settlement in a near-arctic region of a colony planet. Her life is a hard and primitive one among the clans, but helped by Hamra having a Mission from English-speaking off-worlders who are trying to spread "appropriate technology". This is knowledge and practices informed by modern science, but accessible to the clans at their technology level, which is relatively primitive. But other off-worlders are far less careful about the impact that their technology has on the society of this world, and Hamra is destroyed by raiders armed with modern tech, with Janna as one of only two survivors having to deal with massive turmoil in the clan society caused by access to modern tech such as rifles and snowmobiles.
What follows is Janna as she tries to make a life through the various sub-cultures and ethnic groups of the planet, interacting with off-worlders and seeing the impact that their influence has on the colony, both positive and negative.
So it's criminal that this book is out of print and not available as an ebook. It's not only superb science fiction from both an Earth biome on a colony world sense, but a wonderful exploration of both cultural friction points where an advanced culture meets a more primitive one (even with the best of intentions) and the experience of an outsider as they find themself living in the margins and along those friction points. Most off-worlders speak English which Janna understands, but few on-planet people do, making Janna very useful to the off-worlders for her translation abilities.
It also feels incredibly modern with a genderqueer protagonist (that term is not used) and dealing with issues of colonialism which is another touchpoint of modern SF. All while using rigorous science around human existence on a colony world where the amino acids of local life forms don't line up with ours. The level of detail on this stuff is wonderful, extending to such things as the creation of soil that can grow human-useful plants (decades before The Martian showed us), to greater infant mortality rates due to exposure to allergens (decades before Aurora showed us), and even pandemic medicine (decades before 2020 showed us).
If you can get hold of this, it's well worth a read.
What follows is Janna as she tries to make a life through the various sub-cultures and ethnic groups of the planet, interacting with off-worlders and seeing the impact that their influence has on the colony, both positive and negative.
So it's criminal that this book is out of print and not available as an ebook. It's not only superb science fiction from both an Earth biome on a colony world sense, but a wonderful exploration of both cultural friction points where an advanced culture meets a more primitive one (even with the best of intentions) and the experience of an outsider as they find themself living in the margins and along those friction points. Most off-worlders speak English which Janna understands, but few on-planet people do, making Janna very useful to the off-worlders for her translation abilities.
It also feels incredibly modern with a genderqueer protagonist (that term is not used) and dealing with issues of colonialism which is another touchpoint of modern SF. All while using rigorous science around human existence on a colony world where the amino acids of local life forms don't line up with ours. The level of detail on this stuff is wonderful, extending to such things as the creation of soil that can grow human-useful plants (decades before The Martian showed us), to greater infant mortality rates due to exposure to allergens (decades before Aurora showed us), and even pandemic medicine (decades before 2020 showed us).
If you can get hold of this, it's well worth a read.
June 16, 2022
Finished! It takes so long to eye-read anymore. It took an audio free vacation to finish and I only had half the book to read. While the book was not particularly compelling, I still liked it. Some really beautiful, if stark writing. Review to Come.
I finished this a couple of weeks ago but it's still with me, which is a testament to its power. This book is really dense with issues and events, most of which are quite tragic, and yet, it's hard to say this book has a plot. It doesn't, not in the traditional sense where a goal is achieved. No, we follow Janna from the time she is 14 or so (maybe 16), living in a Finland-esque cold region populated very sparsely by nomadic tribes. She had the advantage of living in a Mission town run by off-worlders trying to introduce them to "appropriate technologies". Then . After that event she wanders and wanders where horrible things continue to befall her. She ends up in a place where she is mistaken for a boy because of the clothes she's wearing having replaced her worn and damaged clothing with those of a dead man she came across in her wanderings south through the tundra. And this is sort of the way of this book. Things happen to Jan/Janna and she is buffeted here and there. It's a large slice-of-life kind of story, which you might think would be aimless, but it really is not.
The blurb says it's about gender and gender expression, but that's really only a small fraction of the topics explored in this book. Others are (but not limited to): technological disparity between groups, the idea of home/family/clan, the differences and similarities between healers and doctors, how language can shape our experiences and how we appear to others and they to us, rediscovery of a colony world and how to handle the now-native, low-tech people living there (sort of Prime Directive vibes or rather lack thereof).
I don't think I stressed enough how beautiful the writing is in this book.
Also, please read my buddy reader's review of this book, which is much better than mine: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished this a couple of weeks ago but it's still with me, which is a testament to its power. This book is really dense with issues and events, most of which are quite tragic, and yet, it's hard to say this book has a plot. It doesn't, not in the traditional sense where a goal is achieved. No, we follow Janna from the time she is 14 or so (maybe 16), living in a Finland-esque cold region populated very sparsely by nomadic tribes. She had the advantage of living in a Mission town run by off-worlders trying to introduce them to "appropriate technologies". Then . After that event she wanders and wanders where horrible things continue to befall her. She ends up in a place where she is mistaken for a boy because of the clothes she's wearing having replaced her worn and damaged clothing with those of a dead man she came across in her wanderings south through the tundra. And this is sort of the way of this book. Things happen to Jan/Janna and she is buffeted here and there. It's a large slice-of-life kind of story, which you might think would be aimless, but it really is not.
The blurb says it's about gender and gender expression, but that's really only a small fraction of the topics explored in this book. Others are (but not limited to): technological disparity between groups, the idea of home/family/clan, the differences and similarities between healers and doctors, how language can shape our experiences and how we appear to others and they to us, rediscovery of a colony world and how to handle the now-native, low-tech people living there (sort of Prime Directive vibes or rather lack thereof).
I don't think I stressed enough how beautiful the writing is in this book.
Also, please read my buddy reader's review of this book, which is much better than mine: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
August 31, 2022
Well. That was an unexpected encounter. I wasn't prepared to be judging a thing from quite so local a viewpoint.
The narrative takes place on an alien planet once colonized by humans, but is so straightforward parallel to our Earth locations/cultural spheres, that the 'other worldliness' never really registers - rather, the setup reads as an excuse to play around recognizably established turf without regard to exact cultural accuracy. Fine, if the book had a comment or something original to contribute upon it, but rather than inventing anything new, the book keeps perpetuating finite existing norms.
We start our journey from an arctic tundra of nightless summers, populated by reindeer hunting tribes persons - like our protagonist Janna -, named almost exclusively with Finnish names, and representing various culturally and geographically familiar features; feeling so distinctly based on / inspired by the history of the interactions of Fennoscandic tribes; the urbanization and cultural re-educations, it's indeed quite impossible to read as anything other than.
After experiencing confusion by 'Europeanization' in interactions with the coastal folks on homefront, Janna's journey of self-discovery continues down south, to among more Earthly parallel cultures.
For a story concentrating heavily on Janna's gender experience, the narrative is helplessly rudimentary with most of its presentation and ideas about gender overall; for a good part of it (which I understand is the original novelette) the narrative plays with a tropey 'crossdressing' gimmick of a person 'displaying gender not their own' because of a misunderstanding in communications; in its own words "my clothes were falling apart and there was a dead man there and I took his clothes". There are teen comedies with greater nuance in execution out there.
Even further, rather than focusing on exploring ('an alien') individual's personal reflections of self, or expanding on the idea of identity beyond gender and the thought "Inside I didn't feel like a man or a woman, I only felt like myself", the narrative keeps accentuating specific existing ('human') social norms by meandering in these limited, two-way gendered expressions, measuring itself and others - regardless culture - in strictly "he or she" terms; consistently tying identity to gender, gender to appearances and behavioral patterns.
For what is lauded as a speculative exploration in gender, the narrative seems to do near nothing with the changing cultural landscapes, either (later expansion upon the original 'Northern novelette') - instead the story brings with itself its two-directional thinking, and views any culture it encounters through this limited filter: applying he/she ideology to anything it observes; describing every person in gendered terms and in relation to the standard of boy/girl, man/woman, he/she. And never sheds the thinking, other than to say it doesn't fit.
"Why were there only two choices, man and woman?"
And, perhaps most grievously of all, precisely because the story seemingly chooses to base itself upon Finnic/Sámi influences, one of the most opportune things the narrative could've done to expand its lacking examination on the nature of gendering was noticeably absent altogether: the aspect of non-gendered language (like Finnish and Sámi languages) vs gendered language (which the story exclusively uses, even in allusions to conversations in other languages). If Janna and their kin were indeed proxies to Finnic/Sámi tribes - as all would suggest - their inner language would not revolve around Germanic 'he/she', and could've indeed been used to draw focus to the book's now consistently gendered language and to the attitudes rooted to it.
The prose is - indeed, in its customarily standard English language manner - he/she designated from the get go; taking for granted the division created by this specific linguistic feature. And because of this, it is also uncertain how much weight the ever present he/she divide is supposed to originally have on Janna, until the encounter with 'urban coastal folk' and the then sudden active focus on gender; the stressing over presenting by gender, and the displaying of gender not in synch with one's own self.
If indeed the narrative's intended message, the story seemed to have hard time expressing the idea of the tribes person Janna's sense of self in their own gender-nonfocused cultural environment being disrupted by subjugation to the language and expectations of gender coded 'offworlder culture'. A message, which I could well appreciate, but which this was far from portraying adequately.
And, if it wasn't the message, what was?
An engaging and peculiar read, to a point. Specifically for that surprising fact of being a rare one to draw its inspiration from Fennoscandic features. Entertaining to observe and speculate upon, but ultimately quite frustratingly ill-paced and lazily conceptualized - nary an independent thought in its dubiously stiff and fumbling approach; its narrow scope viewing everything through a very limited range lens, showing hardly any variance in angle.
2 to 3 stars. I would so like to rate this higher for the thought, but it fails so hard on the one thing it sets out to focus on, and has no narrative strength to hold it up otherwise, either.
The narrative takes place on an alien planet once colonized by humans, but is so straightforward parallel to our Earth locations/cultural spheres, that the 'other worldliness' never really registers - rather, the setup reads as an excuse to play around recognizably established turf without regard to exact cultural accuracy. Fine, if the book had a comment or something original to contribute upon it, but rather than inventing anything new, the book keeps perpetuating finite existing norms.
