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Hwarhath #1
Ring of Swords
This is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 13: 9780312855185
Eleanor Arnason's A Woman of the Iron People "will inevitably and appropriately be compared to the work of Ursula K. Le Guin," said Locus. It won both the Mythopoeic Award and one of the first annual James Tiptree Jr. Awards, and received widespread review attention. Ring of Swords takes place on a larger canvas, the entire civilized galaxy in the 22nd century. For nearly fifty years, humanity has been in conflict with a spacefaring race of warlike humanoid aliens, the only advanced and intelligent race thus far encountered in the exploration of space. Humans hope to avoid interstellar war with this enigmatic race, and have set up the first diplomatic talks with them on an isolated and strategically unimportant planet. Biological researcher Anna Perez has a grant to study the huge, jellyfishlike aliens who live in the seas on this far planet. As the talks begin, she learns that the alien diplomats have a translator, Nicholas Sanders, who to the astonishment of all is the first human turncoat. Anna becomes involved in a plot to kidnap him. So begins a story of deepening conflict, complicated by racial and sexual roles, attitudes toward aggression, and misunderstood customs haunted by the spectre of an unimaginable war, a complex tale of the future that confirms Eleanor Arnason's place among the leading SF writers of the decade.
Eleanor Arnason's A Woman of the Iron People "will inevitably and appropriately be compared to the work of Ursula K. Le Guin," said Locus. It won both the Mythopoeic Award and one of the first annual James Tiptree Jr. Awards, and received widespread review attention. Ring of Swords takes place on a larger canvas, the entire civilized galaxy in the 22nd century. For nearly fifty years, humanity has been in conflict with a spacefaring race of warlike humanoid aliens, the only advanced and intelligent race thus far encountered in the exploration of space. Humans hope to avoid interstellar war with this enigmatic race, and have set up the first diplomatic talks with them on an isolated and strategically unimportant planet. Biological researcher Anna Perez has a grant to study the huge, jellyfishlike aliens who live in the seas on this far planet. As the talks begin, she learns that the alien diplomats have a translator, Nicholas Sanders, who to the astonishment of all is the first human turncoat. Anna becomes involved in a plot to kidnap him. So begins a story of deepening conflict, complicated by racial and sexual roles, attitudes toward aggression, and misunderstood customs haunted by the spectre of an unimaginable war, a complex tale of the future that confirms Eleanor Arnason's place among the leading SF writers of the decade.
383 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1993
21 people are currently reading
1205 people want to read
About the author
Eleanor Arnason
109 books73 followersEleanor Atwood Arnason (born 1942) is an American author of science fiction novels and short stories. From 1949 to 1961, Arnason and her parents lived in "Idea House #2," a futuristic dwelling built by the Walker Art Center. Arnason's earliest published story appeared in New Worlds in 1972. Her work often depicts cultural change and conflict, usually from the viewpoint of characters who cannot or will not live by their own societies' rules.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
December 9, 2022
2022 reread notes: Held up well, and a fine, quick reread at 383 pp. The review to read is Jo Walton's: https://www.tor.com/2008/09/23/arnason/
Excerpt: "Ring of Swords is a lovely example of my very favourite kind of SF, the kind with spaceships and aliens. It’s a book that begs for comparison with Cherryh, because its central character is a man who has betrayed the human race to join the alien hwarhath. That man, Nicholas Sanders, is seen through his own journal and through the eyes of Anna Perez, a human researcher into other intelligent species."
1993 novel, so it shows its age a bit. But I love Arnason's Hwarhath stories! Recommended reading: 4 stars.
Arnason also has a number of stories available online: https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/...
Excerpt: "Ring of Swords is a lovely example of my very favourite kind of SF, the kind with spaceships and aliens. It’s a book that begs for comparison with Cherryh, because its central character is a man who has betrayed the human race to join the alien hwarhath. That man, Nicholas Sanders, is seen through his own journal and through the eyes of Anna Perez, a human researcher into other intelligent species."
1993 novel, so it shows its age a bit. But I love Arnason's Hwarhath stories! Recommended reading: 4 stars.
Arnason also has a number of stories available online: https://www.freesfonline.net/authors/...
August 14, 2014
Very well-written and smart. It's heavy on the speculative end of sci-fi, basically staging an extended debate about the conditions of personhood, the nature of intelligence and sentience, and the ethical dilemmas that arise when the usual assumptions of one's own people/species no longer apply. Despite the fact that most of the action is in the first half, there's plenty at stake, and the main characters, human and alien, are consistently sympathetic and involving.
The book is 20 years old now, and I couldn't help feeling that attitudes towards sexuality ended up changing much faster than people anticipated. It perhaps makes the book feel tamer and more intellectually cautious than is fair that most of the ordinary humans of Arnason's future take for granted that homosexuality is deviant and even more open-minded characters are surprised by it. In 1994, the conceit of a society where heterosexuality is considered deviant and homosexuality the norm would have felt more radical than it can today, where I've read any number of stories based on that idea. Reading this book leaves you with the impression that even sci-fi writers had trouble imagining a future where different forms of sexuality would not only be legally "tolerated" but fully embraced--(let alone that all manner of sexual acts, including anal sex, rimming, fisting etc. might be described in detail in romance novels--and thank the gods for that!) Still, it does make me wonder how my favorite M/M sci-fi stories will be perceived in 2034.
The book is 20 years old now, and I couldn't help feeling that attitudes towards sexuality ended up changing much faster than people anticipated. It perhaps makes the book feel tamer and more intellectually cautious than is fair that most of the ordinary humans of Arnason's future take for granted that homosexuality is deviant and even more open-minded characters are surprised by it. In 1994, the conceit of a society where heterosexuality is considered deviant and homosexuality the norm would have felt more radical than it can today, where I've read any number of stories based on that idea. Reading this book leaves you with the impression that even sci-fi writers had trouble imagining a future where different forms of sexuality would not only be legally "tolerated" but fully embraced--(let alone that all manner of sexual acts, including anal sex, rimming, fisting etc. might be described in detail in romance novels--and thank the gods for that!) Still, it does make me wonder how my favorite M/M sci-fi stories will be perceived in 2034.
