The Furies

Holdfast Chronicles #3

by Suzy McKee Charnas

The Fems were slaves of the men in the Holdfast. When Alldera escaped her slavery, she led a band of rebels to build a world where women rule. In Book One of the Holdfast Chronicles, Walk to the End of the World, Aldera the Messenger, along with all other women, is a slave. In Book Two, Motherlines, Aldera the Runner lives in two worlds, both consisting entirely of women. Now In Book Three, The Furies, Aldera the Conqueror leads an army back over the mountains, hoping to end the tyranny and free the salves she left behind.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Feminism, Gender, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Suzy McKee Charnas, a native New Yorker raised and educated in Manhattan, surfaced as an author with WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974), a no-punches-pulled feminist SF novel and Campbell award finalist. The three further books that sprang from WALK (comprising a futurist, feminist epic about how people make history and create myth) closed in 1999 with THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD, a Tiptree winner (as is the series in its entirety).

Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.

Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third in the series set in a post eco-catastrophe world, this follows the adventures of Alldera, the woman who escaped to the grasslands at the end of book 1 and ended up the de facto leader of the other 'free fems' who had already escaped there. At the start of this book, the fems have made their way back through the desert to the Holdfast despite the objections of the Riding Women, who we met in book 2. Sheel, one of the sharemothers of Alldera's daughter, Sorrel, and for years an antagonist, follows with a small group of other Riding Women and becomes a reluctant witness to, and occasional participant in, the often bloody dealings of the fems as they confront their former masters in what is left of Holdfast society, following the civil war at the end of book 1. The fems' mission is two-fold: rescue any surviving female slaves, and make the men pay for their terrible cruelty.

This is a complex book dealing with well-realised characters who are all flawed, and the complexities and conflicting priorities of the various groups of women. At first, Alldera has difficulty in keeping them from killing all the men in revenge, and has to show that she is not 'squeamish' about doing it herself on occasion. The fems are almost drunk with joy at finding and freeing other women; a joy quick to turn to a killing frenzy, especially when friends are horribly murdered by stray men. The challenge is not only to keep the remaining men alive in such a climate, so that younger women can use them for breeding, it is also to balance the conflicting desires of the different groups of women, the older ones who have returned with her from the grasslands, done the bulk of the fighting, and hate the men, and the more conciliatory attitudes, sometimes bordering on collaboration, of the recently freed fems who, being a much rarer commodity after the men's excesses during the civil war, have in most cases been treated a lot better than the slaves who escaped.

Compounding Alldera's problem in managing all this is her own personal conflict when she finds her old master alive, and the increasing attack she comes under from her refusal to have him sacrificed as part of the Moonwoman religion. This is a practice led by one of the free fems which is increasingly followed among them but which she views as superstition. Despite her legendary status even among the rescued fems, her sense of connection with her ex-master - who freed her at the end of book 1 after she convinced him to at least some extent of her humanity - leads to a underlying tension which Alldera, always a blunt, straightforward person, fails to appreciate, with dangerous consequences.

Meanwhile, Sheel and the other Riding Women have their own difficulties, with some taking to the drugged drink some of the fems brew, and others becoming curious about what sex with men entails (the Riding Women's ability to self clone is explained in the previous volume). Sheel suffers from home sickness though she and Alldera eventually reach an understanding and acceptance never granted them before.

This is a vividly realised account of the tensions and often wilful misunderstandings of a bunch of often mismatched people, with a clear style of prose that does not get in the way of the story while managing to convey the settings and mood of their surroundings, and the emotions of the characters. The viewpoint of the mad enuch Setteo is a case in point; to the women, he is a figure of fun, a mascot or an irritation while to himself he is a type of seer or visionary who is interceding between various supernatural creatures - the different groups of women (the fems are the Blessed; the Riding Women are Angels) - and the savage Bears which no one but he is aware of, and which he tries to placate or trick. The best book of the series so far and therefore deserving 5 stars, though with a caution that it does feature quite a lot of violence.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charnas returns us to the Holdfast with alternating rage and tenderness in this third book of the series. The women at the heart of these books are beautiful and messy, so varied in how they carry their burdens, and so wonderfully complex in how they relate to each other. I look forward to reading the final installment.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published 20 years after the first book, so Charnas has honed her auctorial skills. Alldera and the fugitive fems finally return to Holdfast intent on rescuing any remaining fems. I don't think it is a spoiler to state that the society of Holdfast has been decimated by the famine and strife that occurred at the end of Walk to the End of the World. Alldera's small army find a struggling remnant of the male-dominated society and fems still held as slaves. This novel covers the ensuing battle for Holdfast, but more importantly, the fems and the new-freed slaves struggle with the legacy of their bondage. Importantly, some women find it nearly impossible to allow men to even live let alone serve the minimal role required for the women to have children. Issues are further complicated when a small force of Riding Women appear, hoping to prevent the invasion of Holdfast. While there is some action, this is primarily a study of characters and issues. Charnas often uses narrative mechanisms, e.g. Daya as storyteller, to fill significant parts of the plot. The series is deservedly acknowledged as one of the most important pieces of feminist SF.

[Ralph Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book that’s published in the 1970s to late 1990s, Suzy McKee Charnas really outdone herself in writing The Holdfast Chronicles.

Known as the feminist science fiction writer, this book is about how women are used as breeding slaves and not as partners. It is also about the freedom and power for women, and goes to show how far society would be mean to women as long as the women are being limited of their freedom. Feminism has become more apparent now in the 21st century. We see Gender Studies as something that we can take a course from to learn, countries trying to implement as much gender equality as possible so women are no longer seen as second-class human beings.

When these women have power, it becomes apparent that women can be as powerful as men when they take over the world. Or at least, have a woman’s point of view when making policies and new laws.

[C.A. A. Powell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this some time back. I see it advertised in a magazine and then came across it in a bookshop in London. I remember thinking it was awful and extreme feminist propaganda. There was nothing good that I could say about it except the actual writing was alright. However such writing was all wasted on a concept that is horrid.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy continuance of Alldera's story and that of the free fems and Riding Women, Also a pointed reminder that slavery isn't something you can just take off like an old coat, and the urge to turn back around and inflict pain on your tormentors is immense.

[Dave B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Revenge porn? I felt like I was reading a version of I Spit on Your Grave.

[Stroctoperry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book answers the question, "If we treat our former masters the same way they treated us, won't we be just as bad as them?" with "Well, let's try it anyway, just to be sure."

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This finishes the Holdfast Chronicles. Well, sort of. There is a fourth, but is in the future and not as enjoyable, imho. This is the story of the war between the sexes. Well told, good stuff. Made me want to read them all over.

Recommended reading from: http://www.feministsf.org/bibs/recomm....

[Mills College Library]

Fiction C483f 2001