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Indlæser... Heartstone: Book II of the Dolvia Sagaaf Stella Atrium
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. I was privileged to be contacted by Ms. Atrium to read her second book to the follow up of her SufferStone series. She takes you on an adventure of a lifetime, literally. I enjoy her writing style and the road I traveled with Ms. Edwina and her cohorts. Ms. Atrium is a gifted writer and her imagination is immense. You won’t regret being a follower of her writing. Ms. Edwina just wants to run her clinic but it never seems to be that she can just do research without someone stepping in and keeping her from it. She begins a bond with Lieutenant Shaw and the romance grows. She befriends a wounded child named Karlyhi who’s own mother leaves him behind when he is wounded. Karlyhi is working for Edwina. Dr. Abercrombie has been profiting on medical supplies and selling them. Edwina is oblivious of his doings. She’s also inherited two female gualareps (love that name) that are attached to her and gifted from Lieutenant Shaw. They are very protective of their master. Come along for the journey to another world and watch as Edna Edwina tries to make a difference for the ones she encounters. ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
The second installment of Atrium's Dolvia Saga is a character-driven sci-fi tale that explores profound and timely themes of sexual oppression, environmentalism and cultural intolerance. Atrium's intricate novel ranges widely in theme gender, politics, existential philosophy, mysticism, etc. Set primarily on the planet of Dolvia where the females of the indigenous, frequently warring tribes of the savannah maintain few rights and are forced to wear burkas the storyline revolves, at least initially, around Dr. Edna Edwina Greensboro, a bush-clinic doctor whose courage, compassion and vision have begun to change some of the insular ways of thinking. Getting married to Lt. Mike Shaw, an off -world military man, and keeping two female gualareps oversized and sentient iguana-esque reptiles increases her status. But when she witnesses a mixed blood girl being brutally abused, she realizes that she's working against centuries of oppression reinforced by cultural mores, folklore, myth and cruel men dead set on guarding the status quo. After all, the victims are only women. The commentary on gender politics benefits from a foreign setting; it's an exercise in considering discrimination without finger-pointing. But that's only one aspect of this multifaceted story as Greensboro fights to save lives and educate the tribes people, nefarious individuals and companies seek to profit from the chaos Atrium's saga continues with another entertaining and powerful read, reminiscent of Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood. An allegorical, emotionally intimate narrative for sci-fi fans, with broad themes that could appeal to a mainstream audience, too. Kirkus Reviews No library descriptions found. |
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The first section of HeartStone is narrated by Dr. Edna Edwina Greensboro, a clinic doctor on the savannah and medical researcher. She achieves a position of high esteem with the natives, who refer to her as the "Sheeks Cylom", a term of endearment and high regard. Like the sympathetic Earth women of SufferStone, she is prone to making cultural faux pas through her ignorance of the planet, but she wins the trust and affection of the Dolviets through her dedication as a healer and defender of their rights. They believe the planet has blessed her on a spiritual level. She marries a Consortium officer of the peace-keeping force, (the Consortium being a sort of United Nations of that region of space), Mike Shaw, and their turbulent relationship provides much of the personal drama of the novel.
In her concern for "her" Dolviets, Dr. Greensboro reminds one of Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa, in which the Baroness Blixen assumes a sort of maternal responsibility for "her" Kikuyu. The off-worlders of the Dolvia Saga (excluding the Company thugs and some of the Hardhands, such as the brutal Bryant Cartel) usually combine a nobility of purpose in service to those in need with a sense of cultural superiority.
The introduction of the intelligent reptiles, the gualareps, from the planet Cicero is one of the more intriguing and entertaining features of HeartStone. For those among us readers who cherish a special bond with our animals, their presence in the story is most charming and touching and the death of Ralph causes the sharpest pang of "HeartStone", or deeply-felt empathy for the suffering of others.
The middle section of the novel is narrated by Dr. Henry Beecham, another researcher in epidemiology sent to Dolvia. His clinical observation provides us with another view of Dr. Greensboro and Mike Shaw, a view in which there is less sentimentality and overt emotion and which presents a more critical analysis of their mistakes and cultural blunders than does Dr. Greensboro's account.
The last third of the novel is seen through the eyes of Brianna Miller, teenage daughter of Brian Miller, the Earthling ally of the Dolviet war against the Company who died heroically in the battle of the refinery. She finds herself caught between two worlds, that of her Dolviet mother, a world that regards her as "goulep" or outcast as a half-breed, and that of her father the Earthling from Montana. She is a very sensitive child/woman and provides us with powerful insights into the emotional nature of others, especially regarding the tense love affair between Dr. Greensboro and Major Shaw. She has an insatiable curiosity about Earth, her father's world.
In SufferStone, the story seems to be set in the distant future, perhaps as distant as the 35th century, with the Dolviets being the descendents of Earth colonists who came through the wormhole so long ago that they have little ancestral memory of the Earth. But there are too many references to familiar items of the Earth culture of our time in HeartStone, such as National Geographic magazine with its yellow-framed covers, Disney World, and the "Blue Angels" for a distant future. We are led to seeing the story as taking place in a much closer future, possibly as close as the 22nd century. Then how do we explain the presence of human beings on Dolvia and Cicero with histories apparently extending far into the past? Perhaps the Dolviets are not descended from Earthlings, perhaps both Dolviets and Earthlings have common ancestors on some other world. We can hope that an answer to this puzzle is revealed in StrikeStone, the next book in this excellent series. ( )