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Mother of Demons
An outcast with a perversion (she liked males); a great battle mother with an impossible task; a paleobiologist with a terrible sense of humor -- they were all revolutionaries, but had never expected this. . .
367 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
9 people are currently reading
555 people want to read
About the author
Eric Flint
250 books873 followersEric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
January 17, 2023
Well-done military-political SF, with good historical and scientific underpinnings. Recommended.
My 2000 review:
A human starship has crash-landed on Ishtar, a planet inhabited by the gukuy, a race of bronze-age land squid. First contact is violent, and the humans (who are the titular demons) soon find themselves forced to take sides in a tribal war.
This sort of thing has been done, umm, once or twice before, but seldom as well as here. Flint's aliens are well thought-out and biologically plausible. The tiny human colony's predicament is nicely portrayed: one of the human leaders is a historian, and she is painfully aware of how good intentions can lead to monstrous evil.
There are some first-novel rough spots -- Flint's exposition is lumpy and sometimes preachy -- but he's an outstanding storyteller, which more than makes up for the (minor) problems. Recommended.
My 2000 review:
A human starship has crash-landed on Ishtar, a planet inhabited by the gukuy, a race of bronze-age land squid. First contact is violent, and the humans (who are the titular demons) soon find themselves forced to take sides in a tribal war.
This sort of thing has been done, umm, once or twice before, but seldom as well as here. Flint's aliens are well thought-out and biologically plausible. The tiny human colony's predicament is nicely portrayed: one of the human leaders is a historian, and she is painfully aware of how good intentions can lead to monstrous evil.
There are some first-novel rough spots -- Flint's exposition is lumpy and sometimes preachy -- but he's an outstanding storyteller, which more than makes up for the (minor) problems. Recommended.
May 17, 2011
This early Flint effort shows signs of his future greatness. Hidden behind the horrid cover and the rather simplistic few humans on a hostile world lie deep layers of meaning. A human colonization ship to another star has an accident. The only survivors to make it to the habitable planet are a few scientists and an historian, along with a host of young children. The natives are in the local Bronze Age. The story tells of how the historian must overcome her fears of the evil she knows the future will hold, and help lead her small band, and native allies.
There is great moral strength in the story. Flint is unfortunately a bit too enamored with the historical concepts he is exploring. He shows greater maturity in later works such as 1632, where he is more subte about the whole thing. That being said, Mother of Demons is a fun read full of Flint’s trademark humor.
The cover and the blurb both annoyed me. While the cover is a very accurate depiction of a key moment in the story, and the blurb does sum up the key players rather neatly, I think they probably scared away a large part of the potential readership.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=727
There is great moral strength in the story. Flint is unfortunately a bit too enamored with the historical concepts he is exploring. He shows greater maturity in later works such as 1632, where he is more subte about the whole thing. That being said, Mother of Demons is a fun read full of Flint’s trademark humor.
The cover and the blurb both annoyed me. While the cover is a very accurate depiction of a key moment in the story, and the blurb does sum up the key players rather neatly, I think they probably scared away a large part of the potential readership.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=727
October 17, 2014
Mother of Demons is, among other things, an interesting take on a first contact situation. The story takes place on an alien planet and we start off reading from the perspective of a few of the different alien characters. We soon learn that a small group of humans has crashed on the planet, and we spend quite a bit of time reading from the perspective of one of those human characters. The aliens are split up into many clans and tribes and, not surprisingly, they don’t all get along very well. Throwing humans into this mix makes things even more interesting.
The aliens are quite different from humans – more like gigantic mollusks, in various forms. I especially enjoyed reading from the perspective of the alien characters when they encountered humans for the first time. However, since I personally haven’t spent a lot of time hanging out with mollusks, I had trouble sometimes with visualizing the alien characters described in the book. I liked the story a lot, but the images it produced in my head were pretty blurry.
I thought this book had a lot of depth to it. It dealt with topics such as prejudice, friendship and love, loyalty, military strategies, biology, and a heavy dose of history. The main human character was a historian. A lot of the time spent from her perspective was spent considering human history from a wide variety of time periods and geographic regions with a particular focus on its military history. While the reader spies on her thoughts, she considers how situations on the alien planet parallel different situations in history, and how the humans’ actions could affect things over the long term.
