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The Sardonyx Net
A nomadic starship, the Sardonyx (a.k.a. Yago) Net is manned by the Yago family, with Zed Yago as its captain. The Sardonyx Net is responsible for picking up space trash (i.e., convicts) in the Sardonyx sector. Zed gets great pleasure from torturing the convicts before selling them as slaves. The authorities of the planets in the Sector turn a blind eye as the Yagos drug and torture the criminals. But the Yagos’ entire operation is at risk when there is a shortage of the drug they use to control the criminals and when Dana Ikoro arrives. In this story of forbidden love, crime, corrupt justice, and lucrative business, the Yago family must fight to keep their business stable.
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1981
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281 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth A. Lynn
53 books95 followersElizabeth A. Lynn is a US writer most known for fantasy and to a lesser extent science fiction. She is particularly known for being one of the first writers in science fiction or fantasy to introduce gay and lesbian characters; in honor of Lynn, the LGBT bookstore "A Different Light" took its name from her novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
August 15, 2009
This is a book that wants the reader to sympathize with its monsters. It mostly succeeds, and mostly plays fair. I'm not quite sure what to think of this.
The Sardonyx Net takes place on the planet Chabad, a planet with an economy dependent on slavery. It focuses on the household of the family in charge of supply slaves for the entire planet, Rhani Yago, and her brother, Zed. On Chabad, slavery is enforced by drugging the slaves, but Chabad doesn't manufacture or control the drug, and the interplanetary police force, although it tolerates Chabad's slavery, does not tolerate the import of the drug.
The monsters in this book are the slaveholders. Rhani is a generous woman who prefers that her slaves see her as a benign mistress. However, Zed is a sexual sadist who uses slaves to fulfil his urges. Rhani knows this, and while she takes some steps to minimize his access to slaves she wants use from, she accepts his predations as to some degree inevitable.
Zed himself manages to be a complex character; he's in love with his sister, but unwilling to inflict his sexuality on her. (Intra-generational incest is not taboo, on Chabad, so his choice is more meaningful than it might otherwise be.) He only hurts slaves who (he feels) deserve punishment, and chooses to focus on slaves as an outlet, so he can avoid hurting innocents. He knows he's a monster, and tries to channel it.
And the slaves themselves are not, entirely, innocent: slavery on Chabad is based on convict labour, and once a convict serves their term, they are freed. Chabad empties the prisons of neighbouring worlds to meet its labour needs.
The story is mostly told from the point of view of Rhani Yago's newest slave, and Zed's latest victim, Dana Ikoro. Dana himself is an interesting character, convicted as a drug runner who was involved in the trade to keep Chabad supplied with Dorazine, the drug that keeps slavery on Chabad economically feasible. Once he's exposed to slavery, first hand, as it were, he discovers moral objections, which are no less sincere for being very self-interested. He sympathizes with Rhani, and despises her, hates his slavery, and yet seems to accept its argued 'necessity,' at least for Chabad's economy.
By itself, this would be a little easier to take, except that the book also provides an anti-slavery voice in the place of Michel A-Rae, a fanatical anti-slavery crusader, and chief of the Hyper-police in Chabad's sector. A-Rae is against slavery because, the book tells us, he was denied a position on the slave-trading ship which Zed came to command, and because he shares Zed's sadistic tendencies, but not his outlet. As a result, his oppostion to slavery is entirely the result of a twisted desire for revenge, and he doesn't care how many slaves are injured or killed in his quest to dismantle the institution.
A-Rae seems to function to make the Yago siblings seem less monstrous by comparison, and I object to that. It's facile, it's cheating, and it makes me feel like the author expected me to let her get away with it.
I really don't know how I feel about this book. It doen't take a clear moral stance, and remains ambiguous on moral points I would have thought were relatively clear. I don't require my books to be “moral,” but really, was a sympathetic exploration of slavers and torturers something I wanted?
A note: I began reading this book and thought, “Well this is rather boring,” so I skipped ahead a few pages to see if it got more interesting. It abruptly became quite interesting, so I backtracked to find the start of the interesting bits. Turns out, you need to get about to the middle of the second chapter to find out if you're interested or not.
The Sardonyx Net takes place on the planet Chabad, a planet with an economy dependent on slavery. It focuses on the household of the family in charge of supply slaves for the entire planet, Rhani Yago, and her brother, Zed. On Chabad, slavery is enforced by drugging the slaves, but Chabad doesn't manufacture or control the drug, and the interplanetary police force, although it tolerates Chabad's slavery, does not tolerate the import of the drug.
The monsters in this book are the slaveholders. Rhani is a generous woman who prefers that her slaves see her as a benign mistress. However, Zed is a sexual sadist who uses slaves to fulfil his urges. Rhani knows this, and while she takes some steps to minimize his access to slaves she wants use from, she accepts his predations as to some degree inevitable.
Zed himself manages to be a complex character; he's in love with his sister, but unwilling to inflict his sexuality on her. (Intra-generational incest is not taboo, on Chabad, so his choice is more meaningful than it might otherwise be.) He only hurts slaves who (he feels) deserve punishment, and chooses to focus on slaves as an outlet, so he can avoid hurting innocents. He knows he's a monster, and tries to channel it.
And the slaves themselves are not, entirely, innocent: slavery on Chabad is based on convict labour, and once a convict serves their term, they are freed. Chabad empties the prisons of neighbouring worlds to meet its labour needs.
The story is mostly told from the point of view of Rhani Yago's newest slave, and Zed's latest victim, Dana Ikoro. Dana himself is an interesting character, convicted as a drug runner who was involved in the trade to keep Chabad supplied with Dorazine, the drug that keeps slavery on Chabad economically feasible. Once he's exposed to slavery, first hand, as it were, he discovers moral objections, which are no less sincere for being very self-interested. He sympathizes with Rhani, and despises her, hates his slavery, and yet seems to accept its argued 'necessity,' at least for Chabad's economy.
