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The Kindly Ones
Orestes was a cruel world, cold and inhospitable. Its first colonists were castaways from a crash landing, clinging to survival through the institution of strict socio-political controls. Over the generations life grew somewhat easier, but the code of honor remained. Misdeeds, and errors, were paid for with blood.
At one time all miscreants were executed. Now, a social death is imposed. Every Oreseian city has a colony of "ghosts": ostracized citizens who must survive, somehow, without help from the living.
But galactic civilization is spreading - and Orestes is in its path. The old ways are under scrutiny. And though the Oresteian aristocracy will fight for the status quo, they have not reckoned on the power of a thousands ghosts...
At one time all miscreants were executed. Now, a social death is imposed. Every Oreseian city has a colony of "ghosts": ostracized citizens who must survive, somehow, without help from the living.
But galactic civilization is spreading - and Orestes is in its path. The old ways are under scrutiny. And though the Oresteian aristocracy will fight for the status quo, they have not reckoned on the power of a thousands ghosts...
373 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 15, 1987
About the author
Melissa Scott
91 books420 followersScott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her partner, Lisa A. Barnett.
Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.
She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.
In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.
Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.
Scott's work is known for the elaborate and well-constructed settings. While many of her protagonists are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, this is perfectly integrated into the rest of the story and is rarely a major focus of the story. Shadow Man, alone among Scott's works, focuses explicitly on issues of sexuality and gender.
She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 1986, and has won several Lambda Literary Awards.
In addition to writing, Scott also teaches writing, offering classes via her website and publishing a writing guide.
Scott lived with her partner, author Lisa A. Barnett, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 13, 2013
Any Melissa Scott book is likely to be good, and this one is no exception. I went in blind as to the plot, but because it's Melissa Scott I expected a smart SF novel full of queer characters, and I was not disappointed. (Of the four POV characters, Guil and Leith are very quietly in a lesbian relationship, and Rehur and Trey spend a night together; Trey's gender is never identified anywhere in the novel -- all of Trey's POV sections are first person. My brain kept trying to read Trey as male, because (a) yay more queer people and (b) I am familiar with it as a man's name.)
I really loved the worldbuilding here; it gave me Left Hand of Darkness-ish vibes. Our story is set in the faraway Agamemnon system, on two moons: Orestes and Electra. Mostly Orestes. (Why, yes, all the epigraphs are from the Oresteia. It makes me happy.) They are two bitterly cold worlds, and to better ensure their survival, the people have basically perfected shunning: criminals and other outcasts are legally socially dead and may not be acknowledged by the living. But there are Mediums (Trey is one) who may communicate with these "ghosts." Many of the ghosts (including Rehur, an actor), live in The Necropolis, which is full of offworlders, prostitution and theaters. The theaters are "holopuppet," which involves actors acting with pre-taped holos, and honestly the plays sound great. I'd watch one! One of the things this novel is concerned with, surprisingly, is arts and culture of all sorts -- in addition to the theater, there is also a great long section of sporting events, exciting races across the ice on sledges pulled by beasts of burden. And in one charming section of the novel, Guil and Leith go yarn-shopping together and bond over the choice of yarn. Knitting! I don't think I've ever seen knitting in SF! All of this adds to the verisimilitude of the setting. It makes it feel like Orestes could be a real place, which I think helps you (or at least me) accept the bewildering code of honor.
If I had any complaints about this novel, it would be that it feels like three books shoved into one. The first part of the book is basically worldbuilding, reasonably leisurely, and, okay, obviously I loved the worldbuilding. But then when the plot kicks in it's as if it's a different book altogether, and suddenly it's about the complicated honor and face-saving among the clans of Orestes, as one attacks another -- hope you were paying attention to the worldbuilding. And then, just when you've got that sorted out and you're thinking the climax of the book is going to involve this very long scene of talking heads at a council meeting arguing points of legality, the book shifts again, and the last part is pretty much unadulterated space opera, with ships zipping through the atmosphere and people running about with weapons. I feel like the space opera is the weakest part of the novel, which is sad, because it's clearly supposed to be the climax of the plot. The bit with the ghosts, though, that made everything worth it. (That and the pilots wondering if they should put the flight on their union records; it's the little things that get me.)
Still, it's a great book -- of course it's a great book! -- and I am happy I read it, and I am especially happy it was free on the Kindle. And if you like clever worldbuilding, queer characters, and space opera, you should definitely read this.
I really loved the worldbuilding here; it gave me Left Hand of Darkness-ish vibes. Our story is set in the faraway Agamemnon system, on two moons: Orestes and Electra. Mostly Orestes. (Why, yes, all the epigraphs are from the Oresteia. It makes me happy.) They are two bitterly cold worlds, and to better ensure their survival, the people have basically perfected shunning: criminals and other outcasts are legally socially dead and may not be acknowledged by the living. But there are Mediums (Trey is one) who may communicate with these "ghosts." Many of the ghosts (including Rehur, an actor), live in The Necropolis, which is full of offworlders, prostitution and theaters. The theaters are "holopuppet," which involves actors acting with pre-taped holos, and honestly the plays sound great. I'd watch one! One of the things this novel is concerned with, surprisingly, is arts and culture of all sorts -- in addition to the theater, there is also a great long section of sporting events, exciting races across the ice on sledges pulled by beasts of burden. And in one charming section of the novel, Guil and Leith go yarn-shopping together and bond over the choice of yarn. Knitting! I don't think I've ever seen knitting in SF! All of this adds to the verisimilitude of the setting. It makes it feel like Orestes could be a real place, which I think helps you (or at least me) accept the bewildering code of honor.
If I had any complaints about this novel, it would be that it feels like three books shoved into one. The first part of the book is basically worldbuilding, reasonably leisurely, and, okay, obviously I loved the worldbuilding. But then when the plot kicks in it's as if it's a different book altogether, and suddenly it's about the complicated honor and face-saving among the clans of Orestes, as one attacks another -- hope you were paying attention to the worldbuilding. And then, just when you've got that sorted out and you're thinking the climax of the book is going to involve this very long scene of talking heads at a council meeting arguing points of legality, the book shifts again, and the last part is pretty much unadulterated space opera, with ships zipping through the atmosphere and people running about with weapons. I feel like the space opera is the weakest part of the novel, which is sad, because it's clearly supposed to be the climax of the plot. The bit with the ghosts, though, that made everything worth it. (That and the pilots wondering if they should put the flight on their union records; it's the little things that get me.)
Still, it's a great book -- of course it's a great book! -- and I am happy I read it, and I am especially happy it was free on the Kindle. And if you like clever worldbuilding, queer characters, and space opera, you should definitely read this.
December 17, 2015
Melissa Scott is a tough one for me. Her ideas are brilliant, yet I have started and abandoned many of her books. I simply cannot abide her prose. It's like swimming in molasses, and it drives me nuts.
All of that said I forced myself to get throughThe Kindly Ones though I wanted to put it down in frustration many times. And in the end I really loved the story. Just not the writing.
Is the main characters' relationship queer or no? We are left to ponder how we answer that and what it means about our own default assumptions and our understanding of gender. Love it.
All of that said I forced myself to get throughThe Kindly Ones though I wanted to put it down in frustration many times. And in the end I really loved the story. Just not the writing.
Is the main characters' relationship queer or no? We are left to ponder how we answer that and what it means about our own default assumptions and our understanding of gender. Love it.
Read
June 22, 2022I read half of this and wasn't hating it exactly. It's space opera with distinct themes from The Left Hand of Darkness - like in Le Guin, the main character is an envoy from a different world, come to learn as much they can about Orestes, a planet that is always cold and has a rigid code of honour that seems bizarre to outsiders. Trey Maturin, the envoy (a gender-neutral first-person narrator) is here to stop a feud breaking out between two rival factions due to breaches of the code. But it's such a basic writing trick that made me not want to finish - Trey doesn't want anything, in particular, and I just don't feel invested in this feud when I'm not invested in any of the specific characters. DNF at 50%.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
September 19, 2018I'm trying to be better at not reading things I'm not excited to be reading, and this fell under that for me. There's nothing wrong with it, it's entirely fine, and on paper it's exactly the kind of thing I want to be reading (ie it's in space and there are queer people in it), I just don't feel any particular enthusiasm to continue it.
May 8, 2016
I picked this up as a reward for participating in the Fairfax County summer reading program, intrigued by the pulpy cover art and the solid description on the back. After glancing at a few reviews, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Melissa Scott is known for her inclusion of LGBT characters in her stories, and that this novel in particular features a main character whose gender is never referenced (and has either sexual encounters with or attraction to both men and women) and a lesbian couple.
