Customer Reviews

Flesh And Gold

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Several admirable plot synopses have already been provided above, so I'll try to stay away from a summary. But I will say that "Flesh and Gold" is an excellent book: as science fiction, as a mystery, as a novel with real and believable characters. Set in the same future universe as Gotlieb's "A Judgement of Dragons" and its sequels, the story features an amazing array of aliens and humans whose environment is as fantastic as the characters themselves. Skerow is a Khagodi, a telepathic saurian whose world's atmosphere is so thin that all its stars can be seen in the daytime; she works as a circuit judge on Fthel V, otherwise known as Starry Nova, which is a seedy flash-brilliant world full of crime and entirely fascinating. Kobai is a "delphine," a kind of mer-woman bred as a gold-finding slave in the seas of Khagodis...without the knowledge of the Khagodi government. The Lyhhrt are protoplasmic lumps who build themselves intricate workshells of precious metals; the Praximfi change shape as part of their religious rituals; determining the gender of a Pinxin gives the studious reader a headache. The human characters are no less compelling. Ned Gattes, a professional gladiator and part-time GalFed agent, gets stuck with the role of hero-in-spite-of-himself; yet he's not a stock character by any means, but as fully-fleshed as Skerow or Kobai or even Skerow's bottled-brain ancestors who have gone a bit nuts as a result of their immortal confinement but are still willing to give their great-great-great-granddaughter a helping hand.

The true test of any book is whether or not it can hold up under a second reading. So far "Flesh and Gold" has taken two readings without hurt and I expect a third will be equally as good. This is a special kind of book. Gotlieb does not write science fiction about gadgetry; there is no "gimmick" to the story. Nor are the characters a framework to hang the mystery on; that has no trick to it either. Phyllis Gotlieb writes intricate fiction about people-and whether they are human, saurian, or robotic, she makes them real. And that makes it good.

As a satisfied customer I'd like to thank you kindly for including my own book in your list of recommendations for me. I can say without reservation that after three years of hard work wwriting it I have already read it many times.

Yours faithfully

Phyllis Gotlieb

________________________________________
Rating: "A". Gorgeous writing, wonderful 1960-ish space-opera
plot, marred by an unsuccessful ending. Recommended.

Sta'atha Anfa Skerow is a senior interworld judge on the GalFed
Assizes Circuit. A citizen of the Northern Spine Federation on
Khagodis, she resembles (to Solthree eyes) a "streamlined baby
allosaurus". A routine smuggling trial on Fthel V opens a trapdoor
into a cesspool of treachery and corruption, cruelty and murder,
slavery and redemption in a far-distant future.

"My knife is missing," Nohl said.

"What does that matter?" Ferrier turned his eyes from the smoking
volcanic peak on the horizon to the east and watched the waters of the
bay dancing in glints of light from the lowering sun. On Khagodis the
air is so thin that the stars are sometimes visible in daylight; now
in the flaring blue Ferrier could see three of the system's other
worlds. He had hooked the oxygen tube into the corner of his mouth and
it bubbled slightly.

Amber lights glinted on Nohl's scales. With a pearl talon he flicked
away an insect buzzing near his eye and looked down at the the thin
figure whose head came to his elbow. Ferrier was wearing white against
the equatorial heat; his short jacket was closely fitted, and had
double-breasted black buttons. Nohl was thinking that Ferrier's eyes
were like the buttons, fixed and sharp on white skin. A thin skin over
arrogance and greed.
* * *

She felt other eyes on her. The madam, a blue-skinned Varvani woman,
was standing in the doorway; she balanced her elephantine legs on gold
clogs, and the enormous bosom above her chain-mail skirt was tattooed
with red kissystars... "Don't block the window, dear heart. You want a
sample, come on in."
* * *

Zella's people [on New Southsea] were secular fundamentalists who
lived on solar energy, avoided electronics more complicated than
radios, raised all their own food, and went to bed with the chickens.
The energetic young left early and sometimes came back when they were
tired. Zella did not repudiate her community's ideals, but wanted
excitement. She was getting it.

Well. The first two paragraphs open the novel. What can I say?
"Gee, I wish I could write like this?"
Instead, here is Ursula K Le Guin's cover quote:

"Sex, violence, intricate plotting, light-speed pacing, an amazing
variety of aliens, touches of Philip K Dick's sardonic humor and
Cordwainer Smith's obstinate idealism make this novel dazzling."

"Flesh & Gold" is a delight to read. I found myself constantly backing
up to reread choice bits, and to check earlier glosses on the large
and, umm, colorful cast. Gotlieb's prose is spare, elegant, polished
to a lapidary glitter. As I approached the end, I wondered how she
would tie off loose threads and resolve the novel. Well, she didn't.
The book just tails off and stops.

Oh well. Jack Vance never figured out how to end a novel either.
So - enjoy the ride, which is truly exhilirating, and brace yourself
for a cold-water dump back into Real Life.

review copyright 1998 by Peter D. Tillman

"Flesh and Gold" is an amazing SciFi novel. Phyllis Gotlieb has used her poetic style to create an atmospheric story with the pacing of a crime novel. It tells the stories of such a variety of beings, humaniod and other, with such insight into character...something unexpected in most SciFi books. There's Skerow, a naive, gilled lizard woman, her opal sucking pet, an amphibious eel-tailed mer-woman called Kobai, psychic slugs given mobility in elaborate carapaces made of gold, silver and copper called Lyhhrt, and humanoid futuristic gladiators both male and female. The planet on which they have imprisoned themselves is as much a character as any of these aliens. A truly fantastic book by a little known though prolific author.

This review is of the audiobook edition of Flesh and Gold by Phyllis Gotlieb and that might color this review for me considerably. Between the reader, Kate Harper, and the material, I just couldn't get into it. I'd rewind and rewind and try to get my attention to stay on the book, but the monotone reading and the lengthy character and setting descriptions were too much to handle. My impression is that there is no plot, but of course there is.

The main characters seem to be Nohl and Ferrier from the beginning, but that's not really true, since the novel revolves around an amphibian alien named Kobai who is always at the center of whatever action might be happening. Then there is the judge, a Khagodi (creature essentially the size and weight of a large truck) who takes an odd but unfortunate special interest in Kobai's actions. This all brings the main characters, the judge and Kobai in conflict with the mob, called Zamos.

It's kind of a space opera in that while it's science fiction, nothing scientific is explained so it's a story that could have just as easily been a fantasy in a magic land. It's kind of a detective story, a "what if Raymond Chandler had been really into lengthy descriptions and poetic allusions." It's kind of an adventure, if adventures spend most of their time in contemplation and avoid any semblance of car chase.

I'm not going to give this either low marks or high marks because it might be good, I just couldn't get into it, it didn't hold my interest. Like I said at the beginning, it could've been the reader or it could've been the material, but regardless I won't revisit this series.

- CV Rick