Collection
Description
It's Carnival time and the Caribbean-colonized planet of Toussaint is celebrating with music, dance, and pageantry. Masked "Midnight Robbers" waylay revelers with brandished weapons and spellbinding words. But to young Tan-Tan, the Robber Queen is simply a favorite costume to wear at the festival--until her power-corrupted father commits an unforgivable crime. Suddenly, both father and daughter are thrust into the brutal world of New Half-Way Tree. Here monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds.
Language
Original language
English
User reviews
LibraryThing member VegAnne
I really enjoyed this book - it practically read itself, which is a sign of really good writing and story-telling. I particularly liked the douen and hinte and where and how they lived. Tan-Tan is a great protagonist. One problem I did have - and trying hard to avoid a spoiler - is the problem that
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Tan-Tan had and fearing that no one would believe her - would that really have been in a society where there seems to be no sexism? It's a major driver in the plot so it is important. But I still enjoyed the book and will definitely read more by Nalo Hopkinson. Show Less
LibraryThing member storyjunkie
Beautiful, painful, and an ending that completes, but that I didn't see coming. The plot is done, the characters are not, which I find very satisfying.
Tan-Tan's story is full of upheaval and resettling, people who love her, and pursue her despite herself. Hopkinson takes a trope of child abuse and
Tan-Tan's story is full of upheaval and resettling, people who love her, and pursue her despite herself. Hopkinson takes a trope of child abuse and
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makes it something other than an objectifying angst-fest, delving into implications and psychology usually left untouched in favor of wallowing and sanctimony. The Robber Queen is a power, and I dearly appreciate her getting her own folk-history. Show Less
LibraryThing member Radaghast
I wanted to like this book. Many readers will love it, no doubt about it. There was just nothing unique enough to pull me in. I may give it another chance.
LibraryThing member Shimmin
Uh. I'm not really sure what to say about this... something like: "Nice writing. Nice setting. Shame about the incest."
It's not an awful book. I like the two worlds Hopkinson creates and the way she's fleshed them out, and the characters, even the bit-parts. Her writing's very tight, her use of
But it wasn't really the book I'd been led to expect, in some quite important ways, both by previous comments and the cover blurb. "...Here, monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth - and become the Robber Queen herself. For only Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life... and set her free." Just a snippet, but the blurb in general implies that it's an adventure story about Tan-Tan's life in this alien wilderness, and how she becomes the Robber Queen, who'd probably lead some great social change or do a Zorro or something. I was maybe expecting something with a slightly cheerful, maybe John Carter sort of tone, full of wildness and colourful scenes.
Admittedly wilderness, adventure and the Robber Queen are in the book, but in practice, structurally and thematically, the story's about Tan-Tan surviving deception, incest and patricide, and the enduring consequences of those things. Those determine the course of her life and activities, exert unsurprising but overwhelming influence on everything she does, and the climax of the book is all about finally overcoming those influences, rather than some great adventure. In context it's not surpising, but it's really not the book I signed up for.
The Robber Queen isn't the fantastical figure I'd been led to expect either - something like the Scarlet Pimpernel or the Stainless Steel Rat, I think - but a sort of occasional girl scout-cum-vigilante act, whose main purpose in the book is finally enabling her to face down her demons, in the shape of her father's widow and her own self-loathing. Perfectly good things, absolutely, but for me there was a taste of false advertising about the whole business. I would not have picked up this book knowing what it actually was. I finished it, I'm glad I did on the whole, and it had some things I really liked, but this is not the kind of story I want to read.
It's not an awful book. I like the two worlds Hopkinson creates and the way she's fleshed them out, and the characters, even the bit-parts. Her writing's very tight, her use of
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language excellent. I particularly like the douen, a species unlike anything I've read about before (well, in fiction, there's plenty of real biology there). And I did like Tan-Tan, the heroine. But it wasn't really the book I'd been led to expect, in some quite important ways, both by previous comments and the cover blurb. "...Here, monstrous creatures from folklore are real, and the humans are violent outcasts in the wilds. Here Tan-Tan must reach into the heart of myth - and become the Robber Queen herself. For only Robber Queen's legendary powers can save her life... and set her free." Just a snippet, but the blurb in general implies that it's an adventure story about Tan-Tan's life in this alien wilderness, and how she becomes the Robber Queen, who'd probably lead some great social change or do a Zorro or something. I was maybe expecting something with a slightly cheerful, maybe John Carter sort of tone, full of wildness and colourful scenes.
Admittedly wilderness, adventure and the Robber Queen are in the book, but in practice, structurally and thematically, the story's about Tan-Tan surviving deception, incest and patricide, and the enduring consequences of those things. Those determine the course of her life and activities, exert unsurprising but overwhelming influence on everything she does, and the climax of the book is all about finally overcoming those influences, rather than some great adventure. In context it's not surpising, but it's really not the book I signed up for.
The Robber Queen isn't the fantastical figure I'd been led to expect either - something like the Scarlet Pimpernel or the Stainless Steel Rat, I think - but a sort of occasional girl scout-cum-vigilante act, whose main purpose in the book is finally enabling her to face down her demons, in the shape of her father's widow and her own self-loathing. Perfectly good things, absolutely, but for me there was a taste of false advertising about the whole business. I would not have picked up this book knowing what it actually was. I finished it, I'm glad I did on the whole, and it had some things I really liked, but this is not the kind of story I want to read.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I keep hearing great things about Nalo Hopkinson, and I keep being... underwhelmed.
I'm upping this to three stars because I felt it was a lot better than 'Brown Girl in the Ring,' which I gave two. But I still didn't love it. However, the language (and use of dialect) here felt much smoother; there
A young girl Tan-Tan, lives on a planet colonized by Caribbean immigrants. People live in luxury, with technology to take care of all manual labor. The peace is enforced by an internet-in-your-head kind of device, which sees all...
However, there are those who want to rebel against the system. Tan-Tan's father, the mayor, is bought off by a representative of those rebels... and, umm, that's a red herring plot that goes nowhere and is just dropped.
Instead, we switch focus to how the father, Antonio, is a jealous womanizer who ends up murdering his wife's lover, and is sentenced to be exiled to a parallel world. Although he had abandoned his daughter, and clearly does not really care about her (well, neither does her mother), he ends up kidnapping her into exile with him, and, in a new alien land of poverty, where criminal exiles act like the worst sort of colonizers over the native aliens, becomes her rapist and abuser.
The story is mainly about how Tan-Tan finally escapes that abuse and finds her own identity. (And lives for a while with the aliens, who are portrayed in a unique and interesting way - but all the details about their culture feel weirdly extraneous to the story.)
Things about the story bothered me, and it took a while for me to put my finger on it. After some thought, I think part of it is that for some reason, even in this very different society, all the people Hopkinson portrays behave like the products of poverty, oppression and abuse: rape, child abuse, broken homes, sexism, political corruption, etc - all are rampant, even on the 'civilized' planet. (We don't see one single person who I could imagine inventing or even maintaining the technology that's described.) And on the exile planet, all of that becomes more extreme: with slovenliness, slavery, colonial oppression/racism thrown in. Since Hopkinson makes a point of having every single human character be black, at some point I had to say, "What? You don't think that in any future, black people could form a society any better than the worst negative stereotypes about the 'ghetto'?"
I'm getting the impression that Hopkinson is writing toward an audience of young people who have suffered abuse, who have experienced all the social ills she mentions (this is bolstered by a short story of hers I read the other day), but, although I can't say I've lived a life free of trouble, something about it just isn't working for me. Clearly it is for other people, as she receives abundant praise and wins awards...
I'm upping this to three stars because I felt it was a lot better than 'Brown Girl in the Ring,' which I gave two. But I still didn't love it. However, the language (and use of dialect) here felt much smoother; there
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was a more polished, professional feel to this book. A young girl Tan-Tan, lives on a planet colonized by Caribbean immigrants. People live in luxury, with technology to take care of all manual labor. The peace is enforced by an internet-in-your-head kind of device, which sees all...
However, there are those who want to rebel against the system. Tan-Tan's father, the mayor, is bought off by a representative of those rebels... and, umm, that's a red herring plot that goes nowhere and is just dropped.
Instead, we switch focus to how the father, Antonio, is a jealous womanizer who ends up murdering his wife's lover, and is sentenced to be exiled to a parallel world. Although he had abandoned his daughter, and clearly does not really care about her (well, neither does her mother), he ends up kidnapping her into exile with him, and, in a new alien land of poverty, where criminal exiles act like the worst sort of colonizers over the native aliens, becomes her rapist and abuser.
The story is mainly about how Tan-Tan finally escapes that abuse and finds her own identity. (And lives for a while with the aliens, who are portrayed in a unique and interesting way - but all the details about their culture feel weirdly extraneous to the story.)
Things about the story bothered me, and it took a while for me to put my finger on it. After some thought, I think part of it is that for some reason, even in this very different society, all the people Hopkinson portrays behave like the products of poverty, oppression and abuse: rape, child abuse, broken homes, sexism, political corruption, etc - all are rampant, even on the 'civilized' planet. (We don't see one single person who I could imagine inventing or even maintaining the technology that's described.) And on the exile planet, all of that becomes more extreme: with slovenliness, slavery, colonial oppression/racism thrown in. Since Hopkinson makes a point of having every single human character be black, at some point I had to say, "What? You don't think that in any future, black people could form a society any better than the worst negative stereotypes about the 'ghetto'?"
