What do you think?
Rate this book
Marq’ssan Cycle #2
Renegade
Renegade, the second of the five-novel Marq ssan Cycle, opens in August 2077 as the Pacific Northwest Free Zone, having survived the first year of its existence, faces both internal and external challenges. The US s Security Services has deployed a paramilitary covert action team to capture Kay Zeldin, Security s most wanted renegade, and destabilize the Zone s civil order. Nevertheless, Kay ventures outside the Free Zone to search for her spouse and dozens of other scientists who have disappeared, travelling through a war-torn American landscape she barely recognizes. When she encounters Security s formidable Elizabeth Weatherall, each woman risks all she has become in no-holds-barred, mortal combat.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
616 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2006
37 people want to read
About the author
L. Timmel Duchamp
59 books27 followers L. Timmel Duchamp was born in 1950, the first child of three. Duchamp first began writing fiction in a library carrel at the University of Illinois in 1979, for a joke. But the joke took on a life of its own and soon turned into a satirical roman a clef in the form of a murder mystery titled "The Reality Principle." When she finished it, she allowed the novel to circulate via photocopies, and it was a great hit in the academic circles in which she then moved. One night in the fall of 1984 she sat down at her mammoth Sanyo computer with its green phosphorescent screen and began writing Alanya to Alanya.
Duchamp spent the next two years in a fever, writing the Marq'ssan Cycle. When she finshed it, she realized she didn't know how to market it to publishers and decided that publishing some short fiction (which she had never tried to write before) would be helpful for getting her novels taken seriously. Her first effort at a short story was "Welcome, Kid, to the Real World," which she wrote in the summer of 1986. Her next effort, however, turned into a novel. (Getting the hang of the shorter narrative form was a lot harder than she'd anticipated.) So she decided to stick with novels for a while. When in fall 1987 a part-time job disrupted her novel-writing, she took the short stories of Isak Dinesen for her model, tried again, and wrote "Negative Event at Wardell Station, Planet Arriga" and "O's Story." And in 1989 she sold "O's Story" to Susanna J. Sturgis for Memories and Visions, "The Forbidden Words of Margaret A." to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, and "Transcendence" to the shortlived Starshore. Her first pro sale, though, was "Motherhood, Etc." to Bantam for the Full Spectrum anthology series.
After that she wrote a lot of short fiction (mostly at novelette and novella lengths), a good deal of which she sold to Asimov's SF. In the late 1990s Nicola Griffith convinced her to try her hand at writing criticism and reviews. In 2004, Duchamp founded Aqueduct Press; since then editing and publishing books (her own as well as other writers') has claimed the lion's share of her time and effort.
She lives in Seattle.
Duchamp spent the next two years in a fever, writing the Marq'ssan Cycle. When she finshed it, she realized she didn't know how to market it to publishers and decided that publishing some short fiction (which she had never tried to write before) would be helpful for getting her novels taken seriously. Her first effort at a short story was "Welcome, Kid, to the Real World," which she wrote in the summer of 1986. Her next effort, however, turned into a novel. (Getting the hang of the shorter narrative form was a lot harder than she'd anticipated.) So she decided to stick with novels for a while. When in fall 1987 a part-time job disrupted her novel-writing, she took the short stories of Isak Dinesen for her model, tried again, and wrote "Negative Event at Wardell Station, Planet Arriga" and "O's Story." And in 1989 she sold "O's Story" to Susanna J. Sturgis for Memories and Visions, "The Forbidden Words of Margaret A." to Kristine Kathryn Rusch for Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, and "Transcendence" to the shortlived Starshore. Her first pro sale, though, was "Motherhood, Etc." to Bantam for the Full Spectrum anthology series.
After that she wrote a lot of short fiction (mostly at novelette and novella lengths), a good deal of which she sold to Asimov's SF. In the late 1990s Nicola Griffith convinced her to try her hand at writing criticism and reviews. In 2004, Duchamp founded Aqueduct Press; since then editing and publishing books (her own as well as other writers') has claimed the lion's share of her time and effort.
