One of my favourite things about working my way through lists of classic science fiction (or any genre fiction, really) is discovering new authors and stories that lead me beyond the list.The latest example of this for me was Suzy McKee Charnas' 1974 book, A Walk to the End of the World, which focused on a post-apocalyptic world where society had split along gender lines, which men representing a higher caste in a settlement called the Holdfast, and women becoming a means of labour and necessary breeding.The second novel in the series, Motherlines (1978), focuses on the main female character from the first book and her life outside of the Holdfast. Like a lot of sequels, I really enjoyed how quickly the novel moves into actual story and character development, as the world-building aspects of the series were largely dealt with in the first novel. Where Motherlines works best is with the two societies of women the main character comes across and how they both strive to exist free of men in a world where science has largely fallen away and children are a highly treasured commodity. The book was great, I found myself swept along the story of the main characters life and will definitely be picking up the third book in the series The Furies, next month.
Second title of the Holdfast Series. The main character breaks free and searches finds her own kind. This is why I like this author so much, when she finds her own kind, she discovers that men aren't all to blame and wonders if there is a possibility of getting along. This is the book that has the famous horse scene that all my fellow reading buddies were so shocked about. So good. Again, this book is one of the reasons I like man-hating Sci Fi. Recommended to Katy P. who claims she likes this kind of book.Recommended reading from: http://www.feministsf.org/bibs/recomm....