I'm getting the impression that Hopkinson is writing toward an audience of young people who have suffered abuse, who have experienced all the social ills she mentions (this is bolstered by a short story of hers I read the other day), but, although I can't say I've lived a life free of trouble, something about it just isn't working for me. Clearly it is for other people, as she receives abundant praise and wins awards...
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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Definitely not for children, as the cover almost implies. ?�Not until p. 78 does the adventure promised by the blurb begin. ?áAnd then, it's not so much SF but Multicultural *L*iterature." ?áVery high yuck factor, on several counts. ?áInteresting that the Blacks, though taught the horrors
If you do want to read it, commit to it. ?áThe ending helps."
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of the ancient days of slavery, did not learn to treat other races with either compassion or respect, even in their new lives. ?áAnd in fact they still treat each other evilly. ?áI'd have hoped for some optimism, but this is just a drain. ?áImo. ?áIf you do want to read it, commit to it. ?áThe ending helps."
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LibraryThing member flying_monkeys
My first Nalo Hopkinson. It took me about 100 pages to adapt to the dialect. Tan-Tan was a flawed character, but woo wee, what a life she had. Loved the douen. Lots more thoughts.
Full review to come.
4 stars
Full review to come.
4 stars
LibraryThing member fred_mouse
*Review contains spoilers*
While this is a beautifully written book, and I can certainly see myself recommending it to some people, I'm probably not going to be recommending it to many, as there are a number of events that made me fervently wish that published fiction came with the same kind of
Having pointed out my issues with the story, I do want to emphasise that it is a very well written, very strong story. The world building is fabulous, smoothly incorporating a myth/belief system that was not previously familiar to me (I am assuming from the back that this is a Caribbean myth/belief system, but beyond that I am woefully ignorant). The protagonist grows to be a strong female character with faults that don't turn her into a fainting heroine, and her relative weakness at the beginning of the story, both in absolute and personal power terms, is not written in a way that detracts from this. I was fascinated by the 'first contact' sub-plot, although technically that isn't valid, as the alien race have been interacting with humans for many years, but in only superficial ways.
While this is a beautifully written book, and I can certainly see myself recommending it to some people, I'm probably not going to be recommending it to many, as there are a number of events that made me fervently wish that published fiction came with the same kind of
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trigger warnings as fanfiction does. At the very least it requires a warning for non-consenual sex and violent character death, with possibly one for kidnap of a child. This last I possibly might have been able to infer from the the synopsis, but I didn't work it out at the time. I suspect that had I been aware of these issues, I may not have read it, and I am certainly not going to give it the quality of review that it deserves, as just reflecting back on it is verging on distressing. Having pointed out my issues with the story, I do want to emphasise that it is a very well written, very strong story. The world building is fabulous, smoothly incorporating a myth/belief system that was not previously familiar to me (I am assuming from the back that this is a Caribbean myth/belief system, but beyond that I am woefully ignorant). The protagonist grows to be a strong female character with faults that don't turn her into a fainting heroine, and her relative weakness at the beginning of the story, both in absolute and personal power terms, is not written in a way that detracts from this. I was fascinated by the 'first contact' sub-plot, although technically that isn't valid, as the alien race have been interacting with humans for many years, but in only superficial ways.
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LibraryThing member KingRat
Despite nits here and there, this was a really strong entertaining story. Not to mention, this is not a white mans world. No that it really has an overt feminist theme. It’s just different, and presented normally. A black girl as heroine. Women in prominent and natural seeming roles. The book
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passes the Bechdel test as well. But the real draw, the great story. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisCarey
Tan-Tan is a young girl living on the plan et Toussaint, where her father, Antonio, is the mayor of their town. Tan-Tan likes to play at being a figure from Toussaint's folklore, the Robber Queen, one of a host of figures known as Midnight Robbers. When Antonio kills his wife's latest lover, he
The plot is basically, Tan-Tan grows up to become the Robber Queen in the folklore of New Half-Way Tree. That's not the interesting part. What's interesting is the flora and fauna and native intelligent species of New Half-Way Tree, and the folklore that grows up around Tan-Tan. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that the natives have really extreme sexual dimorphism.
I should mention that the book is written entirely, and I mean from first word to last, in a Carribbean English dialect, or adaptation thereof, which is not too difficult to follow, and not aesthetically displeasing, but it does make reading Midnight Robber a bit more work than it would otherwise be. I'd have preferred to get my first taste of the dialect in something of novella length, but this is still a good book and worth reading.
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takes Tan-Tan with him through a dimensional shift, into exile on the sister planet New Half-Way Tree, which serves as a prison planet for all the criminals that Toussaint finds too difficult or awkward to cope with. What they find there is a much rougher li fe than Antonio anticipated, for which neither of them is at all prepared-- though Tan-Tan is much more ready to learn. (Even so, they're relatively lucky, coming in near a village where someone has taken the trouble to impose a rough approximation of law and order. Although there's better to be found on New Half-Way Tree, Tan-Tan also eventually learns that there's far worse, too.)The plot is basically, Tan-Tan grows up to become the Robber Queen in the folklore of New Half-Way Tree. That's not the interesting part. What's interesting is the flora and fauna and native intelligent species of New Half-Way Tree, and the folklore that grows up around Tan-Tan. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that the natives have really extreme sexual dimorphism.
I should mention that the book is written entirely, and I mean from first word to last, in a Carribbean English dialect, or adaptation thereof, which is not too difficult to follow, and not aesthetically displeasing, but it does make reading Midnight Robber a bit more work than it would otherwise be. I'd have preferred to get my first taste of the dialect in something of novella length, but this is still a good book and worth reading.
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LibraryThing member pwaites
Trigger warning: Rape
Tan-Tan is a young girl living on the Caribbean planet of Toussaint. But the world she lives in is only one dimension of the planet. What happens when she and her father fall into the wilderness of New-Half Way Tree, the alternate dimension where Toussaint sends criminals and
I found the beginning of the book, when Tan-Tan is still on Toussaint, too slow. I didn’t get interested in the novel until they reach New-Half Way Tree. Way too much time was spent on Toussaint, explaining the events that lead up to Tan-Tan and her father arriving in New-Half Way Tree. I felt like most of this could have been backstory instead.
In regards to the trigger warning above… This book is about a girl who’s sexually abused by her father from the age of nine to sixteen. Two rape scenes are included in the text, and yeah, there’s details. At sixteen she kills him as he’s raping her and runs away, while the rest of the town pursues her for his “murder.” Oh, and she figures out she’s pregnant as the result of the rape.
The book’s really divided between Tan-Tan as a child and Tan-Tan as a teenager. But I think that the majority of the thematic material the book’s exploring takes place the second section. I feel like it gets bogged down by so much set up in earlier parts of the book.
One of the more interesting parts of the book is the myth of the Robber Queen, who’s mantle Tan-Tan takes on. The way the stories wrap around her and the way she is shaped by the stories was fascinating. I don’t think I fully got it, but I’m not going to reread the book to reexamine it.
The book is written in Patwa, which made for a different reading experience. I was recently on a study trip to Jamaica so it was compelling to see the language I’d learned about there as well as the culture reflected in a science fiction novel.
There was a lot I found intellectually interesting about Midnight Robber – the language, some of the psychological issues going on with Tan-Tan, the role of stories – but the book never went much beyond “interesting” for me. It makes me wonder if I’m a superficial reader since my favorite thing about the book was the aliens….
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
Tan-Tan is a young girl living on the Caribbean planet of Toussaint. But the world she lives in is only one dimension of the planet. What happens when she and her father fall into the wilderness of New-Half Way Tree, the alternate dimension where Toussaint sends criminals and
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exiles?I found the beginning of the book, when Tan-Tan is still on Toussaint, too slow. I didn’t get interested in the novel until they reach New-Half Way Tree. Way too much time was spent on Toussaint, explaining the events that lead up to Tan-Tan and her father arriving in New-Half Way Tree. I felt like most of this could have been backstory instead.
In regards to the trigger warning above…
The book’s really divided between Tan-Tan as a child and Tan-Tan as a teenager. But I think that the majority of the thematic material the book’s exploring takes place the second section. I feel like it gets bogged down by so much set up in earlier parts of the book.
One of the more interesting parts of the book is the myth of the Robber Queen, who’s mantle Tan-Tan takes on. The way the stories wrap around her and the way she is shaped by the stories was fascinating. I don’t think I fully got it, but I’m not going to reread the book to reexamine it.
The book is written in Patwa, which made for a different reading experience. I was recently on a study trip to Jamaica so it was compelling to see the language I’d learned about there as well as the culture reflected in a science fiction novel.
There was a lot I found intellectually interesting about Midnight Robber – the language, some of the psychological issues going on with Tan-Tan, the role of stories – but the book never went much beyond “interesting” for me. It makes me wonder if I’m a superficial reader since my favorite thing about the book was the aliens….
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
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