By itself, this would be a little easier to take, except that the book also provides an anti-slavery voice in the place of Michel A-Rae, a fanatical anti-slavery crusader, and chief of the Hyper-police in Chabad's sector. A-Rae is against slavery because, the book tells us, he was denied a position on the slave-trading ship which Zed came to command, and because he shares Zed's sadistic tendencies, but not his outlet. As a result, his oppostion to slavery is entirely the result of a twisted desire for revenge, and he doesn't care how many slaves are injured or killed in his quest to dismantle the institution.
A-Rae seems to function to make the Yago siblings seem less monstrous by comparison, and I object to that. It's facile, it's cheating, and it makes me feel like the author expected me to let her get away with it.
I really don't know how I feel about this book. It doen't take a clear moral stance, and remains ambiguous on moral points I would have thought were relatively clear. I don't require my books to be “moral,” but really, was a sympathetic exploration of slavers and torturers something I wanted?
A note: I began reading this book and thought, “Well this is rather boring,” so I skipped ahead a few pages to see if it got more interesting. It abruptly became quite interesting, so I backtracked to find the start of the interesting bits. Turns out, you need to get about to the middle of the second chapter to find out if you're interested or not.
March 4, 2019
I first read this affecting novel twenty years ago and large parts of it have stayed with me ever since. It’s long out of print, but I hunted around until I found a copy -- and I know now, again, why I remembered it so well.
Lynn is known mostly for her high-concept fantasy, but this one is “what if” science fiction of the best sort. It’s sometime in the unknown future and humans have colonized dozens of worlds, aided by the discovery of the “Hype” -- a parallel hyperspace route between stars, navigated by starcaptains, latter-day bravos with their own traditions and culture. The four worlds of the Sardonyx Sector got together a few generations ago to set up a prison world called Chabad, not unlike Britain shipping off its felons to Australia. But now Chabad is a colony world, too, with its own exports, and nearly everything is powered by the slave labor of the convicts.
Lynn is careful to make her version of slavery as humane as possible: After their sentence is up, slaves are freed, their property is returned to them, and they can either leave Chabad or stay and become free citizens. They’re depersonalized, but not tortured. If they have useful skills, and if their owners are sensitive people, they may experience something like contentment. But they aren’t free. And many, perhaps most, slaves are kept dosed on a tranquilizing euphoric drug called dorazine to keep them controllable. Of the Four Families that run Chabad, the slave system is in the care of Family Yago, and especially of Domna Rhani Yago, head of the family, and her brother, Zed, who is both a Senior Medic and Commander of the “Net,” the toroidal starship that collects the prisoners from the other worlds of the sector and brings them to the slave auction on Chabad. Add an interplanetary antidrug police force trying to keep dorazine from being brought to Chabad, and all the elements are present for a complex, involving plot.
But the real focus is on the personalities of Rhani, a reasonable, fair-minded woman who has been blinded by her upbringing and position, and of Zed, a sexual psychopath and thoroughgoing, self-aware sadist. And, finally, of Dana Ikoro, young starcaptain trying to bring off his first successful dorazine smuggling run, who gets caught and falls afoul of Zed before becoming Rhani Yago’s slave-pilot -- and confidant, and lover. And there are more than a dozen other carefully-drawn characters in the supporting cast, all of which makes this a thoroughly fascinating book.
I’ve read other reviews by readers -- probably much younger ones -- that have been knee-jerk dismissive of this novel because it seems to approve of slavery, . . . which it doesn’t. Lynn seeks only to examine the possible effects of its use, which she does very effectively. Those other reviewers seem to adhere to absolutist standards of ethics and morality and seem not to understand that history (even when it’s future history) is what happens, not what should happen. Both attitudes are foolish. But then, most long-time science fiction readers learn early to become tolerant ethical relativists.
Lynn is known mostly for her high-concept fantasy, but this one is “what if” science fiction of the best sort. It’s sometime in the unknown future and humans have colonized dozens of worlds, aided by the discovery of the “Hype” -- a parallel hyperspace route between stars, navigated by starcaptains, latter-day bravos with their own traditions and culture. The four worlds of the Sardonyx Sector got together a few generations ago to set up a prison world called Chabad, not unlike Britain shipping off its felons to Australia. But now Chabad is a colony world, too, with its own exports, and nearly everything is powered by the slave labor of the convicts.
Lynn is careful to make her version of slavery as humane as possible: After their sentence is up, slaves are freed, their property is returned to them, and they can either leave Chabad or stay and become free citizens. They’re depersonalized, but not tortured. If they have useful skills, and if their owners are sensitive people, they may experience something like contentment. But they aren’t free. And many, perhaps most, slaves are kept dosed on a tranquilizing euphoric drug called dorazine to keep them controllable. Of the Four Families that run Chabad, the slave system is in the care of Family Yago, and especially of Domna Rhani Yago, head of the family, and her brother, Zed, who is both a Senior Medic and Commander of the “Net,” the toroidal starship that collects the prisoners from the other worlds of the sector and brings them to the slave auction on Chabad. Add an interplanetary antidrug police force trying to keep dorazine from being brought to Chabad, and all the elements are present for a complex, involving plot.
But the real focus is on the personalities of Rhani, a reasonable, fair-minded woman who has been blinded by her upbringing and position, and of Zed, a sexual psychopath and thoroughgoing, self-aware sadist. And, finally, of Dana Ikoro, young starcaptain trying to bring off his first successful dorazine smuggling run, who gets caught and falls afoul of Zed before becoming Rhani Yago’s slave-pilot -- and confidant, and lover. And there are more than a dozen other carefully-drawn characters in the supporting cast, all of which makes this a thoroughly fascinating book.
I’ve read other reviews by readers -- probably much younger ones -- that have been knee-jerk dismissive of this novel because it seems to approve of slavery, . . . which it doesn’t. Lynn seeks only to examine the possible effects of its use, which she does very effectively. Those other reviewers seem to adhere to absolutist standards of ethics and morality and seem not to understand that history (even when it’s future history) is what happens, not what should happen. Both attitudes are foolish. But then, most long-time science fiction readers learn early to become tolerant ethical relativists.