The story takes place in a future where humans colonized many planets prior to the discovery of an FTL drive, but in the intervening years an FTL drive has been discovered. The years between, though, mean that outlying colonies spent many years in isolation with their own unique cultures fermenting. On Orestes and Electra, a pair of moons that orbit the same (uninhabitable planet), the social code is based on family. There are five Families, each in charge of their own holdings and with subsidiary family lines, that come together to govern the worlds. If one commits a violation of their legal/social code, they are outcast and become a "ghost" - legally dead, unable to speak to the living. If a living person speaks to or acknowledges a dead one, that person also becomes legally dead. There's a third category for people who just want to leave their Family obligations who can talk to the dead without breaking code, called para'anin.
The main character, Trey Maturin, is a mediator (their title off-world) who comes to Orestes to be a Medium for one of the Families. Mediums are mediators, but also allow facilitate communication between the living and the dead. Trey works for the Halex Kinship, and the first half of the story is largely description of Trey's experience with the Family members and the strangenesses of the world. There's a long jaunt to the Necropolis - a city full of ghosts and para'anin, where acting and music and prostitution are the common professions. There's also a kind of dog-sled race with the native animals that is much faster and more dangerous than sledding.
Spoilers from this point on.
The second half of the story involves an official feud between several Families and its escalation beyond anything their code has ever had to deal with, and also the abrupt deaths of most of the secondary characters introduced in the first half. The code looks down upon bringing in off-world help for many things, and so the weapons technology on Orestes and Electra is very basic - mostly crossbows and knives - until one Family imports high-tech weaponry, causing a small arms race. One Family almost completely obliterates another, and in the ensuing battles large portions of the culture-rich Necropolis are destroyed and the ghosts use their status to literally walk into the enemy stronghold and win not only the battle, but recognition in government. Which doesn't happen until the final pages, but is referenced on the back of the book, so I feel that the book spoiled itself for me as I kept wondering when the ghosts would become involved.
As for how I felt about this book: I'm pretty mixed. I think it tells a great story and the world is fascinating with a lot of room for other stories in the same universe (perhaps on other worlds - Melissa Scott may have actually written other books in the universe, but I don't know for sure). The culture is complex and can lead to interesting interactions while also being fairly familiar and relatable. There were some beautiful passages and some interesting dynamic set-ups (but that the payoff for those dynamics was often lackluster). It brings to mind C. J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" and the newer Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice" in its strictly rule-governed culture and mostly diplomatic (rather than violent or adventuring) exploration of that culture.
I also think, though, that the writing left a lot to be desired while also giving the reader way more than any reader desires. There is a lot of over-telling and over-showing - descriptions of the exact movements peoples' faces and hands are making accompanied by explanations of exactly what that movement/expression meant. There's no intentional ambiguity; the Brandr are treated as Bad all the way through and the Halex are Good, even though there is definitely ambiguity as far as their actions are concerned - it's just that none of their actions are treated as ambiguous by the story. I wasn't very compelled by many of the main characters, either. I felt that there was, again, a lot of over-explaining of motivations combined with a lack of ambiguity, plus a lack of personality consistency. Characters' rationale for their actions is given in great detail but they always make the best choice, not necessarily the choice their character would have made. This also nullifies a lot of the dynamics and tension created by the strict social/legal code, since in every case where the code would keep the characters from doing something important they either ignore the code or find a loophole. The code only seems to matter in dialogue, where people have to choose words very carefully and the narrator has to (read: doesn't have to but does anyway) explain to you the exact consequence of every utterance.
Pacing is also a slight problem. A lot of scenes only exist to show you how cool the world is and the actual conflict of the story doesn't start until halfway through. If the code was more effectively woven through the story, that whole first half could have been great set-up, but instead it read as a prolonged self-indulgent introduction.
And possibly my biggest gripe: Trey is a former actor and another viewpoint character is an actor and there is extensive and enjoyment-damaging use of the analogy that everyone is just "playing a role" in any given situation. So many scenes where Trey thinks something like "and now he's playing second-lead, which is not his typical role, and he is acknowledging that he's playing it too, because he's an actor, which means he knows that the second-lead usually has a dramatic death," or "and he said exactly what the script demanded of him, perhaps not even knowing that he was drawing from the script." And then, from Rehur, "This is the second time I've been offered a second-lead, and I am growing more comfortable in that role." And this happens dozens of times. When all of your characters are meta-aware of their actions, it takes a lot of the drama and tension out of the story.
