Call number
Genres
Publication
New York: EOS, c2001.
Pages
257
Description
Fleeing an empty future in the Nekropolis, twenty-one-year-old Hariba has agreed to have herself "jessed," the technobiological process that will render her subservient to whomever has purchased her service. Indentured in the house of a wealthy merchant, she encounters many wondrous things. Yet nothing there is as remarkable and disturbing to her as the harni, Akhmim. A perfect replica of a man, this intelligent, machine-bred creature unsettles Hariba with its beauty, its naive, inappropriate tenderness . . . and with prying, unanswerable questions, like "Why are you sad?" And slowly, revulsion metamorphoses into acceptance, and then into something much more. But these outlaw emotions defy the strict edicts of God and Man -- feelings that must never be explored, since no master would tolerate them. And the "jessed" defy their master's will at the risk of sickness, pain, imprisonment . . . and death.… (more)
Awards
SF Site Reader's Choice (2001)
SF Site Editor's Choice (2001)
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (Finalist — 2002)
Locus Recommended Reading (2001)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
257 p.; 9.5 inches
ISBN
0380974576 / 9780380974573
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User reviews
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
This is a powerful and subtle book, one whose lovely prose had me simply hooked so that I could barely put it down and was reading the whole day. The story is set in the not too distant future in Morocco. Hariba, a young woman who sees no future for herself in the poor neighbourhood slums of the
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Nekrpolis has herself "jessed" - a procedure that makes servants loyal to their employers - so that she can take up a job in the household of a rich man. There she encounters a harni, a biologically-engineered slave. What could from here be a run-of-the-mill romance story is instead a wonderfully well-told character study and tale of different types of oppression. Show Less
LibraryThing member bhowell
an excellent sci fi thriller like Atwood's Handmaids tale but in a future Moslem world rather than a future christian
LibraryThing member xollo
Something about this book really resonated. It’s more literary, character driven science fiction, but the relationship between the two main characters is amazing. Hariba has been “jessed,” had her brain chemistry altered so that she feels a particularly loyalty to her master. Akhmin has been
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created, he’s a type of biological AI, and he is programmed/bred to make people happy. His programming overrides Hariba’s, in a sense, and she is enticed to escape her jessing. While both their situations sound extreme, it is the subtleties of their relationship, the ways in which they need each other, and the ways in which they realize they don’t need each other, that shine. How can two people (one not human, the other, “jessed,” not human in a free-will kind of sense) that exist in a world so far from our own elicit such human emotions in the reader? That, to me, is the beauty of science fiction. NEKROPOLIS may be wildly fictional, but it tells the truth. Show Less
LibraryThing member sbszine
Solid, thoughtful sci-fi, in the post-cyberpunk mode. The eastern and western settings are both very realistic and effective.
LibraryThing member cissa
A fascinating book, albeit somewhat depressing. Excellent characterization.
LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
I loved the world-building in this science fiction dystopia set in near-future Morocco. I could have read twelve more stories set in this world. Sadly, the story never really went anywhere interesting, which is always even more disappointing when you can plainly see that there's so much that might
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be done. Show Less
LibraryThing member joeyreads
Well written and powerful, but I stalled out after it told the stories of several characters, and kept finding new ones, to whom bad things kept happening. I do want to finish it sometime.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
This book, set in a future Morocco, shows that, regardless of advances in technology, the basic human experience often changes very little. Her main character, the young Muslim woman Hariba, has voluntarily sold herself into servitude; her loyalty to her employers assured by chemical/biological
Regardless of the book's exotic tech, Hariba's experiences are those shared by all too many refugees, poltical and otherwise, today. McHugh speaks delicately and effectively about the realities of life in an oppressive regime, the fact that even those who are extremely conservative can fall afoul of the law in such situations, about the difference in perception between well-meaning liberals with high political ideals and the priorities and concerns of those they are trying to help, about the difficulties faced by those who have left others behind to face the repercussions of their rebellion....
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means. However, when she falls in love with Akhmim, a lab-created biological "AI" who seems all too human, the two escape their employer/owners, risking jail or death...Regardless of the book's exotic tech, Hariba's experiences are those shared by all too many refugees, poltical and otherwise, today. McHugh speaks delicately and effectively about the realities of life in an oppressive regime, the fact that even those who are extremely conservative can fall afoul of the law in such situations, about the difference in perception between well-meaning liberals with high political ideals and the priorities and concerns of those they are trying to help, about the difficulties faced by those who have left others behind to face the repercussions of their rebellion....
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LibraryThing member questbird
A servant-girl from an oppressive Islamic-like country falls in love with a *harni* or artificial person, like a Blade Runner replicant. Each chapter ripples out showing the effects of her decisions her family and friends, and on the *harni* himself. Well-written, the book examines the divide
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between rich and poor, real and artificial persons, and the life of a refugee. Show Less
LibraryThing member raschneid
A very sad SF novel about the obligations of culture, family, and situational necessity, set in a future Morocco. Hariba is biologically programmed to be an indentured servant; Akhmin is an artificial person bred to serve humans. They're drawn to one another, but even if they can find freedom, it's
I read McHugh's short story "Nekropolis" years ago and adored it. The prose is spare and beautiful and the characters are alive on the page. The novel, with its multiple points of view, is bleaker but more complex. Akhmin emerges as the most interesting character; his perspective is brilliantly alien, yet we empathize with them during his toughest decisions.
Additionally, I have now read a few romances featuring androids, cyborgs, etc. (hint: have written one) and I was so relieved that Akhmin had a complex inner life and was not merely an object on which our oppressed protagonist projects her fantasies of desire and control. (Obviously he's that too.)
The plot has the trademark McHugh elements of structural oppression, prolonged suffering, bad things getting worse, and characters muddling through to a possibly but not necessarily brighter future. It's probably her darkest novel, and I can't say I found the end totally satisfactory, partly because of the shape of the story. We never return to Akhmin's perspective, and the story felt incomplete without it.
Alas, I have now read every novel by one of my favorite writers! Someone pay this lady to write another book.
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difficult for either of them to distinguish love from obligation.I read McHugh's short story "Nekropolis" years ago and adored it. The prose is spare and beautiful and the characters are alive on the page. The novel, with its multiple points of view, is bleaker but more complex. Akhmin emerges as the most interesting character; his perspective is brilliantly alien, yet we empathize with them during his toughest decisions.
Additionally, I have now read a few romances featuring androids, cyborgs, etc. (hint: have written one) and I was so relieved that Akhmin had a complex inner life and was not merely an object on which our oppressed protagonist projects her fantasies of desire and control. (Obviously he's that too.)
The plot has the trademark McHugh elements of structural oppression, prolonged suffering, bad things getting worse, and characters muddling through to a possibly but not necessarily brighter future. It's probably her darkest novel, and I can't say I found the end totally satisfactory, partly because of the shape of the story. We never return to Akhmin's perspective, and the story felt incomplete without it.
Alas, I have now read every novel by one of my favorite writers! Someone pay this lady to write another book.
Show Less