Courtship Rite

Courtship Rite takes place on a human colony world, Geta, that has forgotten it is a colony. Their legends tell them "God" brought them across the stars to protect them from "war", and "God" still watches over them from the sky. We learn later that their word for "God" was the original colonists word for "ship", and the colony ship does indeed still orbit above them.
The only source of protein the colonists have are bees and human flesh, so cannibalism is common and accepted. They also practice genetic engineering.
The story follows one family of three half brothers and their wives. The men share a common father and were raised in a public creche where any failure would result in death. They married a young girl from a clan that show more specializes in math and a spoiled rich girl of their own clan. Their clan specializes in government. They are about to marry a scientist when they are ordered by their clan leader to marry a woman from a coastal clan who advocates heretical beliefs, such as evolution and not killing people for food. They decide to use the "Courtship Rite", where they try to kill her several times and if she lives they will marry her. Since she doesn't know them or want to marry them this is bit unfair to her, but they were a angry about the order and it is the central motivation of the plot.
They also have to deal with a clan of clone women who make their living as courtesans, and clan of seafarers who want to rule the coastal area.
This is my favorite kind of Science Fiction: religion, politics, social engineering, and philosophy. By an author who does it all very well. I give it 5 out of 5 stars show less

What I like best about this novel was how well the author set up his world and the consistencey of the details.
To survive the harsh planet Geta, insect DNA was mixed into the human stock generations ago and while the people appear wholly human, evidence of their insect biology slowly reveals itself in surprising ways in personality and societal structure. Great read! Recommended by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and me :-)

(And don't worry, guys, no one important gets eaten :-)

I don't remember how I got this (Dutch version of this) book, but I do remember I must have read it at least four times now. The astonishing world of Geta with it's insect-like social structure grabs me every time.

Decent, but not great. I definitely enjoyed it when I read it, but over time the details have faded, which means it was not memorable. I also haven't had an urge to re-read it, which puts it in the middle of the pack of science fiction novels for me. Its not bad, it was actually an interesting book, just not as memorable as truly classic science fiction.

I love this book. It isn't perfect, but I find it very appealing and have read it at least 3x before 2008. My copy is falling apart but I'm keeping it.

A classic from the '80's this book is most imaginative in creating a unique world loading with even more unique people.

An all-time favorite. Why can't politics really be like this? ;-)