March 6, 2010
Read for queerlit50, bought used and local.
Most of the lesbian sci-fi authors I found online weren't available at the local used book store, but I did find about 5 of Lynn's books. I took a chance and bought them all (a combo of $1.99/ea price and bitchin' covers).
Pros: For the most part, I liked the book. I bought it to have something mindless and fun to read as a break from my schoolwork. It was exactly that. I liked Rhani (female lead) a lot more than Dana or Zed (male lover interest and brother, respectively). For once, I liked the interesting female character because she was well-developed, not because I was clinging to the only intelligent female presence in the entire novel (I'm looking at you, Asimov). Most of the characters has really fluid sexualities, which I also appreciated. So: mindless, without the major irritants I'm used to.
Cons: I thought Zed was a terrible, stupid character (though Rhani's affection and dependence on him was sort of interesting). I wasn't interested in The Morality of Slavery or any of the other Big Questions, though I may have been if the racial and socioeconomic issues underlying Chaban Space-Slavery had been explored explicitly instead of briefly flirted with but dropped in favor of incest drama (what the hell, sci fi?). Also: I hated the incest drama.
3/5 ain't bad. I'll read Lynn's other books.
Most of the lesbian sci-fi authors I found online weren't available at the local used book store, but I did find about 5 of Lynn's books. I took a chance and bought them all (a combo of $1.99/ea price and bitchin' covers).
Pros: For the most part, I liked the book. I bought it to have something mindless and fun to read as a break from my schoolwork. It was exactly that. I liked Rhani (female lead) a lot more than Dana or Zed (male lover interest and brother, respectively). For once, I liked the interesting female character because she was well-developed, not because I was clinging to the only intelligent female presence in the entire novel (I'm looking at you, Asimov). Most of the characters has really fluid sexualities, which I also appreciated. So: mindless, without the major irritants I'm used to.
Cons: I thought Zed was a terrible, stupid character (though Rhani's affection and dependence on him was sort of interesting). I wasn't interested in The Morality of Slavery or any of the other Big Questions, though I may have been if the racial and socioeconomic issues underlying Chaban Space-Slavery had been explored explicitly instead of briefly flirted with but dropped in favor of incest drama (what the hell, sci fi?). Also: I hated the incest drama.
3/5 ain't bad. I'll read Lynn's other books.
March 15, 2024
After this reread I am raising my rating to three stars. Before, I had not read this book in quite a while and my main feeling about it was one of disappointment. Now, I think a large chunk of that disappointment was due to my expectations being ridiculously high. I would have recently finished A Different Light, one of my favorite books of all time to this day, and not only is Sardonyx Net by the same author, it is set in the same universe! Russell is even mentioned by name a few times! I really wanted it to be amazing and it wasn't for me. It still isn't, but it is certainly a decent, interesting story with several characters I don't necessarily like, but definitely enjoy reading about. I might have considered going as high as four stars but I don't find the ending satisfying, so I am still left with a little of that disappointment.
March 16, 2017
This old SF novel deserves a bigger reputation than it's been given. The narrative architecture is finely drawn with cool precision, and the story depicts power relationships--ranging in scope from the broadly political to the personally sexual--with a lucid and subtle objectivity that allows readers to make moral judgments about the characters' actions without heavy-handed directions from the author.
April 1, 2009
I consider this to be among the best SF novels of the 1980s. The protagonists and the antagonists are both complex characters, and the plot is not a simple struggle of the good against the evil - maybe that's why this book isn't as popular as I think it should be.
November 22, 2021
3.5 stars. I'm not sure I can get all the way up to "really liking" this book, but I sure will be thinking about it for a long time afterwards. Originally published in 1981, The Sardonyx Net stars a drug runner who gets caught up with a sexual sadist and the older sister he happens to be in love with, and the sister also happens to be the foremost power broker in a slavery-based society on a planet called Chabad. LIKE, WHAT!? Please point me to the SFF being published today with such a wild and unlikely conglomeration of plot elements. (And yes, I've read Docile, which certainly owes a debt to this book; I wonder if K.M. Sparza has read it?)
The Sardonyx Net starts off with Dana, a young Starcaptain who's trying to move dorazine into the Sardonyx Sector. It's the drug that keeps slaves pleasant and biddable, and it's worth a fortune on Chabad, which relies on it to keep their slavery-based society functioning - even though it's illegal. All that's above Dana's head at the start of the book; basically his dorazine gets jacked, and instead of backing off like a smarter, more experienced person (he's only 24) he decides to go in after it. Too bad for him the Feds have increased policing and through a very unfortunate series of events, Dana is arrested, tried and sentenced to ten years of slavery on Chabad. Part of this is because he comes to the attention of the prison/slave master, Zed Yago.
Zed pilots the Net which brings prisoners-now-slaves from all over the Sector to Chabad - he also happens to be a sexual sadist who expresses his urges on drugged (or sometimes not drugged), non-consenting male slaves. Zed enjoys breaking Dana - this is only hinted at and not graphically described in the book - before he brings Dana as a gift to his sister, Rhani. Zed is attracted to Rhani but won't act on it; this is offered as a reason he turned into what he was, though since we learn that Chabad doesn't have a brother/sister incest taboo you really have to wonder is that's actually the better thing it's presented as??
Anyway, Dana is obviously not down with ANY of this, but in contrast to Zed, Rhani seems so nice and reasonable. She spends her time treating the slaves as best as she can while still relying on them as tools. And meanwhile trying to solve the problem of the dorazine shortage - she either wants a direct deal with dorazine suppliers, or she wants to try and legalize the drug. Unfortunately, she's being thwarted by an anti-slavery drug cop, Michel A-Rae, whose methods are painted by Zed/Rhani as "fanatic." Plus, you know, she's got to figure out how to hold onto all that power associated with the Yago name, and how to build a legacy.