We start our journey from an arctic tundra of nightless summers, populated by reindeer hunting tribes persons - like our protagonist Janna -, named almost exclusively with Finnish names, and representing various culturally and geographically familiar features; feeling so distinctly based on / inspired by the history of the interactions of Fennoscandic tribes; the urbanization and cultural re-educations, it's indeed quite impossible to read as anything other than.
After experiencing confusion by 'Europeanization' in interactions with the coastal folks on homefront, Janna's journey of self-discovery continues down south, to among more Earthly parallel cultures.
For a story concentrating heavily on Janna's gender experience, the narrative is helplessly rudimentary with most of its presentation and ideas about gender overall; for a good part of it (which I understand is the original novelette) the narrative plays with a tropey 'crossdressing' gimmick of a person 'displaying gender not their own' because of a misunderstanding in communications; in its own words "my clothes were falling apart and there was a dead man there and I took his clothes". There are teen comedies with greater nuance in execution out there.
Even further, rather than focusing on exploring ('an alien') individual's personal reflections of self, or expanding on the idea of identity beyond gender and the thought "Inside I didn't feel like a man or a woman, I only felt like myself", the narrative keeps accentuating specific existing ('human') social norms by meandering in these limited, two-way gendered expressions, measuring itself and others - regardless culture - in strictly "he or she" terms; consistently tying identity to gender, gender to appearances and behavioral patterns.
For what is lauded as a speculative exploration in gender, the narrative seems to do near nothing with the changing cultural landscapes, either (later expansion upon the original 'Northern novelette') - instead the story brings with itself its two-directional thinking, and views any culture it encounters through this limited filter: applying he/she ideology to anything it observes; describing every person in gendered terms and in relation to the standard of boy/girl, man/woman, he/she. And never sheds the thinking, other than to say it doesn't fit.
"Why were there only two choices, man and woman?"
And, perhaps most grievously of all, precisely because the story seemingly chooses to base itself upon Finnic/Sámi influences, one of the most opportune things the narrative could've done to expand its lacking examination on the nature of gendering was noticeably absent altogether: the aspect of non-gendered language (like Finnish and Sámi languages) vs gendered language (which the story exclusively uses, even in allusions to conversations in other languages). If Janna and their kin were indeed proxies to Finnic/Sámi tribes - as all would suggest - their inner language would not revolve around Germanic 'he/she', and could've indeed been used to draw focus to the book's now consistently gendered language and to the attitudes rooted to it.
The prose is - indeed, in its customarily standard English language manner - he/she designated from the get go; taking for granted the division created by this specific linguistic feature. And because of this, it is also uncertain how much weight the ever present he/she divide is supposed to originally have on Janna, until the encounter with 'urban coastal folk' and the then sudden active focus on gender; the stressing over presenting by gender, and the displaying of gender not in synch with one's own self.
If indeed the narrative's intended message, the story seemed to have hard time expressing the idea of the tribes person Janna's sense of self in their own gender-nonfocused cultural environment being disrupted by subjugation to the language and expectations of gender coded 'offworlder culture'. A message, which I could well appreciate, but which this was far from portraying adequately.
And, if it wasn't the message, what was?
An engaging and peculiar read, to a point. Specifically for that surprising fact of being a rare one to draw its inspiration from Fennoscandic features. Entertaining to observe and speculate upon, but ultimately quite frustratingly ill-paced and lazily conceptualized - nary an independent thought in its dubiously stiff and fumbling approach; its narrow scope viewing everything through a very limited range lens, showing hardly any variance in angle.
2 to 3 stars. I would so like to rate this higher for the thought, but it fails so hard on the one thing it sets out to focus on, and has no narrative strength to hold it up otherwise, either.
July 28, 2015
this is the second or third time for me to read this book... each time i read it, it seems a little different to me.
the first time i read it, i was terribly frustrated by the apparent aimlessness of the protagonist, how she seemed rather spineless, unable to take her own fate into her hands.
this time... this time the book seems more like life.
sometimes i wonder if we of the west are not ruined by fiction. most fiction (especially since the odious notion of the perfection of the Hero's Tale structure) follows a nice, linear path from protag wants to protag gets, with of course necessary complications obediently ensuing to muddle things but only temporarily.
enough of this stuff crammed into our brains and we begin to think that's what life is supposed to be like: an orderly good ship from point of embarkation to point of debarkation. but really, it's more like doing celestial navigation in a very small sailboat--we aim for the north star, but we are at the dubious mercy of the currents.
in this story, we get a protagonist who makes very few clear choices, and even some of those are middle of the road. but reading it this time, i saw that many of her choices were making roads where none had existed before. she's a master sailor smart enough to aim where she can, but sail where she must.
and this is a McHugh book. she writes with such beauty and precision and stripped-down unsentimentality. she writes about hard things sometimes, things it would be easier to turn away from, but she never glosses them with sugarcoating or paints them larger than life. it's like a meditation: she just sits with these things, and examines them for what they are.
it's a masterwork. don't miss it.