January 21, 2016
This book is at once a hilarious look at the perils of diplomatic negotiations, and also a serious and unflinching anthropological piece exploring ideas of morality, sexuality, and gender politics. It asks questions of what allows a person to be given the status of personhood, and assumes nothing as a given truth during its exploration of the questions presented. Arnason’s aliens are incredibly real and easily relatable, while still remaining completely foreign. They are richly drawn, and clearly there is a wealth of knowledge to be had about them outside the information presented to us here. I could easily see myself forgetting that the hwarhath do not actually exist in our universe (to my knowledge). I could not put this book down, even through the small set of appendixes at the end (which happened to hold some of the most scathing and unflinching commentary of human society).
This is a book that I can see myself re-reading again and again. It strikes me as an incredibly relevant work that will reward re-reading in different ways as time goes on. It’s both thought provoking and a genuinely fun read, and something I would honestly recommend to anyone
This is a book that I can see myself re-reading again and again. It strikes me as an incredibly relevant work that will reward re-reading in different ways as time goes on. It’s both thought provoking and a genuinely fun read, and something I would honestly recommend to anyone
July 25, 2012
A first-contact story involving a race of furry aliens, hwarhath, with a strictly gender-segregated society. The alien culture is wonderfully detailed, unusual but not gratuituously bizarre, and just captivated me. The plot is fairly standard, but the characterization and prose style is good, and oh, those aliens!
August 4, 2016
El conocimiento es el único consuelo seguro. Creo que te lo dije una vez. Y sólo hay dos actividades que te hacen olvidar siempre el sufrimiento de la vida: practicar el sexo y jugar con las ideas
--RTC--
July 1, 2025
The 1993 missing link I never knew existed between The Left Hand of Darkness (LeGuin blurbed it enthusiastically) and Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch books. What is morality? Who is a person? What are gender roles? Why?
This is the story of Anna Perez, a scientist who studies intelligent species who gets caught up in the conflict and negotiations between humanity and The People, or the Hwarhath.
It's not really about the plot, so I won't summarize more. And this is also perhaps why I took long breaks without feeling a sense of urgency. Still and all it was a very interesting read with a lot of feeling grounded in reality, even as it went into detail about a very alien (to humans) society. Recommended for sci-fi people. I will read more by her if I can find it, there doesn't seem to be a lot.
A note that she thanks P.C. Hodgell in the acknowledgments among others for advice on the manuscript, this feels like a name I've seen recently.
This is the story of Anna Perez, a scientist who studies intelligent species who gets caught up in the conflict and negotiations between humanity and The People, or the Hwarhath.
It's not really about the plot, so I won't summarize more. And this is also perhaps why I took long breaks without feeling a sense of urgency. Still and all it was a very interesting read with a lot of feeling grounded in reality, even as it went into detail about a very alien (to humans) society. Recommended for sci-fi people. I will read more by her if I can find it, there doesn't seem to be a lot.
A note that she thanks P.C. Hodgell in the acknowledgments among others for advice on the manuscript, this feels like a name I've seen recently.
July 28, 2007
"Anything worth doing is likely to be slow, difficult, and boring. This is not an invariable rule, but it works in most situations."
Supreme pragmatism and candor are just two of the qualities that make Eleanor Arnason's prose anything but slow, difficult, or boring. This novel is about the messy interactions between humans and the Hwarhath, an incredibly well-realized alien species. Arnason's writing is good enough that the fact that the Hwarhath are all homosexual doesn't come off as remotely gimmicky, any more than sexuality is the main point of Ursula le Guin's _Left Hand of Darkness._
Quirky yet serious, Arnason's prose is a bit less poetic than le Guin's, and a bit wryer. Politics, violence, romantic longing, and the threat of mass interstellar war have rarely come together in such an appealing package.
Supreme pragmatism and candor are just two of the qualities that make Eleanor Arnason's prose anything but slow, difficult, or boring. This novel is about the messy interactions between humans and the Hwarhath, an incredibly well-realized alien species. Arnason's writing is good enough that the fact that the Hwarhath are all homosexual doesn't come off as remotely gimmicky, any more than sexuality is the main point of Ursula le Guin's _Left Hand of Darkness._
Quirky yet serious, Arnason's prose is a bit less poetic than le Guin's, and a bit wryer. Politics, violence, romantic longing, and the threat of mass interstellar war have rarely come together in such an appealing package.
December 31, 2013
This is what I call a "thinky" book, where important concepts are front and center; it is sociological science fiction, where it's not the aliens' military technology that's important but their culture, and especially how they wind up interacting with humans.
It's also very well written, and completely unwilling to give either side all the moral high ground. The book, with the very intelligent and somewhat cold Anna Perez and the very worried Nicholas Sanders at its center, peels back multiple layers of assumptions about gender and power dynamics to expose some very interesting notions about human and alien societies. Not to mention about the myth of "it's always been this way."
I don't think there's really any way to describe it further without spoiling it and undermining it, too. Just keep going through the somewhat clunky "military intelligence isn't" setup to get to the main part of the story. I think it compares favorably to certain high concept SF by the likes of C. J. Cherryh and Ursula K. LeGuin.
It's also very well written, and completely unwilling to give either side all the moral high ground. The book, with the very intelligent and somewhat cold Anna Perez and the very worried Nicholas Sanders at its center, peels back multiple layers of assumptions about gender and power dynamics to expose some very interesting notions about human and alien societies. Not to mention about the myth of "it's always been this way."
I don't think there's really any way to describe it further without spoiling it and undermining it, too. Just keep going through the somewhat clunky "military intelligence isn't" setup to get to the main part of the story. I think it compares favorably to certain high concept SF by the likes of C. J. Cherryh and Ursula K. LeGuin.
