ALQUA DREAMS [Hardcover]

Rachel Pollack (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Unknown (1987)
• ASIN: B0028Q90B4
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is life and what is dead? The Lukai seem to know..., July 4, 1999

By 

Wendy van Dijk (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alqua Dreams (Hardcover)

Earthman Cooper and the Lukai. A primitive tribe lives in the ruins of a magical city. The Lukai get their clothes and food from automated systems and live in their own special bizarre world. Bizarre as well are their sexual habits, not to speak of their mysterious ceremonies. They believe life is an illusion, they look like they are the living dead, and maybe that's just what they are, in a very strange and unexpected way. Cooper visits the planet of the Lukai to find minerals. According to galactic laws he has to offer the Lukai something in return. But they don't want anything: they have everything they need, and hey, what is it good for to possess anything, this is not a real life anyway, they are dead. The Lukai think he is crazy, an idiot who doesn't dare to accept that life is a lie. Cooper feels his common sense is slipping away, he falls in love with a Lukai girl, and the end of the story is even more bizarre as what leads up to it. I really love this book, read it several times, and I think it belongs to every collection that also contains Aldiss' Saliva Tree, Silverberg's Book of Skulls and LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness.

2.0 out of 5 stars Chick Flicky SF Full of Relationship and Religious Drama, November 22, 2011

By 

Judah (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alqua Dreams (Paperback)

The Lukai believe anyone who cannot face the truth that life is a lie is an 'Alqua'. Lukai traditional beliefs state everyone is already dead, and living is an inconvenient test, culminating in remembering The Truth of Death. Thus the title may be considered "Dreams of Life".

This Alqua comes down from the sky, in search of "unobtanium" (actually Rhovium, but close enough), a metal on the Lukai-inhabited land used for space travel. The Galactic Council has stated no civilization can steal this unobtanium from another, the potential exploitation contractor must clearly describe the value and purpose of the metal, and must make some form of exchange. Cooper's in bad standing because he ripped off a race recently by trading philosophic viewpoints for a planet's supply of unobtanium, and the governing body believes he is corrupt.

The Lukai have nothing they want, so the exploitation-man Alqua Jaimi Cooper has nothing to trade. At first he joins in their religion attempting to understand them. Then he understands they really don't want anything and tries to destroy their culture. He even falls in lust-love with a Lukai girl. They have terribly romantic metaphysical discussions, and some sex which isn't described well and mostly glossed over.

Problem is, I don't like Exploitation man Jaimi, and I think his desired girl Ruuli is dumber than a box of bricks. The interesting character, the leader of the Lukai, the Death Woman, is portrayed as tyrannical, true-believing, and domineering. So the early and middle book had little to offer me. Since I picked it up on the strength of the other review here that gave five stars, I expected this awesome ending... one making the slog through the early book somehow worth it...

Slight twist regarding one of the properties of the unobtanium in the story, but the author went for surreal above fulfilling, and the ending failed for me. It meshed the author's created cosmology with unrequited love, in metaphor.

I do not recommend this novel.