10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but slightly flawed, April 5, 2005
This review is from: Califia's Daughters (Mass Market Paperback)
Unlike most gender-issue post-apocalyptic novels, Califia's Daughters shows a world where men have been nearly wiped out. Also, unlike most women-run worlds, there is no serious claim that the disaster was men's fault. Rather, the book deals with some of the issues that arise without painting men or women in a moral light. I would have preferred to have seen the issues addressed in greater depth, however.
This paragraph has a bare-bones summary of the plot. It's minimal but may contain minor spoilers. The story begins when a small valley community (200+ women, 20+ men) is approached by representatives of another community. The strangers make a proposal that has serious implications for the valley, and introduce the threat of war in the region. The valley's leader, Judith, feels that the strangers are concealing something vital. Judith sends her sister, Dian, to secretly investigate the strangers' settlement to see what they are hiding. Dian goes to investigate, having assorted adventures along the way. Upon arrival, she discovers that the strangers have a secret that will shake the foundations of her own people's way of life!!! Then disaster strikes, Dian drops her quest, goes to another town and does a bunch of unrelated stuff. She never actually talks to the strangers about their differences or even gives them too much thought. At the end of the book, the author doesn't bother to explain what happened between the two peoples.
On the whole, I enjoyed the book. It was moderately unusual, had some romance, some humor, some adventure, and other essentials. In particular, it included some good bits of drama. However, I am left with the sense that the plot got sidetracked. The author raised issues in the beginning of the book that were never addressed. We never know what impact the strangers have on the valley's way of life, and there is a looming war that is never addressed. A sequel would greatly improve the course of the story, but lacking a sequel I feel somewhat cheated.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantasy for those who don't read fantasy, August 7, 2004
This review is from: Califia's Daughters (Mass Market Paperback)
If, like me, you don't read many fantasy books, this book might actually be good enough to lure you in.
In a not too distant future when a couple of bio-hazard accidents wipe out much of the population and even more of the technology, the human race struggles to survive. With a gender ratio all out of wack, Califia's Daughters -- the women of what was once California -- struggle to farm the land, feed and protect their communities, and above all protect the fragilest flowers of them all, the males of the species who have trouble surviving to reproductive adulthood.
Leigh Richards is a pseudonym the author's note tells us for Laurie R. King, author of several award winning mysteries. It's no mystery why the writing and plotting here are smooth, engaging, and a joy to read.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but it could have been better, September 28, 2004
This review is from: Califia's Daughters (Mass Market Paperback)
I'm a fan of these end of the world or women-run world fictions. This book, however, reads like two books. The first is about a community whose world we see through several different eyes. The second is the story of Dian who travels to investigate another community who have asked to be allowed to move into her valley. The problem is that a lot of the characters from the first "book" are left hanging after the reader gets interested in them and the focus in the second "book" honestly isn't very clear -- after reading it I'm still not sure why Dian does what she does and why there's not time spent on the fact that when she first visits the foreign community it looks radically different than when she returns just a few months later -- they've been invaded I assume but that isn't clear and it seems like everyone has been living a very military life there for a long time. Overall I was disappointed.
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