As much as I enjoyed the story, I did think the book had some dry parts. I’ve never been a history buff, and there were several passages that referred to a large variety of historical events in rapid succession without providing any details. These passages usually meant next to nothing to me. The parts that had more meaning to me were the parts where a single historical event was chosen and elaborated on enough for me to understand the relevance and appreciate the point the author was making. Coincidentally, I’m about to start a history course for school. Although my course only covers a comparatively small segment of history in a single geographic region, I’m sure at least some of the things I learn in the course would have helped me appreciate passages of this book better if I had read it after taking the course.
I liked the characters in the book a lot, especially the alien characters. I liked the human characters too, but the main human character annoyed me sometimes. It seemed to me like, in her attempts to take the long view, she ended up being rather short sighted. I believe she was the only human character from whose perspective we were permitted to read. She might have seemed a bit less tiresome if we could have spent time in some of the other humans’ heads instead. But I really enjoyed the alien characters. Their culture was interesting and well fleshed out. I also enjoyed the interactions between the aliens and the humans.
The aliens are quite different from humans – more like gigantic mollusks, in various forms. I especially enjoyed reading from the perspective of the alien characters when they encountered humans for the first time. However, since I personally haven’t spent a lot of time hanging out with mollusks, I had trouble sometimes with visualizing the alien characters described in the book. I liked the story a lot, but the images it produced in my head were pretty blurry.
I thought this book had a lot of depth to it. It dealt with topics such as prejudice, friendship and love, loyalty, military strategies, biology, and a heavy dose of history. The main human character was a historian. A lot of the time spent from her perspective was spent considering human history from a wide variety of time periods and geographic regions with a particular focus on its military history. While the reader spies on her thoughts, she considers how situations on the alien planet parallel different situations in history, and how the humans’ actions could affect things over the long term.
As much as I enjoyed the story, I did think the book had some dry parts. I’ve never been a history buff, and there were several passages that referred to a large variety of historical events in rapid succession without providing any details. These passages usually meant next to nothing to me. The parts that had more meaning to me were the parts where a single historical event was chosen and elaborated on enough for me to understand the relevance and appreciate the point the author was making. Coincidentally, I’m about to start a history course for school. Although my course only covers a comparatively small segment of history in a single geographic region, I’m sure at least some of the things I learn in the course would have helped me appreciate passages of this book better if I had read it after taking the course.
I liked the characters in the book a lot, especially the alien characters. I liked the human characters too, but the main human character annoyed me sometimes. It seemed to me like, in her attempts to take the long view, she ended up being rather short sighted. I believe she was the only human character from whose perspective we were permitted to read. She might have seemed a bit less tiresome if we could have spent time in some of the other humans’ heads instead. But I really enjoyed the alien characters. Their culture was interesting and well fleshed out. I also enjoyed the interactions between the aliens and the humans.
September 6, 2015
This wonderful book reminded me why I became a science fiction fan. Although it was written about 1999, it is very reminiscent of the best of the golden age of SF, with an upbeat take on human (and extra-terrestrial) nature.
There is a good story here but also lots of food for thought about ethics and society.
It's hard to believe it was Flint's first book
NOTE: Very poor beginning pages, so I had started to read it 2 or 3 times and stopped. I now recommend persisting just a little bit if you also are underwhelmed.
Rereading for my SF group September2015
There is a good story here but also lots of food for thought about ethics and society.
It's hard to believe it was Flint's first book
NOTE: Very poor beginning pages, so I had started to read it 2 or 3 times and stopped. I now recommend persisting just a little bit if you also are underwhelmed.
Rereading for my SF group September2015
December 14, 2011
Recommended from a friend who outreads me -- this novel made me an instant fan of Eric Flint.
One of my favorite Amazon reviews:
A human starship has crash-landed on Ishtar, a planet inhabited by
the gukuy, bronze-age land squid. First contact is violent, and the
humans (who are the titular demons) soon find themselves forced to
take sides in a tribal war....
This sort of thing has been done, umm, once or twice before, but
seldom as well as here. Flint's aliens are well thought-out and
biologically plausible. The tiny human colony's predicament is nicely
portrayed: one of the human leaders is a historian, and she is
painfully aware of how good intentions can lead to monstrous evil.
There are some first-novel rough spots -- Flint's exposition is lumpy
and sometimes preachy -- but he's an outstanding storyteller, which
more than makes up for the (minor) problems. Recommended.
Mother of Demons was Flint's first novel, and attracted little notice
on publication -- I'm sure sales weren't helped by Baen mislabelling
the book as a fantasy. His new solo novel 1632, which plops a
contemporary American town into Europe's Thirty Years' War, has
been getting good notices,which might help bring Mother of Demons
the larger audience it deserves.
One of my favorite Amazon reviews:
A human starship has crash-landed on Ishtar, a planet inhabited by
the gukuy, bronze-age land squid. First contact is violent, and the
humans (who are the titular demons) soon find themselves forced to
take sides in a tribal war....
This sort of thing has been done, umm, once or twice before, but
seldom as well as here. Flint's aliens are well thought-out and
biologically plausible. The tiny human colony's predicament is nicely
portrayed: one of the human leaders is a historian, and she is
painfully aware of how good intentions can lead to monstrous evil.
There are some first-novel rough spots -- Flint's exposition is lumpy
and sometimes preachy -- but he's an outstanding storyteller, which
more than makes up for the (minor) problems. Recommended.
Mother of Demons was Flint's first novel, and attracted little notice
on publication -- I'm sure sales weren't helped by Baen mislabelling
the book as a fantasy. His new solo novel 1632, which plops a
contemporary American town into Europe's Thirty Years' War, has
been getting good notices,which might help bring Mother of Demons
the larger audience it deserves.
April 18, 2021
This book was really unique, it turned the usual sci-fi story upside down. And it made me cry!
September 6, 2015
My friend Angie (who tells me I'm too generous with my ratings) rated this book 5 stars and raved about it. I like many of the things she did about it, specifically a whole world of aliens who are so different from us, and yet have so much in common with us.
But -- and it's a pretty big but -- I can't call the execution brilliant. Flint's human protagonist is a 22nd century historian who must have an eidetic memory. She's stranded on a pre-industrial age planet with without her books, her computers, and of course, no internet. Yet, after being marooned there for twenty years, Flint has her expounding at length both in her thoughts and her conversations to so great a degree, much of the book sounds pedantic. And there's a rather long-winded philosophical mysticism that winds its way through the entire novel that brings the pace to a crawl. There a lot of first-novel-itis here.
My generous nature might have eked out 4 stars, but Angie's right about me, I'm too soft, so it's only a 3.
But -- and it's a pretty big but -- I can't call the execution brilliant. Flint's human protagonist is a 22nd century historian who must have an eidetic memory. She's stranded on a pre-industrial age planet with without her books, her computers, and of course, no internet. Yet, after being marooned there for twenty years, Flint has her expounding at length both in her thoughts and her conversations to so great a degree, much of the book sounds pedantic. And there's a rather long-winded philosophical mysticism that winds its way through the entire novel that brings the pace to a crawl. There a lot of first-novel-itis here.
My generous nature might have eked out 4 stars, but Angie's right about me, I'm too soft, so it's only a 3.
Want to read
January 6, 2008Mother of Demons
by Eric Flint
A mercenary outcast with a perversion no one cared to think about.
A holy leader, who knows her people are on the verge of great upheaval—and who wants to know more about this new tribe of demons.
A battle-mother, possibly the greatest battle-mother who ever lived—if the rules of her tribe don't force her into a battle even she can't win.
A keeper of the secrets of history who would control the tides of fate—if only she could.
A paleobiologist with a terrible sense of humor. They are all revolutionaries, but none of them expected anything like what they're about to experience.
Published 9/1/1997
SKU: 067187800X
Baen Free Library Book
by Eric Flint
A mercenary outcast with a perversion no one cared to think about.
A holy leader, who knows her people are on the verge of great upheaval—and who wants to know more about this new tribe of demons.
A battle-mother, possibly the greatest battle-mother who ever lived—if the rules of her tribe don't force her into a battle even she can't win.
A keeper of the secrets of history who would control the tides of fate—if only she could.
A paleobiologist with a terrible sense of humor. They are all revolutionaries, but none of them expected anything like what they're about to experience.
