Spider Robinson, Night of Power
This is probably the only book of Spider Robinson's that has trouble staying in print. I wonder why? It wouldn't have anything to do with its relatively positive portrayal of an armed insurrection 20 years in the planning by Black (and at least some Hispanic) people to claim New york City as an independent homeland for all people willing to work toward a society without race-based inequity, now would it? I find this a very powerful book because of its overall story and because of its examination of interracial relationships on a personal level as well as a social and political level - and the best part about it is that it does not shy away from the fact that white people, no matter how well-meaning, usually just don't get it - and if they do manage to get a little of it, there's always further to go. This is probably my favourite of Robinson's novels, even more so than the "hippies in Nova Scotia meet a time traveller" novel that hits so close to home.
Robert Heinlein, Friday
Heinlein probably meant the question at the heart of this novel to be about the personhood of clones. But Friday is never not a person to me, so that's never an issue. For me and many other women, it's always been about the way that violent gang rape and its aftereffects are portrayed, and what ultimately happens between Friday and one of the rapists. At one level, I think about the fact that rape is always a possible consequence of being a spy/soldier in enemy hands, and this is true for men as well as women, though not so often acknowledged. Spies are trained to deal with torture - or so the trope goes, anyway - and rape is historically a part of torture. But on the other hand, I don't know how effective that training is in allowing people so trained to put the psychological trauma of torture - whether sexual or not - behind them. So I'm always ambivalent about Friday's seeming ease of recovery. Maybe it's authentic. Maybe it's not. The other half of the problem - her later contacts with one of her torturers/rapists - that's even more difficult to work out. I may never come to a satisfactory assessment of this problem.
Michael Bishop, And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees
This may be one of my favourite titles for a book ever. And the book itself ain't so bad, either. Over a short period of time last year, things kept reminding me of this book, so I figured it was time to read it again.
Charles de Lint, Svaha
One of my favourite de Lint novels - and one of his very few forays into science fiction. I suppose that, in part, I like it for much the same reason I like Robinson's Night of Power - only here, the dispossessed peoples are Aboriginal (the novel is based in a future, cyberpunk Canada, but there is a sense that it is not only the Aboriginal peoples of North America who have withdrawn from the rest of the world to create their own future). I also very much appreciate the blend of science and mysticism. It's been out of print for a while, too, so I'm glad I found a copy to re-read.
Philip Jose Farmer, Time’s Last Gift
This was just pure fun. Farmer takes the now-immortal Tarzan into a future where time travel is possible, and then takes him back to the beginnings of human civilization and sets the Lord of the Apes free to be himself. This of course is all part of a complex series of what is essentially Burroughs fanfic in which there are ultimately three versions of Tarzan running about in Time and some very strange goings-on with secret manipulators carrying out a long human breeding program designed to bring about Tarzan, or someone very like him... and somewhere around here, Farmer goes too far even for me. but this book is fun if you have fond memories of reading Burrough's Tarzan novels in your youth.
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