Overall, I usually find myself complaining that a book or movie tells the wrong story for the world it creates. This is the opposite - it's exactly the kind of story I wanted it to be, but poorly executed on the prose and structural levels.
Edit: I will say here that neither the title nor the cover have anything to do with the story as far as I can tell. The phrase "the kindly ones" refers to the Furies, and while I can see what Scott was going for - beings who symbolize vengeance and, according to Wikipedia, are "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath" do kind of evoke some of the themes of ghost-hood in Orestean society, but all ghosts and para'anin in the story, save one, have no problem with or even prefer being a ghost, and when they rebel, they do it because their city's probably gonna get blown up, not because they don't want to be ghosts anymore. (The one para who does have some anger toward the 'living' doesn't show that anger until the climax, when she's suddenly furious and bloodthirsty and wants to kill people because they've been rude to her.) And the cover? I guess it has volcanoes and ice mountains in the background and maaaybe it's supposed to be a scene following the sled-race, but the rest of the image doesn't fit at all.
The story takes place in a future where humans colonized many planets prior to the discovery of an FTL drive, but in the intervening years an FTL drive has been discovered. The years between, though, mean that outlying colonies spent many years in isolation with their own unique cultures fermenting. On Orestes and Electra, a pair of moons that orbit the same (uninhabitable planet), the social code is based on family. There are five Families, each in charge of their own holdings and with subsidiary family lines, that come together to govern the worlds. If one commits a violation of their legal/social code, they are outcast and become a "ghost" - legally dead, unable to speak to the living. If a living person speaks to or acknowledges a dead one, that person also becomes legally dead. There's a third category for people who just want to leave their Family obligations who can talk to the dead without breaking code, called para'anin.
The main character, Trey Maturin, is a mediator (their title off-world) who comes to Orestes to be a Medium for one of the Families. Mediums are mediators, but also allow facilitate communication between the living and the dead. Trey works for the Halex Kinship, and the first half of the story is largely description of Trey's experience with the Family members and the strangenesses of the world. There's a long jaunt to the Necropolis - a city full of ghosts and para'anin, where acting and music and prostitution are the common professions. There's also a kind of dog-sled race with the native animals that is much faster and more dangerous than sledding.
Spoilers from this point on.
The second half of the story involves an official feud between several Families and its escalation beyond anything their code has ever had to deal with, and also the abrupt deaths of most of the secondary characters introduced in the first half. The code looks down upon bringing in off-world help for many things, and so the weapons technology on Orestes and Electra is very basic - mostly crossbows and knives - until one Family imports high-tech weaponry, causing a small arms race. One Family almost completely obliterates another, and in the ensuing battles large portions of the culture-rich Necropolis are destroyed and the ghosts use their status to literally walk into the enemy stronghold and win not only the battle, but recognition in government. Which doesn't happen until the final pages, but is referenced on the back of the book, so I feel that the book spoiled itself for me as I kept wondering when the ghosts would become involved.
As for how I felt about this book: I'm pretty mixed. I think it tells a great story and the world is fascinating with a lot of room for other stories in the same universe (perhaps on other worlds - Melissa Scott may have actually written other books in the universe, but I don't know for sure). The culture is complex and can lead to interesting interactions while also being fairly familiar and relatable. There were some beautiful passages and some interesting dynamic set-ups (but that the payoff for those dynamics was often lackluster). It brings to mind C. J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" and the newer Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice" in its strictly rule-governed culture and mostly diplomatic (rather than violent or adventuring) exploration of that culture.
I also think, though, that the writing left a lot to be desired while also giving the reader way more than any reader desires. There is a lot of over-telling and over-showing - descriptions of the exact movements peoples' faces and hands are making accompanied by explanations of exactly what that movement/expression meant. There's no intentional ambiguity; the Brandr are treated as Bad all the way through and the Halex are Good, even though there is definitely ambiguity as far as their actions are concerned - it's just that none of their actions are treated as ambiguous by the story. I wasn't very compelled by many of the main characters, either. I felt that there was, again, a lot of over-explaining of motivations combined with a lack of ambiguity, plus a lack of personality consistency. Characters' rationale for their actions is given in great detail but they always make the best choice, not necessarily the choice their character would have made. This also nullifies a lot of the dynamics and tension created by the strict social/legal code, since in every case where the code would keep the characters from doing something important they either ignore the code or find a loophole. The code only seems to matter in dialogue, where people have to choose words very carefully and the narrator has to (read: doesn't have to but does anyway) explain to you the exact consequence of every utterance.
