I must have really been tired last night. I finished this and went off to bed without logging it. Perhaps this one felt a little heavy-handed compared to the rest of the Liaden books - or maybe it was just the first day of classes after Spring Break or the fact that it was initially written as a serial on the authors' blog. I will doubtless read it again and I can try to decide then.
Although this is set in the Liaden universe and there are several Liaden characters, most notably Daav yosPhelium, the Delm of Korval (in self-imposed exile), the action goes nowhere near Liad. The story centers on Theo, Daav's half terran daughter, who appears briefly at the very end of I Dare to set up a possible continuation of the series.
It is an interesting run at creating a matriarchy as well as a world which has academia as its dominant societal feature. The repressive female-dominated religion doesn't quite come off, somehow. The marriage customs are intriguing. Marriage as an institution for the production and rearing of children does not exist. A woman takes a partner as she wishes and may "set him aside" at any time she chooses. The man may decline the offer, however. In fact, there are suggestions that a man may instigate such a relationship. Childbearing is quite apart from these arrangements. A woman decides when she is ready to have a child and selects the sperm donor. The child is considered to belong to the mother entirely. It is suggested that the biological father is traditionally unaware of his role, after all, raising and supporting the child is none of his business. Daav, of course, has broken local custom and persuaded Theo's mother to at least obliquely tell him that he is indeed Theo's father.
No comments:
Post a Comment