Reading this has a bit of the same feel as watching reality TV (though god forbid reality TV have characters like this): you are appalled but fascinated. You see enough of Zed and Rhani to be sympathetic, but also how they are monstrous. You even see Zed and Rhani struggling with their own monstrousness. There are some truly deep character moments for Zed and Rhani throughout the book, and of course for Dana, who's the poor schmoe that gets drawn into confusion over them.
So here's why I actually can't get all the way up to 4 stars: I actually think Lynn pulled some punches on this. Is it just me, or does like, some of that fear/sexual tension convert into respect/sexual tension between Zed and Dana? It's under-explored (and this is where Docile does it better). Also: Rhani is basically never challenged in her support for drug-assisted slavery. Nothing Zed does forces her to seriously reconsider her position, Dana never really calls her on it, and the main political opponent in A-Rae is ultimately reduced to a common criminal, which feels way too easy. This may be behind others' frustration with the book.
Nonetheless, I appreciated this exploration - even if flawed - because so few would even attempt it. There are definitely angles and points I haven't even begun to address in this review that the book makes a reader think about. I actually have Lynn's A Different Light waiting for me in my TBR, but I can't imagine it's bolder in its ideas than this one. (Maybe in 1978, at the time publishing, a story of two men in love was considered bolder than drugs, slavery and sadism.) Still, reading The Sardonyx Net has made me more eager to get into that book.
The Sardonyx Net starts off with Dana, a young Starcaptain who's trying to move dorazine into the Sardonyx Sector. It's the drug that keeps slaves pleasant and biddable, and it's worth a fortune on Chabad, which relies on it to keep their slavery-based society functioning - even though it's illegal. All that's above Dana's head at the start of the book; basically his dorazine gets jacked, and instead of backing off like a smarter, more experienced person (he's only 24) he decides to go in after it. Too bad for him the Feds have increased policing and through a very unfortunate series of events, Dana is arrested, tried and sentenced to ten years of slavery on Chabad. Part of this is because he comes to the attention of the prison/slave master, Zed Yago.
Zed pilots the Net which brings prisoners-now-slaves from all over the Sector to Chabad - he also happens to be a sexual sadist who expresses his urges on drugged (or sometimes not drugged), non-consenting male slaves. Zed enjoys breaking Dana - this is only hinted at and not graphically described in the book - before he brings Dana as a gift to his sister, Rhani. Zed is attracted to Rhani but won't act on it; this is offered as a reason he turned into what he was, though since we learn that Chabad doesn't have a brother/sister incest taboo you really have to wonder is that's actually the better thing it's presented as??
Anyway, Dana is obviously not down with ANY of this, but in contrast to Zed, Rhani seems so nice and reasonable. She spends her time treating the slaves as best as she can while still relying on them as tools. And meanwhile trying to solve the problem of the dorazine shortage - she either wants a direct deal with dorazine suppliers, or she wants to try and legalize the drug. Unfortunately, she's being thwarted by an anti-slavery drug cop, Michel A-Rae, whose methods are painted by Zed/Rhani as "fanatic." Plus, you know, she's got to figure out how to hold onto all that power associated with the Yago name, and how to build a legacy.
Reading this has a bit of the same feel as watching reality TV (though god forbid reality TV have characters like this): you are appalled but fascinated. You see enough of Zed and Rhani to be sympathetic, but also how they are monstrous. You even see Zed and Rhani struggling with their own monstrousness. There are some truly deep character moments for Zed and Rhani throughout the book, and of course for Dana, who's the poor schmoe that gets drawn into confusion over them.
So here's why I actually can't get all the way up to 4 stars: I actually think Lynn pulled some punches on this. Is it just me, or does like, some of that fear/sexual tension convert into respect/sexual tension between Zed and Dana? It's under-explored (and this is where Docile does it better). Also: Rhani is basically never challenged in her support for drug-assisted slavery. Nothing Zed does forces her to seriously reconsider her position, Dana never really calls her on it, and the main political opponent in A-Rae is ultimately reduced to a common criminal, which feels way too easy. This may be behind others' frustration with the book.
Nonetheless, I appreciated this exploration - even if flawed - because so few would even attempt it. There are definitely angles and points I haven't even begun to address in this review that the book makes a reader think about. I actually have Lynn's A Different Light waiting for me in my TBR, but I can't imagine it's bolder in its ideas than this one. (Maybe in 1978, at the time publishing, a story of two men in love was considered bolder than drugs, slavery and sadism.) Still, reading The Sardonyx Net has made me more eager to get into that book.
January 11, 2017
“Ramas I-Occad—?” he said.
“That's Binkie's full name,” she said.
“Sweet mother. Why did you call him Binkie?”
Rhani said, “It was the name of a toy I once had.” Dana stared at her.
“A toy? A toy what?” His tone annoyed her.
“What difference does it make? A toy animal, as I recall. Stuffed. It was some ancient Terran creature—a giraffe.” She stretched her hands apart.
“It had a long neck. Dana, this is all irrelevant.”
“Yes,” he said. “It must seem so, to you.”
This conversation takes place between Dana (an erstwhile drug running Starcaptain who has been enslaved for a crime he had not yet committed, by a member of the society that would have benefited from his crime) and Rhani Yago (a member of the First Family's of Chabad who owns Dana as a slave). They are discussing another of her slaves, "Binkie".
I don't know that this book counts as great literature, or has any huge insight, but it does do a good job of showing how insidious and pernicious slavery is. At the same time, you don't end the book with any notion that slavery in the Sardonyx Sector or on Chabad will change greatly or that conditions will improve.
It makes me wonder what message (if any) the author was trying to convey. The whole thing is very shades of grey. None of the characters are blameless. Dana did not commit the crime he was convicted of and enslaved for...but only because he hadn't had the chance yet. That this was a crime on Chabad is entirely hypocritical since the Chabadese economy depends on the drug he was attempting to smuggle, and its *use* is legal, but its import is not. He grows to understand that slavery is wrong, but is still tied to Rhani Yago at the end of the story.