Pacing is also a slight problem. A lot of scenes only exist to show you how cool the world is and the actual conflict of the story doesn't start until halfway through. If the code was more effectively woven through the story, that whole first half could have been great set-up, but instead it read as a prolonged self-indulgent introduction.
And possibly my biggest gripe: Trey is a former actor and another viewpoint character is an actor and there is extensive and enjoyment-damaging use of the analogy that everyone is just "playing a role" in any given situation. So many scenes where Trey thinks something like "and now he's playing second-lead, which is not his typical role, and he is acknowledging that he's playing it too, because he's an actor, which means he knows that the second-lead usually has a dramatic death," or "and he said exactly what the script demanded of him, perhaps not even knowing that he was drawing from the script." And then, from Rehur, "This is the second time I've been offered a second-lead, and I am growing more comfortable in that role." And this happens dozens of times. When all of your characters are meta-aware of their actions, it takes a lot of the drama and tension out of the story.
Overall, I usually find myself complaining that a book or movie tells the wrong story for the world it creates. This is the opposite - it's exactly the kind of story I wanted it to be, but poorly executed on the prose and structural levels.
Edit: I will say here that neither the title nor the cover have anything to do with the story as far as I can tell. The phrase "the kindly ones" refers to the Furies, and while I can see what Scott was going for - beings who symbolize vengeance and, according to Wikipedia, are "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath" do kind of evoke some of the themes of ghost-hood in Orestean society, but all ghosts and para'anin in the story, save one, have no problem with or even prefer being a ghost, and when they rebel, they do it because their city's probably gonna get blown up, not because they don't want to be ghosts anymore. (The one para who does have some anger toward the 'living' doesn't show that anger until the climax, when she's suddenly furious and bloodthirsty and wants to kill people because they've been rude to her.) And the cover? I guess it has volcanoes and ice mountains in the background and maaaybe it's supposed to be a scene following the sled-race, but the rest of the image doesn't fit at all.
November 10, 2018
I gave up about halfway through because almost nothing of interest had happened. I found the characterizations obscure making characters difficult to relate to.
June 11, 2019
An interesting depiction of a couple of harsh worlds with equally harsh social strictures. I'm assuming the title is meant to be ironic?
I am almost always interesting in reading about living in harsh conditions, and how people manage to survive or even thrive there. I am less happy reading about oppressive social systems, especially those with clans that require loyalty on pain of expulsion. I guess it's better to be declared "dead" and then be shunned by your family than to actually be put to real death. All the "ghosts" can then ally with one another and have their own society outside the Family/Clan strictures. But I still don't care for it.
Confession: I never noticed that the viewpoint character, Trey Maturin, was never refered to as either male or female. I am not the most observant toy in the box. (I also read the Earthsea books multiple times before I realized that the characters weren't while. And I didn't figure it out for myself then either. I read it in a review. Duh.)
I found the story interesting but not engrossing. I was curious about how it all came out. Sweeping change in a civilization is never easy, especially when it happens through violence.
I thought the book was well-written, but not inspiring. A solid 3 stars.
I am almost always interesting in reading about living in harsh conditions, and how people manage to survive or even thrive there. I am less happy reading about oppressive social systems, especially those with clans that require loyalty on pain of expulsion. I guess it's better to be declared "dead" and then be shunned by your family than to actually be put to real death. All the "ghosts" can then ally with one another and have their own society outside the Family/Clan strictures. But I still don't care for it.
Confession: I never noticed that the viewpoint character, Trey Maturin, was never refered to as either male or female. I am not the most observant toy in the box. (I also read the Earthsea books multiple times before I realized that the characters weren't while. And I didn't figure it out for myself then either. I read it in a review. Duh.)
I found the story interesting but not engrossing. I was curious about how it all came out. Sweeping change in a civilization is never easy, especially when it happens through violence.
I thought the book was well-written, but not inspiring. A solid 3 stars.
