elenajohansen's review
1.0
DNF @ pg 100. I can't believe the sheer amount of repetition of detail in this book. If I see someone adjusting their train or letting out their train or the trainsweeps folding a train one more time, I will go bonkers. I get that when you're worldbuilding entire alien cultures from scratch, these details are important, but this was heavy-handed.
jerseygrrrl's review
3.0
I've always loved Slonczewski's ideas. But I forgot that she often needs a more aggressive editor. This book is inspiring, thought evoking, and exciting. It also drags like crazy. It sometimes felt like a task to read. Yet, I'm thinking often about how to incorporate Sharer philosophy into my life. So how's that for a mixed review?
depressedlaughter's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
funcharge's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
zonefarmer's review
3.0
warning: got out of bed and wrote this with no editing. It's a raddling madpersons review.
Why won't good reads let me do decimals? I'd give this a 3.5 as it waivers between liked and really liked. I was excited to contiue in Slonczewski's universe after having finished Door Into Ocean. This book continues on the same planet but centuries later. The sharer people now seem far less important in the novel other than their ideology which has now been parabolized in a story called "The Web" and a race known as Elysians rely on their approval to continue their occupation on shora. The Elysians are referred to as immortals because they live for several centuries (up to a millennia.) A husband and wife duo are the main protagonists, immigrants from the Bronze Sky. The mother Raincloud is an exceptional linguist who has been hired from afar to specialize in Urulite a language of supposedly savage people who idealize warrioship as their culture. She just also happens to be fluent in Sharer. Blackbear the father is a doctor and scientist who is helping the Elysians in genetic experiments to create even greater longevity in their people. There are also L'ites , and the Valans play a role in supplying most of their servo technologies. There becomes indeed quite a "web" of relations between all of these groups of people. The book takes a long time to get any where with it, and I'd say a lot of the world building was slow and kind of a drag for me. I'm still into Sloanczewski's universe and will contiue reading more but, I found this one quite a slow burn with not a lot of reward. Some reason the fact the "scent of passion flower" was mentioned at least half a dozen times but I think maybe more drove me crazy. There were a lot of other redundancies. Many ethical quandries were presented about overpopulation (did J.G. Ballard not already describe this as a cliche of sci-fi by the 70's? I haven't read enough sci-fi to say, but it does seem a bit cliche.) Which I find really sad considering there seems to be so much use of technology and the problem is again too many people rather than, say, the responsibility for people to use technology to benefit others. The only solution seems to be, in a spacex fashion, to terraform more planets. Which shora people for example see as unethical. I could go on but I wont ruin the book for you. I will say as far as moralism goes, this book is even more vague and blurry than Door Into Ocean. Which is fine, but why such a long slow build up to go nearly nowhere? It seems you have to be in it for the dynamic of the universe more than for any real moral development.
Why won't good reads let me do decimals? I'd give this a 3.5 as it waivers between liked and really liked. I was excited to contiue in Slonczewski's universe after having finished Door Into Ocean. This book continues on the same planet but centuries later. The sharer people now seem far less important in the novel other than their ideology which has now been parabolized in a story called "The Web" and a race known as Elysians rely on their approval to continue their occupation on shora. The Elysians are referred to as immortals because they live for several centuries (up to a millennia.) A husband and wife duo are the main protagonists, immigrants from the Bronze Sky. The mother Raincloud is an exceptional linguist who has been hired from afar to specialize in Urulite a language of supposedly savage people who idealize warrioship as their culture. She just also happens to be fluent in Sharer. Blackbear the father is a doctor and scientist who is helping the Elysians in genetic experiments to create even greater longevity in their people. There are also L'ites , and the Valans play a role in supplying most of their servo technologies. There becomes indeed quite a "web" of relations between all of these groups of people. The book takes a long time to get any where with it, and I'd say a lot of the world building was slow and kind of a drag for me. I'm still into Sloanczewski's universe and will contiue reading more but, I found this one quite a slow burn with not a lot of reward. Some reason the fact the "scent of passion flower" was mentioned at least half a dozen times but I think maybe more drove me crazy. There were a lot of other redundancies. Many ethical quandries were presented about overpopulation (did J.G. Ballard not already describe this as a cliche of sci-fi by the 70's? I haven't read enough sci-fi to say, but it does seem a bit cliche.) Which I find really sad considering there seems to be so much use of technology and the problem is again too many people rather than, say, the responsibility for people to use technology to benefit others. The only solution seems to be, in a spacex fashion, to terraform more planets. Which shora people for example see as unethical. I could go on but I wont ruin the book for you. I will say as far as moralism goes, this book is even more vague and blurry than Door Into Ocean. Which is fine, but why such a long slow build up to go nearly nowhere? It seems you have to be in it for the dynamic of the universe more than for any real moral development.
greeniezona's review
3.0
Not exactly a sequel, Daughter of Elysium is the second book in the Elysium cycle, following Door Into Ocean. Like Door, Daughter takes place on Shora, but many centuries later. Several new "races" of humans are introduced: the beautiful and long-lived but detached Elysians, to the Goddess-worshiping, family-centered, martial arts experts from Bronze Sky -- the Clickers, the impoverished & overcrowded L'liites, the testosterone-dominated Urulites, and the servos -- who aren't actually human, but may or may not be sentient.
This is a very ambitious bit of SF -- there are a lot of balls in the air and I'm not sure I believe that she lands them all soundly. Then again, some may be deliberately left alight for the next book in the series? I don't know. That aside, it was nice to be back in the Sharer world again, though most of the worldview this time was filtered through the eyes of the Clickers. Much of the focus in this book was on reproduction and population management. It was somewhat frustrating that there was a complete absence of the theory that given the empowerment of women and a stable economic environment, women will limit their own reproduction and population growth will tend toward zero. Still, there were interesting ideas here and intriguing characters aplenty. Enough to make me seek out the next book in the series, anyway.
