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“Come find what you have lost...”
Heeding this cryptic message from deep space, the crew of the starship Restoration journeys from Earth to a distant planet, hoping to find humanity’s lost genetic diversity. But with the human race on the verge of extinction from the twin horrors of plague and a mysterious scourge of dark matter, how can an alien world harbor any remedies for Earth’s declining populations?
Worse, the Restoration arrives depleted: its captain is dead, its crew demoralized—except for an indomitable old woman whose power and wealth give her the privilege of naming the new captain. Anton Prados, a young, untested officer, will now preside over humanity’s first contact with an alien race. An alien race that, improbably, looks exactly like humans. Only, the Dassa possess highly unusual breeding habits—and a reproductive process that seems to be the nullification of all that is human. And they think much the same about humanity…
A desperate expedition from a dying Earth, financed by middle-aged singer Bailey Shaw, finds hope and despair on an alien planet in this sedate sequel to Kenyon's Maximum Ice. Bailey's objective is to recover the genetic diversity Earth lost when a dark-matter cloud killed off a large percentage of the population. These precious DNA codes supposedly reside on a planet that closely resembles Earth. When Bailey and her crew arrive at their destination, however, they find their movements limited by the Dassa, a people who look human but lack human morals. In order to proceed with their search, the crew must first cozy up to Dassa King Vidori, who may have a secret agenda, and come to terms with some unsettling cultural differences. Most Dassa females, for instance, can reproduce only by swimming in ponds called varium, and those who are able to carry a baby inside their bodies are sterilized and forced into slavery. Kenyon's talent for creating complex cultures shines through in the Dassa's many beliefs and customs. Unfortunately, the cultural clash between humans and Dassa and the search for humanity's lost genetic heritage causes far less conflict than what one would expect. As a result, this plodding story fails to hold readers rapt, but its cultural richness may appeal to those with an interest in anthropology. (Feb. 11) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Daniel Dobsinsky
reviewed The Braided World on July 01, 2009
The Braided World
I was interested in the book enough to follow it through to the end. It was entertaining and moved at a good pace. But there were so many holes and problems that I just can't give it three stars. It's two and a half at best.
I like her writing but I think she takes ridiculous liberties in order to further the plot rather than taking the time to come up with something that makes more sense.
**************** SPOILER BELOW ****************************
One problem I had was with the hoda and that they came from the same society that enslaved them. Children were raised as slave-owners and suddenly became slaves. Families lost their children to being hoda. I just didn't buy how people could so easily change their views about people they knew already. If it were rare, sure, but ALL hoda came from within. It didn't jive for me.
My biggest problem with the book, though, was the very current sense of morality and behavior of the humans who are allegedly from 10,000 years in our future. Does she really believe that humans won't have changed much in that amount of time? That's before recorded history. Think how much we've changed since even a few hundred years ago. And these people have a problem with seeing people touching in public? They don't even have intercourse, just orgasm from touch. I really didn't buy that.
I also felt it ridiculous that they would be offended and repulsed by people reproducing like fish. Really silly. Nor do I believe that a pop singer 10,000 years from now is going to know who Mozart and Verdi are let alone the words to their music. Totally absurd.
There were other problems, like the ending where people who had just mutinied to go home suddenly wanted to stay after they had found a possible cure. Really didn't make sense at all. I also didn't like her writing from the human perspective only until suddenly she was writing from a hoda perspective, too. It was jarring and felt lazy, like she couldn't figure out a way to show us what she wanted without going into the hoda world.
Oh, and what about the fact that there is no way this tiny society took up a whole planet. Why didn't they try going to another group on the planet when they weren't getting anywhere? Why didn't it occur to them that the information they were looking for was elsewhere on the planet? And there was no way this tiny group (if you look at the map, it took a very short amount of time to go from place to place so the distances had to be small and therefore the city small, too) had enough genetic diversity to save Earth.
I could go on but I'm getting irritated all over again. Lazy writing really irks me, especially when just a little more effort would make it so much better.
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