January 27, 2024
I thought this held up pretty well for a book written in the 80s. Some of the tech choices definitely seemed dated, but the characters and overall plot were strong. The ebook copy I read was clearly OCR scanned and converted to ebook format; there were quite a few character errors, but it was easy enough to figure out what was meant, most of the time (biggest issue: there was a family name, "Brandt" that often got scanned as "branch"...which would have been fine if there had not also been several uses of the word "branch" to indicate various familial subgroups.)
While I enjoyed this, I did think the ending was a bit weak and rushed. I was expecting more of a social revolution angle, but the main plot wound up reading more as revenge/vengeance than social change per se, at least to me. Regardless, an interesting and enjoyable read.
While I enjoyed this, I did think the ending was a bit weak and rushed. I was expecting more of a social revolution angle, but the main plot wound up reading more as revenge/vengeance than social change per se, at least to me. Regardless, an interesting and enjoyable read.
April 10, 2019
8/10
I really really enjoyed this book. The story and characters were all super intriguing, and the pace was great (mist of the time)! I loved this idea of a code that once worked but is now broken, and I feel like there are a lot of parallels to what we’re dealing with in the states today.
The main issue I had with it was with how she approached the world-building. It seemed like there were things she wanted us to know about the society, but she couldn’t find a way to tell us those things in the context of the story. There were some things that seemed to drag on and feel a bit unnecessary because of this.
Still, this is some solid science fiction!
I really really enjoyed this book. The story and characters were all super intriguing, and the pace was great (mist of the time)! I loved this idea of a code that once worked but is now broken, and I feel like there are a lot of parallels to what we’re dealing with in the states today.
The main issue I had with it was with how she approached the world-building. It seemed like there were things she wanted us to know about the society, but she couldn’t find a way to tell us those things in the context of the story. There were some things that seemed to drag on and feel a bit unnecessary because of this.
Still, this is some solid science fiction!
Read
December 6, 2020 In *my* opinion, nice premise, but boring as hell. I do not like politics, period. Stupid honor code preventing ppl from being real, from living. I suppose that's the point, but I don't have to read about it.
....
Dave has now read it and does not recommend it.
....
Dave has now read it and does not recommend it.
February 26, 2018
I like the world building in this and the people are very realistic. and the plot doesn't follow the most usual pattern one might otherwise expect.
June 1, 2020
The Boring Ones would be a better title.
October 26, 2015
I love the worldbuilding here (I'm a sucker for ice worlds since reading Left Hand of Darkness at a formative age), but the pacing was rough. It started out slow--very slow. But the characters and setting drew me in, and I was prepared to enjoy it as a leisurely slice-of-life novel. Then the climax hit, all rushed action and rapid (and not entirely convincing) character growth. The contrast was jarring.
I did enjoy the way one of the main character's genders was left forever unrevealed; it could have felt like a cheap trick, but the lack of pronouns flowed naturally and, in the end, it really didn't matter.
I did enjoy the way one of the main character's genders was left forever unrevealed; it could have felt like a cheap trick, but the lack of pronouns flowed naturally and, in the end, it really didn't matter.
January 7, 2010
I loved the Point novels she wrote with Lisa Barnett and this earlier novel shows the promise fulfilled in the latter ones. Same rich attention to details in imagining the society of Orestes here, and an interesting experiment in gender as Trey Maturin, the protagonist who is the Medium (arbitrator, mediator, speaks to the legally and socially dead, the ghosts, as needed) for one of the leading Oresteian families, a off-worlder, is never identified as male or female. At first this was disconcerting--I went back, did I miss something, somewhere, some clue--then, OK, I see what she is doing (and Scott notes this is deliberate)--how did I read the character? As male-is that because I am a male? Because I wanted his (?) affair with the actor, Rehur, to be a gay relationship? What are the assumptions we make without thinking? Nicely done.
May 22, 2013
SF with interesting worldbuilding (I love the physical aspects of the world even more than the social!) but a relatively slow-moving plot. The only thing I'm not liking about this is that having multiple POVs with one character in first person and the rest in third irritates me. (Multiple first-person irritates me, too. I am a curmudgeon and only like multiple POVs when they are all third person!) This structure gives the impression it's being done that way only so that the gender of one character, Trey Maturin (Maturin! Hee!) can be obscured, so the whole gender-obscuration bit seems kind of obvious, deliberately coy and thus grating; I suspect I would not find it grating were the entire novel in Maturin's POV. But I also read Maturin as male, mostly because the two people I know named Trey are men.
