Pennterra [Paperback]

Judith Moffett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1988

Penterra is a beautiful and fertile planet and humanity's last hope for survival. But Penterra is already inhabited. After warning other colony ships to stay away, a small advance colony of Quakers has adapted to life on Penterra. When more refugees from Earth arrive, that last hope is threatened. The author has written "Surviving" which was nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this futuristic novel by the author of The Ragged World , the planet Pennterra wages ecological war against colonists from a ruined Earth.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A small colony of Quakers flourishes on the planet Pennterra under the benevolent tutelage of the alien "hrossa" until a second wave of humans threatens to disrupt the delicate balance between settlers and natives. Morris's first novel approaches the subject of humanity's place in the universe with uniqueness and sensitivity. Highly recommended. JC
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: New English Library Ltd (December 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0450484912
• ISBN-13: 978-0450484919
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,691,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judith Moffett was born in Louisville in 1942. She is an English professor, a poet, a Swedish translator, and the author of eleven books in five genres, including four science-fiction novels and a Pulphouse Press story collection. Moffett earned a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught creative writing for fifteen years. Her first published story, "Surviving," won the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for best science-fiction story of 1986, and she won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1988. Three of her stories have appeared on the final ballot for the Nebula; one of these, "Tiny Tango," was also on the Hugo ballot. Her novels The Ragged World and Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream (Volumes I and II of her Holy Ground Trilogy; the third volume is The Bird Shaman) were New York Times Notable Books for their years of publication, and Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream was short-listed for the Tiptree Award in 1995.

Moffett has received a number of awards outside the science-fiction field, including two Fulbright Grants to Sweden, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship Grant in poetry, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Translation Grant. Moffett divides the year between Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and her hundred-acre ex-farm near Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Widowed in 1998, she lives with her standard poodles, Fleece and Corbie.

Note: the author photo appears courtesy of Mark Kidd Studios.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quakers in Space?..."Pennterra" says ..It can happen!, November 18, 2000

By 

Patricia Alder (Jefferson, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pennterra (An Isaac Asimov Presents Book) (Hardcover)

There is quite a bit of information about the Society of Friends (Quakers) out there, but none as in a more unlikely location as Judith Moffett's "Penterra". The information she provides about the Quaker's stand on non violence, sexual mores and dealing with an entirely different lifestyle are fascinating. The book moves quickly along the lives of George Quinlan, his son Danny, the Hrossa who are allowing the Quakers to set up their colony " Swarthmore" and the new group on the planet " The Sixers". (named for the ship they arrived in on Pennterra)

Danny reaching puberty is handled well, although I blushed at some of the more "graphic" parts of this section, and I'm no prude! That Danny becomes a integral part of the next step in the Quaker/Hrossa world is only fitting to the process.

Ms. Moffett is a gifted author and her many and varied works show this.

As for the Asimov opening..I started to read it, but found it too ponderous. Judith Moffett said pretty much the same thing as Asimov, and FAR more entertaining!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humans encounter a living planet, September 5, 1998

By 

Guy Littman ([e-mail]) (Santa Rosa, California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pennterra (Paperback)

A group of Quakers reach a distant planet, encounter the sentient hrossa, and work out a way to live in peace with these beings. Then they must deal with a second group of humans arriving (non-Quakers) who do not have the same penchant for peaceful co-existance. I found the study of Quaker process in an alien place a delightful unearthing of the human spirit. The hrossa are a sexy lot, and their effect on humans is fun to observe. My favorite part, however, is the unfolding of a new, dynamic, and (not so) alien theory of evolution. If peace and cooperation are your thing, you'll enjoy participating in the world of Penterra.

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative and beautifully written sf, December 18, 2010

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pennterra (An Isaac Asimov Presents Book) (Hardcover)

Isaac Asimov and Brian Aldiss are among the science fiction writers who have incorporated the Gaia theory into their writing. In Pennterra, Judith Moffett exports the concept to an alien world where everything, living and inanimate, is interrelated and in constant communication. The world of Pennterra is in perfect balance until its disruption is threatened by the technology, agriculture, and lifestyles of settlers seeking refuge from the devastated Earth they've fled.

Quakers are the first to colonize Pennterra. Before they can build their civilization, they encounter the hrossa, an intelligent species that communicates by empathy. They make peace with the hrossa, just as the Quakers who colonized Pennsylvania made peace with the Delaware Indians. To co-exist with the hrossa, the Quakers must agree to use no machinery, to limit their population growth, and to live only in a designated valley. But just as later settlers in Pennsylvania were willing to displace the Delaware, the Earth colonists who follow the Quakers are unwilling to abide by hrossa-imposed restrictions. The first part of the novel sets the stage for that conflict. The second part is written in the form of field notes as the Quakers engage in a scientific and anthropological investigation of a hrossa village. Living closely with the empathic hrossa during breeding season proves problematic, as the Quakers feel and share the intense and urgent sexual desires of the hrossa. The novel's third and final part resolves the conflict between the non-Quaker colonists and the hrossa (or more specifically, the spirit of the planet, for lack of a better brief explanation). There's also a bit of wilderness adventure toward the end.

Pennterra is the first novel written by Judith Moffett, whose background as a poet is reflected in her careful use of language. Although she makes Pennterra and the hrossa come alive, she does so without sacrificing development of the novel's human characters. This is, above all, a character driven story, and the main characters each have a unique, fully developed personality. The reader comes to know them well, and to appreciate their struggles.

Although I greatly admired Pennterra, it is not a novel that all readers will enjoy. The story unfolds slowly and is all the more enriching because of its languorous pace, but readers who want fast action in their sf won't find it here. Fans of hard sf might not like this novel; there's a bit of hard (biological) science, but the story depends on people, not science. Finally, there is a fair amount of sexual activity, some involving minors, that violates nearly every imaginable sexual taboo. If this were not a work of science fiction, there would probably be calls to ban and burn it. Science fiction is a literature of ideas, however, so I would expect most sf fans to understand and appreciate Moffett's rather daring concept: what is taboo on Earth may be accepted as normal behavior in an alien environment. Readers who would be put off by frank discussions of that nature should avoid Pennterra.

In short, I'm surprised there aren't more reviews of this excellent, provocative novel. In an age when so much sf is the same old same old, Pennterra offers something completely different. It is a beautifully written, moving and thought-provoking novel.