A review by ledge
A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski

This tale of aquatic hippies didn't resonate - it's full of male/female binaries which the author claims are all deconstructed or resolved through the course of the story (https://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/adoor_art/adoor_study.htm ) but the overall impression is female = empathetic, understanding, peaceful; male = unfeeling, hateful, belligerent.

Spoiler

Also I didn't find the victory for the Sharer's passive resistance entirely convincing. Realgar had lost his nerve and been replaced, some setbacks from various mutinies and the swallowers 'attack' but the only reasons not to nuke the whole site from orbit were fear of the Patriarch or of the Sharers possible lethal genetic manipulation - both a capitulation to a mightier power and not a response to non-violence.