Customer Reviews

Mother of Demons

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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A human starship has crash-landed on Ishtar, a planet inhabited by
the gukuy, bronze-age land squid. First contact is violent, and the
humans (who are the titular demons) soon find themselves forced to
take sides in a tribal war....

This sort of thing has been done, umm, once or twice before, but
seldom as well as here. Flint's aliens are well thought-out and
biologically plausible. The tiny human colony's predicament is nicely
portrayed: one of the human leaders is a historian, and she is
painfully aware of how good intentions can lead to monstrous evil.

There are some first-novel rough spots -- Flint's exposition is lumpy
and sometimes preachy -- but he's an outstanding storyteller, which
more than makes up for the (minor) problems. Recommended.

Mother of Demons was Flint's first novel, and attracted little notice
on publication -- I'm sure sales weren't helped by Baen mislabelling
the book as a fantasy. His new solo novel 1632, which plops a
contemporary American town into Europe's Thirty Years' War, has
been getting good notices,which might help bring Mother of Demons
the larger audience it deserves.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

I enjoy a good SF story... and there are only a few good _story tellers_ around these days. I've been reading Flint and Drake's Belisarus books with some enjoyment. I picked those up because of Drake's name. Flint's name didn't mean much to me, and when I saw the book in the store, it didn't impress me a lot. While at LibertyCon (an SF con in Chattanooga), I saw it on the freebie table as a promotion item. I picked it up, read it, and was hooked. It is entertaining space opera, told from both alien and human perspectives. It's not great literature - but it's a good read. I bought Flint's new book 1632 as a result and found that one very enjoyable as well. So I have added Eric Flint to my list of "buy on publication" authors. If you enjoy old-fashioned space opera and military SF, you'll enjoy Flint.

If you like science fiction with well thought out, original, imaginations of aliens who are truly alien, in physiology and social habits, this book is for you.
The inhabitants of Ishtar are large mollusc like beings with a militaristic Bronze age level culture, both like and unlike similar societies from this period of Earth's history. The differences result from their alien characteristics - the majority of individuals, including the warrier class, are neuter females. Breeding females are usually honoured and powerful, but males are physically small and considered mentally inferior.
A small group of humans has crash landed on this planet and are struggling to survive in an enviroment poorly suited for human life. The natives consider them dangerous demons - for one thing, they can move much faster than anything else on this planet of slug-creatures! The humans are also reputed to hold secrets of the future which is really their knowledge of how societies evolved on Earth - and which miltary tactics won empires.
This book is rich with imaginative details. For example, the Ishtarians vocalize with hoots and whistles emitted through siphons. Human speech sounds like "horrible sounds of gasping and spitting". Which it is, if you think about it!
Narration shifts between a number of intriguing charactors - my favourite is Nokkuren, an outcast warrier ostracized by her society for what to human sensibilities would be a normal sexual relationship.
Some of the critisms noted by other reviewers have validity - Indira's angst, for example, does seem rather overblown. I must admit I enjoyed the non-human charactors the most. Overall, the book works well and will definitely make you think about history in a new way.
This is my personal favourite of Eric Flint's many excellent science fiction novels. If you like this book, you will also enjoy another intriguing race of aliens, the Jao, in "Course of Empire", (Flint's collaboration with K.D. Wentworth)

This book is an excellent read. Good plot, well thought-out, interesting characters and a good writing style make this story better than the average humans-stranded-on-strange-planet fare. The conclusion left enough threads to allow a sequel without being frustrating or unsatisfying. Eric Flint is a writer to watch.

As an historian (and bless Flint for getting the article right!), it is a real pleasure to see this complex and sometimes painful area of study given some respect. Flint has an engaging style, even if he does condescend just a little. The situation is pretty typical SF, the main change being one of era -- these days, we're all for ethical treatment of and alliance with the natives rather than carving out a slice of territory and going out conquering from there. The way Flint ties his human colony into dependence is truly wonderful. I still regard this as being a matter of contemporary cultural fashion, but it's not one that I mind.

This book is a pleasure. There isn't a dull moment in the whole thing. But...

There's always a but. Eric Flint, most unfairly, hints at future events creating legends. Ok, where's the book?

As someone who kept being told that nothing I studied had any possible relevance to the real world, I couldn't help but rejoice to see the historian actually holding the keys.

Long live the Ivory Tower!

This book was an all nighter - each alien and human have their "own" chapters, but in the end they are all tied together. Perhaps a little heavy on some facets of religion, but otherwise exciting story. Not your usual "castaway human colonists meet native aliens" storyline. Please, where is the sequel?

A very enjoyable read. Flint's world is very interesting (and quite unusual). The action is a bit slow at the beginning, but picks up. There is -- in my opinion -- just a bit too much hand-wringing and soul-searching among the protagonists. Yes, I know Flint has a point to make. And it's a good one, and he makes it. But he makes it much more smoothly in "1632" than here. But, then, this is his first novel and "1632" is, what, his 4th? There is a learning curve -- but this novel starts out pretty high up on the curve already.

I, like the majority, really liked it an found it original. Fantastic alien culture!!! Great religion, great view of life at that cusp.
Got me so involved, I stayed up till 4 in the morning to finish it.

I believe this is probably the most original book that I have ever read as far as plot setting. The interaction between the three races was probably the most fascinating storyline I have read in a long time. I believe as the title indicates that this is one of those un-found gems that only come along once in a while. I really would have liked to seen this followed up on but realize it probably won't happen. I regard this book as one of the treasured friend in my library and if I read it so much that this copy falls apart as its previous incarnation did I will buy it again. To be honest I really can't say enough good things about this novel. Here's hoping that you enjoy this journey into this world as much as I did.

as per the other reviews, this is a SF novel which i downloaded for free from the publisher. I totally enjoyed the story and will be buying the next book/another of the author's works.