April 3, 2014
-Curiosidad interesante.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el planeta que orbita la estrella G2 hay una pequeña colonia de biólogos investigadores, entre los que se encuentra Anna, que estudia las especies nativas del planeta. Pero además es el lugar elegido para el encuentro de diplomáticos y militares con una delegación hwarhath, la única especie inteligente que los humanos han encontrado y que también viaja por el espacio pero de la que no se sabe demasiado. La primera sorpresa durante el encuentro es que un humano acompaña a los hwarhath en labores de traductor y consejero, pero habrá más según se vayan conociendo nuevas costumbres de los alienígenas, entre las que llama la atención que su cultura es homosexual y que posiblemente el humano que les acompaña, Nicholas, podría mantener una relación con un miembro de esa especie.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el planeta que orbita la estrella G2 hay una pequeña colonia de biólogos investigadores, entre los que se encuentra Anna, que estudia las especies nativas del planeta. Pero además es el lugar elegido para el encuentro de diplomáticos y militares con una delegación hwarhath, la única especie inteligente que los humanos han encontrado y que también viaja por el espacio pero de la que no se sabe demasiado. La primera sorpresa durante el encuentro es que un humano acompaña a los hwarhath en labores de traductor y consejero, pero habrá más según se vayan conociendo nuevas costumbres de los alienígenas, entre las que llama la atención que su cultura es homosexual y que posiblemente el humano que les acompaña, Nicholas, podría mantener una relación con un miembro de esa especie.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
May 14, 2024
This was a difficult book to 'enjoy' but part of that is the pleasure of what Arnason builds-- humanity meets an alien culture which is both rigidly religious and orthodoxly homosexual-- heterosexual sex is considered repulsive and procreation is tightly monitored. Add to this the fact that they are unsure humanity 'counts' as an evolved species creates a story that's pretty challenging to consider.
The addended anthropological explanation for the culture Arnason created also helps to deepen the story. You can see how she specifically wants to create a society not hell-bent on controlling women's bodies and lives, yet this society still reproduces problematic gender relations.
This one has stuck with me.
The addended anthropological explanation for the culture Arnason created also helps to deepen the story. You can see how she specifically wants to create a society not hell-bent on controlling women's bodies and lives, yet this society still reproduces problematic gender relations.
This one has stuck with me.
November 25, 2013
Circulo de espadas esta muy bien escrito, es entretenido, nos enseña muchas, muchas cosas sobre nuestra propia cultura. Tiene sus ligeros toques de humor, romance y acción.
Es una lectura altamente recomendada.
¡LO AME!
Es una lectura altamente recomendada.
¡LO AME!
November 16, 2025
1993. Thirty years ago, and a few centuries from now: two civilizations have faster-than-light travel (humans and hwarhath) and while exploring the same sector of a nearby galaxy, they have to learn, if they can, how to get along.
This one is as good as a novel gets. In a class with my old-fashioned favorites: Swift and Austen for pointed humor, Dickens and MacDonald for ethics and character development and interaction And with the best sci-fi world-building I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
Bought for $8 (minus $2 in reward points) on 6/9/24 to read with A Woman of the Iron People (1991) for the author’s appearance at Mythcon53 on August 4, 2024. Here’s her guest of honor talk, starting at 4 minutes in:
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc53/sch...
Here’s an essay by Arnason’s co-guest of honor at Mythcon53, A Reappreciation, by Brian Attebery (2003 - 10 years after):
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
“…. it is a remarkably well crafted novel, one that demands and rewards re-reading…. the images, events, and characters gain resonance over time, as the world supplies more ironies and dilemmas for the story to interact with. As a way of tracing some of these resonances, I suggest three different readings of the book: …. Jane Austen in Space, Slashing Heinlein, and The Scottish Novel.”
Recognition in the Pioneer Press:
https://enewspaper.twincities.com/inf...
More on, and with, Eleanor Arnason, b. 1942:
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fictio...
From Earth to the Stars, Q&A with Eleanor Arnason:
https://fromearthtothestars.com/2020/...
She is either not read, or she’s almost unique, at literature-map.com with only 3 authors (Ursula K. le Guin, James Tiptree jr., and Clifford D. Simak - what great company to be in!) on a page that is crowded when others are sought:
https://www.literature-map.com/eleano...
A Woman of the Iron People:
https://reactormag.com/anthropologica...
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
I read The House by the Sea (an early Arnason short story 1975) - in Orbit vol. 16 at the Internet Archive - some time ago and have been looking forward to the motivation to read a novel. I have her “A Woman of the Iron People” and “The Sword Smith” on Kindle, and several more samples to take a look at.
Very strange, thought-provoking, many chilling moments, lots of intrigue (and plants are so *intriguing* haha p. 20). Much humor, narrow and occasional; many sentences are “nice” in that they are profound, newly interesting, or otherwise strike a chord.
Shades of Fletcher Knebel and Tom Clancy in their character-driven and complex international intrigue thriller genre. But more: thought-provoking philosophy, ethics, religion, gender issues, anthropology, xenopology, paleontology, biology, cultural diversity,
Interesting and informative perspective from the first person journal / reports of Nicholas with Gwarha’s occasional comments.
The plot has TWO strains of xenomorphs, each different (from us, and from each other), and each contributing to the whole. One ancient, star-faring, rule-bound, powerful, and war-bound; the other, sea-dwellers with no “material culture” or historical context, and their very sentience is at issue.
With both the sea creatures and the Hwarhath, Anna engages in “reading in” but she’s always truthful when asked.
Part 1, Nicholas the Liar
Chs 1-5, 7, 9, third person narrator, Anna p.o.v.
Ch. 6, 8, 10, etc. first person from the journal of Nick Sanders with bracketed commentary by Ettin Gwarha, First-Defender. Why does Nick keep a journal? Not the same function as the “MEMO” that starts the novel.
Italian saying, traduttore, traditore: the translator is the traitor. A theme that the novel _Babel_ by R.F. Kuang uses brilliantly.
Part 2: The Rules of War:
“It isn’t easy to understand people” (The Human Comedy by William Saroyan)
“Never fuck on the job, and never fuck the boss.”
“the kind of plotting that the hwarhath do, which combines politics with genetics,” p. 216
Hwarhath women, ch 1 p. 126; ch.5 pp. 149-153; ch. 19 pp. 218-
Dreams: Nick p. 195; Anna p. 205;
Liquor: waste not want not
Anna Perez, reports to both sides on her interactions with the other side; refusing to take sides herself, she’s always thorough and truthful. Physical description p. 218.
So good: Anna doesn’t have a man to help her make the hard decisions, e.g., “Nick?” asked Anna. “It’s your decision.” and “Should I do as Ettin Gwarha asks?” “I don’t know.”
The best discussion, ch. 19 p. 218 ff., from “Now we have found creatures with a language and a material culture, who can travel through space, and they behave toward one another in a way that we thought was impossible once intelligence was achieved.” to “ Surely trust would save time and be more energy-efficient.”
And the succeeding chapters, 20-24. Ethics, morality, religion, paleontology and anthropology, strategies,
Matsehar, loves English literature, a playwright, translating Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello (note that Nick is also a translator), very funny, also a physical (and sexual, as a closeted heterosexual) outlier among the People who might have been euthanized.
