But believe me, 30 years ago there was no place on the shelves for such a story. Creating a many faceted world of only women with depth and authenticity - this should perhaps not be too challenging for an author of today. It's definitely very forward-looking, and fun to read today. This book does work in 1992 that nobody else has done since until quite recently. The narration was well done with good character distinction and pacing aligned with the plot.įANTASTIC SPEC FICTION FROM THE EARLY 90'S Lastly, the portrayal of the company as sinister and evil was without any background or context. Finally, providing a viral etiology for mentally focused genetic engineering as well as faculties more akin to fantasy tales with liberal use of hallucinogens was a stretch. On the other hand, while English as a language survived, the written word was entirely lost without explanation.

As for the devolved humans, the variety of cultures from polytheistic to reasonable was a welcome occurrence. And while there is some mention of T cell epitopes, the idea of testing a vaccine with one individual is pretty ridiculous. Taking daily or even daily pills is not a vaccine, but rather a prophylaxis treatment. Given the assumed span of time (at least a century or two for the development of interstellar travel) and then what can only be assumed as at least 3 - 5 centuries of separation between the original colonization and the present day in the tale, it would seem that knowledge of immunology had also devolved over that time. While there's much to recommend in the sci-fi elements, there are also glaring discrepancies. She travels about and eventually goes native with several harrowing experiences and finally learns the 'secret' of single sex species. An anthropologist arrives to study the indigenous population as well as test a new vaccine for the disease. The survey group now consisting only of women has been quarantined. More surprising is that female descendants still survive without any explanation. The story begins after its rediscovery by a 'sinister' company only to learn that an endemic viral disease kills 100% of men and 80% of women. The planet GP was originally colonized centuries in the past but lost contact with Earth. Nicola Griffith's Ammonite is a tale of planetary colonization with a twist.

Ammonite griffith