Rhani is not a bad slave owner, but the text clearly illustrates how dehumanizing slavery is (as shown by the quote above). She thinks nothing of taking away the name of one of the slaves that has served her the longest. It is not even a consideration for her.
Zed Yago, her brother and commander of the Sardonyx Net (the prison ship that transports slaves to Chabad) is a sadist obsessed with an abortive incestuous relationship with his system. He knows his actions are wrong, that his desire to non-consensually cause pain is immoral, and yet offered opportunities to engage in consensual sado-masochism or to realign his sexuality (which causes him great pain) he instead elects to continue torture and dominate slaves owned by his family.
This lack of resolution is both frustrating and at the same time in some ways makes the story stronger.
January 5, 2024
This is the fifth book that I have read by Lynn so I am accustomed to the open attitude toward sexuality in her characters and societies. This novel throws sadism and slavery into the mix. In a larger galactic society, one system relies on slavery both for economic reasons and as one means to punish criminals. A critical element of this system of slavery is a drug that can make enslavement tolerable for the victims. Generally, slaves are treated decently although some owners are certainly callous or cruel. This is the background. The novel centers on the plight of Dana Ikoro after he tries to make good on a drug deal gone bad on the planet Chabad--the center of the slave trade. Dana is captured by Zed Yago, one of the most powerful people on Chabad and a twisted sadist as well. Dana soon finds that he is a slave and given to Zed's sister Rhani for use as a pilot. Rhani is the head of the Yago family, but a seemingly normal woman that is soon attracted to Dana. The bulk of the novel centers on the relationship between these three main characters, and the plotting by other elements to disrupt the system of slavery on Chabad. Lynn's characters are always interesting and well developed--she even manages to generate some sympathy for Zed. As science fiction, I'm not sure this is a successful novel. The main SF premise of the novel is that slavery made tolerable by drugs might be a viable alternative to prison time? I don't think Lynn advocates for this but simply asks the question. As a novel with compelling characters and relationship, this is a very strong book.
July 13, 2016
Really problematic.
November 30, 2020
“Dana Ikoro, smuggler, stood facing Monk the drug courier across the floor of the starship Treasure.”
So begins this novel, the second have read by this author - and almost certainly the last.
More or less from the start of this I felt soiled by reading it. Not by the writing, even though it has to be said it is not the best crafted of works (that “smuggler” in the first sentence is an especially awkward piece of journalese, Ikoro’s occupation ought to be introduced to us much more subtly,) but by its content. We are implicitly asked to sympathise with a drug-runner as protagonist and later, by extension, with slave-holders - and therefore the system of slavery as a whole. Even worse, the character in the book who works most against the institution of slavery, indeed plots to overthrow it, Michel A-Rae, is presented as deranged.
Given these reservations I suppose the plot is well-enough worked out, the human motivations reasonable enough - though another of the main characters is a psychopath with incestuous leanings, which is a bit extreme. The writing, though, is passable at best with the info-dumping being particularly crude and intrusive.
As background we are told that centuries ago aliens had come to Earth and handed over hyperdrive equations and hence access to the galaxy. Moreover, “Repossessed of a frontier, humans set out to .... and to colonize (sic) the stars.” I note that humans here seems to refer only to those feeling the loss of a frontier. That’s me - and billions of others - counted out. Lynn goes on, “In most colonies criminals were either killed or ostracised,” (harsh) but one, Chabad, set itself up as a planet which would take offenders from the local sector, Sardonyx, and keep them as slaves. Hence the need for dorazine to keep them submissive.
Main viewpoint character Dana Ikoro has had his cargo of dorazine stolen from him by another drug-runner who turned up at the drop-off before him with the correct access code. This leads to a desperate attempt by him to rescue the situation by travelling to the planet Chabad, the sole market for dorazine, where it is used to pacify slaves. He is apprehended and convicted (the evidence on his ship of dorazine storage suffices to incriminate him of smuggling) and enslaved on Chabad to the Yago family where he gets involved peripherally in the dynastic affairs of Chabad’s four ruling families and Rhani Yago’s schemes to gain direct access to the manufacture and supply of dorazine as well as Michel A-Rae’s plots.
Once again, and despite the appearance here of computers and something which is very much like Skype or Zoom but more akin to a video analogue of a phone call, we have tapes as the information storage medium of choice. The future is always different in ways unforeseen.
So begins this novel, the second have read by this author - and almost certainly the last.
More or less from the start of this I felt soiled by reading it. Not by the writing, even though it has to be said it is not the best crafted of works (that “smuggler” in the first sentence is an especially awkward piece of journalese, Ikoro’s occupation ought to be introduced to us much more subtly,) but by its content. We are implicitly asked to sympathise with a drug-runner as protagonist and later, by extension, with slave-holders - and therefore the system of slavery as a whole. Even worse, the character in the book who works most against the institution of slavery, indeed plots to overthrow it, Michel A-Rae, is presented as deranged.
Given these reservations I suppose the plot is well-enough worked out, the human motivations reasonable enough - though another of the main characters is a psychopath with incestuous leanings, which is a bit extreme. The writing, though, is passable at best with the info-dumping being particularly crude and intrusive.
As background we are told that centuries ago aliens had come to Earth and handed over hyperdrive equations and hence access to the galaxy. Moreover, “Repossessed of a frontier, humans set out to .... and to colonize (sic) the stars.” I note that humans here seems to refer only to those feeling the loss of a frontier. That’s me - and billions of others - counted out. Lynn goes on, “In most colonies criminals were either killed or ostracised,” (harsh) but one, Chabad, set itself up as a planet which would take offenders from the local sector, Sardonyx, and keep them as slaves. Hence the need for dorazine to keep them submissive.
Main viewpoint character Dana Ikoro has had his cargo of dorazine stolen from him by another drug-runner who turned up at the drop-off before him with the correct access code. This leads to a desperate attempt by him to rescue the situation by travelling to the planet Chabad, the sole market for dorazine, where it is used to pacify slaves. He is apprehended and convicted (the evidence on his ship of dorazine storage suffices to incriminate him of smuggling) and enslaved on Chabad to the Yago family where he gets involved peripherally in the dynastic affairs of Chabad’s four ruling families and Rhani Yago’s schemes to gain direct access to the manufacture and supply of dorazine as well as Michel A-Rae’s plots.
Once again, and despite the appearance here of computers and something which is very much like Skype or Zoom but more akin to a video analogue of a phone call, we have tapes as the information storage medium of choice. The future is always different in ways unforeseen.
June 23, 2025
(CW: non-graphic torture)
Once upon a time, before anyone has ever even thought the word ‘grimdark’, there was a young writer called Elizabeth A. Lynn who decided to write a stunning S/F classic that evokes Dune, the books of Marian L. Thorpe (which were inspired by Lynn, so I guess it’s the other way round), and is like a bitter drink you can’t stop sipping on until you get impatient and swallow the whole glass in one big gulp, like me reading this book.
Not all of it aged perfectly well – it’s 44 years old (holy crap lions, that’s still younger than me) after all. (I’d be spoiling the book if I explained what I mean by this.) The way Lynn envisions computers is…charming, but also oddly prescient; when Rhani uses her ‘com-units’ she communicates in direct language, ChatGPT-style, even if the results are displayed ‘in green letters’. There are also a few weird typos, which is what I grew to expect from traditional publishing, but only one confused me.
But I’m nitpicking at a smashing read that mixes action with politics, brings the characters to life until I begin to think of them as real people, and examines the idea and practice of slavery in ways braver than most books decades younger. The worldbuilding is *immense*. Also, it took much more courage in 1981 to publish an unapologetically queer book where non-heterosexuality is a non-issue than it would now.
I am not a big SF reader, but I devoured 584 pages of this book almost in one go, which somewhat ruined my plans for the day, and having to go to sleep at some point was irritating. I wish there was a sequel, because I would very much like to know what happens next – for Rhani, Dana, and, as disturbing as he is, Zed. There is no good and pure person to be found on those pages; they’re as real as SF can get, and The Sardonyx Net was my first Elizabeth A. Lynn read, but won’t be the last.
(9/10, rounded up to 5/5 for Goodreads)
My ratings:
5* = this book changed my life
4* = very good
3* = good
2* = I should have DNFed
1* = actively hostile towards the reader*
Once upon a time, before anyone has ever even thought the word ‘grimdark’, there was a young writer called Elizabeth A. Lynn who decided to write a stunning S/F classic that evokes Dune, the books of Marian L. Thorpe (which were inspired by Lynn, so I guess it’s the other way round), and is like a bitter drink you can’t stop sipping on until you get impatient and swallow the whole glass in one big gulp, like me reading this book.
Not all of it aged perfectly well – it’s 44 years old (holy crap lions, that’s still younger than me) after all. (I’d be spoiling the book if I explained what I mean by this.) The way Lynn envisions computers is…charming, but also oddly prescient; when Rhani uses her ‘com-units’ she communicates in direct language, ChatGPT-style, even if the results are displayed ‘in green letters’. There are also a few weird typos, which is what I grew to expect from traditional publishing, but only one confused me.
But I’m nitpicking at a smashing read that mixes action with politics, brings the characters to life until I begin to think of them as real people, and examines the idea and practice of slavery in ways braver than most books decades younger. The worldbuilding is *immense*. Also, it took much more courage in 1981 to publish an unapologetically queer book where non-heterosexuality is a non-issue than it would now.
I am not a big SF reader, but I devoured 584 pages of this book almost in one go, which somewhat ruined my plans for the day, and having to go to sleep at some point was irritating. I wish there was a sequel, because I would very much like to know what happens next – for Rhani, Dana, and, as disturbing as he is, Zed. There is no good and pure person to be found on those pages; they’re as real as SF can get, and The Sardonyx Net was my first Elizabeth A. Lynn read, but won’t be the last.
(9/10, rounded up to 5/5 for Goodreads)
My ratings:
5* = this book changed my life
4* = very good
3* = good
2* = I should have DNFed
1* = actively hostile towards the reader*
June 29, 2023
Starcaptain Dana Ikoro has made a rash decision to smuggle the tranquilizer drug dorazine to the Sardonyx Sector. In this sector criminals are converted into slavery, branded with the family brand when purchased and usually dosed with dorazine for placidity. Dana is caught up in a raid after his shipment was jacked by another smuggler and has the misfortune to be purchased by a wealthy sadist, Zed Yago. Tortured into placidity without dorazine, Dana is gifted to Zed’s sister Rhani, current Yago family head. The drug trade has slowed with the arrival of a new zealous anti-slavery Federation Police Investigator Michel A-Rae, who leads some fanatic officers but has a dark secret himself. Without dorazine the Four Families who run the slave trade fear a slave revolt. Dana has had a 10 year sentence slapped on him but the consequences of escape scare him too much to contemplate it. A Stockholm Syndrome situation starts to develop between Dana and Rhani and he becomes her close confidante with attendant problems with Zed, who has maintained incestuous thoughts for his sister since puberty. Elizabeth A. Lynn has crafted an entertaining and engrossing tale which seems to be ambivalent about the slavery theme (for criminals) but delivers a solid and exciting conclusion. The survival of the slave/drug trade remains in doubt right up until the end.
July 6, 2025
It’s a science fiction adventure in the far future on a distant planet. It’s also an increasingly-detailed study of how slavery is a fucked-up system and being a part of said system in any capacity will fuck you up too. Doesn’t matter if you’re Dana who got caught by the wrong person in the wrong place and the wrong time and is doped up and slave-tattooed before he can wrap his head around his change in status, if you’re Zed who feeds all his repressed feelings into sexual sadism, living well and profiting off his Family’s work in the slave trade, or if you’re Rhani who is smart and kind and treats her slaves well and doesn’t keep them drugged (not the house slaves, anyway) and also cannot and does not want to picture a life without them. It is an evil system that makes you a worse person however you participate in it.
