Parade nuptiale

by Donald Kingsbury, Michel Lederer (Translator)

Lointains descendants d'une diaspora humaine, les habitants de Geta, une planète aride et inhospitalière, ont adapté leur existence à ce milieu hostile en brisant l'ultime tabou. L'anthropophagie est devenue pour eux plus qu'un rite : une obligation religieuse, un moyen de survivre.
Dans cet univers où la lutte pour le pouvoir passe par la sélection génétique, une cellule conjugale de cinq personnes - le chiffre idéal - tombe collectivement amoureuse d'une femme qu'elle souhaite épouser. Mais on lui en impose une autre...
Chassé-croisé amoureux, intrigues politiques, aventures meurtrières se succèdent au fil de ce planet opera grandiose, comparé à sa parution aux fresques de Frank Herbert et d'Ursula Le Guin.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

704 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1982

About the author

Donald MacDonald Kingsbury

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartwarming tale of cannibalism and group marriage.

Courtship Rite is set in a lost colony stranded on a desert planet without much life above insects and somewhat regressed technologically, with the exception of biology and bio-engineering, which is above present-day levels. The cultures that have developed are rather pragmatic about survival (creches where children must prove themselves by a certain age or become food), though not entirely without morality (after all, our protagonist's culture doesn't actually eat criminals when there's not a famine; only barbarians do that).

A richly developed world, with interesting cultural and societal developments.

[ambyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

So on the one hand: the writing is turgid, the pacing is bizarre, and the political lecturing interminable. Also there is cannibalism (did I mention the cannibalism?) on almost every page. Spousal abuse and child rape both make appearances and are treated as the unexceptional actions of reasonable people.

And on the other hand: I loved this book.

Partly it's the culture. (Or cultures. Geta is not a monoculture, and its clans' beliefs frequently clash.) Courtship Rite is more "here, let me show you my worldbuilding" than it is a novel, but it rarely falls prey to "As you know, Bob" exposition dumps. It lets its culture reveal itself organically from character interactions. That culture is profoundly weird--quite possibly one of the weirdest I've encountered in science fiction, and that includes non-humanoid ones--and includes a lot of moral and ethical norms that make me cringe, but it's internally consistent enough that I believe the characters think they're doing right even when I think they're committing terrible wrongs.

And despite those terrible wrongs, I love the characters, especially the women. (Teenae! Noe!) I'm not entirely clear what this novel thinks it's doing with gender--it has this weird mix of sexist norms and broad gender equality that I think is one of the least well-thought-out aspects of the culture--but as individuals its female characters are pretty awesome. And I don't mean that in some sort of generic action hero way; each of the women (and men) is in fact a clearly distinct individual, with her own strengths and flaws. (And, in most cases, her own scientific specialty. One is a physicist, one is a biologist, and one is a mathematician.)

More impressively, I don't just buy them as individuals, I buy them as spouses. There's a saying in poly circles that a triad isn't one relationship, it's four--each pair as well as the three together. It follows that a quartet is eleven, a quintet twenty-five, and . . . I'm not going to keep doing the combinations, because I am not Teenae. At its heart, this novel is about the formation of an eight-party relationship, and while it doesn't manage to develop every possible relationship within that marriage it gives it a noble attempt. By the end of the book, I understand how the core five function together (as pairs, as triads, and even as quartets) and even believe the expanded marriage has a shot. That's frankly more than I can say about a lot of books' dyadic relationships.

I'm a little weirded out by the book's relentless heterosexuality--there are no gay people on Geta? At all?--but I do appreciate the lack of performative bisexuality by women, which is a place it would have been easy for it to have gone. And I definitely appreciate that all characters of both genders are equally enthused about sex and their marriage.

In conclusion: if you are interested in poly relationships and not bothered by cannibalism or bad writing, I highly recommend this book. But I suspect I am part of a rather small target audience.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kingsbury's first novel (and one of only two) was first published in 1982 and garnered a handful of awards; it is easy to see why. This is an intense sociological science fiction work, with the world and social building similar to The Dispossessed.

The story is situated on Geta, a human colonized world left in isolation for many generations. Geta is not a human-friendly planet-- most of the flora is poisonous to humans and the fauna outside of some fish like things is non-existent. Further, the climate is mostly harsh, desert-like, and famines are frequent affairs. Nonetheless, humanity has adopted and created a society that seeks to preserve human life as a species if not individuals.

Kingsbury pulls few punches here; we start off with a funeral feast of a leader/priest of one of the clans. Death is also life, and as the leader slowly roasts and is eaten by the survivors, we begin to see life according to Getans. There are many clans on Geta, largely isolated from one another, but Courtship Rite focuses on one-- Clan Kaiel-- who reside in a mountain valley.

While former Earth is merely a legend, it does seem the ship that brought them to Geta is still in orbit, now called a God. Much technology has been lost, but bio-engineering has become state of the art. Each Clan has their own system of birth rites and for the Kaiel Clan, it is Social Darwinist to the extreme. Most Kaiel children are born from a bio-engineered 'woman' who cranks out babies to beat the band, tweaked for various factors; most of them die or are 'culled' for meat. In fact, the only meat is human although various clans have different customs regarding this. Be careful if you read this while eating!

The main plot concerns various clan's expansionist aims. Located on the coast of an inland sea is the town of Sorrow and both the Kaiel Clan and an island Clan have their eyes upon it. There is not war as we know it on Geta, however, as that would be a waste of meat. Hence, the struggle for Sorrow involves complicated political moves by each of the Clans who want Sorrow to become the 'protector'...

The plot is not what moves the story however; it is the amazing world Kingsbury builds here. The Clans are identified in part by their ritual scars/tattoos that cover their bodies by adulthood-- really elaborate! Marriages come in many flavors; our main protagonists are in a union of 5 and start off seeking a 6th to complete it. The leader of the Kaiel Clan orders the family to take on a 'heretic' woman from Sorrow for political reasons, but they were already set upon another woman. It gets complicated!

Truly an absorbing read and this contains some very interesting speculations on the human condition to boot. Looking for something different from 'standard' space opera? This might be for you. 4 tasty stars!!

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

It mystifies me how some books become classics and others, equally good or better, are completely forgotten. This book was nominated for the Hugo, but I'd never heard of it before I grabbed it at a used book store, and I've only heard of it once since in Trillion Year Spree. It was very nearly a five star book for me, and I'd recommend anyone interested in science fiction and alternate societies to check it out.

At first glance, Courtship Rite looks like a by the numbers Dune ripoff. It features a harsh planet, eugenic themes, a mixture of high and low technology, the conflict of noble houses (here called priest clans) against each other, a female secret society, a cavalcade of made up terms, even the lore epigraphs at the start of each chapter.

Despite all this, the novel brings more than enough of its own spice to exist without Dune, and at many points I found myself enjoying it more. It eschews the messianism and mysticism of Dune for a more strictly materialistic story, though religious feelings play a large role in the lives of the characters. The vague "harsh life = strong people" of Dune is replaced with a considered exploration of directed human evolution in a strange environment, and speculative social structures to support that process.

Cannibalism is definitely the most attention grabbing part of the story's premise. Though presented as acceptable and even desirable within the context of the story, it remains an extraordinary event. Practiced only within specific contexts (mainly as part of funerals and to combat famine), there are few scenes actually depicting it, and with the exception of an execution in which the criminal refuses to commit suicide, none of them are presented gruesomely. Despite this, the practice of eating human flesh resonates throughout the novel and colours the metaphor of the characters. Even Oelita, the only character to philosophically oppose cannibalism, keeps and eats strips of flesh from her father's funeral. Rather than being anti-cannibalism, Oelita is anti-violence, and opposition to non-funerary cannibalism is a consequence of that. Oelita is presented as an intellectual rebel who delights in eschewing convention, and even she is not completely opposed to eating human flesh.