Macbeth: “Most obviously, Gwarha’s chief rival, Lugala Tsu, a thick-headed warrior with an ambitious mother, stands in for Macbeth. He threatens to push the negotiations toward disaster not only for Gwarha and Nick but for the worlds they represent. Less obvious is the match-up between Gwarha himself and the Thane of Glamis. Gwarha, like Macbeth, is a leader on the rise. He is advised by three distinctly witchy aunts. Honorable motives push him toward dishonorable acts, such as planting a listening device in Anna’s quarters. The further things go, the fewer options he has, and the more violent the remaining ones seem to be.” ~ Attebery
The Ettin aunts: “When Gwarha’s formidable aunts begin to speak their minds, we know that everything will come out right, because they have decided it should.” ~ Attebery
The amazing Ettin Petali, Gwarha’s grandmother
“there are mysteries about the American Midwest that I’ve never fathomed, such as why anyone stays there.”
Matthew Arnold’s sonnet on Shakespeare
“It’s interesting what one can learn about a culture from its figures of speech.”
Ursula K Le Guin’s introduction is, unsurprisingly, brilliant: perceptive, rhetorically incisive, and adulatory. E.g.:
“This scenario is inherently funny, unavoidably satirical, and potentially tragic.” ~ Attebery
“Here is science fiction doing what only it can do: setting up a non-existent situation that is consequent, thought-through, mind-stretching, vividly and exactly imagined, and peopled by characters the reader comes to care about — vulnerable, imperfect, unpredictable.” ~ Attebery
This one is as good as a novel gets. In a class with my old-fashioned favorites: Swift and Austen for pointed humor, Dickens and MacDonald for ethics and character development and interaction And with the best sci-fi world-building I’ve had the pleasure of reading.
Bought for $8 (minus $2 in reward points) on 6/9/24 to read with A Woman of the Iron People (1991) for the author’s appearance at Mythcon53 on August 4, 2024. Here’s her guest of honor talk, starting at 4 minutes in:
https://dc.swosu.edu/mythcon/mc53/sch...
Here’s an essay by Arnason’s co-guest of honor at Mythcon53, A Reappreciation, by Brian Attebery (2003 - 10 years after):
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
“…. it is a remarkably well crafted novel, one that demands and rewards re-reading…. the images, events, and characters gain resonance over time, as the world supplies more ironies and dilemmas for the story to interact with. As a way of tracing some of these resonances, I suggest three different readings of the book: …. Jane Austen in Space, Slashing Heinlein, and The Scottish Novel.”
Recognition in the Pioneer Press:
https://enewspaper.twincities.com/inf...
More on, and with, Eleanor Arnason, b. 1942:
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fictio...
From Earth to the Stars, Q&A with Eleanor Arnason:
https://fromearthtothestars.com/2020/...
She is either not read, or she’s almost unique, at literature-map.com with only 3 authors (Ursula K. le Guin, James Tiptree jr., and Clifford D. Simak - what great company to be in!) on a page that is crowded when others are sought:
https://www.literature-map.com/eleano...
A Woman of the Iron People:
https://reactormag.com/anthropologica...
https://rivendellergroup.com/authors/...
I read The House by the Sea (an early Arnason short story 1975) - in Orbit vol. 16 at the Internet Archive - some time ago and have been looking forward to the motivation to read a novel. I have her “A Woman of the Iron People” and “The Sword Smith” on Kindle, and several more samples to take a look at.
Very strange, thought-provoking, many chilling moments, lots of intrigue (and plants are so *intriguing* haha p. 20). Much humor, narrow and occasional; many sentences are “nice” in that they are profound, newly interesting, or otherwise strike a chord.
Shades of Fletcher Knebel and Tom Clancy in their character-driven and complex international intrigue thriller genre. But more: thought-provoking philosophy, ethics, religion, gender issues, anthropology, xenopology, paleontology, biology, cultural diversity,
Interesting and informative perspective from the first person journal / reports of Nicholas with Gwarha’s occasional comments.
The plot has TWO strains of xenomorphs, each different (from us, and from each other), and each contributing to the whole. One ancient, star-faring, rule-bound, powerful, and war-bound; the other, sea-dwellers with no “material culture” or historical context, and their very sentience is at issue.
With both the sea creatures and the Hwarhath, Anna engages in “reading in” but she’s always truthful when asked.
Part 1, Nicholas the Liar
Chs 1-5, 7, 9, third person narrator, Anna p.o.v.
Ch. 6, 8, 10, etc. first person from the journal of Nick Sanders with bracketed commentary by Ettin Gwarha, First-Defender. Why does Nick keep a journal? Not the same function as the “MEMO” that starts the novel.
Italian saying, traduttore, traditore: the translator is the traitor. A theme that the novel _Babel_ by R.F. Kuang uses brilliantly.
Part 2: The Rules of War:
“It isn’t easy to understand people” (The Human Comedy by William Saroyan)
“Never fuck on the job, and never fuck the boss.”
“the kind of plotting that the hwarhath do, which combines politics with genetics,” p. 216
Hwarhath women, ch 1 p. 126; ch.5 pp. 149-153; ch. 19 pp. 218-
Dreams: Nick p. 195; Anna p. 205;
Liquor: waste not want not
Anna Perez, reports to both sides on her interactions with the other side; refusing to take sides herself, she’s always thorough and truthful. Physical description p. 218.
So good: Anna doesn’t have a man to help her make the hard decisions, e.g., “Nick?” asked Anna. “It’s your decision.” and “Should I do as Ettin Gwarha asks?” “I don’t know.”
The best discussion, ch. 19 p. 218 ff., from “Now we have found creatures with a language and a material culture, who can travel through space, and they behave toward one another in a way that we thought was impossible once intelligence was achieved.” to “ Surely trust would save time and be more energy-efficient.”
And the succeeding chapters, 20-24. Ethics, morality, religion, paleontology and anthropology, strategies,
Matsehar, loves English literature, a playwright, translating Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Othello (note that Nick is also a translator), very funny, also a physical (and sexual, as a closeted heterosexual) outlier among the People who might have been euthanized.
