I'll have to try a different title by Bear. I liked many elements of this book, but it didn't add up to a satisfying whole. ( )

At first I almost dropped it. Matriarchy theme is not my type. But then... I've read many other books let's call it “from the other side” and why not give it a try? And just like that it came with a surprise. Before this book I considered ongoing gender war just an annoying thing to avoid. After this book I think it's all just fucking disgusting. This is a perfect book for demonstration of all the shit people can do with gender issues if some of the radicals get the right to decide for the others. After all it's real war that people of all genders fight with words and ideas somehow believing they hurt less than bullets. ( )

I really love "planet of the women" stories, especially the ones where the planet of the women isn't a Utopia. Most Utopias are boring, unless they're under threat from a Dystopia, because otherwise it's just too hard to get conflict into the story.

This "planet of the women" book is particularly good. ( )

very interesting ideas but average execution. could have been much better ( )

I had really enjoyed the enny Casey series by this author and thought this title would be equally as good, partly because the cover on my trade paperback was so intriguing. Artwork on the covers does sell books and it sold this one. This novel was not one of Bear’s best. It wasn’t a bad book, but a decent plot and good characteriszation got lost in the message it was trying to send.

This is science fiction that is written to send a messag about equality. The novel is about equality between the sexes. It is set on a world where men hold low status and have no rights, while women hold all the power. The planet on which they live has a unique clean power source and Earth needs it. Two men are sent to negotiate the absorption of the planet into the Earth led coalition. The equality message gets a little heavy handed and drowns out the plot and prevents the characters from being developed to a greater degree. All-in-all, this is not one of Bear’s better novels but it is not a total washout either. ( )