In a world laid waste by the ancient wars of man, women find only misery. Born in filthy pits writhing with the bodies of their mothers and sisters, bred to serve and pleasure men, women live out their whole lives in fetid, excruciating slavery as worthless "fems". In the Holdfast-the last outpost of Man-a fem's only comforts are the legends of the free fems--women who live on the plains beyond the walls of the Holdfast.
In the first book of the Holdfast Chronicle, called Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas began the story of Alldera, a fem who engineers her escape from the Holdfast, seeking to secure the help of the legendary free fems in waging a war of liberation. At the outset of the next book in the series, Motherlines, the exhilaration of Alldera's escape is long gone, worn away by months of starvation and aimless wandering through the wastes beyond the Holdfast. Her food is gone. Her hopes of finding the free fems are gone. To her horror, she realizes that a rape by one of her former masters has left her pregnant with a baby that is draining the precious life she has left.
Right away, Motherlines distinguishes itself very explicitly as a feminist novel. Preceding even the title page is a pointed message from the author: "For too long, science fiction has been dominated by masculine/sexist writing...". A further prefatory remark reads "This book is, alas, a fantasy." If I still needed further convincing that this was some seriously feminist science fiction, I didn't need it after reading page nine's description by a female character of the time she killed and dissected a man to find out why men were so ugly. Yet I err if I give the impression that Motherlines is a story about man-hatred. It is not. Indeed, by today's standards, it is not even particularly radical in its feminism.
Motherlines is first-rate soft science fiction. Here, Charnas is concerned less with technology and more with a thoughtful re-imagining of the sociological and political future of our race. She takes pains to populate that future with rich and appealing characters, not least of which is Alldera herself. After being rescued by the Riding Women-the surviving legacy of a civilization that was-Alldera must struggle to determine how, or even if, she fits in among free women. The Riding Women, who reproduce by a most curious asexual means, are naturally organized into matrilineal groups, called Motherlines. The vaguely tribal society of the Riding Women initially suits Alldera, for they are everything that the Holdfast fems are not: self-reliant, passionate, resourceful, and egalitarian. But without a Motherline of her own, Alldera can never quite fit in among the Riding Women. Worse still, the Riding Women have no interest in freeing the Holdfast fems, believing that their reproductive dependence on men makes them weak-spirited and inferior.
Also despised by the Riding Women are the so-called "free fems", the women Alldera had originally set out to find. Every one of the small number of free fems is, like Alldera, an escaped slave, and all are infertile without male seed. The free fems retain many of the ways of the Holdfast: they are a jealous, hierarchical, materialistic people. But there is a place for Alldera among them, for they share her experience of having been a slave and they believe fiercely in her cause of liberation. Unfortunately, despite their fervor, the free fems are too few in number and too inexperienced in combat to launch an attack on the Holdfast.
In Motherlines Charnas succeeds mightily, with her quick, economical prose, in drawing the reader deep into these two vital, all-female societies. The characters are sharp and vivid, particularly the Riding Women, who are strong, yet gentle, in their way. The fierceness of the Riding Women seems a little overstated at times, but this is a minor criticism. Alldera is herself an interesting character, atypical of science fiction heroes (or heroines). In choosing to tell this story from the perspective of an emotionally complex, middle-aged woman, Charnas captures a perspective not often represented in science fiction. I found that aspect of the story alone to be very rewarding.
I have yet to mention the queer content of Motherlines, though it is an integral part of the story. Both the Riding Women and the free fems thoroughly reject the ways of men, so much so that male ways are almost totally unknown to their cultures. The Riding Women kill and bury any man they meet. The free fems know men only as cruel masters who keep them as pets, often as mere diversions from their preferred homosexual partners. Consequently, lesbianism is the norm among both societies. One of the best parts of the novel is the relationship between Alldera and an endearing Riding Woman, Nenisi. Their relationship, like several others in the novel, is warm and loving, passionate and meaningful. There isn't the faintest trace of homophobia, internalized or otherwise, in Motherlines. Just as enjoyable as the romantic relationships are the highly developed friendships between the women, which are characterized by loyalty, trust and mutual respect. The relationships are really what this book is all about.
My only criticism of Motherlines-and it's more of a caution than a criticism-is that it portrays a somewhat dated vision of a feminist society. At times, it seems that the new societies engineered by the Riding Women and the free fems simply wind up reproducing some of the worst failings of male-dominated society. For example, the Riding Women can be as violent and hateful as any male-dominated society ever was. Perhaps this was part of the author's intent, or just part of her vision of the Riding Women; I cannot say. It sometimes seems that what distinguishes the free women from the Holdfast men is merely the absence of men, not the uniqueness of their social model.
But my criticisms are minor, and they only arise because Motherlines is a book that made me think more than the average science fiction novel. I highly recommend it!