Macbeth: “Most obviously, Gwarha’s chief rival, Lugala Tsu, a thick-headed warrior with an ambitious mother, stands in for Macbeth. He threatens to push the negotiations toward disaster not only for Gwarha and Nick but for the worlds they represent. Less obvious is the match-up between Gwarha himself and the Thane of Glamis. Gwarha, like Macbeth, is a leader on the rise. He is advised by three distinctly witchy aunts. Honorable motives push him toward dishonorable acts, such as planting a listening device in Anna’s quarters. The further things go, the fewer options he has, and the more violent the remaining ones seem to be.” ~ Attebery
The Ettin aunts: “When Gwarha’s formidable aunts begin to speak their minds, we know that everything will come out right, because they have decided it should.” ~ Attebery
The amazing Ettin Petali, Gwarha’s grandmother
“there are mysteries about the American Midwest that I’ve never fathomed, such as why anyone stays there.”
Matthew Arnold’s sonnet on Shakespeare
“It’s interesting what one can learn about a culture from its figures of speech.”
Ursula K Le Guin’s introduction is, unsurprisingly, brilliant: perceptive, rhetorically incisive, and adulatory. E.g.:
“This scenario is inherently funny, unavoidably satirical, and potentially tragic.” ~ Attebery
“Here is science fiction doing what only it can do: setting up a non-existent situation that is consequent, thought-through, mind-stretching, vividly and exactly imagined, and peopled by characters the reader comes to care about — vulnerable, imperfect, unpredictable.” ~ Attebery
February 20, 2019
I first came across the Hwarhath series they way I do a lot of times, by way of one of Dozois' Year's Best of volumes. I liked what I read so much I immediately googled other books in the series and marked the first novel (this one) as 'to read'. The universe and the races were so good, I simply found the novelette too short. I was hungry for more.
Well, with this novel I got the more I was looking for. Just not the 'more' I expected. I think the original story I read was just the perfect length. This one is nothing more than an over-bloated novelette. Other than the interesting concept of the alien species, the rest is simply a very boring closet-drama (as if there were any other types of closet-dramas).
The setting consists only of a space station. The plot consists only of two diplomatic mission arguing over and over (ours and theirs). The subject is only whether a species can be considered "advanced" without having "implemented" exclusive in vitro procreation and homosexual families. We had not, they had. Big deal.
Well, with this novel I got the more I was looking for. Just not the 'more' I expected. I think the original story I read was just the perfect length. This one is nothing more than an over-bloated novelette. Other than the interesting concept of the alien species, the rest is simply a very boring closet-drama (as if there were any other types of closet-dramas).
The setting consists only of a space station. The plot consists only of two diplomatic mission arguing over and over (ours and theirs). The subject is only whether a species can be considered "advanced" without having "implemented" exclusive in vitro procreation and homosexual families. We had not, they had. Big deal.
September 21, 2018
I got this book from my mom to read. This is the supposedly the first book in the Hwarhath series, but I didn’t find any other books in this series aside from a collection of short stories set in the same world. This book moved very slowly but was intriguing and engaging all the same. I was surprised at how engaged I was in this story despite the fact that it was a very slow read for me.
The book goes back and forth between Anna (a human researcher) and Nicholas (a human who has lived with the Hwarhath for many years).
Anna is on another planet studying alien life that she is determined to prove intelligent when she ends up involved in the negotiations between the Hwarhath and the humans. Things don’t go well and Anna ends up back on Earth...only to have the Hwarhath request her presence at a new series of negotiations many years later.
This book moves very slowly and deliberately. However the looming question of whether or not the humans will be able to obtain peace with the Hwarhath really propels the story forward.
This book is very intriguing because it spends a lot of time looking at the question of how a culture’s social norms can affect interacting with other races and cultures. In Hwarath society any intimate relations between a man and woman are seen as disgusting and unclean. The Hwarhath really struggle with the fact that humanity allows “violent” males to live with and interact with both the children and women in human society. Additionally, the question is raised again and again about the definition of an “intelligent lifeform” versus an “animal”.
Adding to the above intrigue is the fact that a human named Nicholas has been living with the Hwarhath for a number of years. Figuring out how Nicholas has done this is interesting and trying to learn his background and what drives him is intriguing as well.
My biggest complaint about this book is that it was slow. I struggled a bit to read this and had to read it very slowly; still I found myself intrigued enough that I never gave up and stopped reading it.
Overall this was a decent science fiction book about humans trying to make peace with another alien race. I would recommend if sci-fi themed novels about what it means to be an intelligent lifeform are intriguing to you. This is a very thought-provoking book if a bit slow.
The book goes back and forth between Anna (a human researcher) and Nicholas (a human who has lived with the Hwarhath for many years).
Anna is on another planet studying alien life that she is determined to prove intelligent when she ends up involved in the negotiations between the Hwarhath and the humans. Things don’t go well and Anna ends up back on Earth...only to have the Hwarhath request her presence at a new series of negotiations many years later.
This book moves very slowly and deliberately. However the looming question of whether or not the humans will be able to obtain peace with the Hwarhath really propels the story forward.
This book is very intriguing because it spends a lot of time looking at the question of how a culture’s social norms can affect interacting with other races and cultures. In Hwarath society any intimate relations between a man and woman are seen as disgusting and unclean. The Hwarhath really struggle with the fact that humanity allows “violent” males to live with and interact with both the children and women in human society. Additionally, the question is raised again and again about the definition of an “intelligent lifeform” versus an “animal”.
Adding to the above intrigue is the fact that a human named Nicholas has been living with the Hwarhath for a number of years. Figuring out how Nicholas has done this is interesting and trying to learn his background and what drives him is intriguing as well.
My biggest complaint about this book is that it was slow. I struggled a bit to read this and had to read it very slowly; still I found myself intrigued enough that I never gave up and stopped reading it.
Overall this was a decent science fiction book about humans trying to make peace with another alien race. I would recommend if sci-fi themed novels about what it means to be an intelligent lifeform are intriguing to you. This is a very thought-provoking book if a bit slow.
December 6, 2021
I wasn't sure how to approach this novel, but I loved it. Though I can't really say I expected to read furry alien homoerotic fiction and like it. It was funny, sharp, and meaningful. The exploration of gender, normalcy, and of humanity entire was done so delicately and succinctly. This story creeps up on you in unsuspecting ways--the characters seem straight forward, uncomplicated, until they have suddenly unfolded into complex figures without your knowledge. And I think, in the best possible way, the writing is inherently feminine. Eroticism, humanity, culture--all are approached with a sensitivity that I've rarely read in science fiction.
