The Conqueror's Child

Holdfast Chronicles #4

by Suzy McKee Charnas

25 years after the landmark publication of Walk to the End of the World , Suzy McKee Charnas has completed her epic tale of the Holdfast.

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. Now Sorrel, Alldera's daughter, joins her mother. She brings with her a young boy she has adopted.

The Conqueror's Child completes an epic history of life and love and the war between men and women which will stand for generations to come.

Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award

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

432 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1999

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

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

suzy mckee charnas concludes her saga, decades in the making, on a pleasing but somewhat minor note. for those unfamiliar with the Holdfast Chronicles, they are what could be called a Post-Apocalyptic Feminist Epic. the four novels follow the trials and tribulations of the 'fem' Alldera: wiley slave, rape victim, stranger in a strange land, rebel warrior, distant mother, and, finally, wise leader. she's a classic survivor in a world attempting to gain footing in both the rebuilding of civilization and the rebuilding of relations between men and women. the reader watches a world changing from one that is dominated by an elaborate and very sick men-first philosophy, to one where strong-willed 'horsewomen' and conflicted ex-slaves violently take down that system, and finally into one where violence is increasingly seen as barbaric and unnecessary.

the writing is well-done: straightforward adventure writing, short on lavish description, with many scenes of action and planning for action. it is dialogue-heavy (charnas has a good ear for that) as well as heavy in internal musing and monologue. the reader really gets to know the inner life of all of the major characters, many of whom seem to be representations of the specific ways in which women can interact with each other and with men - although these diverse methods are enacted by characters with actual shading and nuance. charnas is quite fair, and so even her male characters are not demonized - although they are responsible for some truly heinous things, past and present. still, the male characters pale in comparison with the wonderfully proud, strong, independent, diverse women in the novel - robust and honest portrayals that i really appreciated. i also appreciated and admired how the novel handles both heterosexuality and homosexuality.

all those positive things aside, this is not a particularly distinctive novel. charnas has such a sure touch with creating genuinely realistic motivation (there are no grand heroines) and in carefully depicting the realistic ways in which society can slowly rebuild itself (many banal steps in the process are detailed)...she has such a steady hand that perhaps, in the end, the novel feels somewhat colorless. a bit boring as well. it certainly lacks the tension, intensity, and ability to challenge and disturb of the first novel in the series: Walk to the End of the World. i did like, or at least grow to begrudgingly understand, all of the characters in The Conqueror's Child. but absent were the feelings of love and admiration, anger and hate, that i felt for the characters within that truly distinctive first novel, one read so long ago. well i suppose it just means that the series grew up alongside me.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The conclusion to this series is excellent - thoughtful and self-aware.

Things I especially appreciated:
While the women are constantly worried that D Layo and the Ferrymen are going to take back over and destroy what they have built, it becomes clear to a reader much clearer than it is to the women that D Layo has no chance. McKee Charnas doesn't overemphasize his power or the threat from him in order to increase dramatic tension - the drama comes from the interpersonal moments and the fate of individual characters more than our fear for the whole project of liberation.

I like the tacit acknowledgment at the end of the book that the Riding Women, a society that McKee Charnas created, were a fantasy. The utopian female separatist colony is not sustainable or realistic - and is, in fact stagnant. They are literally reliving the same lives over and over again. Such a thoughtful insight for McKee Charnas to apply to her own story.

[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.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3488524.html

The setting is an isolated world where men and women live as separate tribes, often brutalising each other when they have the opportunity; Sorrel, the narrator of some chapters, is the daughter of Alldera, the central character of earlier volumes, who is now trying to construct a lasting society for women that will be robust against male attack. Some readers see the author's take as utopian; I don't think so, I think she is showing the warts-and-all out-working of idealism, and in particular in Sorrel's relationship with her son Veree, and how she can bring up a boy in a society of women. I don't think it is an optimistic book, but it identifies the challenges of liberation in detail.

[Harsim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started and finished this series in a week. It’s hard to describe why it gripped me so ferally and dragged me along the journey but I’m glad it did. It’s not for the faint of heart and there are a lot of trigger warnings that come with it. But while I was reading it created a world for me that I couldn’t leave. I loved it, and I loved Alldera and Setteo too. I loved the grittiness but also the hope that escaped from the pages and fell into my heart.

[Sue Chant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiptree winner 1999

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending is so sad,

[Abe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting politics and story twists but really hard to follow. Doesn't do a good job of "showing" vs. telling. Also, I think the author used the word 'nig' to describe a tribe of black people. wtf?!
It's not a talked enough kinda book that I'm unable to see any write-ups or critical analysis of this book. I got turned on this book after reading the author's obit in the NYT.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took 25 years, but Charnas brought the Holdfast Chronicles to a satisfying conclusion. This final book is, in general, the most mellow of the series even though terrible things still happen. It is no spoiler to say that Servan d Layo makes an appearance because he was the major hanging plot thread remaing from the first three books. He makes a great villain because his heinous behavior is only surpassed by his conniving and knack for survival. I recently read two other post-apocalyptic series, Williams' Pelbar Cycle and Barrett's Darkest and Dawn books. The Holdfast Chronicles is similar to both, but Charnas' series is really focused on the dynamic between men and women, men and men, etc. and less concerned with the typical tropes of such novels. Highly recommended but not an easy series to recommend because of the often controversial content.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction C483c 2000