Published 9/1/1997
SKU: 067187800X
Baen Free Library Book
December 19, 2008
Eric Flint did a great job of weaving evolutionary biology principles in with historical trends of people and cultures. He demolishes a few sacred cows in the persona of one of his POV characters, Indira. This is a great adventure book about a group of humans shipwrecked on a planet of Tau Ceti who encounter/deal with the native aliens, who are based on land-going molluscs. Think of octopi on land! The setting is the Bronze Age for these aliens, with humans playing an interesting role as encouragers of equality, egalitarianism--and smart War Theory advocates. If you like combat scifi novels crossed with solid thinking in other sciences, this book is for you! Tom (T. Jackson King).
June 3, 2009
Really a good enjoyable read. I downloaded this from the Baen free electronic library to read on my phone during commutes.
With the exception of the presentation of the Indira character as the as stupidly pacifistic (and she outgrows that) I found the characterizations very good, and after the first few chapters, the integration of the native language of the peoples of the world in the book becomes much less obtrusive.
Really a very good read.
With the exception of the presentation of the Indira character as the as stupidly pacifistic (and she outgrows that) I found the characterizations very good, and after the first few chapters, the integration of the native language of the peoples of the world in the book becomes much less obtrusive.
Really a very good read.
February 12, 2009
A sci-fi and not at all what I was expecting, in that it has nothing to do with Christian demons but is about humans landing and colonizing on a planet they believe to be uninhabited by intelligent life. They soon realize that there is intelligent life and they regard the humans to be "demons". Also not what I expected in that it has a great deal of wisdom.
February 26, 2012
This was an endearing tale, told with passion and sensitivity. It's a bargain too, since the author has released it for free. I enjoyed the references to Buddhism and Taoism in this science fiction novel that takes place on a planet around a distant star, with both Earth humans and the planet's native intelligent life forms all as part of the story.
March 24, 2012
I've read this many, many times over the years and it is still one of my favorites. The aliens are so completely different from humans but come across as complete personalities, with fascinating 'culture clashes' both between the alien cultures and between the human settler's group and the alien communities.
Read
August 7, 2011I was not expecting history and philosophy in a book about giant intelligent crustaceans. While I'm normally all for giant intelligent crustaceans in their own right, the added intellectual value was a pleasant surprise.
October 9, 2007
I really liked this book. It is a well-written view of the natives side of humans landing on a planet.
December 7, 2010
A nice turn on humans as "the aliens".
January 6, 2024
The book was an enjoyable light read.
So why the two starts?
It was mainly due to two reasons.
The first one was that it was full of wasted opportunities to do something more with the premise.
The premise in question being a bunch of humans (mainly kids with a handful of adults) crash-land on an alien planet and have to find a way to survive and thrive. The good news is that they are faster and stronger than the local life-forms and although not much of their tech survives the landing, they do have the knowledge of human history to aid them.
A lot could be done with that. Not that much was.
But the thing that did irk me a bit more was the behaviour of the titular character (the only surviving adult, tasked with leading and educating the children on how to survive and rebuild civilisation).
Despite the direness of the situation and the fact that she is the only one that remains to help with the survival of her species, she is reluctant to do so.
Why, you ask?
Because she is afraid that maybe the children will create a society that her modern sensibilities do not agree with.
I almost put the book down when in the middle of an almost hopeless situation and with only children left alive to try to continue the survival of her species in that planet, this “mother of demons” was concerned about what would the development of a new human civilisation might mean for the wage gap, so maybe she should keep some of her knowledge for herself and not share it with the children in case they end up creating a society that has a wage gap!!!
So why the two starts?
It was mainly due to two reasons.
The first one was that it was full of wasted opportunities to do something more with the premise.
The premise in question being a bunch of humans (mainly kids with a handful of adults) crash-land on an alien planet and have to find a way to survive and thrive. The good news is that they are faster and stronger than the local life-forms and although not much of their tech survives the landing, they do have the knowledge of human history to aid them.
A lot could be done with that. Not that much was.
But the thing that did irk me a bit more was the behaviour of the titular character (the only surviving adult, tasked with leading and educating the children on how to survive and rebuild civilisation).
