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Venus Of Dreams (1986)

Venus of Dreams (1986)

Book Info

Genre
Series
Rating
3.6 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0553250574 (ISBN13: 9780553250572)
Language
English
Publisher
spectra

About book Venus Of Dreams (1986)

Similar to "Shore of Women" the first book in the Venus Trilogy by Pamela Sargent tackles issues of sex, gender, power, and authority. Set over 600 years in the future, the Earth has come under control of Islam but not in the form we think of today, not even close to what you might think of in the post-9/11 western world. The story is told primarily through the eyes of Iris, a woman living in an agricultural matriarchy of current day Midwest America whose desire for education put her at odds with her family and the society they live in. Even though the book is split into 5 parts, the first 1/3 of the entire page count is spent on Iris's childhood and stubborn pursuit of education. For a few chapters our focus changes to Chen, a worker on the Venus Project, a multi-century terraforming plan for the planet Venus, the planet whose light Iris was born under. I actually found the change to Chen's experiences jarring. That jarring switch in viewpoint happens with at last four other characters and was the least satisfying aspect of the book for me. I would have preferred staying with Iris as far as we could in the novel.The story follows Iris's life from a child through her education, marriage, motherhood, and finally her work for decades on the Venus Project. Through her encounters we discover how the Earth functions, not terribly well, sort of medieval in many ways, and how this grand project for another planet is really straining humanity in terms of resources and spirit. Sargent does a very good job making these often incongruous aspects seem plausible. From time to time the hard science elements are expanded upon but in a generally interesting way though hard science fans will find it lacking.

Do You like book Venus Of Dreams (1986)?

I read this and the sequel, Venus of Shadows when I was at university and remembered enjoying it. Now that the trilogy is complete, I've decided to try it again so I can read the final book intelligently.Very good read. The characterization and world building were excellent. Some of the dialogue seemed stilted but all in all a good book. I think what kept me interested is the way Sargent crafted the main character, Iris. Iris is "real". That is, she is not a perfect character and at times Sargent is quite ruthless with her. As the story goes on, Iris' flaws are readily apparent: she is faithless, grasping, self-centered, and egotistical. She uses people, refuses to take responsibility for her part in the responses others have to her behavior and is just generally not a person I would choose to hang around with. She is just that bad. The thing is, the story is good enough to carry you through to see her get better. Oh Iris is still quite flawed, but by the end of the book, she is more willing to accept her flaws and at least try to be a decent human being. She grows. She changes. She matures. I appreciate that in a human being and in a character. I look forward to re-reading the next in the series.
—Beth

I pulled this out of my bookshelf in my campaign to reread my old sci-fi books. The themes are strongly tied to the issues raised by the women's movement at the time. It will be interesting as the story unfolds to see how it looks on what I just noticed is the 25th (give or take) anniversary of the book's publication.Okay, I finished it. After the first section it goes downhill fast. The main problem is with with main character, Iris. She was an unfeeling(?), ambitious person who used people (I guess). But it took me half the book to figure this out, that is, if I'm even reading her correctly. Not because Iris was complex, but because of the wishy-washy way in which she was written. Her husband Chen would have made a far more interesting main character.As far as world-building, the farming community where Iris grew up was very interesting and captured my attention. But once she left for Venus, the book because very blah. There wasn't anything particular unique: it was a sort of generic story of a) terraforming and b) one group oppressing another group. I finally finished the book only to discover it was a trilogy. I have no desire to read books #2 and #3.
—Betsy

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