The inclusion of the arts, however, was the most interesting aspect of the novel for me. The use of Moby-Dick, Macbeth, and other literature as a source of fascination for the Hwarhath, and the ways cultures can fuse, merge, and negotiate in such understated, yet obvious ways, is captivating.
I think this review may be edited in the future, just because there is so much in this book that requires careful thought and is worth a second read. However, the dry deadpan humor, the engaging plot, the smoothness of the writing all make this book very worth your time.
The inclusion of the arts, however, was the most interesting aspect of the novel for me. The use of Moby-Dick, Macbeth, and other literature as a source of fascination for the Hwarhath, and the ways cultures can fuse, merge, and negotiate in such understated, yet obvious ways, is captivating.
I think this review may be edited in the future, just because there is so much in this book that requires careful thought and is worth a second read. However, the dry deadpan humor, the engaging plot, the smoothness of the writing all make this book very worth your time.
December 29, 2022
In some ways this book is a little bit dated (a lot of duality, and sometimes too basic in some of its approaches), but what Arnason has created here: a deep critical approach to the 'almost the same but too different to be able to find common ground' in sci-fi form, is worth of a read. Humans and aliens trying to find peace while at the same time feeling superior to the other and seeing reasons to fight everywhere is a fascinating read if you are interested in politics, sociology or gender (again, this is a novel, not an academic article so no Derrida's type of writing) and will keep you interested in why the characters behave the way they do. Also, I wonder with its emphasis on hierarchy, changing of the order between family name and names, etc. where Arnason got her inspiration for the Hwarhath.
The best: sci-fi with head
The worst: not your average action-packed sci-fi
Alternatives: "Dune", "Hyperion", "Tales of Nevèrÿon"...
8/10
(English; original)
The best: sci-fi with head
The worst: not your average action-packed sci-fi
Alternatives: "Dune", "Hyperion", "Tales of Nevèrÿon"...
8/10
(English; original)
April 8, 2023
I enjoyed this immensely. As Le Guin says in the introduction to this edition, it's a rare story concerned with NOT fighting a war, while bringing humans and aliens with sufficiently different societies face to face that they need to come to grips with their differences and ideas of personhoold and decency. The characters are all well-drawn and I was thoroughly engaged.
July 28, 2011
An intelligent book with a strong message. I like the way the author dealt with the incomprehensions between the two races about each others living-styles. Definitely a must read.
August 9, 2018
Ring of Swords is a classic feminist science fiction novel from 1994. In terms of gender and sexuality, it shows its ages in ways you would expect, but it still holds up as an intriguing first contact novel.
Humanity has made contact with only one other sentient people, the Hwarhath, but they have been locked into war for fifty years. Now, the humans and Hwarhath are finally sitting down to negotiate a peace, but they know so little about each other.
Anna Perez is a biologist studying the native sea creatures of the planet where the humans and Hwarhath have decided to have their talks. She’s more interested in her work than the talks — she thinks that one of the species may be sentient, although none of her colleagues believe her. However, she is drawn into the process when she befriends a human who’s working for the Hwarhath. Nicholas Sanders was an intelligence operative captured by the Hwarhath during the war, and he has chosen to ally himself with them, largely because of his romantic relationship with a Hwarhath general. The human military regards him as a traitor to his species, and they want to use Anna to spy on him.
Before I delve into the plotting and characterization, I want to go ahead and talk about the way Ring of Swords deals with gender and sexuality. Part of the difficulty the humans and Hwarhath have understanding each other is that the Hwarhath have very rigid gender roles. It’s a matriarchal society where the women run the home, and the men are sent outside of it to become soldiers. Since the species unified under a single government, they as a society didn’t know what to do with their men when there wasn’t a war to fight. Thus, when humans were discovered, they were rejoiced as an enemy for the Hwarhath men to combat.
In Hwarhath society, men and women largely live separately and sexual acts or attraction between men and women is deeply taboo. Instead, same-sex relations are the norm. The find human society’s focus on heterosexuality deeply disturbing and many of the humans are likewise disturbed by the aliens’ homosexuality. This is one of the ways in which Ring of Swords shows its age. The attitudes around same-sex attraction have changed a lot since Arnason wrote the novel, and thus the attitudes presented by these futuristic humans seem outdated. I’m not saying that homophobia doesn’t exist anymore! But things have changed so much, so it doesn’t make sense that the human diplomatic core would act like homosexuality was that taboo.
Another issue with the treatment of gender and sexuality in Ring of Swords is that it’s incredibly binary. Everyone is either cis men or cis women, and there’s no recognition of non-binary or trans people. This is something I’ve encountered with a lot of older feminist sci-fi, so it wasn’t exactly surprising. The novel also deals with sexuality as almost a purely homo/hetero binary and contains no reference to the possibility of multiple gender attraction. There is one reference to Hwarhath who prefer not to have sex with either men or women, which could be taken to mean that asexuality is recognized among them (I took it to mean such, although I don’t know what Arnason’s intentions were exactly). It’s mentioned that this isn’t seen as an issue, although I still think it would suck to be an ace Hwarhath.
As I mentioned before, a lot of this is what I expect from 90’s feminism (although the potential inclusion of ace people was a surprise). I don’t expect a book written in the 90’s to have 2018 feminism, and I’m sure it was more revolutionary when it was published. Heck, it probably helped pave the way for the more inclusive feminist sci-fi we have now.
The only other cultural criticism I have of Ring of Swords is that it was very Western-centric in how it presented human norms. What it presented as normal for humans was actually normal for the West. I feel like it flattened a lot of the diversity present in family structure and gender roles throughout humanity. For instance, a noted difference between the Hwarhath and humans was that Hwarhath lived in large communities of extended families and that humans lived in nuclear families. And, uh, that’s presenting a brief slice of a small segment of the population as something universal? I’m a lot less willing to excuse this sort of Western-centric bias than I am the portrayal of gender and sexuality… although bisexual and trans people did have some recognition in the 90’s, so “a product of its time” doesn’t fully work in that regard either.
Although these elements don’t really hold up to a modern-day feminist scrutiny, I still enjoyed analyzing them. Also, I generally like books about aliens! Aliens are fun. And I do like first contact stories where two groups of people struggle to understand and communicate with each other, so in that way, Ring of Swords was right up my alley.
