Edward Llewellyn THE BRIGHT COMPANION (1980) - THE BRIGHT COMPANION takes place in a post-apocalyptic world; the apocalypse was caused by mass female sterility caused by birth control. With this sort of premise you might expect one of the legion of didactically misogynistic and anti-feminist stories of the 1970s and 1980s, a la ALPH by Charles Eric Maine or THE FEMINISTS by J. Parley Cooper. You wouldn't be far wrong -- this book certainly falls in the same genre. But Llewellyn avoids the worst offenses of that genre and is thus not wholly and unreadably offensive.

As a novel it suffers primarily from being a Mary Stu wish fulfillment fiction: The male protagonist is a happy-go-lucky sort of schmuck, who ends up working with, and improbably winning, a feisty-but-beautiful -- and fertile! -- woman, en route to an improbably happy ending. Note that 'improbability' pops up a lot, a problem not just with characterization but plot as well.

It's sort of a Pangborn-esque plot, and is in fact a lot like Pangborn's DAVY in feel, although not nearly as well-written. Even the protagonist was named Davy, and he ends up wandering about with the woman of his dreams (Ann) while they travel to Europe and greater civilization.

A few things worth noting that distinguish THE BRIGHT COMPANION from the worst line of sexist anti-feminist tripe: blatant forms of misogyny are missing; the male protagonist likes the female's feistiness, and likes older women for the most part. The male protagonist doesn't believe in rape, the female character is largely capable of defending herself, and the male character values her for her cleverness & temper (the famous 'feistiness'). The inevitable matriarchy is not shown as objectively horrible and does not fold upon the arrival of the penis-ed protagonist.

By no means does Llewellyn avoid sexism altogether. As mentioned, women bear the blame for the end of the world because of their selfish use of birth control. Ann turns out to be a manipulator, who in this case has manipulated Davy into getting her to The Order, a matriarchal group of highly efficient and successful women. The matriarchy is described as sexless and neuter (although, improbably, at the same time as 'butch lesbians' -- imagine the cluelessness that lets the author identify butch lesbians as sexless.) Ann ends up forced to stick with Davy for three years because of her pregnancy, which he appreciates because it gives her a chance to fall in love with him -- which she does, and she will love him forever! Even though he's never really been shown as particularly desirable. So there's a certain amount of male romantic fantasy bullshit.

In conclusion, for the most part, this book was considerably less offensive than it might have been, or than I was expecting. It still wasn't well-written or believable. But for fellow 'sex war' genre completists, rest assured that THE BRIGHT COMPANION will not be the most painful couple of hours you will spend. ( )