This is a very ambitious bit of SF -- there are a lot of balls in the air and I'm not sure I believe that she lands them all soundly. Then again, some may be deliberately left alight for the next book in the series? I don't know. That aside, it was nice to be back in the Sharer world again, though most of the worldview this time was filtered through the eyes of the Clickers. Much of the focus in this book was on reproduction and population management. It was somewhat frustrating that there was a complete absence of the theory that given the empowerment of women and a stable economic environment, women will limit their own reproduction and population growth will tend toward zero. Still, there were interesting ideas here and intriguing characters aplenty. Enough to make me seek out the next book in the series, anyway.
cameliarose's review
5.0
Joan Slonczewski is a biologist and she writes amazingly inventive yet plausible biology in her science fictions. I love every single one in the Elysium Cycle Series. The first book, [b:A Door Into Ocean|121606|A Door Into Ocean|Joan Slonczewski|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312029708l/121606._SY75_.jpg|2640708], is one of my all-time favorites. Daughter of Elysium is the second book in the series. It sets in a floating world on top of Shora, a thousand year after the first. Apart from the amazing marine creatures and biology (Slonczewski first wrote about gene editing in 1986, while CRISPR gene editing was invented in 2000s), there are also themes of gender roles, artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness (two different things). Another well-realized hard sci-fi by one of my favorite writers.
haddocks_eyes's review
3.0
Wonderful, thoughtful social SF that, even at over 500 pages, deserves a less rushed third act.
marmarta's review
5.0
"Daughter of Elysium", Joan Slonczewski's second book set in the same universe, is a somewhat overwhelming, but amazing exercise in world-building and idea-wrangling. While the huge cast of characters is sometimes overwhelming, and at times I found it difficult to care which of the wealthy and influential banker-politicians are which, the world Joan Slonczewski has created was wondrous enough to offset that problem. This is a book for everyone who likes struggling with difficult ideas and various social systems - the amazing comparison between matriarchal and communal Bronze Skyans, quasi-immortal, egalitarian, but proud and disdainful Elysians, primitive, warlike, patriarchal (but strangely tolerant to 'sub-humans') Urulans and anarchist-communitarian Sharers raises many interesting moral questions.
The pace is slow - despite some moments of faster action, "Daughter of Elysium" is not a book for those who like stories to progress quickly. But if you want to take a breath-taking view at a complicated universe and to explore interesting moral quandaries - what makes a human? what makes a person? when genetic engineering is good, and when destructive? how about terraforming - when can we destroy an entire ecosystem to suit our needs? how can a culture change without destroying itself? - this is a book for you.
On a closing note, "Daughter of Elysium" is quite unique in one more aspect - motherhood and fatherhood are crucial both to the plot and to the worldbuilding, and children are neither an untenable burder to the heroic protagonist, nor a women's be-all and end-all. I liked this change of style, and liked the heroine for whom childbearing is a normal part of life, to be integrated in her career and life without taking over either.
The pace is slow - despite some moments of faster action, "Daughter of Elysium" is not a book for those who like stories to progress quickly. But if you want to take a breath-taking view at a complicated universe and to explore interesting moral quandaries - what makes a human? what makes a person? when genetic engineering is good, and when destructive? how about terraforming - when can we destroy an entire ecosystem to suit our needs? how can a culture change without destroying itself? - this is a book for you.
On a closing note, "Daughter of Elysium" is quite unique in one more aspect - motherhood and fatherhood are crucial both to the plot and to the worldbuilding, and children are neither an untenable burder to the heroic protagonist, nor a women's be-all and end-all. I liked this change of style, and liked the heroine for whom childbearing is a normal part of life, to be integrated in her career and life without taking over either.
wealhtheow's review
3.0
Generations after the Sharers refused to accept Valen control, there is a new struggle for freedom on Shora. Centuries ago, the Sharers allowed the Elysians to settle on their world and learn lifeshaping from them. The Elysians chose to exchange their own ability to bear children for near-immortality. Over the course of the book, they come into conflict with many different societies. Having more money than they could ever use, they grant huge assistance loans to the L'lii, who could never repay them. The Urulan are a warlike, very sexist people who bred with their simian slaves over the years, and are as against the Elysians' use of simian embryos for lab experiments as the Elysians abhor the Urulans' sexism and agression. And the Elysians' own utopia turns against them, when their own nano-servors achieve sentience and demand rights. Negotiating between and around all of these conflicts is a immigrant family from Bronze Sky, who have their own blind spots and cultural assumptions. And threading through it all is the shared text of The Web, a philosophical treatise written shortly after [b:A Door Into Ocean|121606|A Door Into Ocean|Joan Slonczewski|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312029708s/121606.jpg|2640708].
The book is slightly over-ambitious: many of the plot threads are dropped for the climactic show-down between nanon-servors and the Elysians, and there are a few too many characters to keep track of. But I love the philosophical discussions and problems posed by this book, and the wide array of mind sets, societies, and lifestyles that make it up. It's all so fascinating! I love how non-traditional this book is; it never does what I think it will.
The book is slightly over-ambitious: many of the plot threads are dropped for the climactic show-down between nanon-servors and the Elysians, and there are a few too many characters to keep track of. But I love the philosophical discussions and problems posed by this book, and the wide array of mind sets, societies, and lifestyles that make it up. It's all so fascinating! I love how non-traditional this book is; it never does what I think it will.
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