the first time i read it, i was terribly frustrated by the apparent aimlessness of the protagonist, how she seemed rather spineless, unable to take her own fate into her hands.
this time... this time the book seems more like life.
sometimes i wonder if we of the west are not ruined by fiction. most fiction (especially since the odious notion of the perfection of the Hero's Tale structure) follows a nice, linear path from protag wants to protag gets, with of course necessary complications obediently ensuing to muddle things but only temporarily.
enough of this stuff crammed into our brains and we begin to think that's what life is supposed to be like: an orderly good ship from point of embarkation to point of debarkation. but really, it's more like doing celestial navigation in a very small sailboat--we aim for the north star, but we are at the dubious mercy of the currents.
in this story, we get a protagonist who makes very few clear choices, and even some of those are middle of the road. but reading it this time, i saw that many of her choices were making roads where none had existed before. she's a master sailor smart enough to aim where she can, but sail where she must.
and this is a McHugh book. she writes with such beauty and precision and stripped-down unsentimentality. she writes about hard things sometimes, things it would be easier to turn away from, but she never glosses them with sugarcoating or paints them larger than life. it's like a meditation: she just sits with these things, and examines them for what they are.
it's a masterwork. don't miss it.
March 2, 2020
read for Women of the Future group's 'bookshelf challenge' and because I loved CMZ
Deeply satisfying (despite ) exploration of themes including gender politics & gender identity, colonialism, classism, language development, and the definitions of family, friendship, clans, etc. Intelligent and thoughtful. Qualifies as 'social science fiction.'
Love the world-building, the slow reveal of the shape of this colony world, the different peoples, the levels of technology. The idea of an 'appropriate technology' mission. The concept that there are "foreigners" and then there are "offworlders" who are even more foreign. The survival & sustenance chapters that mentioned things like "white tea" which is hot water when you're lucky enough to have water and fuel and a cup.
Beautifully written. The voice of the mc is perfect.
"We were both alike in that we were foreigners here. We were children in their eyes and they were children in ours. Our lack of language made us appear simple to each other when we weren't."
Imo: Not enjoyable. Not a fast or immersive read. But accessible & highly recommended. Worthy of the author China Mountain Zhang, could even be read as a companion to it. Worthy to be recommended to fans of Chad Oliver and The Word for World is Forest. I will try to find more from McHugh in my various libraries.
Would make a good buddy read.
Spoilers above are mild. Read them if you're thinking you'll pass, or if you've read some of the book and are not sure but might dnf. I might be able to persuade you to persevere. :)
Deeply satisfying (despite ) exploration of themes including gender politics & gender identity, colonialism, classism, language development, and the definitions of family, friendship, clans, etc. Intelligent and thoughtful. Qualifies as 'social science fiction.'
Love the world-building, the slow reveal of the shape of this colony world, the different peoples, the levels of technology. The idea of an 'appropriate technology' mission. The concept that there are "foreigners" and then there are "offworlders" who are even more foreign. The survival & sustenance chapters that mentioned things like "white tea" which is hot water when you're lucky enough to have water and fuel and a cup.
Beautifully written. The voice of the mc is perfect.
"We were both alike in that we were foreigners here. We were children in their eyes and they were children in ours. Our lack of language made us appear simple to each other when we weren't."
Imo: Not enjoyable. Not a fast or immersive read. But accessible & highly recommended. Worthy of the author China Mountain Zhang, could even be read as a companion to it. Worthy to be recommended to fans of Chad Oliver and The Word for World is Forest. I will try to find more from McHugh in my various libraries.
Would make a good buddy read.
Spoilers above are mild. Read them if you're thinking you'll pass, or if you've read some of the book and are not sure but might dnf. I might be able to persuade you to persevere. :)
January 26, 2021
My favorite SF is sociological SF, and this is a perfect example. We experience the world Jan grew up in through her eyes and are not told anything else beyond that, and gradually, as she does, we understand the larger setting she is in, the offworld colony she is on, and how it's made up. Here are no evil empires, no big conglomerates, no intergalactic wars; it's settlers on another planet. Not too far from an allegory of European settlers in native America, or on the African continent, or the Arctics, on our own Earth, but while that parallel might be easy to make, it does not seem to be the point, or the only point, at least. No conclusions are offered to the reader. You are invited in to experience Jan's culture, her life, her world, which is her own, alien to us at first, but familiar to her, and it's deeply fascinating and immersive.
Brutal, unsentimental and highly emotive, it's a tale of one woman's personal and literal journey and survival from offworld clan to modern city to country life with a pandemic. Disturbing and eerily relevant.
ETA: My only gripe is not the book's fault, but the tagging here on GR. I do not see that this is a trans story at all, or representative of that in any way, neither is it LGBT, and I don't get why it's been labeled as such. Not belonging to the first cagetory myself, I may be wrong, but certainly wearing men's clothes for practical reasons and being comfortable in it does not make you queer in my opinion. But I digress...
Brutal, unsentimental and highly emotive, it's a tale of one woman's personal and literal journey and survival from offworld clan to modern city to country life with a pandemic. Disturbing and eerily relevant.
ETA: My only gripe is not the book's fault, but the tagging here on GR. I do not see that this is a trans story at all, or representative of that in any way, neither is it LGBT, and I don't get why it's been labeled as such. Not belonging to the first cagetory myself, I may be wrong, but certainly wearing men's clothes for practical reasons and being comfortable in it does not make you queer in my opinion. But I digress...
July 17, 2020
March 22, 2020: Stalled at not quite halfway in.
Start of the book is her 1996 novella "The Cost to Be Wise," available at https://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content... This is a fallen-colony story (as is the novel), and it's grim. I skipped over the novella, which I'd read years ago. The novel itself is less grim, but hardly cheerful. And the MC is not a take-charge sort of protagonist! So I'm putting it on hiatus for now.
Library book now returned, since they are (sort 0f) open again. I gave up. Not for me.
As others have remarked, I loved her first novel, China Mountain Zhang and also liked her NEKROPOLIS. But not this one!
Start of the book is her 1996 novella "The Cost to Be Wise," available at https://smallbeerpress.com/wp-content... This is a fallen-colony story (as is the novel), and it's grim. I skipped over the novella, which I'd read years ago. The novel itself is less grim, but hardly cheerful. And the MC is not a take-charge sort of protagonist! So I'm putting it on hiatus for now.
Library book now returned, since they are (sort 0f) open again. I gave up. Not for me.
As others have remarked, I loved her first novel, China Mountain Zhang and also liked her NEKROPOLIS. But not this one!
October 14, 2013
An epic masterpiece!
Mothers & Other Monsters excepted, I’ve read the entirety of Maureen McHugh’s oeuvre. (“Devoured” is more like it; after stumbling upon her latest release, After the Apocalypse, I requested every McHugh title my local library owned - including any scifi anthologies containing her short stories - and consumed them all within the space of just a few months. She’s the greatest thing since Margaret Atwood, yo!) Mission Child is far and away my favorite of the bunch.
Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of years into the future, the citizens of Earth have pushed their settlements forever outward, colonizing other planets throughout the universe. Young Janna lives a sparse existence on the north pole of one of these “offworld” planets. In Hamra Mission, she and her clan learn about “appropriate technologies” from earth-born missionaries. When her village is attacked and destroyed by a hostile band of raiders, Janna must struggle to find a new home – first with her husband’s clan, later in a refugee camp for indigent peoples, and finally in the “civilized” world. Throughout her journey, Janna struggles with her self-identity and gender expression.
Born a female, Janna begins dressing and “passing” as a man as a teenager in the refugee camp; she makes the astute observation that women traveling alone are at great risk of gender-based violence. Eventually, she begins to identify as both a man and a woman. When offered (by her employer, which provides gender counseling to its employees!) an implant that will impart some male characteristics, enabling her try out another gender without undergoing surgery, Janna jumps at the chance. Throughout the story, she resists others’ attempts to label her; neither woman nor man, Janna is just that: Janna. (Grandmama Lili’s name for Janna is my favorite: “son-in-law.”) Novels featuring transgender and/or genderqueer protagonists are few and far between, making MISSION CHILD the rarest of gems. (FYI: The titular character of McHugh’s debut novel, China Mountain Zhang, is a gay man. Pass ‘em along to those in search of good LGBTQ fiction.)
Mission Child is a masterpiece with true epic potential. Though I don't know of any plans for sequels, prequels, or the like, I sincerely hope that McHugh revisits Janna’s world – or, better yet, introduces us to the inhabitants of another of Earth’s sister planets. Mission Child sets the stage for what could easily be an epic series. McHugh’s knack for creating fully realized future worlds is on full display here, and Janna and her kin will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page on her story.
Major trigger warnings for violence – especially sexual and gender-based violence, though rape is thankfully implied rather than described – sickness, death, child loss, poverty, and speciesism.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2012/04/27/...
Mothers & Other Monsters excepted, I’ve read the entirety of Maureen McHugh’s oeuvre. (“Devoured” is more like it; after stumbling upon her latest release, After the Apocalypse, I requested every McHugh title my local library owned - including any scifi anthologies containing her short stories - and consumed them all within the space of just a few months. She’s the greatest thing since Margaret Atwood, yo!) Mission Child is far and away my favorite of the bunch.
Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of years into the future, the citizens of Earth have pushed their settlements forever outward, colonizing other planets throughout the universe. Young Janna lives a sparse existence on the north pole of one of these “offworld” planets. In Hamra Mission, she and her clan learn about “appropriate technologies” from earth-born missionaries. When her village is attacked and destroyed by a hostile band of raiders, Janna must struggle to find a new home – first with her husband’s clan, later in a refugee camp for indigent peoples, and finally in the “civilized” world. Throughout her journey, Janna struggles with her self-identity and gender expression.
Born a female, Janna begins dressing and “passing” as a man as a teenager in the refugee camp; she makes the astute observation that women traveling alone are at great risk of gender-based violence. Eventually, she begins to identify as both a man and a woman. When offered (by her employer, which provides gender counseling to its employees!) an implant that will impart some male characteristics, enabling her try out another gender without undergoing surgery, Janna jumps at the chance. Throughout the story, she resists others’ attempts to label her; neither woman nor man, Janna is just that: Janna. (Grandmama Lili’s name for Janna is my favorite: “son-in-law.”) Novels featuring transgender and/or genderqueer protagonists are few and far between, making MISSION CHILD the rarest of gems. (FYI: The titular character of McHugh’s debut novel, China Mountain Zhang, is a gay man. Pass ‘em along to those in search of good LGBTQ fiction.)
Mission Child is a masterpiece with true epic potential. Though I don't know of any plans for sequels, prequels, or the like, I sincerely hope that McHugh revisits Janna’s world – or, better yet, introduces us to the inhabitants of another of Earth’s sister planets. Mission Child sets the stage for what could easily be an epic series. McHugh’s knack for creating fully realized future worlds is on full display here, and Janna and her kin will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page on her story.
Major trigger warnings for violence – especially sexual and gender-based violence, though rape is thankfully implied rather than described – sickness, death, child loss, poverty, and speciesism.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2012/04/27/...
November 29, 2017
‘Mission Child’ is a thoughtful sci-fi novel by the same author as China Mountain Zhang, which I thought was brilliant. Despite a similar structure and themes, I didn’t find it quite as original and profound. China Mountain Zhang was McHugh’s first novel, impressively enough. ‘Mission Child’ also follows the struggles and dilemmas of daily life in a future world, rather than focusing on some grand world-saving plot. Rather than using multiple points of view, though, ‘Mission Child’ has just one: Janna/Jan. It’s also a great deal more brutal, as Janna lives on an area of an alien planet with a low technology level. There’s some interesting subtext about this being a deliberate experiment in sustainability, however it’s also a fragile one. The arrival of more advanced technology, specifically guns, destabilises the subsistence economy and forces Janna to flee for their life. Janna’s odyssey in search of a new home is sensitively told and provokes reflection on the parallels between international and interplanetary immigration.
Another fascinating theme throughout the book is gender, as Janna/Jan feels themself to be both man and woman. (The novel is in the first person and, as far as I can tell, the equivalent in current terms would be nonbinary, so I’m using ‘they/them’ pronouns.) This is addressed thoughtfully and undramatically. I also appreciated the clever examination of how technology shapes culture and society, especially the co-existence of the very advanced and very basic. McHugh is not concerned with glorifying technology in itself, as sci-fi sometimes does, but in exploring its impact on the daily life of normal people. Janna and those they meet are not the high-flying rich of the future, in fact quite the opposite: displaced, homeless, without the skills to access decent employment. Not enough novels consider such people, except sometimes to glamorise criminal exploits. There is no glamour here. Indeed, there are some truly horrible depictions of war and plague. ‘Mission Child’ doesn’t wallow in gratuitous horror, rather it considers the unintended consequences of settling other planets through the eyes of a unique and compelling narrator. The cultural world-building is its greatest strength, one unusual enough to be worthy of comment in the sci-fi genre.
Another fascinating theme throughout the book is gender, as Janna/Jan feels themself to be both man and woman. (The novel is in the first person and, as far as I can tell, the equivalent in current terms would be nonbinary, so I’m using ‘they/them’ pronouns.) This is addressed thoughtfully and undramatically. I also appreciated the clever examination of how technology shapes culture and society, especially the co-existence of the very advanced and very basic. McHugh is not concerned with glorifying technology in itself, as sci-fi sometimes does, but in exploring its impact on the daily life of normal people. Janna and those they meet are not the high-flying rich of the future, in fact quite the opposite: displaced, homeless, without the skills to access decent employment. Not enough novels consider such people, except sometimes to glamorise criminal exploits. There is no glamour here. Indeed, there are some truly horrible depictions of war and plague. ‘Mission Child’ doesn’t wallow in gratuitous horror, rather it considers the unintended consequences of settling other planets through the eyes of a unique and compelling narrator. The cultural world-building is its greatest strength, one unusual enough to be worthy of comment in the sci-fi genre.
October 13, 2014
I had completely forgotten that the short-story collection "Mothers and Other Monsters," which I'd read this summer, was by the same author. So it was a surprise to begin reading this and think..."Hey, this seems awfully familiar." Apparently, this book had its start in one of the short stories--though I forget the title--with only a few slight differences that I could see. It was nice, to see where this character I'd met, briefly, months ago, would go and what she would become. Though I can see, I guess, what some reviewers mean when they said it had "no plot," or something to that effect, I wasn't bothered by it. Sure, the character kind of just wandered around, with no clearly defined "goal" or anything, but honestly it wasn't like the story was pointless, just that she was searching not for a specific thing or person or place, just something less tangible. If the theme here is searching for something, then it makes sense that there would be a certain amount of confused wandering about, uncertainty, etc. Which I think is a perfectly good basis for a story. And the ending, though it wasn't exactly what or at a point that I would have thought it would be, still worked well. I wasn't like, "What...? Where'd the rest of the book go?" which has happened before and is terribly frustrating, as I'm sure anyone who reads much, or at all really, can attest to. So a book with interesting circumstances and characters, which moves along and has some meaning to it, and to wrap it all up has a satisfying ending...I enjoyed it. And though I know some reviewers had a problem with the "simple" or "awkward" prose, and I'll agree that it wasn't the greatest I'd ever seen, it told the story effectively, and also seemed to give a sense of voice, even the sense that the character telling the story came from a different place and spoke a different language--which was the case, after all.
So, not exactly epic, and not heavy sci-fi, but good in any case.
So, not exactly epic, and not heavy sci-fi, but good in any case.
November 18, 2014
McHugh's writing in Mission Child reminds me so much of Ursula LeGuin (which is high praise from me). Like much of LeGuin's writing, this novel is about social science - that it is set on a different planet is not the most important thing. What is important are the ways people interact with each other and how social norms and pressures inform those interactions. It is also a sensitive and intelligent portrayal of a transgendered character. If any of this interests you, I recommend Mission Child highly.
September 1, 2017
An excellent example of what good science fiction can be; thought provoking, real, and offering insight into the human soul and condition.
Don't expect any spaceship battles or killer robots though (I like them to) this is not that kind of science fiction. It's gentle, clever and thought provoking. It reminded me slightly of some Japanese fiction I've read. Go ahead and immerse yourself in this familiar, yet alien, world.
Don't expect any spaceship battles or killer robots though (I like them to) this is not that kind of science fiction. It's gentle, clever and thought provoking. It reminded me slightly of some Japanese fiction I've read. Go ahead and immerse yourself in this familiar, yet alien, world.
June 4, 2009
The book included some standard elements of good sci-fi: future worlds, plague, sustainable technologies, off-world medicine. Also gender anormativity. But some things were a little too easy - the main character gets a chip implanted in her ear that allows her to hibernate and be extra strong. Very convenient. China Mtn. Zhang is much more clever.
August 27, 2012
I gave up on this one after about 100 pages. It isn't terrible, but it wasn't holding my interest at all. The writing is very plain, which I know is probably a deliberate attempt to set a certain atmosphere, but it didn't help.
A disappointment, because I very much enjoyed McHugh's novel China Mountain Zhang.
A disappointment, because I very much enjoyed McHugh's novel China Mountain Zhang.
September 19, 2012
I just spent the day reading this, and while it's not tightly plotted, there was obviously something about it that compelled me to keep reading. McHugh's worlds feel real, as do the people in them, and the characters in Mission Child are no exception. The world is like the opposite of a Planet of Hats, in that McHugh remembers that even characters from similar cultural backgrounds might not speak the same language, and Jan/Janna passes through a number of other locations that are as alien to her as they are to us (or even moreso).
A good amount of the story is left in the margins: things the readers are supposed to pick up on, but the narrator doesn't. There's a lot of nuance there about what it's like to live in someone else's colony, by some other culture's unfathomable rules, and what outcomes are possible when an overwhelming power meets one that is barely holding on for survival.
The actual writing is rather sparse. Part of this is McHugh's usual style, and partly because around 60% of the conversations in this book happen in a language that the narrator is not fluent in.
A good amount of the story is left in the margins: things the readers are supposed to pick up on, but the narrator doesn't. There's a lot of nuance there about what it's like to live in someone else's colony, by some other culture's unfathomable rules, and what outcomes are possible when an overwhelming power meets one that is barely holding on for survival.
The actual writing is rather sparse. Part of this is McHugh's usual style, and partly because around 60% of the conversations in this book happen in a language that the narrator is not fluent in.
April 13, 2010
First of all: This book is not scifi. Any elements about the future, science, etc. don't influence the story _at all_. You could put the same story in medieval england, nothing would change.
Second: This book is not about a spiritual odyssee. It's rather about a lost person who's not too smart and doesn't know what to do with his/her life. Nothing spiritual about that.
Third: This book is not about a stirring adventure. The main character never shows any initiative, it's like watching a ball in the rough sea - interesting at first, boring after a minute.
Fourth: This book is not a book, it is a series of things that happen to a main character. They are not related in any way, there is no turning point, no resolution nothing. At some point the writer just stops writing, and that is the end.
Fifth: This book is badly written. Sentences are so short and structureless, it's like reading a story of a highschool-teenager. The lack of colorful language in combination with a very narrow storytelling style, it's hard to get why anyone would publish this.
Second: This book is not about a spiritual odyssee. It's rather about a lost person who's not too smart and doesn't know what to do with his/her life. Nothing spiritual about that.
Third: This book is not about a stirring adventure. The main character never shows any initiative, it's like watching a ball in the rough sea - interesting at first, boring after a minute.
Fourth: This book is not a book, it is a series of things that happen to a main character. They are not related in any way, there is no turning point, no resolution nothing. At some point the writer just stops writing, and that is the end.
Fifth: This book is badly written. Sentences are so short and structureless, it's like reading a story of a highschool-teenager. The lack of colorful language in combination with a very narrow storytelling style, it's hard to get why anyone would publish this.
July 1, 2013
"I can't," I said, but I let him make up my mind for me.
So, that happens on like the second page of the book, and it shows you where Janna starts off as a person - but where does she end up? Well that's the fun part. "Fun" is relative.
