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The Coral Dawn Trilogy #1
Daughters of a Coral Dawn
Late in the 22nd century, the settling of a new world falls on the strong shoulders of young Megan. The perfect leader, she undertakes to guide her sisters to a new planet, free from the shackles of the brutal Earth regime. Negotiating politics in a society of women is second only to securing their safety. When a landing party of men and women discover their colony Megan must decide if the outsiders will live or die. And that includes Lt. Laurel Meredith, whose disturbing beauty is as dangerous to Megan as her people are to Megan’s world..
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
33 people are currently reading
1398 people want to read
About the author
Katherine V. Forrest
44 books323 followersKatherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
April 10, 2016
As a huge fan of lesbian fantasy and sci-fi, I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I consider this book to be of importance, to the lesbian sci-fi genre, especially when you consider this book was published in 1984. Call this a classic, call it revolutionary, Forrest was one of the first sci-fi authors, to give us erotic romantic relationships between women in an all woman society. I don't mean to over puff this book, but I had an excitement while reading this. Was it as fantastic as I could imagine? No, but it was very good. The writing was excellent and the descriptions great. You feel truly immersed into their world.
I know some people, who read this, where turned off from possible inbreeding. That thought did come to me, (I think how Jane Fletcher made her all female society in Celaeno series was a better idea) but than I remembered were dealing with Aliens. Plus many different generations since the characters have longer life spans. Also, there is technology they can use to get pregnant. I'm sure they are careful with the genes. We are NOT talking about a bother and sister that had babies. There was a litter of babies that ended up with all different, non-related, men and had their own litters of babies. Were talking 6,000 women from all over earth. Plus, remember were dealing with Aliens. So yeah, after that long winded explanation... no the "inbreeding" did not bother me.
To sum this up, I really enjoyed this and I would recommend this to sci-fi lovers. I will be reading the others in the series.
I know some people, who read this, where turned off from possible inbreeding. That thought did come to me, (I think how Jane Fletcher made her all female society in Celaeno series was a better idea) but than I remembered were dealing with Aliens. Plus many different generations since the characters have longer life spans. Also, there is technology they can use to get pregnant. I'm sure they are careful with the genes. We are NOT talking about a bother and sister that had babies. There was a litter of babies that ended up with all different, non-related, men and had their own litters of babies. Were talking 6,000 women from all over earth. Plus, remember were dealing with Aliens. So yeah, after that long winded explanation... no the "inbreeding" did not bother me.
To sum this up, I really enjoyed this and I would recommend this to sci-fi lovers. I will be reading the others in the series.
December 24, 2021
Okay, this was hilarious a bit. I get that it's oldie sci-fi but I wouldn't have expected this, of all things.
January 5, 2019
EDIT: If you are a fucking terf, fuck off and don't bother with my review. Thank you.
Wow. I was urged by a male friend to read this because (paraphrasing, here) "it sucks so bad. It's such a shitty book and I want someone else to read it because it sucks so bad. I don't want to have been the only one to read this shitty book." It seems like something I would read anyway: sci-fi lesbian sex utopias, sure, why not? I read Joanna Russ's The Female Man,which pre-dates Forrest's book by 9 years, around the same time last year, so it seemed appropriate. But MAN, is this book badly written.
The Female Man offers us a few chapters which represent an often wince-inducing militant feminist perspective, but they are well written and adjoining chapters at least attempt to illustrate female characters who depart from this "men are dumb and violent rapists" point of view. Written in 1975, Russ's book can be appreciated through a historical lens as a representation of the climate of the first 15-or-so years of the Women's Liberation Movement. Forrest's book reads as merely an intolerant piece of wish-fulfillment crap. The tone of the narration is not remotely lyrical, nor is it a dry yet engrossing adventure into the building of a new world. It's written a few steps above a Goosebumps book (maybe that is being a bit harsh). It is written journal style from three different characters' perspectives,and even though they are each of different generations and raised into different worlds, their inner thoughts and experiences are all recorded the same exact way, using the same exact words and phrases, as if Forrest was recounting these tales to us in HER own voice and simply donning new hats, declaring "Okay, now I'm Megan. Okay, now I'm Minerva. Okay, now I'm Laurel. Now I'm Megan again." If it didn't have science book regurgitations of facts from various schools of biology and astro-physics, I might have felt progressively dumber as I read the book.
Forrest's work concerns an alien babe out of Heavy Metal Magazine (lots of embarrassing lines in this book comparing her breasts to cantelopes, and when she's older, grapefruits) and her super-intelligent offspring of nine gorgeous lesbian daughters who develop into adults at an accelerated pace. Because of their alien blood, pregnancies last only five months and children start studying quantum physics "to amuse themselves" and all that crap before they have hit puberty. Because of some alien/earth being DNA mutation, all offspring are born female. Recognizing the utopian possibilities of establishing a colony in which all the inhabitants would be female super-brains and taking advantage of a hormone that allows women to conceive without male assistance, the nine sisters (whom are obnoxiously named after goddesses) all decide to become baby factories. This trajectory is so boring. I can't stand it when fantasy fiction uses races of beings whom are immaculately super-powered or super-intelligent; it's lazy writing, and the author doesn't seem patient enough to deal with real conflict and so solves every problem with a wave of a hand. Every woman descended from this line of women has some incredible capability and is also redundantly gorgeous. None of the females in this book are written as flawed in any way.