Ring of Swords is a slower paced story and not super actiony. It’s more thoughtful and character focused. Third person sections focusing on Anna make up the majority, although it also includes some first-person diary entries from Nicolas. I enjoyed Anna as a protagonist. Other reviewers have called her cold, and maybe she is on the surface. But underneath she’s full of a burning curiosity to understand the world around her and to reach out and make connections across species.
If you’re in want of an anthropological science fiction novel, you should give Ring of Swords a go.
Review from The Illustrated Page.
Humanity has made contact with only one other sentient people, the Hwarhath, but they have been locked into war for fifty years. Now, the humans and Hwarhath are finally sitting down to negotiate a peace, but they know so little about each other.
Anna Perez is a biologist studying the native sea creatures of the planet where the humans and Hwarhath have decided to have their talks. She’s more interested in her work than the talks — she thinks that one of the species may be sentient, although none of her colleagues believe her. However, she is drawn into the process when she befriends a human who’s working for the Hwarhath. Nicholas Sanders was an intelligence operative captured by the Hwarhath during the war, and he has chosen to ally himself with them, largely because of his romantic relationship with a Hwarhath general. The human military regards him as a traitor to his species, and they want to use Anna to spy on him.
Before I delve into the plotting and characterization, I want to go ahead and talk about the way Ring of Swords deals with gender and sexuality. Part of the difficulty the humans and Hwarhath have understanding each other is that the Hwarhath have very rigid gender roles. It’s a matriarchal society where the women run the home, and the men are sent outside of it to become soldiers. Since the species unified under a single government, they as a society didn’t know what to do with their men when there wasn’t a war to fight. Thus, when humans were discovered, they were rejoiced as an enemy for the Hwarhath men to combat.
In Hwarhath society, men and women largely live separately and sexual acts or attraction between men and women is deeply taboo. Instead, same-sex relations are the norm. The find human society’s focus on heterosexuality deeply disturbing and many of the humans are likewise disturbed by the aliens’ homosexuality. This is one of the ways in which Ring of Swords shows its age. The attitudes around same-sex attraction have changed a lot since Arnason wrote the novel, and thus the attitudes presented by these futuristic humans seem outdated. I’m not saying that homophobia doesn’t exist anymore! But things have changed so much, so it doesn’t make sense that the human diplomatic core would act like homosexuality was that taboo.
Another issue with the treatment of gender and sexuality in Ring of Swords is that it’s incredibly binary. Everyone is either cis men or cis women, and there’s no recognition of non-binary or trans people. This is something I’ve encountered with a lot of older feminist sci-fi, so it wasn’t exactly surprising. The novel also deals with sexuality as almost a purely homo/hetero binary and contains no reference to the possibility of multiple gender attraction. There is one reference to Hwarhath who prefer not to have sex with either men or women, which could be taken to mean that asexuality is recognized among them (I took it to mean such, although I don’t know what Arnason’s intentions were exactly). It’s mentioned that this isn’t seen as an issue, although I still think it would suck to be an ace Hwarhath.
As I mentioned before, a lot of this is what I expect from 90’s feminism (although the potential inclusion of ace people was a surprise). I don’t expect a book written in the 90’s to have 2018 feminism, and I’m sure it was more revolutionary when it was published. Heck, it probably helped pave the way for the more inclusive feminist sci-fi we have now.
The only other cultural criticism I have of Ring of Swords is that it was very Western-centric in how it presented human norms. What it presented as normal for humans was actually normal for the West. I feel like it flattened a lot of the diversity present in family structure and gender roles throughout humanity. For instance, a noted difference between the Hwarhath and humans was that Hwarhath lived in large communities of extended families and that humans lived in nuclear families. And, uh, that’s presenting a brief slice of a small segment of the population as something universal? I’m a lot less willing to excuse this sort of Western-centric bias than I am the portrayal of gender and sexuality… although bisexual and trans people did have some recognition in the 90’s, so “a product of its time” doesn’t fully work in that regard either.
Although these elements don’t really hold up to a modern-day feminist scrutiny, I still enjoyed analyzing them. Also, I generally like books about aliens! Aliens are fun. And I do like first contact stories where two groups of people struggle to understand and communicate with each other, so in that way, Ring of Swords was right up my alley.
Ring of Swords is a slower paced story and not super actiony. It’s more thoughtful and character focused. Third person sections focusing on Anna make up the majority, although it also includes some first-person diary entries from Nicolas. I enjoyed Anna as a protagonist. Other reviewers have called her cold, and maybe she is on the surface. But underneath she’s full of a burning curiosity to understand the world around her and to reach out and make connections across species.
If you’re in want of an anthropological science fiction novel, you should give Ring of Swords a go.
Review from The Illustrated Page.
September 30, 2018
At one point in this book, human woman Anna is in conversation with several female alien hwarhath. The hwarhath reproduce via insemination, romantic and sexual relationships are 99.9% same-sex, and almost all male hwarhath are sent off-world to fight or colonize, while females manage the large hwarhath clan-families, politicize, and raise children. One of the female hwarhath asks Anna "But how can you feel safe living around men? Sharing homes with them, sleeping in the same place as them, interacting with them daily, knowing that all males inherently tend towards violence, and may lash out at you at any time--you, your family, your children?"
Anna insists this isn't the case. After this week, I think I might agree more with the hwarhath.
Anna insists this isn't the case. After this week, I think I might agree more with the hwarhath.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 20, 2024
After a couple of first-person characters I picked up an older SF novel NOT told in first person (I thought) And it wasn’t until chapter 6 that I found out there were also chapters in first person: excerpts from the personal journal of Nicholas Sanders. But that was OK. Most of the chapters are following Anna Perez, Scientist stationed on a planet researching a possible intelligent sea species.
Not much action, more talk and diplomacy. After twenty years of skirmishes, the Harwath, the only other intelligent and space faring aliens, humanity has met, are willing to open diplomatic talks. The planet where Anna is working, is chosen as the place where the meeting will take place. The Harwath are bipedal but with a lot of hair ( a bit like Chewbaca). The Harwath have with them a human, Nicholas, taken prisoner twenty years ago. Nicholas was a language specialist working for MI (Military intelligence) He is now a translator for the Harwath. After a couple of days he meets Anna and that is the start of a friendship that will change history.
I liked the characters certainly Anna and the situation of Nicholas reminded me a bit of Shogun.