She lives in Seattle.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 17, 2013
(8/10) In the second volume of the series Duchamp starts to explore a lot of interesting ideas. For starters, there's the practical questions around building an anarchist society in an imperfect world. Freedom is a key principle, but when you start running into people whose freedom you don't really want to indulge, things start becoming more difficult. And then there's the question of how to get people to unlearn all the modes of capitalist and patriarchal discourse they've been brought up in their entire life. Duchamp doesn't shy away from these questions, and if she doesn't really resolve them in this novel, that's a sign of how they can never be wrapped up in a tight little bow.
The other half of Renegade is a lot more harrowing, concerning
I'm most of the way through the Marq'ssan Cycle now, and this is probably my favourite book of the series. It still has the flaws that would bog down later volumes -- lukewarm prose, endless conversation, and a dated and simplistic version of feminism (if men are barred from holding power because of their ingrained dominating nature, shouldn't that also apply to white women?). But there's a real attempt here to engage with large political issues about the nature of kyriarchy and how to construct an alternative to it, and that's rare to find not only in science fiction but even in political writing.
The other half of Renegade is a lot more harrowing, concerning
I'm most of the way through the Marq'ssan Cycle now, and this is probably my favourite book of the series. It still has the flaws that would bog down later volumes -- lukewarm prose, endless conversation, and a dated and simplistic version of feminism (if men are barred from holding power because of their ingrained dominating nature, shouldn't that also apply to white women?). But there's a real attempt here to engage with large political issues about the nature of kyriarchy and how to construct an alternative to it, and that's rare to find not only in science fiction but even in political writing.
June 21, 2009
Where did the Marq'ssan go? They lurk largely behind the scenes in Renegade. The alien/human interaction in Book One, Alanya to Alanya is what hooked me to this series. Alanya to Alanya sets up an intricately detailed story of "what-if"--in this case, what if the structure of society as we know it ceases to be, in order to force a re-creation of a more peaceful and cooperative social structure? This plan is carried out in Book One, by the benevolent/malevolent Marq'ssan who effectively topple world governments (although the story-telling mainly focuses on the United States) by destroying all communications networks.
Renegade, though equally thought-provoking and well-written is mostly an intellectual drawn-out contest of wills between human beings. It is a very introspective book, whereas the first book was very action-oriented. Renegade explores the relationship between two characters as captive and captor. It is difficult to critique the book as a stand-alone, knowing that there's much more to the story. Like many humans, I have a difficult time reading about the torture of other human beings, and much of this book revolves around just that. This didn't put me off from reading though, knowing that Timmi Duchamp would not have spent so much time with these protagonists without a very good reason.
This is the absolute artistry of her writing. As Book Two ends, I have a commitment to continue reading the series through to the end. As Duchamp continues to revise her worldview, I can patiently read through the changes, shifting and revising my own vision at the same time. Now, that's brilliance. Or madness.
Renegade, though equally thought-provoking and well-written is mostly an intellectual drawn-out contest of wills between human beings. It is a very introspective book, whereas the first book was very action-oriented. Renegade explores the relationship between two characters as captive and captor. It is difficult to critique the book as a stand-alone, knowing that there's much more to the story. Like many humans, I have a difficult time reading about the torture of other human beings, and much of this book revolves around just that. This didn't put me off from reading though, knowing that Timmi Duchamp would not have spent so much time with these protagonists without a very good reason.
This is the absolute artistry of her writing. As Book Two ends, I have a commitment to continue reading the series through to the end. As Duchamp continues to revise her worldview, I can patiently read through the changes, shifting and revising my own vision at the same time. Now, that's brilliance. Or madness.
June 28, 2018
This is a hard book (and indeed series) to rate.