Despite the direness of the situation and the fact that she is the only one that remains to help with the survival of her species, she is reluctant to do so.
Why, you ask?
Because she is afraid that maybe the children will create a society that her modern sensibilities do not agree with.
I almost put the book down when in the middle of an almost hopeless situation and with only children left alive to try to continue the survival of her species in that planet, this “mother of demons” was concerned about what would the development of a new human civilisation might mean for the wage gap, so maybe she should keep some of her knowledge for herself and not share it with the children in case they end up creating a society that has a wage gap!!!
February 13, 2025
There's a LOT to praise in this book, which I'll attempt to expand on later.
What held this story back from a five star rating was Flint gets a little too cute with the linguistic tricks used for verisimilitude. You have a number of alien terms and concepts as well as alien names in the text to begin with, and would have been sufficient by themselves. The problems come in with attempting to render the difficulties of alien pronunciation into it. So you have terms and Names of the human characters which are sometimes shown as you'd expect, but often printed as a phonetic spelling of how the alien mispronounced the human words! This began to make reading difficulties in the final chapters:
I’m the Sharredzhenutumadzhoru of the apalatunush. We ummun and the gukuy warriors will need to learn to coordinate our efforts.” The armless, flat-faced gesture of ruefulness. “We didn’t do so well in the last battle.” “Not true. The Pilgrims did extremely well,” said Nukurren forcefully. “The demons were stupid. Especially the big male demons who led them, thinking they were invincible. Mindless sp—dzhiludhurren. Very stupid buyush. I shall tell Ludumilaroshokavashiki to seek another mate.
sp—dzhiludhurren is the alien attempting to say "children"
What held this story back from a five star rating was Flint gets a little too cute with the linguistic tricks used for verisimilitude. You have a number of alien terms and concepts as well as alien names in the text to begin with, and would have been sufficient by themselves. The problems come in with attempting to render the difficulties of alien pronunciation into it. So you have terms and Names of the human characters which are sometimes shown as you'd expect, but often printed as a phonetic spelling of how the alien mispronounced the human words! This began to make reading difficulties in the final chapters:
I’m the Sharredzhenutumadzhoru of the apalatunush. We ummun and the gukuy warriors will need to learn to coordinate our efforts.” The armless, flat-faced gesture of ruefulness. “We didn’t do so well in the last battle.” “Not true. The Pilgrims did extremely well,” said Nukurren forcefully. “The demons were stupid. Especially the big male demons who led them, thinking they were invincible. Mindless sp—dzhiludhurren. Very stupid buyush. I shall tell Ludumilaroshokavashiki to seek another mate.
sp—dzhiludhurren is the alien attempting to say "children"
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2022
Listening to eulogies for Eric Flint made me realize that I had not read his first published novel. I expected a rougher version of his normally polished writing. I was wrong, this book is tight, the characters are three dimensional people, not caricatures and the plot is entertaining. I was pulled into the reading so hard that I found myself reading at times I should have been sleeping, working around the house, almost anything else! A real triumph that demonstrates how much of a master Eric was. We will miss Eric, not just a top selling author and mentor to a generation of other authors, but a dynamite writer himself.
September 30, 2022
Very enjoyable look at humans stranded on a very alien world with alien biology and culture. I enjoyed quite a bit of it, though I did get hung up on one basic physics fact--the reason there are no giant land based exoskeleton animals is because the physics of supporting body mass do not work nearly as well as that endoskeletons (which is why large animals without endoskeletons are water dwellers). I couldn't shake that as I kept reading the book, which dampened it for me personally.
November 7, 2019
fantastic aliens, who are not bipeds for once, 8-). Too much discussion and hyperbole.
February 23, 2023
Better than I remembered but a little slow towards the end.
December 7, 2025
Foarte mult mi-a plăcut! Istorie, filosofie, imaginație - minunată experiență.
August 5, 2020
Mother of Demons is one of my favorite books. The novel is a “braided timeline” style novel that tells the stories of a disparate group of people–human and alien–who become allies in a conflict with an enemy tribe. One timeline follows Nukurren, a mercenary currently serving as the body guard to a slave merchant. (This being the only job she can get since she is a “*pervert.”) One timeline follows the leader and followers of a religion that is currently being persecuted by the main religious institution of a city-state. Another timeline follows a young infanta of a barbarian tribe about to go into battle for the first time and who is desperate to save her tribe from an invading tribe of cannibals. Yet another timeline follows a struggling human colony that has been adopted by a dwindling and nearly extinct species related to the dominant intelligent species.
