Part of what I like best about any type of fiction is the ability to play with time in regards to story; whether through the use of flashbacks, asides or (as is more common in genre stories), time machines and cryogenic sleep, characters, and through them, the readers, are able to examine aspects of time that are not easily seen in human experience except through historic recordings (written records, photographs, video, etc.) and living through time ourselves.
Suzy McKee Charnas published the first of her Holdfast Chronicles, Walk to the End of the World in 1974, and when the fourth and final novel in the series, The Conqueror’s Child was published in 1999, a quarter of a century of real time had gone by for the reader.
Now for me, someone who picked up the first book four months ago – I read the series at an accelerated pace and followed its story through two generations, but for people who read these books as they came out, the characters would have aged along with the readers, which made the focus of the final book, on the grandchild of the one of the first books protagonists, a pretty cool use of the medium of the novel.
As with the previous book in the series The Furies (1994), I found the writing style had significantly improved and I moved through the book much faster than I had the earlier two books. The story, focusing on a society of freed slaves who had overtaken their oppressors (the series examines a post-apocalyptic setting where men ruled and women were used as beasts of burden and the “necessary evil” of breeding), examines issues surrounding how a newly created society can work to make things better for the generations after them, and, like the rest of the series, focuses significantly on issues of survivor guilt, responsibility, and consequences for past behaviors.
I’m really glad I got to check this series out, as I had never even heard of it until I found David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Books, a few years ago, and decided to work my way through the books reviewed there. This was powerful stuff and did what all the best SF gets me to do, Think about what I was reading.
A few months ago I read Suzy McKee Charnas' 1974 novel, Walk to the End of the World which featured a strange and harrowing dystopian future wherein society was split along gender lines, with men ruling the world and women being used as beasts of burden and a necessary evil in terms of breeding. Obviously things in this world did not work out very well for anyone.
Last month I read the 1978 followup Motherlines, which focesd on the lone female survivor of the first book (sorry for the 40-year-old spoiler, but reviewing the third book in a series is tricky without referring to the earlier books), and her experiences in the all-female societies beyond the male-dominated holdfast.
The third book in the series, published 11 years after Motherlines, is The Furies, which finally brings the women from beyond the Holdfast back to this bizarre slaved-based society to free the women trapped there. This book is filled with a lot of pain and anger; yes there are many other elements in it, but as I read my way through the very logical events that happened as an invading force moves against a society in collapse, I kept thinking of the introduction to Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places in which he stresses that more than any of the countries he covers in his book, the most dangerous places in the world are actually anywhere where democracy has been given to a society in the last six months, as blanket pardons have not only released political prisoners, but also hardened criminals who may have perhaps strongly deserved to remain in the prisons where they had been kept.
In many ways The Furies was heartbreaking, as stories of people setting others free should work out well for all, but the author shows through strong emotion and character that pain doesn't simply go away if someone wishes it gone, and consequences can remain for generations.
An excellent read.
One of my favourite things about working my way through lists of classic science fiction (or any genre fiction, really) is discovering new authors and stories that lead me beyond the list.
The latest example of this for me was Suzy McKee Charnas' 1974 book, A Walk to the End of the World, which focused on a post-apocalyptic world where society had split along gender lines, which men representing a higher caste in a settlement called the Holdfast, and women becoming a means of labour and necessary breeding.
The second novel in the series, Motherlines (1978), focuses on the main female character from the first book and her life outside of the Holdfast. Like a lot of sequels, I really enjoyed how quickly the novel moves into actual story and character development, as the world-building aspects of the series were largely dealt with in the first novel. Where Motherlines works best is with the two societies of women the main character comes across and how they both strive to exist free of men in a world where science has largely fallen away and children are a highly treasured commodity.
The book was great, I found myself swept along the story of the main characters life and will definitely be picking up the third book in the series The Furies, next month.
For my classic science fiction novel this month, I read the 1974 book Walk to the End of the World, by Suzy McKee Charnas.
The book takes place many generations after a world-ending event called the Wasting, wherein all of mankind's natural resources ran out and the majority of the world's population died, along with most larger animals.
In the settlement called Holdfast, society is broken up in two key ways; first by age, Seniors and Juniors, who each have specific roles and rarely interact with each other in any way that isn't antagonistic, and secondly, by gender.
In the world of the story the Wasting is now blamed on women (called fems in the novel), who were thought to be the cause of the end of the old world and have now been reduced to labour and breeding animals, not actually considered creature with souls or any value except their necessary function in continuing the human race.
As a man raised in a house of women, who has since moved into his own house (and filled it with his wife and daughters) reading the book was a bizarre experience for me, the author does a great job at creating the society and all of its rules, and by breaking the book into smaller parts and focusing each on a different character, the reader is able to get a very good idea of how this world works.
The book was followed by three sequels: Motherlines (1978), The Furies (1994), and The Conqueror's Child (1999), all of which have now been added to my list of books I hope to read this year.
A little dated in concept and writing style, but definitely a worthwhile read.
