Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Tallahassee, FL : Naiad Press, 1984.
Description
'...a love song to the strength, beauty and ingenuity of women' - Ann Bannon This best-selling lesbian science fiction novel first appeared in 1984 and became an instant classic. Late in the 22nd century, 4,000 women escape the tyranny of a male-dominated Earth and colonise the planet of Maternas. The story of how these pioneers created a society and culture in accord with their nature makes up the heart of this exhilarating, erotic and hauntingly beautiful novel. When men eventually discover their planet, the women are faced with a critical choice.
User reviews
LibraryThing member trixtah
This book is total trash - it's bad sci-fi, the characters are just cut-outs, the writing is tacky, the premise is stupid, and it's best not to mention the dialogue... but I can't throw it away. It was the first book where I realised that there could be lesbians in sci-fi as well. And it's good for
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*totally mindless* reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member psybre
The first half of Daughters of a Coral Dawn, if truncated to the size of a novelette, would have brought from me a four to five star review, for the well-written, suspenseful escape by hyper-intelligent women from a suppressive society. I suffered through the rest of the book which was rife with
I can recommend this book only to those that prefer reading Harlequin-style romances to reading books where serious effort is given to characterization; I kept waiting for serious questions about social dynamics and governance and relationships within a lesbian community, but found only fantasy and repetition.
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repetitive, boring accounts of unrequited lust and descriptions of beauty and athleticism of all the uber-females that had escaped.I can recommend this book only to those that prefer reading Harlequin-style romances to reading books where serious effort is given to characterization; I kept waiting for serious questions about social dynamics and governance and relationships within a lesbian community, but found only fantasy and repetition.
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LibraryThing member Jellyn
Awesomeness.This book is quite unlike anything I've read before.The basic premise is a race of women leaves Earth to start their own colony. But it's a society of women that you can't really recognize. I don't think it's anything anyone else could've ever imagined them as being. Certainly I
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couldn't have. And only because they're not entirely human can I buy into some aspects of them as people and as a society.And and and.. it's about relationships. And.. and stuff.It's hard to write a review of something you really liked, especially when you have very little to compare it to.But at one point it turns the whole concept of 'male astronauts land on planet of women' on its head. Which is awesome.There's a timelessness about it too. In that as I was reading, I wasn't conscious of it being old. Then at one point I did think.. was this written in the 70s? But it was 1984, actually. But I would not have been surprised to find it written any time in the last 60 years, honestly. PUBLISHED, that's another thing. Because it's very gay. Or, more accurately, very lesbian.Society of all women. Go figure.Anyway, it's like.. supercool and junk. And now I need to track down the sequel. Show Less
LibraryThing member DanieXJ
Perhaps it's because it's been awhile since I've read a real Science Fiction novel, or maybe it's the novel itself, but it took awhile for me to get into the flow of this novel. There was a lot of world building that Forrest had to do, both in regards to the futuristic (2199) Earth where some of
It's also an interesting book because of the multiple levels it works on. You can read it and simply read the words for what they are. Or, you can consider what was happening in and around the time that it was written/published. 1984. Or, there's also a depressing way to read it, to do it while you realize that not much has changed since then.
One thing that I thought was cool and unexpected to me (after all, read anything about the book pre-reading it and you'll know it's about women and a lot of women) was the awesome environmental message that's sprinkled throughout the book. If only we tried to treat our Earth with a quarter of the compassion that the citizens of Maternas did. (Although, I have to admit, I like meat, I really do).
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the story took place, as well as major world building of the planet Maternas. And it did take me awhile to get the lingo of the novel down, but once I got into the meat of the story, it flowed like well oiled piece of spaghetti.It's also an interesting book because of the multiple levels it works on. You can read it and simply read the words for what they are. Or, you can consider what was happening in and around the time that it was written/published. 1984. Or, there's also a depressing way to read it, to do it while you realize that not much has changed since then.
One thing that I thought was cool and unexpected to me (after all, read anything about the book pre-reading it and you'll know it's about women and a lot of women) was the awesome environmental message that's sprinkled throughout the book. If only we tried to treat our Earth with a quarter of the compassion that the citizens of Maternas did. (Although, I have to admit, I like meat, I really do).
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LibraryThing member Parker-Mills
best of the series
Language
Original publication date
1984
ISBN
0930044509 / 9780930044503
Local notes
OCLC = 286