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Goddesses
The 2000 Nebula Award winner for Best Novella ( 30,000 words)
Michael Fielding is the newly appointed site director of the Four Villages project in rural India, tasked with guiding the economic development of the region. But a chance encounter with an ailing, homeless, and very young widow plunges him into the maze of an ossified and violent traditional culture, while putting his own career at risk.
On the other side of the world, Cody Graham’s hazardous waste cleanup company, Green Stomp, has earned a reputation for tackling the toughest, dirtiest jobs around. The harder the challenge, the more Cody likes it. But when chance—and the polluted ground water of Four Villages—brings Michael back into Cody’s life, both are forced to question their shared past, their values, and what it means to do good in the world.
“Goddesses” is an intricate, near-future tale, exploring the interface between technology and human nature, by the author of the acclaimed novels “The Bohr Maker” and “Vast.”
Michael Fielding is the newly appointed site director of the Four Villages project in rural India, tasked with guiding the economic development of the region. But a chance encounter with an ailing, homeless, and very young widow plunges him into the maze of an ossified and violent traditional culture, while putting his own career at risk.
On the other side of the world, Cody Graham’s hazardous waste cleanup company, Green Stomp, has earned a reputation for tackling the toughest, dirtiest jobs around. The harder the challenge, the more Cody likes it. But when chance—and the polluted ground water of Four Villages—brings Michael back into Cody’s life, both are forced to question their shared past, their values, and what it means to do good in the world.
“Goddesses” is an intricate, near-future tale, exploring the interface between technology and human nature, by the author of the acclaimed novels “The Bohr Maker” and “Vast.”
eBook (online/PDF)
First published January 1, 2000
153 people want to read
About the author
Linda Nagata
109 books659 followersI'm a writer from Hawaii best known for my high-tech science fiction, including the near-future thriller,
The Last Good Man
, and the far-future adventure series, INVERTED FRONTIER.
Though I don't review books on Goodreads, I do talk about some of my favorite books on my blog and those posts are echoed here. So I invite you to follow me for news of books and many other things. You can also visit my website to learn more about my work, and to sign up for my newsletter.
Though I don't review books on Goodreads, I do talk about some of my favorite books on my blog and those posts are echoed here. So I invite you to follow me for news of books and many other things. You can also visit my website to learn more about my work, and to sign up for my newsletter.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 26, 2024
Global Shear (Asia) won a ten-year contract to govern a poor district in south India, replacing the failed bureaucracy. Their charge: to lift 16 million people out of poverty. Their incentive: a percentage of the new wealth they'll help to create. Michael Fielding, the new project manager, finds a battered street waif on his doorstep and takes her in, which lands him in hot water with his boss, his housekeeper and the local fundies.
Cody Graham is a founder of Green Stomp, a bioremediation firm with a new microbe that eats perchloroethylene ("perc") dry-cleaning fluid, a common pollutant. Cody's a scholarship kid, up from an industrial slum in California. She's smart, successful -- and lonely.
This is a profoundly hopeful near-future story -- that technology can improve poor peoples' lives, and enrich the rich helpers' lives in the process. Nagata writes with assurance and grace, touching on wealth & poverty, women & men, love, charity, religion and how we'll live a few years from now -- all without being preachy or dull. Won a well-deserved Nebula. Not to be missed!
My review is for the award-winning novella only, which used to be available online at the late lamented Scifi.com. It's now available in her collection, "Goddesses & Other Stories," available for $5 Kindle from Amazon & elsewhere. ToC and story info: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?...
Cody Graham is a founder of Green Stomp, a bioremediation firm with a new microbe that eats perchloroethylene ("perc") dry-cleaning fluid, a common pollutant. Cody's a scholarship kid, up from an industrial slum in California. She's smart, successful -- and lonely.
This is a profoundly hopeful near-future story -- that technology can improve poor peoples' lives, and enrich the rich helpers' lives in the process. Nagata writes with assurance and grace, touching on wealth & poverty, women & men, love, charity, religion and how we'll live a few years from now -- all without being preachy or dull. Won a well-deserved Nebula. Not to be missed!