These practices tie into the other big draw of the story (for me): its odd social structures. Cannibalism is rationalized as a way for the weak and defective to contribute to the survival of the species during hard times. During good times, the clans of the Getans practice breeding and selection within themselves, the goal being to eventually unite the entire planet under one clan who will continually improve the species. This forms an explicitly religious imperative driving all Getans. Despite this, most of them are not in active competition with each other. Most clans accept subservient roles under the most powerful "priest" clans, the conflict between two of which forms one of the main plots of the novel. Many aspects of the setting read as dystopic or nearly so, but are not presented as such. Occasionally characters will lament aspects of their world or society, but no more so than we lament the inevitability of taxation. I personally could never survive in such a world, but most of the time I was able to wholeheartedly believe humans could live and even thrive like this.

The other big conflict of the novel is centred around group marriage, which is ubiquitous in the setting. While physical fitness and intelligence are large components of the "kalothi" that can save one from cannibalism during famine, interpersonal success plays an equal role, and the ability to maintain a marriage of multiple people together is another sign of high kalothi, the maintenance and increase of which is the goal of all Getans. The story follows three brother husbands and their two wives, and their troubles when their intended third wife, Kathein, is taken by the ruler of their clan, and they are ordered to court Oelita, a heretic who denies the existence of God, opposes cannibalism, and believes humans evolved from the insects of Geta. I actually found many aspects of this plot more disturbing than the eugenics-and-cannibalism setting, and it was often more interesting. The differing attitudes and actions of the five spouses drive both the marriage and political plots, but I found in the end that they were not as closely intertwined as I would have hoped. They do have several points of connection, and a second reading might help me bring them closer together.

The main point of contact for both sides of the novel is the discovery of an ancient book, The Forge of War, which is a history of the military technology of Earth. The Getans take this book to be a message from their God, and they are increasingly bewildered and horrified as they decode and translate the book, which is a catalogue of the many massacres and inventive methods of killing Earthlings have discovered. The Getans, with their limited perspective on Earth, interpret it as a wasteland of senseless killing, in which fighting kills more people than could ever be eaten at once. It reaffirms their belief that, harsh as Geta might be, their God was merciful in delivering them away from the unimaginable hell that is Earth. The book alters the lives of the two most staunchly religious and non-religious members of the marriage plot, and even more deeply alters the political plot as the Kaiel, the clan of the protagonists, begin mimicking the weapons described in the book and attempting to implement its lessons without losing their souls. This was far and away the most interesting part of the entire book to me. I love the clash of cultures, and the twist that the cannibalistic Getans consider 20th century Earth too horrible to stomach was well-done and even fairly believable.

Courtship Rite is not without its flaws. The marriage plot hit a roadblock in the middle then was resolved too quickly at the end, and I found its resolution hard to believe. There's a lot of sex in this book, which didn't bother me personally, but I could see it being a turn off for others. If you can't stand being barraged by bizarre names, don't bother, as there's no glossary or maps. I don't know if I can entirely believe the reasoning for why the Getans have no war, but it's creative. Slavery is mentioned at some points, but I wasn't clear why it doesn't seem existent in the societies presented.

I could have overlooked these minor issues and still given the book five stars, were it not for a single character. Partway through, a character outside the marriage plot, Humility is introduced, part of an all-female clan somewhat reminiscent of the Bene Gesserit. Nothing about this character landed for me. Her Gesserit-like mental powers didn't feel like a natural fit for the rest of the setting, and she combines the plotlines of an assassin learning the value of life, and a prostitute falling in love, two of the most hackneyed and worthless concepts out there. I began to groan every time a Humility chapter came up, and they became more and more common as the book went on. The only thing that saved my interest at times was the brevity of each chapter: they never went beyond 10 pages or so. Even so, I found her extremely trying to read about. That her presence coincided with a reduction in time spent with Oelita, probably my favourite character, only made things worse. If the rest of the book weren't as great as it is, Humility might've ruined the book for me.

That said, my intense dislike for Humility is probably not universal, and I would highly recommend who enjoys science fiction, especially centred around alternate societies, check this book out. This has been one of the best science fiction books I've read in years, and I'm glad I picked it out on a whim. Kingsbury is supposedly writing a sequel, Fingering Pointing Solward, but given that he's now 91 years old I'm not holding out hope. Part of that novel was apparently published as "The Cauldron", and Kingsbury wrote another story in the same wider setting, "Shipwright", so I'll have to check those out.

[Sheherazahde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Courtship Rite takes place on a human colony world, Geta, that has forgotten it is a colony. Their legends tell them "God" brought them across the stars to protect them from "war", and "God" still watches over them from the sky. We learn later that their word for "God" was the original colonists word for "ship", and the colony ship does indeed still orbit above them.

The only source of protein the colonists have are bees and human flesh, so cannibalism is common and accepted. They also practice genetic engineering.

The story follows one family of three half brothers and their wives. The men share a common father and were raised in a public creche where any failure would result in death. They married a young girl from a clan that specializes in math and a spoiled rich girl of their own clan. Their clan specializes in government. They are about to marry a scientist when they are ordered by their clan leader to marry a woman from a coastal clan who advocates heretical beliefs, such as evolution and not killing people for food. They decide to use the "Courtship Rite", where they try to kill her several times and if she lives they will marry her. Since she doesn't know them or want to marry them this is bit unfair to her, but they were a angry about the order and it is the central motivation of the plot. [return] They also have to deal with a clan of clone women who make their living as courtesans, and clan of seafarers who want to rule the coastal area.

This is my favorite kind of Science Fiction: religion, politics, social engineering, and philosophy. By an author who does it all very well. I give it 5 out of 5 stars

[Yev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courtship Rite is very much inspired by Dune. Kingsbury does especially well with that not being an issue by having so much else that's distinct to distract from it. If you're looking for a society with an entirely different system of morality and ethics, then you've found it. Its politics are decidedly libertarian, anarchic, and pragmatic. What's normal for them is transgressive to the norms and mores of almost any reader. Everything almost anyone does in this world is because of a singular concept: Kalothi. In a word it roughly means "survivability". Why polyamory? Because a small group has a better chance to survive. Why cannibalism? Because the survival of the individual is less important than the survival of all others. There's much else that's transgressive that's presented without defense. The transgression isn't really the focus, because it's normal. There's a lot of sex, which is often short and not explicit. Although cannibalism permeates everything and is constantly mentioned, there's surprisingly little of it on page. Mostly it's in the opening and one intentionally shocking scene.

Geta is a fascinating world, though not that much is shown of it. Their technology is extraordinarily uneven, which is understandable considering almost all of it comes from oral tradition and ancient remnants. Most resources seem scarce. There aren't any animals aside from what they call insects, which aren't viable, so their only food sources are plants and each other. If you want meat, leather, bone, or much else organic, it has to be human. A character claims there are around 200 million people, but it feels like there's maybe a million. Almost all of them see cannibalism as only being permissible during a funeral or starvation, except the two societies the book focuses on, which practice it at all times.

The characters are mostly there to have the story told through them and since this is written in third person omniscient it can jump from one character to another in consecutive paragraphs, sometimes back and forth. That may make it considerably more difficult for those whom characters are what matter most. I was indifferent to all of the characters, though there's a considerable amount to dislike about any one of them, so you may find yourself bothered by one or more of them.

The first half of the book is what the title says, courtship, which in this case means repeatedly trying to kill the wife candidate so that she can prove her Kalothi. That isn't the usual process, though I wouldn't call any of the courtship practices in this romantic, let alone kind. The latter half is intergroup conflict resolution and the troubles of knowledge. That's one one way to describe it anyway. This is something to read for its society and not much else other than that, but it's such a different experience that nothing else is needed.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10. Único libro leído de Kingsbury, lo pillé en un resto de la colección NOVA, Ediciones B … y pocos libros de esa colección me han fallado. Genética sin Física en un mundo donde quedan restos de seres humanos y el canibalismo es ley. Buen worldbuilding y fácil de leer.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when it was first published. It’s one of the few books I’ve read several times. I remember when I first read it, it caused my head to asplode. It takes a lot more to do that now. However, I continued to enjoy the intricate world building and Byzantine plot. I could also see the pronounced SF New Wave style of the writing and the influence of Frank Herberts Dune , a novel written 20-years earlier to this one. Finally, when reading antique stories, you need to be sensitive that they may be the stories that defined a trope, and not crutching on it.

