Birthstones Book

I first reviewd Birthstones in The Peterborough Examiner on April 28, 2007. This reprint, revised with suggestions from David Hartwell, appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction in March, 2008.

Birthstones by Phyllis Gotlieb
Markham, Ontario: Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2007
C$26.95/US$23.95 hc
224 pages

Reviewed by Ursula Pflug
*
Recipient of a lifetime achievement Aurora Award, Phyllis Gotlieb has also been a Governor General's and Nebula Award nominee. She is also an eighty year old grandmother, author of eleven previous novels, as well as several poetry and short story collections. Her new novel Birthstones takes place in her familiar, oft-described multi-racial far future administered by the Galactic Federation (GalFed), previously seen in Flesh and Gold, Violent Stars, and Mindworld. Some races have blue skin; some have devil tails and fur, but all in these books are humanoid, Gotlieb's main exception to the humanoid alien beng the leopard-like Ungrukh of the trilogy which includes "A Judgement of Dragons," "Emperor Swords Pentacles," and "The Kingdom of the Cats."

Technological advances don't equate to equal advances in our ability to get along with one another, alas. On the planet Shar, the extraterrestrial version of multinationals circle in fancy orbiting stations, administrating the mines they have built below, plundering and polluting the planet to such an extent that half the human race has mutated: the female half.

The mutants-the unwomen-have flipper like limbs, wombs, three breasts, mouths but no eyes, and only rudimentary brains, as rudimentary as, say, starfish. Nevertheless, these creatures must be cared for. Warehoused in vast halls, they are fed, cleaned, and changed daily by the men, and yes, impregnated.
The men raise their sons alone. Their daughters are moved into the Mother Halls, so that, when they are old enough, they can join the ranks of the unmothers, do their part in ensuring the continuation of the race, sorry as it has become.

The culture on Shar is basically medieval, except for the mines, built and maintained by aliens, and by communications technology mainly used by the orbitals and by GalFed employees to communicate with Aesh Seven, the Emperor of the Equatorial Lands, and his council. Aesh lives in a room atop a stone tower, decorated by friezes of men, women and children playing together. Aesh's dream is to somehow restore the unwomen to their former status, that no one in his generation can remember. Yet the frieze is there, and the stories say it isn't fiction.

The lively plot follows Aesh Seven in his efforts to avoid the darts of rival political factions, persuade his reluctant people that real women would be an improvement, and convince his GalFed contact, Delius, that the federation must take a stronger stance against the orbital Xanthrotek, in spite of being funded by their taxes. Tough job for a guy with a tail whose sisters live in vats, heartbroken because he's never had a son of his own.

Earther Delius, for his part, has to deal with bureaucracy. Compromises which somehow fail to raise the bar are reached. A promising off-world experiment in breeding true females is sabotaged. The net of intrigue widens, and suddenly Delius has to worry not just for his own life but that of his wife and son.
Gotlieb has a lean poetic style full of irony, intelligence and subtle humor even when describing unmitigated horror. Mainly what shines through is her compassion for her endearingly and realistically flawed characters who muddle on, doing the best they can. And yes, Birthstones ends on a hopeful note. *

Another book which switches primary caregiver roles is James Tiptree Jr.'s classic, "Up The Walls Of The World." In that book the marsupial manta-ray-like aliens of the planet Tyrhee have evolved in such a way that the males have the pouches and hence raise the young. The reader is keenly aware of the subtext which posits that if men were as involved as women in child-rearing, it wouldn't be a low status occupation. In Gotlieb's book, the spotlight on fathering comes out of a political situation rather than an authorial desire to have readers look at gender roles on Earth in a different light. The women on Shar have mutated as a result of the devastating environmental policies of the multinationals exploiting the planet. In this sense, it is a book very much for our time.

Vandana Shiva, the well-known scientist, award winning activist and author of many books including "Staying Alive," writes about the exploitation of developing countries as a new form of colonialism, taking place on the cellular level as evidenced by the genetic engineering strategies of companies such as Monsanto. While some might paint her as an essentialist, she equates the violation of nature with the violation and marginalization of women, particularly in the Third World.

I am not sure whether Gotlieb meant to draw such parallels, but found them well worth considering.



Ursula Pflug, an ex-Torontonian, now lives on the Ouse River in Ontario's Kawartha Lakes district.