Flowerdust [Hardcover]

Gwyneth Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

A companion to Divine Endurance is set in a future southeast Asia, where a powerful new drug is causing trouble for refugee camps, and charismatic political rebel leader Derveet uncovers a secret plot when he tries to stop it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jones's fiction (Divine Endurance; White Queen) is notable for richly textured dystopias teeming with exotically different cultures; this new novel, set in Earth's far future, is no exception. The magical robotic doll Chosen Among the Beautiful loves the "failed" (because she is infertile) woman Derveet, who is the last of the hereditary rulers of the Garuda family. Together, doll and woman join forces with two "studs" (a prince and a clown who, unlike most men, have not been rendered eunuchs), as well as with a sturdy young woman of the privileged class, to penetrate the dangerous Asian Peninsula, find a cache of the nearly mythical hallucinogen flowerdust (which blooms only once every 100 years) and, in the process, expose the mysterious Rulers' plot to wipe humans off the planet for good. The difficulties the band encounters range from social mores involving male/female relationships in a matriarchal society to peasants' planting rice in stagnant fields of salt water, to the resurgence of ancient, deadly diseases. As in Jones's other work, action and plot take a backseat to politics and plays for power, as the author and her characters revel in the victories of love over apathy.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The sequel to Jones' critically acclaimed Divine Endurance (1984) returns to a chaotic, future Southeast Asia and resumes the adventures of Derveet, a rebel against the matriarchal government, and Cho, her sweet-tempered, bioengineered servant. Wandering through the refugee camps of the peninsular state of Ranganar, Derveet continues building support for an insurrection against the Rulers and their enforcement troops, the Koperasi, when she discovers refugees taking flowerdust, a rare drug that imparts blissful hallucinations to the imbiber. With the help of Endang, an embittered, expatriate member of a ruling family, and Jhonni, a Ranganar citizen, Derveet must steal the flowerdust from its Koperasi distributors, who are using the drug to stir up unrest among the refugees and thereby justify their own existence. Jones serves up a heady mixture of complex political intrigue and sometimes confusing intercultural conflict that may appeal only to a small audience. Yet her rich characterizations and fully imagined settings stretch the boundaries of sf to the most literate extremity. Carl Hays

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st Tor ed edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312858949
• ISBN-13: 978-0312858940
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,699,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gwyneth Jones, born in Manchester UK, 14th February 1952, is the author of many novels for teenagers, fantasy, horror and thrillers, using the name Ann Halam, and several highly regarded sf and fantasy novels for adults. Her critical essays and reviews are collected in Deconstructing The Starships, 1999 and Imagination/Space 2009. Among other honours she's won two World Fantasy awards, the Children of the Night award, the Philip K Dick award, the BSFA award and the Pilgrim award for Science Fiction criticism. Several of her novels have been nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award, the latest being Spirit, 2009; she won the award for Bold As Love in 2002. She lives in Brighton, UK, with her husband and son, some goldfish and two cats called Ginger and Milo; likes old movies, practices yoga & has done some extreme tourism in her time. Hobbies include gardening and cooking, and playing with her websites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A drug and a medicine, February 27, 2000

By 

Penny - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flowerdust (Paperback)

I really feel honored to have the pleasure of being the first reader to review this book. I picked it up quite by accident, but though I'm into fiction and scifi, it was quite something yet unexperienced. The tale takes place in an alternate Orient enchantingly described. The story is... intriguing, bizarre and sincere. At times a bit too childlike, but if in reading it you don't win, at least you are guaranteed not to lose!