I was disturbed by Forrest's wishful thinking- basically, this book deals with "sex cleansing"-cleansing the male sex from a society. Call me PRUDISH, but I was unnerved by the inherent incestuousness of all the women in this book-they are all descendants of the original nine sisters, and the original nine find themselves lusting after and coupling with their great-great-great-whatever-granddaughters. Furthermore, the climate of this book leads me to believe that if by some mutation a child with male genitals was born, he would be dealt with the same way an infant girl born into the home of ancient Spartan warriors might be-left on a windy mountain top. The Female Man, which offers four different alternate dimensions of Earth and four different perspectives, gives us an Earth where all men died of a plague and the human race copes by evolving to conceive without the assistance of men; although this is still militant-feminist wish fulfillment, it is dealt with in a more coy way. Forrest's book proposes to cut men out by sheer will. Additionally, Daughters of a Coral Dawn is unsettlingly in favor of the nurture side of the "nature v.s. nurture" argument: the colony of lesbians is homosexual because no men are around, and it is the culture in which they were raised. It is learned lesbianism, and I find it hard to believe that with the eventual arrival of men on Maternas, not one native feels attracted to the opposite sex, even if only out of curiosity. In Russ's book, women evolve towards lesbianism, and it is thus a natural progression. They were born homosexuals. Because of Forrest's support of the nurture argument, I find this book is a destructive text even if it is pro-lesbian. It fosters the idea that sexuality can be a choice, something that is often used as an argument against homosexuality.
Because of their super-intelligence and incredible talents in basically everything, setting up a new colony on another planet, regrettably named "Maternas" (and the continent they inhabitant is name "Femina." BARF) and building gorgeous art nouveau houses carved out of the living rock of Maternas's mountains, Arcosanti style, is a breeze. However, a ship of Earth men and one Earth babe crash lands and gives us the only conflict you will find in this book, which is still brushed under the rug in favor of more descriptions of lithe, nubile female bodies. As the reader might expect, the men are depicted as impulsive,drooling, hairy, stupid rapists; don't worry, the girl stays behind on the planet and learns the pleasures of lesbianism (and is taken on a tour of a library of ancient relics-gasp-BOOKS- and presented with the most obvious piece of literature which made me exclaim aloud, "REALLY?!": a book of Sappho's work), while the men return to space in a ship pre-programmed to explode. The planet Maternas is left in peace to continue with its late '70s liberal arts college interpretative dance pieces and incest.
If you read this book as if it were a 1960s Star Trek episode where Kirk lands on a hostile planet of super-human alien hotties, it is much more tolerable. The sex scenes in this book aren't half bad (no surprise, because it seems like that is where Forrest channeled all of her energy) and it's nice to see a work of fiction that deals with lesbian sex in any graphic way, although she uses the word "throat" way too much. If you are looking for feminist world-building science fiction, turn to Sheri S. Tepper instead. This book is a piece of crap.
Wow. I was urged by a male friend to read this because (paraphrasing, here) "it sucks so bad. It's such a shitty book and I want someone else to read it because it sucks so bad. I don't want to have been the only one to read this shitty book." It seems like something I would read anyway: sci-fi lesbian sex utopias, sure, why not? I read Joanna Russ's The Female Man,which pre-dates Forrest's book by 9 years, around the same time last year, so it seemed appropriate. But MAN, is this book badly written.
The Female Man offers us a few chapters which represent an often wince-inducing militant feminist perspective, but they are well written and adjoining chapters at least attempt to illustrate female characters who depart from this "men are dumb and violent rapists" point of view. Written in 1975, Russ's book can be appreciated through a historical lens as a representation of the climate of the first 15-or-so years of the Women's Liberation Movement. Forrest's book reads as merely an intolerant piece of wish-fulfillment crap. The tone of the narration is not remotely lyrical, nor is it a dry yet engrossing adventure into the building of a new world. It's written a few steps above a Goosebumps book (maybe that is being a bit harsh). It is written journal style from three different characters' perspectives,and even though they are each of different generations and raised into different worlds, their inner thoughts and experiences are all recorded the same exact way, using the same exact words and phrases, as if Forrest was recounting these tales to us in HER own voice and simply donning new hats, declaring "Okay, now I'm Megan. Okay, now I'm Minerva. Okay, now I'm Laurel. Now I'm Megan again." If it didn't have science book regurgitations of facts from various schools of biology and astro-physics, I might have felt progressively dumber as I read the book.
Forrest's work concerns an alien babe out of Heavy Metal Magazine (lots of embarrassing lines in this book comparing her breasts to cantelopes, and when she's older, grapefruits) and her super-intelligent offspring of nine gorgeous lesbian daughters who develop into adults at an accelerated pace. Because of their alien blood, pregnancies last only five months and children start studying quantum physics "to amuse themselves" and all that crap before they have hit puberty. Because of some alien/earth being DNA mutation, all offspring are born female. Recognizing the utopian possibilities of establishing a colony in which all the inhabitants would be female super-brains and taking advantage of a hormone that allows women to conceive without male assistance, the nine sisters (whom are obnoxiously named after goddesses) all decide to become baby factories. This trajectory is so boring. I can't stand it when fantasy fiction uses races of beings whom are immaculately super-powered or super-intelligent; it's lazy writing, and the author doesn't seem patient enough to deal with real conflict and so solves every problem with a wave of a hand. Every woman descended from this line of women has some incredible capability and is also redundantly gorgeous. None of the females in this book are written as flawed in any way.
I was disturbed by Forrest's wishful thinking- basically, this book deals with "sex cleansing"-cleansing the male sex from a society. Call me PRUDISH, but I was unnerved by the inherent incestuousness of all the women in this book-they are all descendants of the original nine sisters, and the original nine find themselves lusting after and coupling with their great-great-great-whatever-granddaughters. Furthermore, the climate of this book leads me to believe that if by some mutation a child with male genitals was born, he would be dealt with the same way an infant girl born into the home of ancient Spartan warriors might be-left on a windy mountain top. The Female Man, which offers four different alternate dimensions of Earth and four different perspectives, gives us an Earth where all men died of a plague and the human race copes by evolving to conceive without the assistance of men; although this is still militant-feminist wish fulfillment, it is dealt with in a more coy way. Forrest's book proposes to cut men out by sheer will. Additionally, Daughters of a Coral Dawn is unsettlingly in favor of the nurture side of the "nature v.s. nurture" argument: the colony of lesbians is homosexual because no men are around, and it is the culture in which they were raised. It is learned lesbianism, and I find it hard to believe that with the eventual arrival of men on Maternas, not one native feels attracted to the opposite sex, even if only out of curiosity. In Russ's book, women evolve towards lesbianism, and it is thus a natural progression. They were born homosexuals. Because of Forrest's support of the nurture argument, I find this book is a destructive text even if it is pro-lesbian. It fosters the idea that sexuality can be a choice, something that is often used as an argument against homosexuality.