When I realized “Binkie” was never that slave’s real name and Rhani had never once thought to amend it over the years, I felt sick. Being a “good slaveowner” means nothing.
When I realized “Binkie” was never that slave’s real name and Rhani had never once thought to amend it over the years, I felt sick. Being a “good slaveowner” means nothing.
December 27, 2024
I adored this. If you're a fan of the vampire chronicles and the treatment of morality and kink in them, I would reccomend this. The thing about the Sardonyx Net is it's *aware* it's characters are monsters, it simply has no interest in punishing them for it. Instead, it lets you sympathize with them and their victims alike, without making itself into a moral tale of the victims winning.
On the kink front, it employs a half fantasy half reality approach that I personally enjoy but I know disconcerts many. The slavery system is undeniably romanticized, and Zed's actions clearly eroticized to a degree - and yet, the cruelty of that system and Zed's actions are also given great attention. It takes a fantasy and adds realism without ever fully bursting the bubble of fantasy - every time it comes right up to the edge, it diverts back into itself. That realistic approach to a fantasy without breaking is my favorite kind of sci-fi and fantasy and one so unfortunately rare to find.
If you're looking for a book all about how oppressive systems must be overthrown where the oppressors get their due and nothing taboo is romanticized, you won't enjoy this. If you want a book that makes acute commentary on real life systems of oppression (notably, prison and prison labor) whilst still enjoying and indulging in the fantasy of its own world and the dynamics that come with power imbalances and sadism, I think you'll enjoy this.
On the kink front, it employs a half fantasy half reality approach that I personally enjoy but I know disconcerts many. The slavery system is undeniably romanticized, and Zed's actions clearly eroticized to a degree - and yet, the cruelty of that system and Zed's actions are also given great attention. It takes a fantasy and adds realism without ever fully bursting the bubble of fantasy - every time it comes right up to the edge, it diverts back into itself. That realistic approach to a fantasy without breaking is my favorite kind of sci-fi and fantasy and one so unfortunately rare to find.
If you're looking for a book all about how oppressive systems must be overthrown where the oppressors get their due and nothing taboo is romanticized, you won't enjoy this. If you want a book that makes acute commentary on real life systems of oppression (notably, prison and prison labor) whilst still enjoying and indulging in the fantasy of its own world and the dynamics that come with power imbalances and sadism, I think you'll enjoy this.
Read
October 23, 2025Celebrated for the brilliance of her vision and the clarity of her song, Elizabeth A. Lynn is outstanding among today's new fantasy and the science fiction authors.
July 26, 2019
Loved it. Quick read and full of goodness on every page.
August 28, 2013
I knew Elizabeth A. Lynn from her participation in the 'Thieves World' Anthologies, and hadn't actually read any of her works, something that after reading Sardonyx Net I will certainly be working to fix.
In the far future the planet of Chabad has a system of criminal slavery, in which people are sentanced to terms of slavery for their crimes. This system is sustained through the use of drugs, and has enriched several of the families of this dry planet. The story itself is about a star-captain who falls afoul of the law and ends up a slave.
The Book deals with issues of society and morality is what I can only call a rather complex way. In many ways, none of the central characters are especially likeable. Many of the main characters are down-ride undeniably evil, and yet the story itself offers a morally complex examination of it's society without the resolution one might expect in a more ham-fisted story. Nobody really seems to change their minds in terms of the society, and in a way it's more a story of the people caught within the social milieu it presents than the story of that milieu.
There is a part, quite late in the book, where a character makes an intensely acute observation about slavery under what can only be considered horrible circumstances. The observation with regards to how even a 'nice' person within such a society has to abdicate their moral responsibility and allow monsters to operate, to do the things they can't or wouldn't in order for the society to function. This underpins almost everything in the rest of the book and kind of colours my perception of the first bit of the book.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. The writing was superb, the characterization, even of truly horrible people, was compelling and interesting. It has many qualities of sci-fi writing that I really enjoy and I would recommend it all around.
In the far future the planet of Chabad has a system of criminal slavery, in which people are sentanced to terms of slavery for their crimes. This system is sustained through the use of drugs, and has enriched several of the families of this dry planet. The story itself is about a star-captain who falls afoul of the law and ends up a slave.
The Book deals with issues of society and morality is what I can only call a rather complex way. In many ways, none of the central characters are especially likeable. Many of the main characters are down-ride undeniably evil, and yet the story itself offers a morally complex examination of it's society without the resolution one might expect in a more ham-fisted story. Nobody really seems to change their minds in terms of the society, and in a way it's more a story of the people caught within the social milieu it presents than the story of that milieu.
There is a part, quite late in the book, where a character makes an intensely acute observation about slavery under what can only be considered horrible circumstances. The observation with regards to how even a 'nice' person within such a society has to abdicate their moral responsibility and allow monsters to operate, to do the things they can't or wouldn't in order for the society to function. This underpins almost everything in the rest of the book and kind of colours my perception of the first bit of the book.
All in all I really enjoyed this book. The writing was superb, the characterization, even of truly horrible people, was compelling and interesting. It has many qualities of sci-fi writing that I really enjoy and I would recommend it all around.
May 19, 2016
Started this but couldn't get very far. Initially, I found it very boring and then realised that it is about a planet, Chadbad, where slavery is the basis of society and is enforced by keeping the slaves drugged. The 'justification' is that they are criminals. Dana is a space captain who is trying to make some illicit money by smuggling the drug used to dope the slaves: another space captain steals it and he goes to Chadbad, centre of the slave trade, to try to get it back but is caught and becomes the slave of the sadistic Zed Yago, head of a leading family and a man with a lot of power. His sister Rhani has a more humane attitude to slaves but sees nothing immoral in turning a blind eye to her brother's torture of slaves or trying to get the formula for the drug so that her family can control the supply. Basically everyone in the book is on a sliding scale of criminality and even the organisation that opposes slavery is, from a flick through the rest of the book, controlled by someone who has his own agenda rather than having any moral concerns about the welfare of slaves. Apparently Rhani eventually has a relationship with Dana and he does finally regain his freedom, but to do it has to save Zed despite what Zed has subjected him to. Couldn't face reading over 400 pages of this so gave up which is something I seldom do with books.
