Anything by Nicola Griffith is superb, but I must admit this is my favorite novel by her. ( )

On Amazon I saw many reviews making a big deal that this book has no men. Gasp! The horror! I expected it to be a novel that played on gender roles, never used a singular pronoun - basically a giant mind fuck.

Oh wait. Right at the beginning. Virus kills all the men. Wow, that was sooo sneaky. So there are no men. Get over it. Plenty of scifi in the world has no women. The plots move forward just fine.

It is a good novel about self discovery and identity - finding a home, building a society out of the ruins of the old. I enjoyed it immensely. The novel does lag in some areas, but the pace is exceptional in others.

Its a good story and you feel attached to the characters - just not the groundbreaking feminist discourse I was expecting. ( )

Ammonite reminds me a lot of Sheri Tepper and Ursula K. Le Guin. It's a tale of Marghe, an anthropologist sent to work on the Company-owned planet Jeep. Jeep is inhabited by group of Company forces, the original colonists and a deadly virus that kills all men and quite a few women as well. There's no proven vaccine, either.

Marghe sets out to understand the world and the people who live in it. The mysteries of the virus and the colonists (if they're all women, where do the babies come from?) offer a tempting challenge to an anthropologist, despite the resistance from the Company commander.

It's a good story. It's well written, beautiful as the planet it describes. Marghe's journey is packed with action, adventure, romance and exploration. For those seeking lesbian themes or strong female characters in science fiction, this is a must-read book, and I'd recommend Ammonite to anybody who likes science fiction with sociological or anthropological leanings.

Original review at my review blog ( )

One of the more readable Griffith books. Some of her others are dark, but this one is ...less dark? ;-) Her writing is excellent and her characters intriguing. I'm not that fond of the female utopia concept, but I enjoyed this book. ( )

http://roseread.net/wordpress/?p=280 ( )