Because of their super-intelligence and incredible talents in basically everything, setting up a new colony on another planet, regrettably named "Maternas" (and the continent they inhabitant is name "Femina." BARF) and building gorgeous art nouveau houses carved out of the living rock of Maternas's mountains, Arcosanti style, is a breeze. However, a ship of Earth men and one Earth babe crash lands and gives us the only conflict you will find in this book, which is still brushed under the rug in favor of more descriptions of lithe, nubile female bodies. As the reader might expect, the men are depicted as impulsive,drooling, hairy, stupid rapists; don't worry, the girl stays behind on the planet and learns the pleasures of lesbianism (and is taken on a tour of a library of ancient relics-gasp-BOOKS- and presented with the most obvious piece of literature which made me exclaim aloud, "REALLY?!": a book of Sappho's work), while the men return to space in a ship pre-programmed to explode. The planet Maternas is left in peace to continue with its late '70s liberal arts college interpretative dance pieces and incest.
If you read this book as if it were a 1960s Star Trek episode where Kirk lands on a hostile planet of super-human alien hotties, it is much more tolerable. The sex scenes in this book aren't half bad (no surprise, because it seems like that is where Forrest channeled all of her energy) and it's nice to see a work of fiction that deals with lesbian sex in any graphic way, although she uses the word "throat" way too much. If you are looking for feminist world-building science fiction, turn to Sheri S. Tepper instead. This book is a piece of crap.
July 21, 2023
shoutout to the woman shaking and throwing up in the reviews about the "horrific male cleansing" in this book whose one star review was meant no doubt to be a scathing indictment of Vindicative Evil Militant Feminism but to me was just a ringing endorsement. women can't even have a COMPLETELY FICTIONAL all lesbian society IN SPACE without clowns frothing at the mouth about feminist facism and misandry and other made up issues. it truly is a spectacle to behold.
June 30, 2009
So I decided to read a story about fascist inbred lesbian vulcans playing utopian Barbie in space. You got a problem with that?
This book’s saving grace for a while was its sense of humor, no matter how cheesy. But all the chuckling and rejoinders grated in my nerves by page 20. And the men in the story are such MEN. You know, irrational ogre monkeys, cartoon savage beasts and rapists. And all the women are goddesses and handsome and too clever to be interesting or come off as anything but excruciatingly self-confident and pretentious cardboard. Their utopian world sounds like the most boring commune ever, even if it does have hobbit holes.
After a while I began to wish the novel was a little more campy so I could grab some good passages from it. The only one I remember off-hand is an Earth space ship following the femi-nazis' escape transmitting the message “FULL COURSE REVERSAL, FOOLISH WOMEN.”
Eventually the story digresses into the pilot for the TV series Wonder Woman. Without Steve Trevor. There is much laughter and crying. There is interpretive dancing. Everything is easy and nothing bad ever happens. The last twenty pages are essentially a long uninteresting lovemaking scene. The End.
Why do lesbian love interests always seem to be cartoon or weaker versions of male stereotypes? I kept on imagining the author as a 50 year-old cat lady who has never let what anyone’s said get to her ever (and you can quote her on that).
I know I’m not exactly the target audience for this kind of book (I'm probably the only male, let alone heterosexual male, to have read it ever), but I hold to the belief that there must be some good lesbian science fiction book out there that isn’t just the usual epic revenge fantasy against the devil white man. This just isn’t that book. This book is essentially a lesbian romance novel and a pretty patronizing one at that.
If only I wasn't the kind of guy who has to finish everything he starts. But I'm putting my foot down! I will not be reading the sequels!
This book’s saving grace for a while was its sense of humor, no matter how cheesy. But all the chuckling and rejoinders grated in my nerves by page 20. And the men in the story are such MEN. You know, irrational ogre monkeys, cartoon savage beasts and rapists. And all the women are goddesses and handsome and too clever to be interesting or come off as anything but excruciatingly self-confident and pretentious cardboard. Their utopian world sounds like the most boring commune ever, even if it does have hobbit holes.
After a while I began to wish the novel was a little more campy so I could grab some good passages from it. The only one I remember off-hand is an Earth space ship following the femi-nazis' escape transmitting the message “FULL COURSE REVERSAL, FOOLISH WOMEN.”
Eventually the story digresses into the pilot for the TV series Wonder Woman. Without Steve Trevor. There is much laughter and crying. There is interpretive dancing. Everything is easy and nothing bad ever happens. The last twenty pages are essentially a long uninteresting lovemaking scene. The End.
Why do lesbian love interests always seem to be cartoon or weaker versions of male stereotypes? I kept on imagining the author as a 50 year-old cat lady who has never let what anyone’s said get to her ever (and you can quote her on that).
I know I’m not exactly the target audience for this kind of book (I'm probably the only male, let alone heterosexual male, to have read it ever), but I hold to the belief that there must be some good lesbian science fiction book out there that isn’t just the usual epic revenge fantasy against the devil white man. This just isn’t that book. This book is essentially a lesbian romance novel and a pretty patronizing one at that.
If only I wasn't the kind of guy who has to finish everything he starts. But I'm putting my foot down! I will not be reading the sequels!
February 9, 2010
I'm in love with the concept, and though occasionally the writing can slump a little, for the most part it keeps moving. To be honest, it's just so freaking novel - a huge extended family of women descended from a long-lived alien builds a spaceship and colonizes a planet. It sounds hokey, but it's just so lovely. This is the kind of fantasy novel you read when you just need to get away and live on a cloud for a while. (Oh yeah, and everyone's a lesbian. By the way.)
September 21, 2008
This book is great, fun, lesbian science fiction. A classic of queer literature, I should say. The following books in the trilogy, Daughters of an Amber Noon and Daughters of an Emerald dusk, are fun too but they were written years after Coral Dawn and while more polished, they lack some of the raw feminist energy of the first book.
February 28, 2014
Sweet lesbian Jesus this book is perfection and I don't even care how utopian it is I just don't care
February 28, 2017
I love SciFi and hate giving one star reviews but this book is just bad. Really bad. Men are stupid brutes and wannabe rapists. Women are super-genius, godlike beauties, conveniently named after goddesses. Each with breasts described as fruit?! (strictly oranges and cantaloupes, apparently there's not a cherry among them). And EVERY pair has a tall, muscular, pant-suited, woman with a shorter, curvy, one. And they all live on a convenient coral (pink) clone of earth (it even has 7 continents!) Yeah, it’s funny for all the wrong reasons. How in the world does this pass for empowering feminist fiction?
March 9, 2011
This was probably my fifth reading of this book. With age (mine), I find the book less exceptional in some ways and yet just as wonderful as during the first reading. It could have been better written, I suppose, maybe. But at the time it was written, it was extraordinarily amazing and such a tremendous, positive influence for lesbians. We ARE all extraordinarily gifted and beautiful! It's a great yarn and was so important a reminder to lesbians of our strengths and beauty. This is a classic.
June 3, 2024
Eccoci qui a recensire questo viaggio incredibile di libro. Partiamo subito.
Cose che non mi hanno convinto: poche onestamente, e principalmente di natura formale e strutturale. il pacing prima di tutto, che pur avendo alla fine anche senso all’interno della concezione di tempo presentata nel libro, ho trovato veramente forsennato (mi è capitato più volte di ritrovarmi a metà paragrafo e non capire come ci fossi arrivato) e, in secondo luogo, il world building, che in realtà si riallaccia alla questione del pacing perché avrei voluto vedere 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 queste meravigliose lesbiche sono riuscite a costruire una comunità così perfettamente integrata nell’ecologia del pianeta.
Detto ciò, questo libro per me è stato un balsamo.
Trovarmi davanti questa splendida utopia lesbica dove l’unica cosa che viene riservata agli uomini è l’ umiliazione e la morte….lovely davvero.
ps. la misandria non esiste e il bioessenzialismo di cui secondo molti qua sopra questo libro si macchia neppure, visto che gli uomini presentati sono la personificazione dell’inculturazione misogina e cisetero PRINCIPALE MOTIVO DELLA LORO FUGA DALLA TERRA. also l’uomo m0rto non stupr4.
viva il lesbismo e kill all men
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 30, 2011
I fear I can't agree with the enthusiasm of the person who recommended this to me. In discussing my reservations about the book, I will skip over certain purely scientific problems (such as egregious misunderstandings of basic biology), which do matter to a book that purports to be science fiction, but are really peripheral to its main concerns.
The book is concerned with the description of a utopia, and therefore, in order to have anything interesting to say, must have some notion of the social, economic, and ecological interactions that go into the makeup of a community. Yet there is very little sign that the author has thought much about the way that real people interact with each other. Her blithe passing over of all real problems is purely unbelievable! To take one example, in describing education, she says that teachers are not really needed in the perfect society -- "Instruction is easy, mostly electronic". And I'm saying to myself : No way, no how. Learning is complicated, children need interaction with teachers who work with their individual strengths and identify where they need additional help... But after all, the children in this story are all, to a girl, hyper-intelligent, focused, superhumanly perfect : And that is the indication of where "Daughters of a Coral Dawn" truly goes wrong, right from the first page.
The characters are not human. They are supposedly hybrids with an alien species. And they are all more intelligent, more socially attuned, more morally developed, etc., than any actual person could be. So when the author decided to people her utopia with these paragons, she instantly lost the possibility of discussing how humans, with all their flaws, could behave in new circumstances. And how is the reader supposed to identify with the characters, or imagine herself in the story? You might say that Materna sounds like a nice place to live, but how could you actually live there? It is not worthwhile discussing how such a society could work without being willing to engage with the complexities of human nature. And it is frankly wildly improbable that Laurel, the only supposedly purely human character, could fit in there. The author even squandered her one chance to create a character that the reader could relate to by making Laurel accept her new circumstances too easily.
I give the book some credit for sweetly romantic relationships, but even that is undermined by sketchy characterizations and pedestrian writing. I am not inclined to award consolation prizes for books with good intentions that fail as badly as this one does, so two stars is the most I can give it.
The book is concerned with the description of a utopia, and therefore, in order to have anything interesting to say, must have some notion of the social, economic, and ecological interactions that go into the makeup of a community. Yet there is very little sign that the author has thought much about the way that real people interact with each other. Her blithe passing over of all real problems is purely unbelievable! To take one example, in describing education, she says that teachers are not really needed in the perfect society -- "Instruction is easy, mostly electronic". And I'm saying to myself : No way, no how. Learning is complicated, children need interaction with teachers who work with their individual strengths and identify where they need additional help... But after all, the children in this story are all, to a girl, hyper-intelligent, focused, superhumanly perfect : And that is the indication of where "Daughters of a Coral Dawn" truly goes wrong, right from the first page.
The characters are not human. They are supposedly hybrids with an alien species. And they are all more intelligent, more socially attuned, more morally developed, etc., than any actual person could be. So when the author decided to people her utopia with these paragons, she instantly lost the possibility of discussing how humans, with all their flaws, could behave in new circumstances. And how is the reader supposed to identify with the characters, or imagine herself in the story? You might say that Materna sounds like a nice place to live, but how could you actually live there? It is not worthwhile discussing how such a society could work without being willing to engage with the complexities of human nature. And it is frankly wildly improbable that Laurel, the only supposedly purely human character, could fit in there. The author even squandered her one chance to create a character that the reader could relate to by making Laurel accept her new circumstances too easily.
I give the book some credit for sweetly romantic relationships, but even that is undermined by sketchy characterizations and pedestrian writing. I am not inclined to award consolation prizes for books with good intentions that fail as badly as this one does, so two stars is the most I can give it.
August 19, 2025
Somehow Daughters of a Coral Dawn manages to be equal parts sexual fantasy of guys who like watching women make out, and lesbian separatist power fantasy. It should come as no surprise that neither of these directions particularly appealed to me.
I read this just after finishing A Door into Ocean, another all women utopia, which made for an interesting comparison (in which Daughters of a Coral Dawn doesn’t measure up favorably). It isn't interested in creating complex characters, fully exploring their reasons to leave Earth, or the internal difficulties they might face building an entirely new society.
Instead, all it wants to do is tell us over and over again how awesome and perfect they are. All geniuses, all supermodel hot, all kind and perfectly cooperative - not a genuine flaw in sight. I lost count of how many times the exquisiteness of someone's breasts was described, how many descriptions of how delicious all their food is, how beautiful their clothes, how wonderful their perfect planet, how frictionless their society (in which no one has ever heard of sexual assault, because no woman would ever assault another, only men do that).
Not a single one of these women feel like actual people with flaws; they all come off as the goddesses they're named after. As such, the power fantasy falls completely flat, because none of these women feel real enough to be related. It also, to be frank, makes for an uninteresting story where Women Always Good. If they do make a morally complicated decision, there’s no discussion about the choice itself or the surrounding ethics, only how sad they are having to make it.
The idea of them escaping oppression on earth to build a female utopia also falls flat, as we never get indication of them facing struggles on earth, or of them doing literally anything to help women who aren’t part of their superintelligent goddess bloodline. They're so superior to everyone around them that it borders on supremacist ideas of them wanting to isolate themselves from their lessers to build their own perfect bubble.
Not to mention the stereotypes. Naturally women are Closer To Nature than those industrialized men! Naturally they're Super Hot and obsessed with Clothes and aesthetically Pretty Things (and we're just going to pretend like the negative effects of beauty culture don’t exist)! Naturally they're all perfectly peaceful and tolerant!
I can appreciate the role this book has served as an early unapologetically lesbian scifi centering powerful women, but I find little personal enjoyment in a story that so unquestioningly revels in gender essentialism and radfem ideology. It was kind of amusing in its absurdity, though.
I read this just after finishing A Door into Ocean, another all women utopia, which made for an interesting comparison (in which Daughters of a Coral Dawn doesn’t measure up favorably). It isn't interested in creating complex characters, fully exploring their reasons to leave Earth, or the internal difficulties they might face building an entirely new society.
Instead, all it wants to do is tell us over and over again how awesome and perfect they are. All geniuses, all supermodel hot, all kind and perfectly cooperative - not a genuine flaw in sight. I lost count of how many times the exquisiteness of someone's breasts was described, how many descriptions of how delicious all their food is, how beautiful their clothes, how wonderful their perfect planet, how frictionless their society (in which no one has ever heard of sexual assault, because no woman would ever assault another, only men do that).
Not a single one of these women feel like actual people with flaws; they all come off as the goddesses they're named after. As such, the power fantasy falls completely flat, because none of these women feel real enough to be related. It also, to be frank, makes for an uninteresting story where Women Always Good. If they do make a morally complicated decision, there’s no discussion about the choice itself or the surrounding ethics, only how sad they are having to make it.
The idea of them escaping oppression on earth to build a female utopia also falls flat, as we never get indication of them facing struggles on earth, or of them doing literally anything to help women who aren’t part of their superintelligent goddess bloodline. They're so superior to everyone around them that it borders on supremacist ideas of them wanting to isolate themselves from their lessers to build their own perfect bubble.
Not to mention the stereotypes. Naturally women are Closer To Nature than those industrialized men! Naturally they're Super Hot and obsessed with Clothes and aesthetically Pretty Things (and we're just going to pretend like the negative effects of beauty culture don’t exist)! Naturally they're all perfectly peaceful and tolerant!
I can appreciate the role this book has served as an early unapologetically lesbian scifi centering powerful women, but I find little personal enjoyment in a story that so unquestioningly revels in gender essentialism and radfem ideology. It was kind of amusing in its absurdity, though.
dnf
April 10, 2022DNF @ 11%
This book is not for me. The writing style is so clunky and academic and not user-friendly. Also, I get that it’s a lesbian sci-fi book, but if I had to read about Mother’s “cantaloupe sized breasts” ONE MORE TIME, I was going to scream. I was only on page 26 when I stopped and I read about her cantaloupe boobs like FIVE TIMES. Could we not describe her better??? I was all for this matriarchal, alien society idea, but good grief…
In my opinion, this book did not age well. 🤷🏼♀️ Sorry not sorry.
I AM sorry that I took so long to read my co-worker’s book only to DNF it so early on. Oh well!
This book is not for me. The writing style is so clunky and academic and not user-friendly. Also, I get that it’s a lesbian sci-fi book, but if I had to read about Mother’s “cantaloupe sized breasts” ONE MORE TIME, I was going to scream. I was only on page 26 when I stopped and I read about her cantaloupe boobs like FIVE TIMES. Could we not describe her better??? I was all for this matriarchal, alien society idea, but good grief…
In my opinion, this book did not age well. 🤷🏼♀️ Sorry not sorry.
I AM sorry that I took so long to read my co-worker’s book only to DNF it so early on. Oh well!
June 27, 2024
2,5 Utopia omosessuale? Sign me in!
Utopia che viene creata scappando dal pianeta corrotto, nonostante siano tutte aliene e quindi super intelligenti e hanno le capacità per cambiare la società; persone che sono tutte Mary-sue senza problemi, mega intelligenti e perfette, mentre gli uomini sono tutti orribili e schifosi; comunità di lesbiche che genera solo bambine e non voglio pensare cosa succederebbe se non si identificassero tutte come donne; società in cui le antiche generatrici aliene se la fanno con loro pronipoti ma va tutto bene fra è consensuale.
E io dico ew.
(RTC)
Utopia che viene creata scappando dal pianeta corrotto, nonostante siano tutte aliene e quindi super intelligenti e hanno le capacità per cambiare la società; persone che sono tutte Mary-sue senza problemi, mega intelligenti e perfette, mentre gli uomini sono tutti orribili e schifosi; comunità di lesbiche che genera solo bambine e non voglio pensare cosa succederebbe se non si identificassero tutte come donne; società in cui le antiche generatrici aliene se la fanno con loro pronipoti ma va tutto bene fra è consensuale.
E io dico ew.
(RTC)
September 25, 2019
This book gets a bad rap from just about everyone. True, it is pure feminist, lesbian fantasy; a group of feminist lesbians escape the patriarchal Earth to build their own society on a distant, uncharted planet where they live in harmony with nature...until the evil men from Earth blunder into their paradise. But there's another aspect to this story that I'm not sure everyone sees. Unless you come from a small group, I'm not sure it would even make any sense.
There is survival among those who are not like you, and there is the desire to LIVE among one's own kind without constantly taking derogatory remarks from the alien majority and hiding what and who you are. I once left the U.S., telling myself I would never return. The women of this book decide that to simply exist on patriarchal Earth is no longer sufficient; they want their own world, a place and a culture to be uniquely theirs and not judged by a majority who do not understand them.
If you can get past the silliness in the first few chapters, the book is actually exciting and interesting. I'm giving it four stars mainly because I really enjoyed most of it; I can't give it five stars because it is not exactly a great work of science-fiction.
Oh, and if you DO like it? Don't read the sequels! Don't read the sequels!
There is survival among those who are not like you, and there is the desire to LIVE among one's own kind without constantly taking derogatory remarks from the alien majority and hiding what and who you are. I once left the U.S., telling myself I would never return. The women of this book decide that to simply exist on patriarchal Earth is no longer sufficient; they want their own world, a place and a culture to be uniquely theirs and not judged by a majority who do not understand them.
If you can get past the silliness in the first few chapters, the book is actually exciting and interesting. I'm giving it four stars mainly because I really enjoyed most of it; I can't give it five stars because it is not exactly a great work of science-fiction.
Oh, and if you DO like it? Don't read the sequels! Don't read the sequels!
May 27, 2023
Never been more disappointed.I had only continued reading this because I thought Minerva and Megan were gonna be together, instead they end up with random people 🤦♀️😃
August 13, 2007
old one but a good one. not to far away future but still some sci-fi tech. great story about a unity of women who grow tired of the oppressive live on earth and set out to form their own world. I have read a few of Forrest's books before and like always the first few pages leave you a little dizzy but you catch on quick and fully enjoy the imaginative and enveloping story as it unfolds.
August 8, 2012
I enjoyed Curious Wine and her detective fiction and I'm a science fiction fan and wanted to like this a great deal, but I just couldn't. It's separatist utopianism hasn't held up well and the science fiction aspects come across as what people who don't read science fiction think science fiction is like.
February 26, 2015
Oversimplifies men and gender, but hey, every time the U.S. starts a new he-man war, it makes me sort of guiltily fantasize about a planet of lesbians who don't have to wear clothes because there's no threat of rape and who value art and education. Fairly well-written compared to most lesbian fiction, and a bit tongue-in-cheek.
September 14, 2007
This book was Diane's, and was the first book she ever read aloud to me. I didn't know what to expect...it has a very sci-fi feel to it, but with women empowerment themes running all through it. In the end, it was absolutely entralling. What a novel concept!!
November 4, 2018
I read less than half the book, but I'm almost embarrassed for not putting it away sooner.
February 26, 2024
Certainement une lecture particulière, les premières pages, et la description assez "unique" de la Mère, mais surtout de son corps à de très nombreuses reprises, donnent une assez mauvaise impression de ce qui va suivre dans le reste de la narration divisée en deux parties. On peut imaginer résumer ce roman de SF comme une espèce d'utopie de séparatisme lesbien dans l'espace avec en première partie l'établissement des personnages et la fuite de la Terre et la seconde partie l'établissement de la colonie sur une nouvelle planète (Maternas), ses particularités, et la menace que présente l'arrivé d'un équipage terrien sur Maternas.
Le tout avec des personnages extrêmement doués et intelligents (et avec un ou deux défauts parfois), une matriarche qui finit par jouer un rôle assez amusant de vieille femme, des tensions sexuelles assez immenses entre les femmes et une passion qui se développe dans la fin du roman.
Je ne dirais pas que c'est une narration très bien écrite (mais ce n'est pas si pire que ça non plus), surtout lorsqu'on décrit le corps des femmes (par moment, on dirait honnêtement un male gaze intense), ni que l'aspect science-fictionnel est particulièrement saisissant, mais comme roman de SF érotique lesbien, je pense que ça offre un bon moment de lecture et, découvrant qu'il s'agit d'une trilogie, je me vois bien lire éventuellement la suite (surtout que je regrettais de ne pas pouvoir suivre ce qui était arrivé aux femmes restées sur Terre, mais la fin est venue annoncer exactement ce que je regrettais ne pas avoir).