First, this book has a 1982 copyright—its 36 years old. Kingsbury wrote very few books and a handful of short stories. This is his best known novel. His ‘day job’ as a mathematics professor must have been a better paying gig than writing science fiction? At last report he’s still alive at 90-years old in Montreal, but no longer writing. He's supposed to have a finished, unpublished novel in the Courtship Rite universe titled The Finger Pointing Solward in his files.

By modern standards, this book is a thin 410 pages. Back when it was written, the most common length was 300-350 pages. That would have made it a hard sell. Although, Dune was originally 425 pages when it was first published.

The prose is generally good, but not exceptional. Descriptive prose was better than dialog. The dialog may have suffered because the characters never broke character. They maintained the language drift trope throughout. The rotation through the several POVs is well done. The book contains both sex, and violence. Sex includes casual nudity and non-heteronormative relations, although, it’s not graphic. Violence is likewise not graphic, although much of it is with edged-weapons.

Characters were good, although they were instantly recognizable to a modern reader. The maran-Kaiel were the balanced party needed to complete any quest. The POV cycles amongst these characters. They were a polyamorous marriage made-up of ‘The bros’ and their wives. Of the bros: Hoemei was the precognitive ‘brains’, Gaet was the ‘fixer’, and Joesai was the ‘muscle’. Their wives are: Noe (the courtesan) and Teenae (the human computer). Kathein and Oelita (both women) are marriage prospects for the maran-Kaiel. Kathein is for what passes as a physicist. She's bootstrapping the Kaiel clan's tech boom. Oelita is a religious heretic. She fulfils the ‘priest’ role. The se-Tufi Who Walks In Humility is the Liethe clan female assassin abetting the maran-Kaiels. Aesoe is the precognitive ‘King’ of the Kaiel clan to which the maran-Kaiel sub-clan belongs.

Action takes place on the lost colony, desert world of Geta. Geta reminds me of a planet-sized Australia. The maran-Kaiel are usurping Aesoe’s leadership of the Kaiel clan. In the meantime, the Kaiel and the other clans are jockeying for power. The maran Kaiel are pitted in a three-way against: Aesoe, other clans trying to control population and territory, and the internal expansion and elevation of their own sub-clan.

The great strength of this book is its World Building. The science in the story has held-up well over time. There are also some interesting twists to the story. For example, Getan biochemistry is incompatible with humans. The only meat on the planet is long pork . In addition, the humans have lost a lot of their science, technology and engineering capability. Although, the Getan’s have held onto their biochemistry and genetic engineering technology. The remaining tech on Geta actually has a steampunk quality about it, despite the story pre-dating steampunk. The sociology of the lost colony is also good the: the cannibalism, Cargo Cult-like reverence of the past, eugenics, polyamorous/clan marriages, scarification, and the general values dissonance are tightly woven together in an interesting fashion.

If I have a criticism of the story, it’s that the Getan’s were able to bootstrap themselves in a very short period of time to an 80’s technology and engineering-level, with only the slightest of hints. Also, the orbiting colony ship, which has been circling Geta for generations would need to periodically adjust its orbit to stay there. The worshipful Getan's would notice these changes. Finally, there are enough hanging plotlines to indicate a sequel that was never written.


With this read of the story, I see how derivative it was of Dune. For example, the Liethe clan was Herbert’s Bene Gesserit . However, Kingsbury is more rigorous in his use of 80’s vintage science and technology than the other story. In addition, the Social Darwinism (Eat or be eaten.) and other aspects of the extreme Getan social and political philosophy was a lot more elaborate and less mystical. In summary, this was a good, Dune-esque, science fiction read, written in an old fashioned style.

If you like stories like this, you might want to read The Years of Rice and Salt.

[Terence · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just can't get into this book. Perhaps it's that the writing is "harsh" and "clunky," at least to my mental ear. There are points where a character says something and I'm jarred out of the scene, asking "huh?" Perhaps it's the characters, of whom I like or care for none.

It's a shame for two reasons: One, the world (Geta) is potentially fascinating. A harsh world, most of whose flora and fauna is poisonous to human life. A situation that has forced the development of ritual cannibalism, and lives conditioned by the harsh needs for survival. Secondly, Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis remains one of my favorite novels and I had high hopes for this one.

If I didn't have more interesting-looking books on my to-read shelf, I might have stuck with this one but I don't want to continue to waste my time here.

[prcardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Storyline: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 3/5
World: 5/5

Granted, 2016 is not even half-way over yet, but this is the best book I've read this year. If I had to give the review in one word: fascinating.

The only information I had about this book when I began was a) the author (whom I did not recognize) b) the publication year and c) its nomination (and lack of award) for the Hugo. I recommend reading this without knowing much more, and I'll give the kind of review that won't spoil it for others.

More intriguing than any murder or detective mystery I've ever read is the puzzle of determining this book's genre. As I progressed through the chapters, I couldn't decide, but I was mesmerized by the challenge. Is it a fantasy world? Are the characters human? Is it an alternate history? Far future science fiction? Dystopia? It was a remarkably engaging reading experience. I was further impressed by the depth and detail of the social and political life portrayed. Whether it be set in the past, future, or some other universe, this was society organized around a very different set of values; the conflicts, shame, outrage, and adventure were then governed by the rules of this created world. I felt as immersed in this world as I have been with epic series such as The Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time - all the more astounding because Kingsbury put me there with a single book of 409 pages.

More laurels are certainly deserved, but equally noteworthy are the facets that kept this from being one of my favorite books of all time. First, it was a somewhat difficult read. Because Kingsbury is building a very alien world, and because its true identity is only gradually revealed, the book starts out in very unfamiliar territory and you rapidly have to familiarize yourself with scores of peculiar proper nouns while accepting that much of what is going on is supposed to be opaque. This was a necessary and worthwhile trade off in my estimation, but not every reader is going to happily trudge through to rapprochement. It also made for a slow read. Second, Kingsbury relied on a lot of shock devices. The author presents and develops as normal social conventions many practices that are grotesque and perverse. I don't think the repulsive ideas were there simply as cheap entertainment (okay, maybe the pervasive sex was); I'll give him credit for pushing the reader to consider why our society considers some behaviors civilized and others barbaric. Still, it was hardly a book you can go discussing with your mother. Third, for all the worldbuilding, Kingsbury seems to have petered out when it came to the courtship rite for which the book is named. This was (or should have been) the organizing device for the tale, but it got lost somewhere, and the care and design so obvious in the rest of the book was strikingly absent here.

I'm not as well-read with fantasy as I am with science fiction, thus perhaps this isn't as original as it appeared to me. I can only tell you that I really enjoyed it and will think about this for some time to come.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A five-partner family in search of their sixth and final spouse is instructed to abandon a woman they love in order to pursue an alliance with a religious heretic. The plot veers into political machinations which, given the level of detail and bevy of headhopping, I didn't really bother to follow. It's a significantly more successful vehicle for worldbuilding--cannibalism and polyamory, alternate human evolution, advanced technology as indistinguishable from magic, and a thematic focus on violence and the way that scale and social function inform our understanding of it. But the real focus is interpersonal, and while the dialog is frequently stylized (to the point of stunted) and the sexual politics dated (despite some fantastic female characters), the complexity of the dynamics--individual to individual; within the group--are phenomenal in their diversity and credibility. A strange book--and it took me ages to get through--but I really appreciate those bits it gets right.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better alternative societies created for a science fiction book. In this society, the perfect marriage consists of six people, and there is a complicated food imbalance in the native food availible that impacts who and when a family can court another member. Humans are not native on the world, earth plants and animals are hard to maintain, and native food is poisonous, but some hungry people are adapting to eating it. I read this book every few years.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

O.K. I didn't actually finish it. I found it slightly confusing in spots and then it would get really interesting and then it would get confusing again. The character build up was nice and the premise of the book was interesting I just kept finding other things to do and to read and that usually doesn't bode well.