Not much action, more talk and diplomacy. After twenty years of skirmishes, the Harwath, the only other intelligent and space faring aliens, humanity has met, are willing to open diplomatic talks. The planet where Anna is working, is chosen as the place where the meeting will take place. The Harwath are bipedal but with a lot of hair ( a bit like Chewbaca). The Harwath have with them a human, Nicholas, taken prisoner twenty years ago. Nicholas was a language specialist working for MI (Military intelligence) He is now a translator for the Harwath. After a couple of days he meets Anna and that is the start of a friendship that will change history.
I liked the characters certainly Anna and the situation of Nicholas reminded me a bit of Shogun.
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April 8, 2023"Humanity," he said thoughtfully, "An interesting word. A species and a virtue. Both are often too narrowly defined."
I picked this one up because of the Le Guin blurb and I can see why Le Guin liked it. It's thoughtful and measured and its strength lies in the well-executed conversations between characters, not external drama.
Anna Perez, a marine xenobiologist studying intelligence on a far away planet, gets pulled into the political negotiations between humanity and the alien Hwarhath when diplomats from both species turn her remote research planet into neutral ground for negotiations and she happens to befriend Nicholas Sanders, traitor to humanity and translator for the aliens. Very little of the story focuses on the politics, instead focusing on the relationship between Anna, Nicholas, and several Hwarhath characters as Anna slowly learns more about them.
Anna was an easy character to get behind - almost too level-headed at some points, I always felt like she was above the drama and it would've been nice to have her more involved in it - but her perspective as someone who studies alien intelligence brought a keen eye to the narrative. I found Nicholas much more interesting, but I'm always a sucker for the human-who-has-sided-with-the-aliens and the inherent internal conflict it brings to a character.
"Matsehar, I wanted to say, the universe is very large, and most of it is cold and dark and empty; it's not a good idea to be too picky about who you are going to love.
The ending was anticlimactic but I forgive it that since I already knew that wasn't the point. This story is about getting to know these people as they came to terms with their differences. Would recommend to Le Guin fans.
September 5, 2019
This is one of the best science fiction books I've read in quite awhile. I loved the clear, simple writing style, and the thought-provoking ideas. I always like books about first contact with alien civilizations, especially when it's a more complicated contact than just trying to kill each other, with no negotiation The book was published in 1993, but I read the 2018 reprint by Aqueduct Press, which is part of their Heirloom series, which "aims to bring back into print and preserve work that has helped make feminist science fiction what it is today - work that though clearly of its time is still pleasurable to read, work that is thought-provoking, work that can still speak powerfully to readers." Has an introduction by Ursula Le Guin, which will give SF readers some idea of the type and quality of the work. Story involves Anna, a marine exobiologist studying a species that communicates via changing colors and patterns of light. Anna gets drawn into negotiations between humans and the Hwarhath, a gossipy humanoid species covered in fur, whose warrior/explorer males live separately from political/peaceful females -- homosexuality is the favored norm, and heterosexuality is considered taboo and deviant (and pretty impossible, since the two genders live separately). Procreation is by artificial insemination. The characters and dialogue in this book made me want to keep reading, and I was sorry to turn the last page. Nothing is graphic or sensationalized. If you like action and graphic violence, this is not the book for you. But if you like character-driven explorations of societies, you just might enjoy Ring of Swords. I did!
August 15, 2020
This was a very different take on the first contact trope. The book describes aliens responding to their first encounters with humans. It explores what it means to be “people” and considers the topics of morality, war, sexuality, and gender politics. It’s an ambitious novel that worked pretty well. My only beef with it was that the names of the aliens were confusing, and that there were a lot of them. I often wasn’t sure who was talking, other than two of the more prominent alien characters. But overall, I liked it, finding it fascinating and well-written. This book was nominated for an Otherwise Award for its exploration of gender issues.
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Come visit my blog for the full review…
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October 9, 2017
Total surprise here - loved this book! Stumbled across it on some good scifi recs and was really pleasantly surprised. Culture, politics, language, sexuality, gender all come into play in this book - the writing was great and flowed so well I rarely put it down and read it over the course of a few days. Her characters were very interesting, and the cultural differences between the hwarhath and the humans were very thought provoking for sure. Definite recommend if you're into cultural commentary in scifi. The plot is somehow dry (in a good way) and fast paced and intriguing all at once.
August 17, 2024
Criminally underrated. Scratches that Le Guin itch in my brain that craves smart, interesting, compassionate scifi. Is there a right way to be a human being? What happens when two colonizing cultures clash? Is it more frightening for aliens to be completely unrecognizable or for them to be almost human except for a few key differences? For a book largely composed of people sitting around and talking, the book is incredibly tense and well paced. Overall just an incredibly good time, highly recommend!
July 16, 2017
Surprised this book is not more well known.
It's a smart and thoughtful book about morals, ethics, rules of engagement in war, sexuality and how we as a society deal with violence. Rounded characters, good dialogue and an unpredictable story makes this a page-turner. It is hampered somewhat by a surprisingly passive protagonist, but that could possibly have been done on purpose to illustrate thought vs action.
It's a smart and thoughtful book about morals, ethics, rules of engagement in war, sexuality and how we as a society deal with violence. Rounded characters, good dialogue and an unpredictable story makes this a page-turner. It is hampered somewhat by a surprisingly passive protagonist, but that could possibly have been done on purpose to illustrate thought vs action.
March 29, 2020
3.5 stars, it's a touch clunky but in the very 80s/90s SF way that I just find quite endearing.
This probably doesn't warrant a spoiler tag but I couldn't help comparing the rigid gender divisions of the society of the furry aliens to the rigid gender divisions of the society of the furry aliens in C.J. Cherryh's Chanur series. I liked Cherryh's cat people and their society a lot more but this is definitely the better book.
This probably doesn't warrant a spoiler tag but I couldn't help comparing the rigid gender divisions of the society of the furry aliens to the rigid gender divisions of the society of the furry aliens in C.J. Cherryh's Chanur series. I liked Cherryh's cat people and their society a lot more but this is definitely the better book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 2, 2023
Arnason's ideas about gender and sexuality are very much of her time, but reading this book in 2023 while there's a war in Israel and Gaza I was very much moved by her ideas about violence. Is it better to accept that men are inherently violent and then place that violence within a set of strict moral rules, or try to pretend as humans do that violence can one day be eliminated?
September 23, 2017
Well written and the concept works because we are talking about an alien species. I love the explicit diversity in the book even among the aliens they are not all the same color.
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