September 2, 2011
I picked this up because of the prologue (love the mail ship captain), then the first chapter lost me. The world building is superb, and there are three interesting viewpoint characters, but unfortunately a fourth, the least interesting one is picked as main narrator. A figure so undefined that any effort to identify, root for or tremble with the character failed. Any hint as to weather Trey is male or female is carefully avoided, which is an interesting experiment, but it kept me outside. An interesting past is hinted at but never explained. Trey does a job and sometimes more, but there's no sense of passion or fear. I simply didn't care. I found the story interesting enough to finish, but the way it was told just didn't work for me.
May 22, 2014
It's marred somewhat by rushed pacing in the last third, but otherwise this was a great example of what I think of as "context scifi" -- no pages of background exposition, just getting thrown into a world you only come to understand through context clues. I was fascinated by the rigid and complex society of interstellar colonists that Scott created, and I liked having multiple POVs to understand it (though it was awkward having only one be first person, ostensibly to continue eliding that character's gender, which was an unnecessary narrative quirk). I also enjoyed knowing nothing about the book at all, so no spoilers, but if you like created-world scifi this was a good example, in the vein of LeGuin's "Left Hand of Darkness."
September 9, 2016
Probably the most well-meant 2-star review I will ever give a book. The Kindly Ones begins delightfully, a Le Guin-esque planetary romance set on twin ice-planet moons with a mannered feudal society and a likable outsider protagonist. It is also interesting as a (subtly) queer SF novel from the 80s that does some unusual things with gender.
However. The writing is good and the worldbuilding is clever, but for me the action-driven plot fizzled about halfway through. I was not invested in the story, and some of the twists were pretty transparent.
So, I will be seeking out more of Melissa Scott's books, but this was just not the right one to begin with.
However. The writing is good and the worldbuilding is clever, but for me the action-driven plot fizzled about halfway through. I was not invested in the story, and some of the twists were pretty transparent.
So, I will be seeking out more of Melissa Scott's books, but this was just not the right one to begin with.
April 16, 2013
I loved loved LOVED. Rigid social code with severe consequences for those who choose to live outside that code! Almost Sicilian devotion to the honor of the Family! Reminiscent of "Swordspoint" in ways in which the society has evolved around the social code! "Blood and revenge" drama! With spaceships! Not sure why some of the characters were chosen as POV's, and why other, more engaging ones, seemed to play a secondary role. Not so much character depth this time, so: plot and worldbuilding first, characterization after.
March 13, 2013
Why don't people write science fiction like this any more? A very interesting examination of a society changing. Enough detail for plausible world building but done without info dumps.
The tech was well done too. This book is almost 15 years old but the tech is still futuristic rather than overtaken by events. Who remembers when the phrase 'The sky above the port was the colour of a TV tuned to a dead channel' was actually meaningful? I do which means I guess I'm showing my age.
The tech was well done too. This book is almost 15 years old but the tech is still futuristic rather than overtaken by events. Who remembers when the phrase 'The sky above the port was the colour of a TV tuned to a dead channel' was actually meaningful? I do which means I guess I'm showing my age.
May 12, 2014
Made it through the whole thing, but it was all rather blah. Nothing really caught my attention. The concept was interesting enough, but I didn't even realize the major plot line was major until 50% through. It was that slow. I guess I need a bit more action and tenseness. There wasn't even a real climax. I could've put the book down and forgotten about it easily. I did enjoy the characters though.
April 10, 2013
Nice solid SF adventure with lots of the good stuff I've come to expect from Melissa Scott -- an interesting view of gender roles and lots of female agency, a well-worked out exotic setting, and a complete lack of humour. I enjoyed it, though it really only kicked into gear for me once the action started -- a good third of the book is setup for the adventurous stuff that follows.
September 29, 2020
I read this back in the eighties, so memory isn't clear, but I liked the world building, and how the culture roles became part of the plot, not just window dressing. I also think I remember that the point of view character never establishes a gender and that is irrelevant to the plot.
October 6, 2015
Love, love the concept if social death - a literal step beyond the cut direct - and how it is used here to foment a revolution.
April 30, 2013
Lemmed it.
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