On a dark and moonless planet, mutations have left women as little more than wombs, while men can teleport but have limited control over the ability. When aliens come to plunder this world's resources, the already harsh environment degrades exponentially. Will the Galactic Federation find this world in time to help the natives restore their women and save their civilization?
A visionary novel in the tradition of Ursula K. LeGuin and James Tiptree, Jr., by a leading feminist author.
"Phyllis Gotlieb is the grand dame of Canadian SF, a poet with a cosmic perspective who elevates space opera to high art."
-- Robert J. Sawyer
"The best SF novel I've read in years."
-- The Globe and Mail on Flesh and Gold
"A new novel from Phyllis Gotlieb is a major event."
-- Candas Jane Dorsey
"Gotlieb knows how to do it right."
-- Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Reviews for Birthstones:
"Space Opera has the reputation - not entirely undeserved - as
being the power fantasies of maladjusted teenage boys. But, for
over fifty years, Toronto author Phyllis Gotlieb has proven that
this subgenre can be complex, intelligent and even feminist. Her
new novel, "Birthstones", is no exception. . . Gotlieb
rarely pauses to dump information upon the reader. Instead, she
reveals much of the society and its problems through glimpses
that finally add up to a cohesive whole. As the story unfolded,
so did my understanding of the world. But I always knew enough.
It is this deftness, as well as Gotlieb's sensitivity to
character, that earned her a Governor General's Award
Nomination."
-- Sunday Book Review
"Gotlieb has a lean poetic style full of irony, intelligence and subtle
humour 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."
-- The Peterborough Examiner
". . . add up all these tastes and you get a very potent brew that will keep you turning pages avidly."
-- SciFi Weekly
With an afterword by Nalo Hopkinson. Nalo's novel Brown Girl in the Ring won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest. She has taken second place in the Short Prose Competition of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for Emerging Writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the Locus Award for a first novel.
Phyllis Gotlieb has been nominated for the Governor General's Award as well as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award, and she's the recipient of a lifetime-achievement Aurora Award. Her previous novels include Sunburst, O Master Caliban!, Heart of Red Iron, and Mindworlds. Phyllis is now professor emeritus of Computer Science at University of Toronto. She has three grown children, four grandchildren and lives in Toronto.
Order book from:
Fitzhenry & Whiteside (Publisher)
cloth or
paperback
Amazon
Chapters.Indigo
McNally Robinson
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