After finishing The Sixth Discipline, I wanted to try something else by Buxton but didn't feel ready to read the book's sequel, No Safe Haven. I spent some time looking through descriptions, and Tribes sounded like it had one of the biggest things that appealed to me about The Sixth Discipline: an exploration of a fascinating sci-fi/fantasy culture. I was also intrigued by the bit about Jahnsi being from a fighting tribe.

The cultural stuff did turn out to be really interesting. I liked finding out how everything worked, from the planet's justice system, to tribal badges, to the service every tribe member was required to do. While I found the world interesting as a whole, I particularly enjoyed the little details that showed how the tribal system affected the way native Mariposans thought and behaved. For example, Jahnsi thought of LuAnne as “the Mingo” because, to Jahnsi, a person's surname is their tribe. Also, their tribal name automatically tells others what their gender is. It wasn't necessary to specify that someone was female if you said they were a Han-Lin, so the idea that a Mingo could be male or female seemed odd to Jahnsi.

Speaking of Jahnsi, I liked her. As a Han-Lin, she knew how to fight, but she wasn't a dark, gritty warrior heroine. I think that, to her, fighting was often just a job. She was very practical about it. There was always a risk of getting hurt, but she was experienced enough that she had a fairly realistic idea of what her risks were. There was one part where she decided to take on a job involving a dispute over an order of uniforms that weren't the right color. She viewed the job as a good, fairly low-risk way to earn money, because it was only going to involve hand-to-hand combat. Hob, on the other hand, was much more worried about the possibility she might get hurt.

While I wouldn't call this book a sci-fi romance, it did have some romance it in. I thought Jahnsi and Hob's relationship moved at tad fast. Hob had spent his entire life as a slave, and a good chunk of that time as a sex slave. Because the drugs the other slaves were given didn't work on him, he was fully aware of everything he was made to do. Granted, Jahnsi was different – she forced nothing on him. I still thought things went a little more quickly and smoothly between them than they should have. They were a couple after maybe eleven days (or less?). LuAnne and Forest's relationship also started fairly quickly, but it was more believable to me because neither one of them had gone through the lifetime of abuse that Hob had gone through.

I spent much of the book very curious about what would happen once LuAnne found Hob. Would he be willing to go to his aunt? Would he be forced to go if he wasn't? What was going to happen between him and Jahnsi? I absolutely did not expect what did happen, not even with the hints (like Hob's brain implant) that there was a little more to the situation than just an aunt looking for her long-lost nephew. I wasn't really happy with the way things developed. I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but...well, it felt a little Borg-like and creepy. And the romance-loving part of me was disappointed by the ending. I suppose some people might feel that things end on a positive note for Jahnsi and Hob, but I had serious doubts that their relationship was going to last long, since there was already strong evidence that Hob felt the duties of his new life took precedence over his own wishes. I could easily imagine his aunt forcing him into an arranged marriage, and I seriously doubt Jahnsi would be willing to stand by and be his mistress. LuAnne and Forest's relationship was actually more satisfying to me than Jahnsi and Hob's – an unusual feeling for me, since I tend to identify more with younger couples in books than older ones.

Hmm, what else? This is a bit spoiler-y, but I loved that Andre Ortega got what was coming to him. He was horrible. Also, I was not a fan of the number of times (two, I think?) that Hob had his ability to make choices for himself taken away from him by people he should have been able to trust. Especially considering his history as a slave, he didn't hold this against those people for nearly as long as I thought he should have. And, ugh, Jahnsi's reaction after she found out the shocker that was the identity of one of Hob's former customers. Hob didn't deserve that, although at least she realized pretty quickly she was out of line.

All in all, Buxton's turning out to be a good author for me when I need a "interesting sci-fi culture" fix. Her characters sometimes act in ways that make me rage at them, but I still get a decent-to-good read overall.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

I sat up until 3:30 am reading this book (Just one more chapter). It takes place on the planet Mariposa, whose culture and society are completely dominated by the fifty-odd same-sex tribes that make up its population. Tribes provide the laws under which their members live; an intertribal council with limited powers exists for intertribal matters. Providing protection for their members, the tribes allow utter brutality against anyone lacking a tribe: they are likely to end up as slaves, with no protections. Off-worlders were considered fair game until Mariposa signed an agreement with the Third Planetary Confederation (ThreeCon) making them in effect another tribe.

The story is told in two lines of narration that gradually converge. The first is the story of Hob, a man without a tribe, a slave of the brutal Andre Ortega, who would rather die than continue the degradation of working as a sex slave. He has run out into the desert, where his chances of survival are slim, until he is forcibly rescued by Jahnsi Han-Lin, whose family helps Hob to try and build a new identity as a citizen of the offworld Third Confederation of Planets (ThreeCon), his only help for safety on a planet dominated by tribes, and merciless to anyone without a tribe.

The second is the story of LuAnne Mingo, a finder of lost persons. Sophia Beresford, Landgrave of the planet Avalon has hired her to find her nephew, lost on Mariposa after the assassination of his parents during a time of civil war. LuAnne meets ups with a representative of ThreeCon, former policeman and present anthropologist Forest Shekarian who guides her through the ins and out of Mariposan culture, as well as introducing people who she needs to meet.

Eventually, the two lines of narration occur with clashes of culture, loyalties, duties, and desires. One thing that is very interesting in the plot is the tradeoffs inherent in the tribal structure. One the one hand, it is a reliable source of protection, resources and order. On the other, it can be confining and dictatorial, especially when the leaders of the tribes have their own personal interests. The characters drew very real sympathy from me as they attempted to negotiate their loyalties.

I also really liked the characters, which is very important to me in a novel. LuAnne and Forest were a particularly appealing pair. I was also touched by the integrity and courage of the Ortega-Han-Lin family of Gareth Ortega and his children Ian and Jahnsi. They take real risks, and incur serious penalties, and Hob has to take equal risks to rescue almost the first people that he has ever loved and trusted.

I trust there will be a sequel(s) on Avalon, Mariposa, or both. ( )