[Sybil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little known classic of the genre that blew me away when I read it 25 years ago. The author does an incredible job of world building in the first part of the novel. The characters are all well-drawn and complex.

[Marjorie Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This definitely got me thinking about morality and mortality! I'm such a novice sci-fi reader that I think I probably didn't "get" some of the sub-context. But it was a real page turner and I enjoyed it!

[Apocryphal Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courtship Rite is a very interesting novel about a difficult life on a far planet located somewhere between the major arms of the galaxy. The planet Geta (which is also the name under which this book was published in the UK) has been colonized by humans, but so long ago that they don't really understand where the come from, and are now only 98% genetically related.

The ship that brought them is still in orbit and streaks through the sky eight times a day, visible to those on the ground as a bright dot. Many Getans believe this is God. A large geostationary moon hovers in the sky, half-illuminated and never-changing position. Earth biology and Getan biology don't mix, so humans are stuck eating the eight Sacred plants the brought with them (wheat, etc.) and bees. Profane plants are inedible, and there are no diseases because alien microbes don't affect humans. There are also no animals, and no native animals except insects, which are sometimes used as a spice, but anyone who eats to much will get sick. The Horse is only known as a chess piece, and people think it either represents a side-stepping insect or a large four-legged humanoid. So the only source of protein on the planet are seeds, bees, and the colonists themselves. Humans are expected to give themselves up to be feasted upon at death, or in times of scarcity. People mark their skins with cicatrice patterns so their skin can make interesting leather for those who come after, and 'making shoes of your enemies' is a common euphemism.

Societally, things are complicated. Society is broken into clans which differ culturally and seem to be based on profession. We mostly deal with the Kaiel clan here, and they're unique in many ways. They have group marriages of typically up to six people (three men, three women) through many families never get past five. The family that this book follows plans to add a sixth to their marriage of five, but their clan leader (the Prime Predictor, seemingly called because they are best at predicting outcomes and futures - they can see further and more accurately than anyone else) has denied them the sixth they have all fallen in love with, and instead directs them to marry a different woman from a far off place. Naturally, the family (which is centered on three creche-raised brothers - Hoemei, Gaet, and Joesai) object to this plan, and the three brothers decide to poison the whole procedure by initiating the Death Rite, a type of courtship rite that puts the potential mate (read victim) through seven deadly trials. If they survive, a marriage will take place. But either the person doing the wooing or the wooed can die through the process, and that's really what they hope will happen - but nobody can predict what will happen next.

So this courtship Death Rite is the main driver of the plot. The cast of characters are the three brothers, their two current wives, their two possible sixth wives, the Prime Predictor, a murderous courtesan, plus many other incidental characters. It all takes place in a world where people wear clothes made from human skins and iridescent alien insects, where God streaks through the sky beaming down horrifying messages in the form of a book called The Forge of War, when people are raised in genetically engineered creches where the vast majority of babies become gene stock or food, and where tradition trumps law.

The closest thing I could compare this to would be Dune, if Dune were to focus on local culture instead of the grand sweep of planetary politics, or Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Leguin, if the locals lived on a different planet with a lot of material scarcity but sexual freedom. I'm not really aware of another SF book like it.

The prose is better than competent, and I found the writing itself to be quite pleasing. The pace tends to drag a little in the middle, and that it can be a little hard to follow at times because of all the jargon - most of which amounts to clan names, or social concepts. The book would definitely benefit from a glossary. There's also a lot of difficult subject matter, which will turn off some readers. I never got the sense that the author was weighing in with their personal opinion on this society - it's mostly presented as is. Readers can form their own opinions. For my part, I found it all quite exotic - I wouldn't want to live there, for sure, but was fascinated by this vision of an alien culture. To get the most from this book, you'll need to take your time with it.

Courtship Rite was shortlisted for Nebula and Hugo awards, won a Locus award and Compton award for best first novel, and later won a Prometheus Hall of Fame award (which is awarded by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which puts in company with The Dispossessed, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, The Stars my Destination, and The Lord of the Rings, among many others.)

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mon avis
Parade nuptiale est un roman étrange, issu d’une ligne de Hard-science qu’on peut sans problème faire remonter à Dune, tant par l’hostilité du milieu que par la forme du récit, et d’autres postures d’écriture.
Cependant, il serait réellement réducteur de le positionner comme une simple copie du roman de Herbert, car Parade nuptiale est un récit beaucoup plus riche, plus fort, et plus difficile d’accès que Dune. Ce récit se situe sur une planète autre que la Terre, où des humains luttent pour survivre dans un monde à l’hostilité avérée. En effet, loin de monstres géants, la biosphère de cette planète est naturellement toxique pour l’être humain, et les aliments dits profanes, c’est-à-dire ceux issus de cette biosphère, sont potentiellement mortels, à la manière du plomb, pour les humains. Il existe bien sûr quelques aliments dits sacrés, pour lesquels le lecteur devine qu’ils ont été importés avec ces humains, comme le blé ou les patates. Partant de cette hypothèse très simple, Kingsburry se place d’entrée de jeu dans ce qu’on pourait appeler un régime stable, c’est-à-dire longtemps après la colonisation. Et son postulat d’environnement toxique a des répercussions incroyables sur la culture et la société de cette planète, retombée dans ce que je considère comme une espèce de moyenâge, où existerait pourtant la génétique moderne.
Parmi les conséquences les plus évidentes, on peut citer le cannibalisme culturel. C’est-à-dire que les plus faibles sont éliminées en cas de famine, pour nourir de leurs protéines les plus forts, et ainsi participer à l’amélioration de la race, concept clé de cette planète. De la même manière, les anciens qui meurent de vieillesse, les difformes et les bébés non désirés sont tous mangés, et on conserve les parties de leur corps non dévorées lors du buffet funéraire dans de délicieuses conserves. Tout cela n’est qu’un des milliers d’aspects où l’environnement a eu son impact sur la culture et la civilisation de ce monde. Tout cela n’est qu’un environnement dont j’ai essayé de donner un aperçu des pratiques les plus marquantes. Et dans cet environnement, ce roman nous raconte l’ascencion d’une famille (un mariage polygame visant la complétude à sept) qui va essayer de prendre le pouvoir, de manière "civilisée", c’est-à-dire sans verser le sang et en respectant les coutumes politiques. Et toute cette lutte politique présente, pour le joueur de nomic que je suis, certains aspects très intéressants comme une réflexion approfondie sur le pouvoir, son exercice et sa fonction sociale. Ainsi, la mise en oeuvre d’un électorat sur la base du clientélisme, qu’on considère usuellement comme une mauvaise forme de gouvernement, est ici utilisé d’une manière extrêmement intéressante, qui en sublime les potentialités politiques. En fait, il est difficile de bien parler d’une oeuvre aussi radicalement différente. Car la différence, ici, n’est pas seulement dans les vêtements ou les pratiques religieuses de gens, elle est dans le coeur de leur culture, qui se base entièrement sur la cannibalisme. Et ce cannibalisme, à son tour, ne peut pas être vu comme un acte dégradant. Ou du moins, il n’est vu comme tel que par une gentille hérétique, qui souhaite y mettre fin, et dont le rôle dans le bouquin est assez important. Au final, c’est effectivement une lecture très étrange, mais assez fascinante. Je ne saurais trop conseiller aux fans de fictions éllaborées de se précipiter sur cet ouvrage où l’action laisse bien volontiers la place à de puissantes réflexions sur la société, la politique, le pouvoir, ce genre de choses.

Une discussion sur ce roman
Peu de temps après, j’ai eu l’occasion de discuter de ce roman avec un interlocuteur d’Usenet, qu’on appelera ici XH.
ND

Parce que des cannibales qui se lancent dans une guerre tribale pour étendre leur empire, ça fait sf, comme thème ?

XH

Non ; mais la question de savoir si une société fonctionnelle issue d’un peuplement originellement humain mais qui a dérivé à tel point que tout les critères sociaux habituellement admis ont volé en éclat est encore composée d’humains, n’est-ce pas SF, comme thème ?

ND

Si, complètement. il n’en reste pas moins que, dans ce roman, certains éléments (les combats tribaux, l’espèce de médiévalisme que j’ai pu y ressentir) me font penser que le classement en SF est quelque part un peu artificiel. Pour ma part, si j’avais dû placer ce roman quelque part, je l’aurais mis dans une nouvelle catégorie : la hard-”sciences humaines”. Car si, dans les bouquins d’Egan, par exemple, les éléments qui sont très largement extrapolés sont des éléments de sciences dures, Kingsburry, lui, choisit d’extrapoler de la même manière des éléments purement humains : comment survivre et adapter la civilsation à un environnement dont l’hostilité est on ne peut plus hostile. Il en tire ainsi des conséquences politiques, sociales, psychologiques, qui ne peuvent que laisser le lecteur sans voix.

XH

C’est parce que tu es trop conditionné par l’association entre SF et technologie. Alors que la SF est un état d’esprit que tu évoques fort bien dans la suite [... cf paragraphe du dessus …] Le tout ficelé dans une histoire intéressante. Voilà une bonne recette pour un bon bouquin de SF, je dirais. L’important, ce n’est pas la technique, c’est la remise en cause des certitudes et la rationnalité (même basée sur des bases qui peuvent être complètement farfelues scientifiquement, l’important étant que cet a priori soit relativement clair). Bref, la SF cherche à explorer et découvrir le réel, le plus souvent au travers de virtualités savamment élaborées, tandis que la fantasy joue plus sur comment faire revivre les structures narratives ancestrales et leurs émotions associées dans un contexte littéraire modernisé. Cela dit, c’est mon point de vue et je le partage (du moins jusqu’à ceje le relise demain), mais sans doute manqué-je de biscuits (comme disait mon prof de philo de terminale), i.e je n’ai pas mon diplôme de pipologie appliquée, euh pardon, de critique littéraire avancée. Notons au passage que Kingsburry a obtenu l’an dernier une distinction en tant qu’auteur de SF libertaire, ce qui cadre bien avec cet esprit de remise en question.

ND

En fait, il n’y a pas non plus de doute pour moi, mais ça reste un bouquin tellement étrange que le placer en sf me pose de nombreux problèmes d’organisation de mon catalogue mental.

XH

Franchement, je trouve que c’est un des bouquins que je conseillerais pour quelqu’un qui voudrait découvrir la SF autrement que sous la forme de batailles dans l’espace avec des robots. Le seul truc queje regrette, c’est la concession qu’il fait en faisant trop directement référence à l’histoire du XXe siècle, je trouve que cela affaiblit l’effet de dépaysement. Mais en même temps cela sert aussi l’histoire,et la référence est immédiatement compréhensible, voire même ressentie par lecteur, bien plus que le seraient des inventions de l’auteur.

[Carmelo Medina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tiene un buen mundo construido y le he dado más de 100 páginas de cuartelillo, pero no me ha enganchado y me he dado cuenta de que seguía oyéndolo (leyendo) por inercia. Vamos a coger otro nova que la serie es MUY buena

[AoC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Occasionally I aim to ambush myself and start reading a book as ignorant of what it's about as I possibly can be. Courtship Rite is one such case and I honestly don't know how to even makes the sales pitch.

Think civilization building within alien society where polyamory is default. Not to say latter is the primary focus of the novel, but when have you have a family with three husbands and two wives to start off, where they genuinely work as a unit to further their goals, it's a big part of the novel. Weirdest thing? That's the most normal aspect to come from this setting. Geta is a strange world without domesticated livestock with humans and Eight Sacred Plants serving as only familiar ties to good old Earth we know and love. Novel goes to great lengths to convey just how inhospitable Geta is to human life, in large part because there's, well, other life on it and all of it will kill you unless you know the tricks around it. What this has resulted in is perpetual food scarcity and cannibalism is not only NOT taboo, but also normal and expected at times. Bad harvest? Old will volunteer and everyone joins the Funereal Feast where the VIP prepared with plenty of meat strips to go around, bones to turn into broth and skin to be worn when tanned properly. You see, society on Geta isn't really familiar with concepts like countries and is more or less divided and ruled by priest clans. These sit on top of the food pyramid and govern in their own fashion. Two of such clans novel concerns itself with are Kaiel and Mnankrei as they inevitably come to blows in a world that does not know the meaning of war. Or even weapons.

Our aforementioned family belongs to the former clan, who cull their children all year long and do not reserve cannibalism for famine which has earned them a certain sort of reputation, and they get a specific mandate from up top - they must forsake the current woman they were pursuing to be third-wife and instead marry an unknown, so-called Gentle Heretic, in a prelude move to the upcoming clan struggle as Kaiel leadership suspects Mnanekrei leadership may be causing a famine to up the food prices or extort higher "flesh tithe" from weaker clans. It's all part of the great global picture dealing with the fact Mnankrei have big ships and Kaiel are land-bound which limits trade capacity in comparison. If that sounds kinda dull that's probably because it starts off that way and takes a backseat before you get some basic know-how regarding how this madhouse operates. Let's just say that Gentle Heretic, herself opposing cannibalism and who may have an artifact concerning God in the Sky, a star denizens of Geta can see shinning bright, has a role to play. Only for Courtship Rite to backhand you across the room dropping a rather impressive revelation, one that seems to have been spoiled in most summaries I've read after the fact. Three brothers send their loudest and wanton to test the waters with their bride to be as well as expand Kaiel influence. One of the wives is sent with him to temper his fiery nature as they masquerade to hide overt meddling.

I realize I haven't exactly told you much about the book. That's because A) can't get into it without spoilers and B) it really IS more about the world itself and reader becoming accustomed to it. There are brief pieces of fiction opening every chapter that set the mood just right for my taste. People here adore their skin with decorative scars and tattoos, and as rare form of leather it is seldom abandoned. For a technologically agnostic nature of Geta important clans seem to have access to chemistry and genetics to a mental level of proficiency. What we would procure technologically they achieve through genetic tampering. Kaiel leader, for example, is called Prime Predictor and is chosen based on how accurate his "prophecies" were when observed years later. Of course, no good leader just waits for things to happen and always nudges with just enough force to set things in motion.

Entire thing is extremely bizarre and my only complaint is that romance probably takes a good 20% of the book. I lost count how many times everyone has sex almost like saying hello to one another or just sheer dynamics of a marriage five people can have and all the drama that entails when it goes wrong. Strong recommendation despite that, though. I was taken aback by how Kaiel clan interprets discoveries that could shake their entire belief system and seemingly temper it with wisdom. Then again out of all priest clans their shtick is bargaining.

[John Park · Rating 4 out of 5]

A recent reread after a couple of decades. I found I'd forgotten all the plot and some of the setting.

Geta is a far-future, mostly desert world precariously colonised by humans, who have no other surviving vertebrates (the Horse is known only as a chesspiece) and so must be their own source of meat protein, through ritual cannibalism. The biosciences are well developed, but physics is also making progress as the story develops. Kingsbury employs the traditional assumption that such a civilisation will have deified what it can no longer understand--and indeed the Getans have their own God who crosses the sky at regular intervals. This God, almost certainly the starship that brought them to Geta and now left in a parking orbit, remains enigmatic to the end of the book--evidently grist for a sequel that Kingsbury has never published.

What he gives us is a fascinating portrayal of a culture of world-wide clans specialised in various talents. Marriages can consists of two to six spouses (though the free and often joyous couplings Kingsbury presents are all heterosexual), but are apt to be influenced by political pressures. The main plot engine of the book is started when a five-member marriage, having chosen a third woman to complete their six, are told that for political reasons they must take another, a stranger.

Political intrigue intersects with personal needs and clan morality. Characters grow and change, war is threatened, stories of Earth's violent past are recovered and overinterpreted, A biological weapon threatens famine. Catastrophe is averted. Conflicts are resolved, loose ends tied off.

The writing clunks occasionally; some of the dialogue feels too oratorical, and the last fifty-odd pages are perhaps an epilogue rather than part of the main story. But the book contains a wealth of invention in the setting, plot and character. Perhaps the best indication of the care that must have gone into it are the invented quotations used as chapter-epigraphs; like the book itself they are by turns deliberately naive, satirical, wise, sad, funny, harsh, and always thought-provoking.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best book about the political machinations on a planet filled with polyfidelitous cannibals that you'll ever read. Life on Geta is harsh--the mostly-desert environment means the only animal life around is insectoid, so the only source of labor or meat is other humans. And to make matters worse, all but eight "sacred" plants are poisonous to humans. This gives rise to a very specific set of social institutions where cannibalism is seen as perfectly acceptable in certain situations and is often even an act of noble sacrifice. It also means the lack of trees and fossil fuels have kept technology to a level roughly equivalent with that found immediately prior to the industrial revolution. But there are hints, especially strong in the religious traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, that there was a time of more advanced technological progress.

The characters are vibrant and the numerous complex plot lines interweave to form a rich, fascinating tapestry. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but if it sounds at all interesting, highly recommended.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, if I had only read great literature or at least informative non-fiction instead of all the forgetable science fiction novels and collections I've spent so much of my life reading! I knew I'd read a lot of sf, but going over the lists of books completed which have been kept since the end of college has been sobering. With few exceptions, most of the genre isn't worth reading except as escapist literature and I never attended much to quality, simply reading almost anything to hand except when burned enough by a particularly bad writer to avoid him or her.

This isn't a bad book. It's actually pretty well written. Beyond that, however, it left me with nothing memorable.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago and it remains in my memory after 33 years. This story was so amazing and compelling. It opens your mind to different thoughts about cultures and social mores and norms. One thing that I did not see mentioned in other people's reviews was that tattoos and scarring were the norm and having no body modification was considered exotic. I highly recommend this book. It's sci-fi. It's not sexually explicit but there are sexual events. If you can find a copy of this in a resale shop, get it and read it. I don't think you'll be sorry.

[Pauline Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just read it. It's wonderful. Thought-provoking, disturbing, and so very detailed and real.

[Saski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Courtship Rite
I am amazed to be holding a copy of this book again. I last held one over thirty years ago, the last book I borrowed from my closest friend. Kingsbury was new to both of us and my friend was very excited to introduce me to him. Nearly all my SciFi back then came through him, and when he died not long after I returned “Courtship Rite” my favorite reading material came to, if not a halt, at least a trickle.
I had wonderful, perhaps exaggerated, memories of the tale, and began a search for it some years ago, remembering only the tattoos and the ‘ideal marriage’ set up. Finally, I found someone who could come up with author and title from my sketchy description. A year ago I met someone who had just inherited a collection of ‘older’ SciFi, including a digital list. There it was! I couldn’t believe it, and excitedly and happily accepted his offer to ship it out to me.
The amazing complexity of the society Kingsbury has created is even more fantastic than I remembered. I could read a dozen books set on that planet. Sadly, as Kingsbury is in his 90s, that’s unlikely to happen.
In the interest of full disclosure, the plot is not as satisfying as the rest, and the ending seemed to me to be too pat, as if Kingsbury was suddenly rushed to finish. As I read the final pages I remembered that I had the same feeling of disappointment when first I read it. As you can see that disappointment was not what stayed with me over the decades. This book is worth your time despite its failings.

Quotes that caught my eye
Gaet paused. A Kaiel who made decisions had to register at the Palace what he thought would be the consequences of those decisions both in the short term and the long term. To be proved wrong by time meant that his genes would be purged from the liquid nitrogen sperm banks of the Kaiel creches. (59)

A human who is consistently fair to his friends will find unexpected allies among his adversaries who will plant his kalothi beyond the bounds of its formal territory. A human who degrades his enemies in word and deed will also be seen to scorn and beat the wife he loves, insult his comrades, cheat his parents, commit treason against his clan, and listen to flattery with a warm feeling in his heart. Do not trust the man who is ruthless with your enemies for he will make a poor friend. (62)

The carnivorous nota-aemini will never attack one of its own kind and so that innocent and delicious beetle known as the false nota-aemini has prudently disguised itself to resemble its enemy. Yet life is too restless to allow a solution to exist for long. The narkie, a much smaller prey of the nota-aemini, now has a subspecies which imitates the harmless symbiotes of the false nota-aemini—but in order to survive this new home, where none of the narkie’s natural foodstuffs exist, it has development a taste for its host’s brains. (96)

Too much local authority leads a region’s priests to maximize local benefits sub-optimally at the expense of distant peoples. Such cases represent the situation where essential information sources remain far from the deliberation and execution points and so tend to be unused.
Central authority, which theoretically maximizes benefits for the whole by gathering and using all information, in practice quickly becomes so choked that wisdom breaks down, again leading to far less than optimal solutions. Carrying information from any large area to a central location, and there correlating it, takes longer than the useful life of the information. Data degrades as it travels, or it doesn’t arrive in time, or it gets lost in the incoming flood and is never used.
Between the local/central extremes Hoemei saw many balanced worlds. Slowly he began to formulate his “shortpath” theory of government that forever changed Getan history. There was a way to construct the decision nodes of a network so that the most optimal decision path tended to cause the atrophy of less economical ones. Nodes had to be connected in such a way that there were no unique paths to the top of the hierarchy. A man maintained his power within the system only by being on the most effective decision route through the multiple pathways leading to a solution.
Hoemei had much help from his o’Tghalie staff in formulating his notion of an ideal government. His basic model derived from the information flow theory which described an evolving biological ecology. (153-54)

The future seen is not the future that will be—because it was seen. Learn this law well, Kaiel child, use it, and you may become the Prime Predictor. (165)

One man alone is like a cripple bound to his pillow, ennobled /humbled by the daily discipline of conquering trivial detail, even the lacing of boots a major challenge. When does the One achieve more?
Two may live serenely, with occasional storms of high happiness, if the weather and the times are with them, and chance smiles on them, and Death does not halve them, the man of such a union must take vows of poverty; his one woman will never be as a rich as his dreams. The woman of such a union must learn to cherish weaknesses and lacks; her one man will have to work too hard to be the best of lovers. When expectations are small, and life benevolent, a Two works well enough.
Three restlessly seeks another mate like water seeks the sea, but a triumvirate is the freest of all marriages from conflict. A chair with three legs does not wobble.
Four is the threshold of emotional wisdom. Only masters of the four phases of love and the four nodes of loyalty can juggle a marriage of four without losing a ball. The Four is a game for the players of the game of love who have won.
Five, like Three, is sensually unstable but transmutes more opulently in the harmonies of its shiftings. The Five is an energy amplifier of great power based on loyalty, love, experience, communication, and flexibility. Mates of a five are adepts at conflict resolution. It is said that a clan is in safe hands whose leader has achieved a Five.
Six is the marriage of completion. The children of the Sixes shall inherit the stars for the symbol of six is the star. (171)
Version of the Marriage Troth
From the Kaiel Book of Ritual

In an open game like chess a player hides his moves behind complexity. In a covert game like five-card hunter a player hides his moves by withholding the face of three cards. But how does one play a game which is itself hidden? The opponent never speaks, is never seen, and never gloats. During that single unexpected moment when the magnitude of your loss is revealed, who has won? (182)

Magic always had its loose ends which made it hard to steal. (184)

When a dobu of the kembri attacks a man, he uses the forces inherent in his opponent’s defense to exact defeat. If a push is expected, the dobu pulls. If a pull is expected, the dobu pushes. In like manner we attack a man’s mind. Do not use truth and reason to sway your enemy. Strike him down with cunning application of his own logic. (187)

I think the Marx priests formed a great government once but they had communication problems and broke up into Russians, Imperialists, Communists, Chinese, Socialists, Runindogs, Libyans, Fascists, Lackies, Trotskies, Gaulists, Revisionists, Kgbers, and Albanians. After that my memory runs out. The other side was simpler. There were the Amerikan priests and the Israeli priests, and their allies the Opeckeers, the Capitalists, the Multinationals and the Degeneratburjwa. (214)


Any Kaiel in good standing was allowed to vote before the cutoff date, but few would because the kaiel had a peculiar system. A mere yes or no was not sufficient. The Kaiel maintained that a yes/no vote did not require careful thought and so encouraged sloppy lawmaking. A Kaiel who voted, and they were constantly taking the trouble to vote on something, made a deposition in the Archives stating in detail what he believed to be the consequences of his choice. The archivist did not accept the vote unless the consequences were stated in measurable terms. (221)

“Wouldn’t you like to abolish such cruelty?”
“Someday—when the land becomes water and the water, land.” Which meant never. (223)

It was the ignorant men who were always so sure they were right! (226)

That was the price a Predictor paid. The future did not happen. People created the future with moment-to-moment action and decision, always adjusting to the unexpected. More than one route led to the same peak. (234)

Joesai’s expedition lived off the land out of necessity, but his band had strict orders to make sure that the farmers were repaid in work and so they found their pace slowed by sun-heights of remortaring stone farmhouses or digging wells or repairing a weak bridge or cutting ripe po-twine for a family short of stout labor. Such exchanges caused some amazement since these country clans had never seen priests doing manual labor Joesai enjoyed working on thatched roofs and digging ditches. He was in no hurry to reach Soebo where Mnankrei strength outnumbered him hundreds to one. (249)

During times of plenty, culling by the priesthood was a sacrilege and could not be justified as a pursuit of kalothi because kalothi did not demand the death of an inferior man, only that he spill his seed upon barre ground. (249-50)

God had seen fit to give His Race a history that told only of a beginning when the Race and the People were still one. Long ago, eons ago, the People of the Sky had sunfired the city of Hiroshima while they maintained laws against killing criminals. What would their power and ferocity and inconsistency be now after millennia of practice among the stars? (251)

…Teenae brought in a delegation of four young Stgal to meet with Gaet. Obliquely they tried to bribe him. Without showing any expression, Gaet replied by offering a counter-bribe. He left the priests wondering whether he was serious or whether he was just roasting their legs. (255)

In the rage of Lenin’s own words, brought to Teenae by God across the depths of His Unimaginable Sky, she felt that mean man’s deathly fear of all power other than his own. She pitied him the loneliness it implied. To wield total power requires the destruction, everywhere, of all free wills. To need total power is to be totally insecure. (260)

These People of the Sky had a strange definition of help. They forced you into helplessness so that you might be in a position to receive their help which was the only true Help. They lied to serve the Truth. They made themselves Right by killing all who disagreed with them. (261)

The covert man who plots your doom in secret cellars of the night while by the light of day does lavish all sweet service upon your self, mistrusts reflected love. (264)

“We have songs about the bravery of everyone. We sing them when flattery is appropriate. We even have songs to warn out children about idle conversation within ear’s range of the Liethe who wear the ears of our Masters for necklaces.” (264-65)

The horror is not that such men exist, it is that others have allowed such men to rise to power. (266)

It had been Kathein, with her sure knack of ferreting out the rule and law of nature from odd happenings, who had taught Noe the secret of a good intelligence procedure. Never meld the incoming data into a general overall summary. Always maintain two lines of report, the optimistic and the pessimistic. One report should weigh the data in terms of the best possible meaning, and the other report should squeeze out of the data the worst possible interpretation. If both reports agreed, the probability or error in the conclusion was small, but if both reports diverged wildly, then careful attention had to be given to the negative nuances that would have been lost in any general summary. (271)

A man who has been afraid all his life thinks that fear is the only winning strategy because he has been conquered by fear. Thus when an oppressed mind strikes in rebellion, he becomes the oppressor. (273)

My dreams were the color of my family quilt washed in the mountain stream until it was as faded as the dawn of the late morning, smelling of rock and tree spore, moist as the hand of fear. Yet children’s eyes remember the colors my grandmother wove like laughter stained by slippery grass. Today I finger that quilt, imagining the sudden reds of the mountain’s ember flower, and the boiled blue dye of pfeina bark in t he buckets. So are dreams remended into worn fabric that once warmed my sisters from the snowing flakes. (282)

In a way, we are all hermits, … God is a recluse like me. (287)

He who judges shall be judged in kind, but whosoever fails to judge for fear of being judged himself shall suffer tyranny. (288)

“We are aligned with the priests. We rise or fall as they rise and fall. If they become corrupt, well we not be destroyed with them? The priests must have their checks.”
The arrogance of that statement triggered a fury in the young assassin. “And what if we become corrupt?” she erupted, raising a tidal wave in her tub. (291)

You ask why the kolgame allows the violation of its rules? But are not rules subservient to strategy? and plans subservient to rules? and contracts subservient to plans? The player who fixates upon the rules has replaced his strategy with a lower strategy. He may be defeated buy creating a condition under which an application of his own rules will abort his basic goal. The player who fixates upon plans has replaced his strategy with motions. He will find himself walking at the bottom of a river because his plans called for a bridge that was not there. The player who fixates upon contracts has replaced his strategy by a faith in the omnipotence of someone else, and will fail whenever that other man fails. Once strategy is set, rules, plans, and contracts become variables to be optimized continuously. Such is the way of victory. (293)

There could be no victory unless the children came to greet you. No children cheered the German troops across the steppes of Russia. No children cheered the Russian butchers in Afghanistan. No children cheered the Amerikan troops at My Lai. (296)

For the first time Joesai introduced the odd phrase “Will of the People” into his exhortations. He had picked it out of The Forge of War, thinking that it perfectly expressed Kaiel notions of obtaining the loyalty of the underclans. Was not the function of a hereditary ruling clan to sense the thousand conflicting wills of its people and artfully shape that force into a single Will?
Joesaai had found himself bemused by the context in which the People of the Sky had used the phrase. But they never spoke words in simple ways. The Amerikans wrote “Will of the People” into their Constitution to justify slavery as if the Black clan itself had devised slavery to promote the Greater Will.
Even more peculiar was the use of the phrase by the Russian Tsar, Lenin the Terrible. Joesai had been intrigued by certain passages in the Forge of War suggested to him by Teenae. Lenin, dismayed by past losses of Tsarist property to the expanding Capitalist clan and outraged by Socialist calls for land reform in which former state slaves would be awarded the farmland they had tilled for generations, had, immediately after his coronation, begun the extermination of the Capitalists by mass terror while, simultaneously, conniving from within the Socialist clan to restore all property to the Tsar by systematic liquidation of every Socialist within his realm. In retaking the land for the state he justified the mass murder of peasants as the Will of the People because it was the peasants who had given the Tsardom to Lenin and therefore was it not their Will when he or4dered them destroyed rather than relinquishing to them the land which historically was his? (304)

Why should a government which is doing what it believes is right allows itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. (310)

When masters play, treachery is their least valued tactic, not because the ways of deceit are ineffective but because of long-term consequences. Is not the treacherous player isolated by mistrust during the end game? (316)

Only a man who longed to be vastly superior to others needed to see his enemy as a fool who might be persuaded to eat strychnine like candy. (317)

Humility thought only of Hoemei. Scowlmoon, trailing a ruddy scarf upon the canal, was all she had to remember him by (317)

How alone it was to have power. (320)

A man only has vision into the future if he has friends who care enough to share his vision and make it real for him. (326)

She told of the total extermination of the Hews in Britain on orders of the Pope so that the British people never thereafter had a Jewish problem. She told of the massacre of the Persians at Thermopylae. She told of the mountain of skulls in India she told the story of the Turks forever cursed with the blood of the Armenians. She told of the inefficiencies of Belsen and efficiencies of Hiroshima. She told of the post Frist world War invasion of Poland by Russian, and the retaliatory invasion of Russian by Poland, and of the final solution to the polish problem when the Russians, a generation later and allied with the Nazis, overran Poland and executed 15,000members of the polish military clan and buried them in a mass grave at Katyn.
She told of the great Amerikan Peace Movement whose theory of justice was that the brutal Amerikan Army should move out of Southeast Asia so that the Cambodians could fertilize their fields with the bodies of Cambodians so that the Vietnamese could prey on the corpse of a decimated nation so that the Chinese could punish the Vietnamese so that the Vietnamese could drown their own Chinese in the sea. She told of the sack of Rome. (340-41)

Both began to question Kathein about weapons. She told them of axe and sword and crossbow and rifle and cannon and tank and fighter air craft and helicopter gungods and long-range bombers and ICBMs and spy satellites.
Kaessim grinned through the fei flower scars upon his face. “Maybe god is a spy satellite for the Riethe.” He laughed. They all laughed the great laugh tell tears came to their eyes, for that was too terrifying a joke to take seriously. (341)

Kathein told of the weapons cycles that passed through Riethe history. First the bows and arrows and the staffs and slings made the individual supreme. Then the invention of the two-wheeled cart was taken over by nomads who lightened and perfected the design for rapid control of their herds. (Herds, Kathein explained, were small clans of people kept for their meat and hides and milk.) the chariot was pulled by a Horse.
“The Horse piece of chess?”
“The Horse is historical? Not mythical?”
“The Horse of the Forge of War,” explained Aesoe, “is a very large humanoid creature with a long face and four legs and no arms.”
The Itraiel priests grinned hugely and clinked shot glasses of whisky to this image of a four-footed Ivieth trying to pull a wagon.
“Horses were expensive and hard to train. Chariots were costly, so a select military clan grew up around them and swept down over Mesopotamia and India and as far east as China, killing all the priests who were not afraid of them.”
“The confusion of weapon with strategy,” commented Kaesim.
....

Sadly GR doesn't allow me to post more....

[Mark White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lazy SF authors trying to portray an alien society often choose a human society (usually from history) as a model and stick in a few key words or concepts with no thought or explanation as to how this might have come about. In contrast Kingsbury has developed a human society that is almost completely alien to our moral code and yet seems to grow from the planet it is set on as a logical necessity, fully detailed, absolutely consistent, believable and in many ways enviable.

(I will point out at this time that this novel is an all time favourite and I am re-reading it in reaction to a poorly drawn world in another novel.)

The background is that the humans of the planet Geta are a "lost colony" that has forgotten or mythologised their origins. Technology on the world of Geta is anachronistic - bio-engineering way ahead of our current understanding but backward in other areas as there has previously not been the incentive to preserve or invent many things we take for granted. And as the story develops we see how this must have come about as the original colonists were knocked down by the famines that regularly plague the harsh landscape. With the changing needs of a major conflict brewing we see their reinvention of many common technologies such as radio, the bicycle and, sadly, the gun.

Armed with advanced biological techniques and a firm belief in evolution the Getans actively breed themselves for attributes desired by each clan such as strength and endurance, mathematical genius, beauty or in the case of the Kaiel political acumen. This may seem impractical but again, the methods employed are thoroughly believable.

Set against this background the plot is a family saga as the Maran-Kaiel family fight for survival, political power and expansion of their clan. War clouds the horizon as their opponents the Mnankrei clan start biological warfare, violating all sorts of taboos. There's action aplenty, sometimes quite bloody, but also a spiritual quest, political drama, technological adventure and some strangely alien but still touching love stories. The main characters are fully rounded with virtues and faults that make them believable and sympathetic characters, fiercely loyal and with ironclad principles within the functioning of their society. Minor characters get little details that quickly make them very human and fit them into their society and the story.

The cover tag lines on some editions of this novel likening it to Dune do it a disservice. Unlike the biological impossibility of Arakis, the biosphere of the planet Geta obeys all the laws of nature and physics. And there's none of the hippy mysticism. Read this novel to see how a world should be built and how a possible future should be written.

[Blake Math · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content trigger warning: this book contains cannibalism, suicide, slavery, physical mutilation of adults and children, less-than-consensual sex, polygamy, forced breeding, Russian history, cellular biology, and murder.

There are two stories that Kingsbury tells in this book. One is a fairly straightforward enemies-to-lovers tale, the titular Courtship Rite. The other involves all that stuff in the above trigger warning...and how, under the right circumstances, it can become normalized, even celebrated. And if you say "only a madman would ever celebrate cannibalism and ritual suicide," then you've walked right into Kingsbury's trap.

Courtship Rite gets five stars for Kingsbury's imaginative worldbuilding, even if it does borrow heavily from Dune. I even appreciated the lacks of an appendix or much in the way of direct exposition to explain the peculiarities of Getan culture. Kingsbury trusts the reader to figure out the important bits through context clues, rather than sacrifice immersion.

I have to subtract a star because the plot is disjointed and rather poorly paced. The first half of the book is the slowest of slow burns as Kingsbury tries to explain his fascinating setting while simultaneously building up our emotional investment in Oelita, the female lead and subject of Courtship. The action picks up considerably at the halfway point...which is when Kingsbury decides that the enemies-to-lovers plot is getting in the way of the story he really wants to tell. Oelita then goes insane and disappears for the next 100 pages, only reappearing after a time-skip and the resolution of 90% of the conflict.

If you've got the stomach for it, this is a criminally unknown book for how well-written its world, characters, and dialogue are. The story of the actual Courtship Rite left me feeling cheated, but I have no regrets about the time I spent with this book. I only regret reading it while on a plane, where other passengers could glance over my shoulder and grab snippets out of context.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Sigh* Another DNF. I'm at page 250 and I decided to come to GR to see what I might be missing. Another reviewer made the statement, "A richly developed world, with interesting cultural and societal developments." And that's a great summary. Unfortunately, there's really no story. Nothing happens. It's just a lot of descriptive thoughts in different characters' heads, by which we begin to figure out the characters, the world and it's cultures.

Frankly, what's way more entertaining than actually reading "Courtship Rite" is reading the reviews here from today's younger generation, as they attempt to perform their ritual analysis of older books based on today's social justice ideologies. Because this book is all OVER the map when it comes to sex, gender roles, female empowerment, child rights, you name it. People viewing this book from a SJW POV will find reasons to be warmly smug and then outraged and offended, often in the same paragraph.

I wanted to like this book. Certainly the author gets a point or two just from having the imagination to come up with the world he did. But I need a story, not just a description of the world and its characters, and there's really no story here.

[ΛrtesµS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empieza muy fuerte, me gustaba mucho la idea del juego del Rito Mortal que le plantean a Oelita y cómo se iba desarrollando. Sin embargo, la trama cambia rápidamente y las pruebas mortales pierden fuerza prácticamente desde el principio dando paso a un argumento más amplio. Personalmente me gustan más las historias individualizadas que las generales en las que el objetivo podríamos decir que es salvar al mundo de la facción enemiga. A pesar de ello es un libro muy original y me han gustado muchísimo las ideas que plantea. Final redondo, quizá con algún detalle menor sin cerrar pero prescindible. Sin duda, para los amantes de los finales felices en los que todos comen perdices y los héroes salvan al mundo de la catástrofe. Por poner una pega quizá tiene un final poco realista y demasiado perfecto.

[L M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing and pacing are all over the place, the dialogue can be ridiculous and I do not like books with even the lightest helpings of smut, yet despite that I absolutely loved Courtship Rite once I got through the initial few chapters. Kingsbury's world is fascinating, and though you can see the twist coming a mile away it still satisfies on arrival. There are stunningly composed passages in contrast with turns of phrase that elicit an eyeroll. I fluctuated between three and four stars for the majority of the read, but after a bit of reflection settled on my rating, primarily based on enjoyment rather than sheer literary merit. A fun read, if a novel about cannibalism, child brides, hookers, faith and polygamy is your idea of fun.