There are some truly fascinating ideas in here: the Executive system that rules most countries on near-future Earth (a male-dominated hierarchy with three main castes, where men from the ruling elite have their sexuality excised so as to not distract them from other forms of power whereas women at all levels have their sexualities left intact, and reproduction rights are extremely tightly controlled); the alien species that paralyses all modern technology then wants to strike deals, but only with female representatives of each country; the struggles of a nascent anarchist "free zone" society run by women. All really good stuff. The characters are great, too.
Despite all these strengths, this book just isn't the page-turner that I want it to be, largely due to the writing style.
This second book in the series is almost all dialogue (with a few action scenes inserted throughout, which make for a welcome change of pace). In contrast, I found that the first book had a better balance between action and dialogue. This situation is unavoidable, to some extent, as Renegade is essentially about a psychological war between two women - captor and prisoner - most of which takes place in a solitary confinement cell. The battle of wits is very well done and feels highly plausible, but the narrative is also somewhat repetitive and a bit dry. It doesn't help that the author seems to feel the need to explain irrelevant details, such as whether someone put the glass they'd been holding down before leaving the room (and no, the glass did not become relevant to the story later).
I've been sucked in enough to continue with the series, though. Hoping for more action and more aliens in part 3!
Content warning for this book: psychological torture, sexual violence
There are some truly fascinating ideas in here: the Executive system that rules most countries on near-future Earth (a male-dominated hierarchy with three main castes, where men from the ruling elite have their sexuality excised so as to not distract them from other forms of power whereas women at all levels have their sexualities left intact, and reproduction rights are extremely tightly controlled); the alien species that paralyses all modern technology then wants to strike deals, but only with female representatives of each country; the struggles of a nascent anarchist "free zone" society run by women. All really good stuff. The characters are great, too.
Despite all these strengths, this book just isn't the page-turner that I want it to be, largely due to the writing style.
This second book in the series is almost all dialogue (with a few action scenes inserted throughout, which make for a welcome change of pace). In contrast, I found that the first book had a better balance between action and dialogue. This situation is unavoidable, to some extent, as Renegade is essentially about a psychological war between two women - captor and prisoner - most of which takes place in a solitary confinement cell. The battle of wits is very well done and feels highly plausible, but the narrative is also somewhat repetitive and a bit dry. It doesn't help that the author seems to feel the need to explain irrelevant details, such as whether someone put the glass they'd been holding down before leaving the room (and no, the glass did not become relevant to the story later).
I've been sucked in enough to continue with the series, though. Hoping for more action and more aliens in part 3!
Content warning for this book: psychological torture, sexual violence
January 10, 2021
This is a tough one. I love this series, but can't recommend this book.
Although it contains the key plot arc that provides the nemisis (in the Greek sense) for most of the rest of the series, I think I would've been happier if it happened offstage, rather than experiencing it in grinding detail.
Although it contains the key plot arc that provides the nemisis (in the Greek sense) for most of the rest of the series, I think I would've been happier if it happened offstage, rather than experiencing it in grinding detail.
August 27, 2015
I really wanted to enjoy this and tried twice to finish it, but I had to give up halfway through as I didn't enjoy the plot or characters enough to want to persevere with it. There's some really interesting concepts about revolution in practice but ultimately I found the setting a little too simplistic to really carry off the vision. I also felt the voices and personalities of the three main POV characters weren't at all developed beyond their politics and love interests, and again the former felt a little too simplistic while the latter just didn't interest me.
A shame as I did enjoy the first book in this series - maybe others will have better luck than me but I'm going to move on and get my visionary fiction kicks elsewhere.
A shame as I did enjoy the first book in this series - maybe others will have better luck than me but I'm going to move on and get my visionary fiction kicks elsewhere.
December 28, 2015
Disappointing. Everything that sent me rushing to buy the sequel to “Alayna to Alayna” - the cool aliens, the main character, the evil villain - are missing from this book! Well, or painfully curtailed. The aliens are hardly on-scene at all and my favorite character is completely without agency.
October 17, 2011
Particularly grim subject matter; let's get to the utopia already!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews