Alternative Worlds
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- Joined
- Jun 20, 2015
- Messages
- 999
Carnival
Elizabeth Bear
Bantam, Dec 2006, $6.99
ISBN: 0553589040
Their last diplomatic assignment together ended disastrously so their superiors split up the lovers. However, the Old Earth Colonial Coalition has run into a unique problem as they negotiate with the planet New Amazonia. On Old Earth, women perform menial tasks and are subservient to men; no female has ever served as an ambassador. On New Amazonia, women run everything with men working as drones or staying home breeding. To succeed the Old Earth leaders decide they need to send a low count of testosterone of gentle souls so they choose the former lovers, Vincent Katherinessen and Michelangelo Kusanagi-Jones to open negotiations with the Amazons; no one else is remotely acceptable
To enable them to start off on the right foot, Vincent and Michelangelo bring with them art stolen from the planet. However, their mission is not to broker a peace and trade agreement, but to steal the secrets behind the source of the powerful energy that runs New Amazonia. While CARNIVAL provides a festive time on the planet, neither the Amazons or the earthlings can comprehend that though Vincent and Michelangelo appear as gentle lovers, they are not afraid to initiate their own agenda.
This is an excellent science fiction that uses sexual preference stereotypes as a means to polarize two societies in which neither are capable of understanding the courage and competency of the two “gentle” albeit gay men. Both worlds seem genuine even with the patriarchal vs. matriarchal differences. The two heroes take advantage of the bias on their homeworld and on Amazon. Elizabeth Bear provides an exciting outer space thriller with a deep message that extreme isms mean lose-lose for the victims and the perpetrators.
Elizabeth Bear
Bantam, Dec 2006, $6.99
ISBN: 0553589040
Their last diplomatic assignment together ended disastrously so their superiors split up the lovers. However, the Old Earth Colonial Coalition has run into a unique problem as they negotiate with the planet New Amazonia. On Old Earth, women perform menial tasks and are subservient to men; no female has ever served as an ambassador. On New Amazonia, women run everything with men working as drones or staying home breeding. To succeed the Old Earth leaders decide they need to send a low count of testosterone of gentle souls so they choose the former lovers, Vincent Katherinessen and Michelangelo Kusanagi-Jones to open negotiations with the Amazons; no one else is remotely acceptable
To enable them to start off on the right foot, Vincent and Michelangelo bring with them art stolen from the planet. However, their mission is not to broker a peace and trade agreement, but to steal the secrets behind the source of the powerful energy that runs New Amazonia. While CARNIVAL provides a festive time on the planet, neither the Amazons or the earthlings can comprehend that though Vincent and Michelangelo appear as gentle lovers, they are not afraid to initiate their own agenda.
This is an excellent science fiction that uses sexual preference stereotypes as a means to polarize two societies in which neither are capable of understanding the courage and competency of the two “gentle” albeit gay men. Both worlds seem genuine even with the patriarchal vs. matriarchal differences. The two heroes take advantage of the bias on their homeworld and on Amazon. Elizabeth Bear provides an exciting outer space thriller with a deep message that extreme isms mean lose-lose for the victims and the perpetrators.