Le tout avec des personnages extrêmement doués et intelligents (et avec un ou deux défauts parfois), une matriarche qui finit par jouer un rôle assez amusant de vieille femme, des tensions sexuelles assez immenses entre les femmes et une passion qui se développe dans la fin du roman.
Je ne dirais pas que c'est une narration très bien écrite (mais ce n'est pas si pire que ça non plus), surtout lorsqu'on décrit le corps des femmes (par moment, on dirait honnêtement un male gaze intense), ni que l'aspect science-fictionnel est particulièrement saisissant, mais comme roman de SF érotique lesbien, je pense que ça offre un bon moment de lecture et, découvrant qu'il s'agit d'une trilogie, je me vois bien lire éventuellement la suite (surtout que je regrettais de ne pas pouvoir suivre ce qui était arrivé aux femmes restées sur Terre, mais la fin est venue annoncer exactement ce que je regrettais ne pas avoir).
May 29, 2024
In realtà è più un 3.5 ma volevo dargli la stellina in più solely for the fact che questo libro parla SOLO di lesbiche.
Ora passando alle cose serie:
Questo libro è sicuramente una lettura super intrattenente e divertente (ho riso ad alta voce più volte), ha delle frasi veramente iconiche che ricorderò per il resto dei miei giorni (six thousand I've spawned, and I'm the only heterosexual left) (a banger se chiedete a me).
La prosa è scorrevole anche se non particolarmente outstanding, il worldbuilinding è molto interessante anche se rimane comunque più accennato che altro (ci sono ampie descrizioni del nuovo mondo, ma ad esempio non si va molto in profondità sul sistema politico).
L'unico problema che ho con questo libro è che per me era un po' troppo low stakes. Le difficoltà che hanno vengono risolte molto facilmente perché queste donne sono semplicemente troppo intelligenti e basate. Però ecco, im not mad at it, ci meritiamo un'utopia per una volta.
Considerando che la premessa di questo libro è che c'è questo gruppo di donne aliene che vogliono cambiare pianeta perché la Terra sta diventando inhospitable, ho amato tantissimo il finale perché è un modo perfetto per collegarsi al prossimo libro, che tratta delle donne aliene che invece hanno deciso di rimanere sulla Terra. Non vedo l'ora di iniziare il prossimo per vedere il parallelo tra utopia (il nuovo pianeta) e distopia (la Terra dove le donne rimaste si trovano a dover affrontare un regime autoritario).
Sicuramente è una lettura divertente e interessante e la consiglio vivamente a chiunque ami la sci-fi e le lesbiche!
Ora passando alle cose serie:
Questo libro è sicuramente una lettura super intrattenente e divertente (ho riso ad alta voce più volte), ha delle frasi veramente iconiche che ricorderò per il resto dei miei giorni (six thousand I've spawned, and I'm the only heterosexual left) (a banger se chiedete a me).
La prosa è scorrevole anche se non particolarmente outstanding, il worldbuilinding è molto interessante anche se rimane comunque più accennato che altro (ci sono ampie descrizioni del nuovo mondo, ma ad esempio non si va molto in profondità sul sistema politico).
L'unico problema che ho con questo libro è che per me era un po' troppo low stakes. Le difficoltà che hanno vengono risolte molto facilmente perché queste donne sono semplicemente troppo intelligenti e basate. Però ecco, im not mad at it, ci meritiamo un'utopia per una volta.
Considerando che la premessa di questo libro è che c'è questo gruppo di donne aliene che vogliono cambiare pianeta perché la Terra sta diventando inhospitable, ho amato tantissimo il finale perché è un modo perfetto per collegarsi al prossimo libro, che tratta delle donne aliene che invece hanno deciso di rimanere sulla Terra. Non vedo l'ora di iniziare il prossimo per vedere il parallelo tra utopia (il nuovo pianeta) e distopia (la Terra dove le donne rimaste si trovano a dover affrontare un regime autoritario).
Sicuramente è una lettura divertente e interessante e la consiglio vivamente a chiunque ami la sci-fi e le lesbiche!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2012
I gave this book one star for one reason: I couldn't give it ZERO stars. Next to Joyce Carol Oates's novel Zombie, this is positively
THE WORST
novel I have
EVER
read. I had seen the revew on this site before I started and was curious, since that tagline called it a "classic" of lesbian science fiction.
That it involves lesbian themes is NO EXCUSE for BAD WRITING. The only good thing about bad writing is that it gives copious examples of what to NOT do.
Bad doesn't even begin to describe the writing in this book. The descriptions are repetitive, the language borderline locker-room, the characters cardboard-thin patently-biased stereotypes (the "oppressed" woman, all men as either mysogynistic, potential rapists -- or both), and the storyline utterly predictable. The dialogue doesn't even make an attempt to speak in differing voices. The speech comes across as one person on an "all men are mysogynistic rapists, pigs, thugs, and/or unintelligent life forms little evolved from their Precambrian-era ancestors" rant. There is little to no conflict (and what little there is, creates zero tension) until the last fifty pages or so. Even then, it comes across as manufactured, uninspiring, stereotypical, sickeningly biased, and laughably forced at that.
And this is even before you get to the science part of the "fiction" -- a term done disservice by this pile of drivel. The ideas put forth -- such as reproduction without the benefit of the male species -- seem to appear from time to time. The few times weapons are referenced, they are almost cartoonish rather than space-aged. I am no science fiction expert -- though such may happen along the way in my writing career -- but it is the only positive to the book... and scantly minimal at that.