Braided timeline novels can be a little tricky to read since the timeline within each point of view tends not to be entirely concurrent. Though there are many characters in this story and a lot of interaction between these characters, the pivotal characters are Nukerren and Indira, one of the human colonists; Nukerren because she has the skills that the young human colonists need in order to fight, and Indira for the knowledge of history that she possesses. (In fact, much of the resolution of the novel depends on Indira and Nukerren making the correct choices.)
Next, we’re introduced to the members of the religious group who are aware of the “demons” and have previous points of contact with them through a community hidden in the same mountains where the human colony is located. One of the members of the group is an undercover agent assisting the leader of the group, and she is bringing her leader some important information about the “demons.” The leader, a female named Ushulubang has decided that the language spoken by the demons would be perfect to use as a sort of universal language.
The story of the human colony is that when the ship crash-landed only a small number of the adults plus many of the children were able to survive. They nearly didn’t survive because the humans were unable to eat the plants or any of the wildlife. They are eventually saved by the owoc who are able to provide the humans with a way to eat plants. (The owoc regurgitate semi-digested plants to feed to their offspring. An owoc came across one of the children and fed him.) It takes the humans awhile to realize that the owoc are sentient beings (the kids figure it out first) and by the time they do, their kids have been more or less half-raised by them.
The initial point of contact between humans and gukuy is when a gukuy raiding party attempts to hunt and capture the owoc. This starts the children on a defensive course of action where they begin raiding gukuy slavers. The kids also acquire a peaceful contact with the gukuy through a colony of the persecuted religious group (which is how Ushulubang becomes aware of them). The members of the colony have a positive relationship with the owoc living near their community, which is largely why the kids decide to make a peaceful contact with them.
Indira meanwhile, is scared out of her mind. She is not afraid of the owoc or the gukuy, she is afraid of what might happen in the future, which makes it very difficult for her to help the kids become better fighters or to give them the intellectual tools they need in order to create a future for themselves and their allies. She is a historian, and she is overwhelmed by the knowledge of how something can start out seeming good but gradually evolve into something terrible. Because the kids know that she’s hiding something, this creates a rift between herself and the kids. Indira is gradually brought around and is pushed to act by Ushulubang, who helps her find a sense of resolve and determination. In turn, Indira asks for Nukerren’s help because Nukerren has the knowledge necessary to train the kids in how to be soldiers. Nukerren agrees because she has acquired friends and a sense of confidence among the humans.
I really loved this book a lot, both as an adventure and as a first contact novel. The characters are interesting and engaging, and there is a thread of humor running throughout the narrative. (The romances aren’t half bad either. Eric Flint is a writer who loves him some romance.)
*Gukuy have four genders: female (neuter), mothers (reproducing females), true males (males capable of reproduction) and eumales (neuter). Nukerren is female (neuter) and she has a boyfriend (who is a true male). Her relationship is considered deeply perverse to gukuy.
Braided timeline novels can be a little tricky to read since the timeline within each point of view tends not to be entirely concurrent. Though there are many characters in this story and a lot of interaction between these characters, the pivotal characters are Nukerren and Indira, one of the human colonists; Nukerren because she has the skills that the young human colonists need in order to fight, and Indira for the knowledge of history that she possesses. (In fact, much of the resolution of the novel depends on Indira and Nukerren making the correct choices.)
Next, we’re introduced to the members of the religious group who are aware of the “demons” and have previous points of contact with them through a community hidden in the same mountains where the human colony is located. One of the members of the group is an undercover agent assisting the leader of the group, and she is bringing her leader some important information about the “demons.” The leader, a female named Ushulubang has decided that the language spoken by the demons would be perfect to use as a sort of universal language.
The story of the human colony is that when the ship crash-landed only a small number of the adults plus many of the children were able to survive. They nearly didn’t survive because the humans were unable to eat the plants or any of the wildlife. They are eventually saved by the owoc who are able to provide the humans with a way to eat plants. (The owoc regurgitate semi-digested plants to feed to their offspring. An owoc came across one of the children and fed him.) It takes the humans awhile to realize that the owoc are sentient beings (the kids figure it out first) and by the time they do, their kids have been more or less half-raised by them.
The initial point of contact between humans and gukuy is when a gukuy raiding party attempts to hunt and capture the owoc. This starts the children on a defensive course of action where they begin raiding gukuy slavers. The kids also acquire a peaceful contact with the gukuy through a colony of the persecuted religious group (which is how Ushulubang becomes aware of them). The members of the colony have a positive relationship with the owoc living near their community, which is largely why the kids decide to make a peaceful contact with them.
Indira meanwhile, is scared out of her mind. She is not afraid of the owoc or the gukuy, she is afraid of what might happen in the future, which makes it very difficult for her to help the kids become better fighters or to give them the intellectual tools they need in order to create a future for themselves and their allies. She is a historian, and she is overwhelmed by the knowledge of how something can start out seeming good but gradually evolve into something terrible. Because the kids know that she’s hiding something, this creates a rift between herself and the kids. Indira is gradually brought around and is pushed to act by Ushulubang, who helps her find a sense of resolve and determination. In turn, Indira asks for Nukerren’s help because Nukerren has the knowledge necessary to train the kids in how to be soldiers. Nukerren agrees because she has acquired friends and a sense of confidence among the humans.
I really loved this book a lot, both as an adventure and as a first contact novel. The characters are interesting and engaging, and there is a thread of humor running throughout the narrative. (The romances aren’t half bad either. Eric Flint is a writer who loves him some romance.)
*Gukuy have four genders: female (neuter), mothers (reproducing females), true males (males capable of reproduction) and eumales (neuter). Nukerren is female (neuter) and she has a boyfriend (who is a true male). Her relationship is considered deeply perverse to gukuy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2009
Maybe more like a 2.5. You may be wondering what this is doing on my history-craft-practice shelf, since it's fiction. The answer to that is that the eponymous character is a trained historian, and the uses of history are one of the themes and central conflicts of the novel.
This part of the story was probably the most interesting part. You can sort of tell that this was a first novel. Given that, many of the flaws are understandable. (I couldn't help thinking of this. Though to be more precise, he ran afoul of Orson Scott Card's maxim that if a perfectly good word already exists in English, there is no reason to make one up.)
The main flaw is that this seemed like a book about ideas and action, with characters thrown in just for kicks. Except for Indira (and even her, to some extent) the characters seemed very one- or two-dimensional.
If you like Frank Herbert and David Weber, you might like this. It also made me think of Darkover Landfall, and Joanna Russ's response to that, We Who Are About To. (It's basically a rebuttal of the "ship crash lands on planet, humans manage to survive and procreate and found new civilization" scenario. Because a lot of those scenarios, at least in the early days, tend to underestimate the number of people required.)
I read the e-book, which is currently located here.
This part of the story was probably the most interesting part. You can sort of tell that this was a first novel. Given that, many of the flaws are understandable. (I couldn't help thinking of this. Though to be more precise, he ran afoul of Orson Scott Card's maxim that if a perfectly good word already exists in English, there is no reason to make one up.)
The main flaw is that this seemed like a book about ideas and action, with characters thrown in just for kicks. Except for Indira (and even her, to some extent) the characters seemed very one- or two-dimensional.
If you like Frank Herbert and David Weber, you might like this. It also made me think of Darkover Landfall, and Joanna Russ's response to that, We Who Are About To. (It's basically a rebuttal of the "ship crash lands on planet, humans manage to survive and procreate and found new civilization" scenario. Because a lot of those scenarios, at least in the early days, tend to underestimate the number of people required.)
I read the e-book, which is currently located here.
December 25, 2015
Interesting take on a first-contact situation (not that I've read a lot) when a small group of humans crash landed on a planet when their spaceship had a disastrous malfunction.
The natives are molluscs - snails. I liked the commentary on biological evolutions from the perspective of one of the few surviving human adults. The titular character was a bit too far fetched - supposedly a historian, but I'm pretty sure historians aren't walking encyclopedias on cultures, architecture, languages, sociology, diplomacy, and warfare. But I did like the way it draws parallels to human societal behaviours, seemingly carrying deeper meaning behind them.
