Customer Reviews

Pennterra

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Most of the time when you find yourself trying to understand another culture, another way of life, on a alien planet, you're trying to understand the aliens. Not the humans. The different point of view in this book is not the hrossa, but the Quaker colonists who are the first of two ships to reach the planet Pennterra. This is a book that seems to explore new ideas of mankind's place within a planet's web of life. It also explores issues of sex, family life, technology, ecology, and evolution. It reminded me of such great novels as JEM by Frederik Pohl and Adiamante by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

Get it used or new, but be warned. It is only for adults.

I agree with the first reviewer, except that I found the Quaker issues fascinating - what non-violence toward other sentient beings than humans really means, for example.

I also found the presentation of sex and society issues worthy of the best science fiction: clear yet not heavy-handed.

I recommend this book strongly to anyone who likes science fiction that makes them think.

Pennterra is the story of a human colony on an alien planet, to which the first group of colonists (Quakers, but more of that is made than needed) have adjusted, but against which the new group of colonists are resisting. The story is interesting from the Gaia planetary lifeform theory, as well as seeing two stages in normal human response to aliens.

There is an important subplot about a young boy reaching puberty, and adjusting to a different set of sexual mores lived by the aliens. This is probably the least interesting part of the story, but is part of the larger story of a completely differently biological imperative for the aliens. While the sexual coming of age is too easy and too limited, the emotional coming of age is well done, and supportive of difficult adolescent issues.

Since the book was published in 1987, it is compared to Ursula LeGuin (probably because of the sexual subplot associations to The Left Hand of Darkness -- has no one read her other books?), but I think that it is more in line with the Octavia Butler books.

My review title says it all. This was not interesting or readable. A shame because the premise was interesting.