I think I get what McHugh is interested in, now (or what she was interested in in the early 90s) - and I dig it. But if you didn't dig it, I wonder if you might find her books a bit redundant. There is a lot of similarity with China Mountain Zhang here, and I found that pretty cool and interesting and thought-provoking. But I know someone else might find it dull.
CMZ was way funnier than Mission Child, though, and CMZ was not exactly the Marx Brothers, so. Fair warning.
April 16, 2019
Loved the writing style, which is deceptively simple: short sentences, clear narration of events in Janna/Jan's life. Jan doesn't exactly use the same language we do, but seems to be gender-queer: neither man nor woman, and both man and woman. Jan sometimes lives as a man, and sometimes lives as a woman, traveling through different cultures on their planet, trying to survive and find a place to fit in. Here is a portrait of someone on the margins of society, who sees things so clearly.
Edit to say this is one of my favorite books! It is heartbreaking but so wonderful.
Edit to say this is one of my favorite books! It is heartbreaking but so wonderful.
January 20, 2013
A quick read and worthwhile. Janna survives war, the loss of a child and husband. Will she find peace and solace again? Her wanderings teach her new things about herself and the world she lives in. Naturally as a woman alone, she dresses as a man and then comes to find she likes herself that way. While the (happy?) ending was a bit subtle for me the richness of the main character and the world makes up for any lack.
September 17, 2016
First a heads up: this is a pretty intense book; lots of really grim war death and destruction and accompanying sexual and emotional violence, with a point of view character one doesn't usually get in books covering those sort of events. It reminds me of the best anthropological writing I have read ("The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" for instance) in its ability to put you in the position of someone with a radically different view of the world.
March 10, 2015
This is a very challenging, thought-provoking novel. It's a science fiction book, but the sf trappings don't have any real impact on the story. It's a sociological exploration, much more slowly paced than McHugh's other novels, without a strong protagonist. It's quite different from the kind of thing I usually search for, but is well worth picking up.
August 19, 2022
Favourite read of the year so far!
September 29, 2023
This is sociological science fiction and as such it deals with many different themes and topics. It goes to some dark places and I wouldn't call it a cheerful read, but it's a wonderful experience nevertheless. The writing is lovely and the characters deeply drawn. There is not really a plot per se, and that's ok by me.
September 22, 2020
The story of a life full of upheaval, violence and grief, deeply imagined, but told in a way that somehow leaves room for solace if not hope.
September 28, 2013
Stayed up way later than I should have finishing this!
It's not so much "what happened" - actually, the book is fairly low on "plot" - rather, it follows the (rather traumatic and itinerant) life of a woman from a primitive society on a colony planet, from the brink of womanhood to middle age, along the way dealing with issues of gender and sexuality, "appropriate technology," and finding a place to call home.
But the writing is just so good that it feels like a thriller!
I highly recommend it.
It's not so much "what happened" - actually, the book is fairly low on "plot" - rather, it follows the (rather traumatic and itinerant) life of a woman from a primitive society on a colony planet, from the brink of womanhood to middle age, along the way dealing with issues of gender and sexuality, "appropriate technology," and finding a place to call home.
But the writing is just so good that it feels like a thriller!
I highly recommend it.
July 27, 2011
Developing an already powerful short story from "Mothers ..." this novel made me feel some of the disorientation and lostness of refugees and indigenous people who have suffered huge trauma. The gender re-orientations (familiar from McHugh) serve as a second major plot thread to the refugee survival theme.
McHugh's focus on social justice stories, the lived experience of her diverse characters, and gender plus her perceptiveness and clear writing seem to me to make her a welcome addition to Ursula LeGuin's lineage.
McHugh's focus on social justice stories, the lived experience of her diverse characters, and gender plus her perceptiveness and clear writing seem to me to make her a welcome addition to Ursula LeGuin's lineage.
August 16, 2011
I bought this book as it was one of the novels nominated for the 2000 Nebula awards.
Essentially, this is the story of a woman's journey from roughly teen age to late adulthood, exploring the definitions of self and home.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of story that gets me interested. Disaster after disaster strikes the main character, and then, right at the end, she has a bit of personal growth. Bah. Not my cup of tea.
Essentially, this is the story of a woman's journey from roughly teen age to late adulthood, exploring the definitions of self and home.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of story that gets me interested. Disaster after disaster strikes the main character, and then, right at the end, she has a bit of personal growth. Bah. Not my cup of tea.
July 22, 2013
Elegant. Flawed. Moving. Fun. Like a cover version of THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, but more naturalistic and personal. A bit thin in places though, especially the latter sections. McHugh is a great writer and I wish she would publish more, but this is not her best work. It was good enough, though, to inspire me to re-read her other novels--to give you an idea of the scale I'm grading on.
January 17, 2016
Glowing reviews on the jacket, but I was less than impressed. The details and descriptions had me feeling like I was right in the novel. The plot line was weak, however. Two-thirds of the way through the book, I was bored, because the protagonist had just wandered aimlessly, following the course of least resistance. The book ended without any real resolution of the main character's ambiguity.
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