I would not recommend this to anyone. As other reviewers have commented, this is wish-fulfillment. I would disagree, but only to put it in stronger terms. It is an eco-feminist's lesbian porn wet dream wish fulfillment printed on trees that the ecofeminist would be better served to work trying to save -- mostly by avoiding this book at all costs. It is proof that there are three qualities that go into becoming a published author: talent, luck, and perseverence... and of those, two are required. Talent is optional... and, in this book, nonexistent.
That it involves lesbian themes is NO EXCUSE for BAD WRITING. The only good thing about bad writing is that it gives copious examples of what to NOT do.
Bad doesn't even begin to describe the writing in this book. The descriptions are repetitive, the language borderline locker-room, the characters cardboard-thin patently-biased stereotypes (the "oppressed" woman, all men as either mysogynistic, potential rapists -- or both), and the storyline utterly predictable. The dialogue doesn't even make an attempt to speak in differing voices. The speech comes across as one person on an "all men are mysogynistic rapists, pigs, thugs, and/or unintelligent life forms little evolved from their Precambrian-era ancestors" rant. There is little to no conflict (and what little there is, creates zero tension) until the last fifty pages or so. Even then, it comes across as manufactured, uninspiring, stereotypical, sickeningly biased, and laughably forced at that.
And this is even before you get to the science part of the "fiction" -- a term done disservice by this pile of drivel. The ideas put forth -- such as reproduction without the benefit of the male species -- seem to appear from time to time. The few times weapons are referenced, they are almost cartoonish rather than space-aged. I am no science fiction expert -- though such may happen along the way in my writing career -- but it is the only positive to the book... and scantly minimal at that.
I would not recommend this to anyone. As other reviewers have commented, this is wish-fulfillment. I would disagree, but only to put it in stronger terms. It is an eco-feminist's lesbian porn wet dream wish fulfillment printed on trees that the ecofeminist would be better served to work trying to save -- mostly by avoiding this book at all costs. It is proof that there are three qualities that go into becoming a published author: talent, luck, and perseverence... and of those, two are required. Talent is optional... and, in this book, nonexistent.
January 22, 2011
Awesomeness.
This book is quite unlike anything I've read before.
The basic premise is a race of women leaves Earth to start their own colony. But it's a society of women that you can't really recognize. I don't think it's anything anyone else could've ever imagined them as being. Certainly I couldn't have. And only because they're not entirely human can I buy into some aspects of them as people and as a society.
And and and.. it's about relationships. And.. and stuff.
It's hard to write a review of something you really liked, especially when you have very little to compare it to.
But at one point it turns the whole concept of 'male astronauts land on planet of women' on its head. Which is awesome.
There's a timelessness about it too. In that as I was reading, I wasn't conscious of it being old. Then at one point I did think.. was this written in the 70s? But it was 1984, actually. But I would not have been surprised to find it written any time in the last 60 years, honestly. PUBLISHED, that's another thing. Because it's very gay. Or, more accurately, very lesbian.
Society of all women. Go figure.
Anyway, it's like.. supercool and junk. And now I need to track down the sequel.
This book is quite unlike anything I've read before.
The basic premise is a race of women leaves Earth to start their own colony. But it's a society of women that you can't really recognize. I don't think it's anything anyone else could've ever imagined them as being. Certainly I couldn't have. And only because they're not entirely human can I buy into some aspects of them as people and as a society.
And and and.. it's about relationships. And.. and stuff.
It's hard to write a review of something you really liked, especially when you have very little to compare it to.
But at one point it turns the whole concept of 'male astronauts land on planet of women' on its head. Which is awesome.
There's a timelessness about it too. In that as I was reading, I wasn't conscious of it being old. Then at one point I did think.. was this written in the 70s? But it was 1984, actually. But I would not have been surprised to find it written any time in the last 60 years, honestly. PUBLISHED, that's another thing. Because it's very gay. Or, more accurately, very lesbian.
Society of all women. Go figure.
Anyway, it's like.. supercool and junk. And now I need to track down the sequel.
December 20, 2018
I read this book so many years ago, must have been in the 80s. I loved it. It has everything and it had it first. Lesbian space travel, women couples having children (a miracle of their science), establishing an all female colony on a far away planet, sexual tension between women - hey it was a new read to me at the time. I thought I had hit the jackpot. The book is well written, like mainstream books. Everybody should read this book to honor Ms. Forrest, a pioneer in Lesbian Science Fiction, and thank you ma’am for giving my aching mind something to crunch on while validating my feelings about women.
January 8, 2014
"Mother" refers in to a character in this book of non-human origin. These 'aliens' in female form are more beautiful, intelligent and apparently more erotic than humans. They are from a planet called VernaIII.
This is the tale of Mother and her descendants' struggle, to find a new home away from the men on Earth. Aside from the is a time-old tale of feminist suppression, racial oppression, and breaking free of those chains; there is a bit of lesbian fantasy, sci-fi and altruism.
I enjoyed the book.
This is the tale of Mother and her descendants' struggle, to find a new home away from the men on Earth. Aside from the is a time-old tale of feminist suppression, racial oppression, and breaking free of those chains; there is a bit of lesbian fantasy, sci-fi and altruism.
I enjoyed the book.
April 13, 2009
There isn't much plot in this, it's more a walkthrough of what a fabulous artistic erotic utopia awaits if the patriarchy would just fuck off and get out of the way. It's idealized and very neatened of human flaw - at least on the women's side - but it read to me like the denizens of Wonder Woman's island home being a lot more overt with their sexuality. Charming and sensual and just pretty.
June 17, 2009
Erotic, lyrical, and crack-addled. The point is more the sociology rather than the engineering; the characters are awesomely flawed. Body positive. The only major negative is the author's view of men, who are all beasts or dictators or rapists, but the book still raises an interesting point: would women feel safer without the company of men? Would women actually BE safer there?
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