April 14, 2016
When a drug deal goes bad, smuggler and Starcaptian Dana finds himself in custody of a slaver and embroiled in the politics of the ruling families of the planet of Chabad. Of all Lynn books, this is reminiscent most of The Northern Girl: a political and personal drama about complicity and power, trauma and sympathy, how social systems effect and are changed by the individuals within them. Plot developments are logical rather than dramatic and three PoV characters makes for a lot of reiterated information, but this doesn't feel like an oversight because the emphasis is always on personal responses and motivations within a larger context. This isn't my favorite Lynn novel, but I am consistently in love with her work, with her interpersonal focus and diverse characters and dynamics, and The Sardonyx Net is no exception.
The Sardonyx Net takes place in the same universe as A Different Light, but can be read alone.
The Sardonyx Net takes place in the same universe as A Different Light, but can be read alone.
September 29, 2010
This was the very first "popular" book I came across which contained a whiff of gay content. There are no graphic scenes, and the main romance is between Dana, the male Starcaptain, and Rhani, the female Head of a famous and wealthy family. Yet, there was Rhani's brother Zed, who takes his pleasure from torturing young men, and the world of the Starcaptains, which is colorful and a little crazy and reminds me of Christopher street day parade (in hindsight, mind you, for back then I wouldn't have known what CSD meant).
A great, multi - layered sci-fi. Read now, in 2010, some of the gadgets seem a bit ridiculous, and some of the imaginations (like the Enchanter Genetic Labs) are disturbingly close to reality. But it's still a great book, one I hunted down for almost ten years now until I was able to put my hands on a copy.
A great, multi - layered sci-fi. Read now, in 2010, some of the gadgets seem a bit ridiculous, and some of the imaginations (like the Enchanter Genetic Labs) are disturbingly close to reality. But it's still a great book, one I hunted down for almost ten years now until I was able to put my hands on a copy.
December 15, 2011
I liked this just-ok, although Elizabeth Lynn is one of my favorite authors. Star captain Dana Ikoro is arrested as a drug runner and becomes a slave on a planet called "Chabad" (no relation to the Rebbe), in servitude to the wealthy Yago family heirs, the Donny and Marie of weird, sexual sadist Zed and his gorgeous sister Rhani. Lynn seems bizarrely sympathetic to the Yagos (who keep most of their slaves doped up on "dorazine) and bizarrely unsympathetic to the "Free Folk of Chabad", who are working underground to free to slaves. In a better book, this would have been audacious. Lynn wrote two of my favorite books, "Dragon's Winter" and "A Different Light", and one of my daughters' favorite books, "The Silver Horse", but here she just doesn't create a real world. Still, any book by Elizabeth Lynn has moments of lyrical beauty and great excitement, and this is no exception.
April 5, 2008
I didn't really like this book, it's more that I was fascinated by it. Something gripped me and I couldn't put it down, although when it was over I felt that it was rather distasteful, something I wished I'd not swallowed whole. Still, I couldn't quite get rid of it and I read it at least two more times, both times reading straight through and unable to put it down.
I don't know what else to say about it. It's not a nice story and it's about not very nice people. The ending is only somewhat satisfactory... but I still have it, and may read it again someday. It's something about the relationship between the characters Zed (torturer) and Dana (slave and victim). Very disturbing.
I don't know what else to say about it. It's not a nice story and it's about not very nice people. The ending is only somewhat satisfactory... but I still have it, and may read it again someday. It's something about the relationship between the characters Zed (torturer) and Dana (slave and victim). Very disturbing.
September 2, 2008
I just noticed that I'm getting more and more picky with my star system. Basically, any book I wouldn't recommend to others is getting <3.
That doesn't mean I didn't like Sardonyx Net. I was involved in the story and the characters. I thought the concept was interesting: Chabad is a sort of "Australia" planet where other planets send their prisoners to serve their sentences as slaves. The perk of being a slave is that they drug you up, so you spend the years all blissed out.
The best part about Lynn's society is that the rules of patriarchy, sexuality, and desire are all over the place. Also, this novel explores non-consensual sadism that manifests from sublimated sexuality.
That doesn't mean I didn't like Sardonyx Net. I was involved in the story and the characters. I thought the concept was interesting: Chabad is a sort of "Australia" planet where other planets send their prisoners to serve their sentences as slaves. The perk of being a slave is that they drug you up, so you spend the years all blissed out.
The best part about Lynn's society is that the rules of patriarchy, sexuality, and desire are all over the place. Also, this novel explores non-consensual sadism that manifests from sublimated sexuality.
April 10, 2023
Had compelling characters and some good issues... and let them all down with its ending. Just dropped all the things it started. And were there any readers who didn't immediately know what Darien was? Sometimes the sentence structure was repetitive, but then we'd find out why one character was named "Binkie," and Lynne had me back again. The unsatisfying resolution disappointed me more because the characters had kept me reading through the rough spots, and that's considering that two are slavers, one of those two a sadist.
August 2, 2008
This book sucks me in every time. It is dark, and there is something different about it that I can't put my finger on. Probably has something to do with how complex the characters are. Some of the ones that do evil acts are not evil, or not entirely evil. It becomes an exploration of how much bad can a person do, and still be treated in society as a good person.
October 7, 2015
This book was pure sci-fi and I loved it. Dana is a starcaptain who ends up getting busted for being a drug smuggler and is sentenced to a term of slavery. His sentence is on a strange world where customs that are considered taboo elsewhere are perfectly acceptable. Fun piece of storytelling.
May 1, 2016
This book, while intriguing, was disturbingly violent. If it had not been so graphically violent, it would have been much better.
August 16, 2010
I really enjoyed this story. Even though it was written nearly 30 years ago, I'm hoping to someday find a sequel to it.
July 21, 2011
Powerful sci fi. Memorable. The adversary is developed chillingly.
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