While I appreciated the attempt at a brand new species using an unlikely base creature, the primary species thinks and acts too humanlike, despite the attempts to highlight the different forms of expression. Just too many parallels. While Bronze Age is the specified timeline, there's really little else to build up this whole new planet and species. When we do get perspectives of alien life, I can't help feel that they're very human in nature. It's just oddly weak in terms of creativity; it's just drawing parallels.
But other than, it's a rather nice story about surviving in a new world several centuries behind in technology. The pacing is excellent and the plot is easy to follow, if perhaps a tad predictable.
The natives are molluscs - snails. I liked the commentary on biological evolutions from the perspective of one of the few surviving human adults. The titular character was a bit too far fetched - supposedly a historian, but I'm pretty sure historians aren't walking encyclopedias on cultures, architecture, languages, sociology, diplomacy, and warfare. But I did like the way it draws parallels to human societal behaviours, seemingly carrying deeper meaning behind them.
While I appreciated the attempt at a brand new species using an unlikely base creature, the primary species thinks and acts too humanlike, despite the attempts to highlight the different forms of expression. Just too many parallels. While Bronze Age is the specified timeline, there's really little else to build up this whole new planet and species. When we do get perspectives of alien life, I can't help feel that they're very human in nature. It's just oddly weak in terms of creativity; it's just drawing parallels.
But other than, it's a rather nice story about surviving in a new world several centuries behind in technology. The pacing is excellent and the plot is easy to follow, if perhaps a tad predictable.
March 7, 2017
Eric Flint's very first published novel, it is the story of humanity's first (and probably only) crewed interstellar spacecraft and what happens when its arrival at its destination goes very wrong, stranding the survivors on a world of incompatible biology. A world that already has an indigenous population of eusocial intelligent molluscs. You read that right: eusocial, like termites, ants and honeybees. And there are two of them, closely related.
I'd like to give it five stars, but it has a lot of flaws that are related to it being a first book. Mostly a lot of standard tropes being absorbed unthinking, although the owoc and gukuy represent some very interesting exobiology. But I think that his collaboration with Dave Freer, Slow Train to Arcturus, is a better work.
I'd like to give it five stars, but it has a lot of flaws that are related to it being a first book. Mostly a lot of standard tropes being absorbed unthinking, although the owoc and gukuy represent some very interesting exobiology. But I think that his collaboration with Dave Freer, Slow Train to Arcturus, is a better work.
August 9, 2019
I adore this book and often reference it when doing worldbuilding myself. It succeeds in making aliens feel truly alien and in part that comes from them look at humans and commenting on all of the things that make humans seem alien to them. At the same time, those aliens feel like normal people living relatively normal lives which makes them easy to empathize with.
I also especially appreciate how the author took the time and effort to write a novel about space travel that fixates on cultural and biological differences rather than imagining fancy space tech. The narrative elements he uses to create a situation where he can do that without feeling forced to describe the fancy tech is quite clever.
I also especially appreciate how the author took the time and effort to write a novel about space travel that fixates on cultural and biological differences rather than imagining fancy space tech. The narrative elements he uses to create a situation where he can do that without feeling forced to describe the fancy tech is quite clever.
March 2, 2014
A mercenary outcast with a perversion no one cared to think about. (She liked males.)-- A holy leader, who knows her people are on the verge of great upheaval -- and who wants to know more about this new tribe of demons.-- A battle-mother, possibly the greatest battle-mother who ever lived -- if the rules of her tribe don't force her into a battle even she can't win.-- A keeper of the secrets of history who would control the tides of fate -- if only she could.-- A paleobiologist with a terrible sense of humor.They were all revolutionaries, but none of them expected anything like this....
February 10, 2025
This would have been a good, not great, but good, book if the author had seen fit to exclude humans entirely and based the plot entirely on his well-realised molluscoid aliens. But his human characters, apart from being insufferable, are huge logic holes in the plot and bring absolutely nothing to it. The eponymous Mother of Demons, India Toledo, is a particularly egregious example: a historian who is simultaneously an unsurpassed military general and a genius linguist.
Every single human in this book deserves to be pulped.
Every single human in this book deserves to be pulped.
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