My review is for the award-winning novella only, which used to be available online at the late lamented Scifi.com. It's now available in her collection, "Goddesses & Other Stories," available for $5 Kindle from Amazon & elsewhere. ToC and story info: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?...
December 19, 2023
Definitely going to keep my eyes open for further works by Nagata. I love me some social justice oriented sci fi.
November 4, 2019
This was a great read & very much in line with my idea of great sci-fi. Especially in the latter stories in the collection, the way social issues are addressed is amazing.
The narratives are both immersive (in spite of the common view that you can't build a detailed world in short stories) and sobering. The author takes current world issues (like women's rights in India) and projects them in a future where technology does not bring any kind of relief from these issues, but simply equip the agents of injustice with more weapons to apply to it.
But besides this story, Goddesses, which also gives the collection its title, the other stories are very much deserving in their own right. Old Mother addresses the question of immortality being suddenly a choice for humans. The Bird Catcher's Children is about nature becoming the next great forbidden thing, and about militarized state power keeping people away from it.
I recommend the collection to everyone who enjoys sci-fi and likes to find new angles and voices in what they read.
The narratives are both immersive (in spite of the common view that you can't build a detailed world in short stories) and sobering. The author takes current world issues (like women's rights in India) and projects them in a future where technology does not bring any kind of relief from these issues, but simply equip the agents of injustice with more weapons to apply to it.
But besides this story, Goddesses, which also gives the collection its title, the other stories are very much deserving in their own right. Old Mother addresses the question of immortality being suddenly a choice for humans. The Bird Catcher's Children is about nature becoming the next great forbidden thing, and about militarized state power keeping people away from it.
I recommend the collection to everyone who enjoys sci-fi and likes to find new angles and voices in what they read.
June 20, 2019
One of the better recent Nebula Award-winning novellas. Social science-fiction with a solid feminist theme. Set mostly in India, Goddesses does a nice job communicating the difficulties NGO's have as they interact with traditional societies. I cringe just a bit at the heroic function of the drone, but in context it works.
October 19, 2010
SF tale of prejudices against women in India.
January 29, 2019
I'm not entirely sure how to rate this. The collision of tradition and modernity, antiquated ideas about women with technology, is very interesting, and well imagined. It's true science fiction in the best sense when dealing with the birth-control issue.
However, the characters of Michael and Cody are problematic for me. To clear up one thing, Cody is a woman, the book description had left me wondering why a story about women in India was featuring a gay couple as lead characters. I guess I've just never come across Cody as a woman's name before and made an assumption. But that confusion aside, initially Michael and Cody feel almost like caricatures, naive, idealistic do-gooders. They do get more human as their past is revealed, though I never really understood what the reason was supposed to be for Cody's aversion to the idea of returning to her home town.
On the other hand, Rajban and Muthaye are very appealing characters, and I think I would have liked this more if there were less Michael and Cody, and more Rajban, Muthaye, and perhaps some exploration of the other local characters like Pallava Sen, Security Chief Sankar, and the boys at the farm, for example. The Indian characters could easily support a much longer work. I could see something along the lines of McDonald's River of Gods growing out of this. Even without expansion the core story here is very good.
However, the characters of Michael and Cody are problematic for me. To clear up one thing, Cody is a woman, the book description had left me wondering why a story about women in India was featuring a gay couple as lead characters. I guess I've just never come across Cody as a woman's name before and made an assumption. But that confusion aside, initially Michael and Cody feel almost like caricatures, naive, idealistic do-gooders. They do get more human as their past is revealed, though I never really understood what the reason was supposed to be for Cody's aversion to the idea of returning to her home town.
On the other hand, Rajban and Muthaye are very appealing characters, and I think I would have liked this more if there were less Michael and Cody, and more Rajban, Muthaye, and perhaps some exploration of the other local characters like Pallava Sen, Security Chief Sankar, and the boys at the farm, for example. The Indian characters could easily support a much longer work. I could see something along the lines of McDonald's River of Gods growing out of this. Even without expansion the core story here is very good.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews