Still Forms on Foxfield [Paperback]

Joan Slonczewski (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (November 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380753286
• ISBN-13: 978-0380753284
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,847,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting "prophetic" book ..., December 14, 2000

By 

"[e-mail]" (Waltham, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Still Forms on Foxfield (Paperback)

I remember reading this back in the 80's, some time after reading True Names, and thinking that she not only published earlier but likely got closer to true prophecy. I've reread it recently, and found that it stands up. In fact, its predictions of a wired world are just now coming true, though she wrote about them as happening centuries in the future. The main plot is about an isolated Quaker commune on another planet that is suddenly faced with an arriving ship full of people from Earth, who start handing out a piece of jewelry that is a combined health monitor and comm device, putting them in instant contact with all other humans who exist. The story is partly about their struggle for survival on a planet not designed for humans, and their coming to terms with an interesting alien species (a sort of intelligent plant with a hive mind). Meanwhile, they now are faced with the impact of full electronic contact with some very friendly humans who are by now nearly as alien as the aliens, who don't understand them or the local aliens, and are more concerned with assimilation than with understanding. And, as a bonus, there are feminist (and lesbian) subplots to complicate matters.

It's not space opera. But if you want psych-social ideas, alien contact, and an early concept of the Net that may come true in the next decade or so, this is a book you might want to find. Too bad it's out of print.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creative, February 5, 2008

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Still Forms on Foxfield (Paperback)

This is an unusual and solidly written novel. The plot is the rediscovery of a small Quaker colony on Tau Ceti by a technologically advanced and somewhat intolerant Earth society. The confrontation between Quaker quietism and the Earth society is handled very well. Particularly good, however, are the unusual aliens that the author introduces as a crucial plot element. These are some of the most creative non-humans ever featured in a science fiction novel. This novel, like several of Slonczewski's books, deserves to be known better.

4.0 out of 5 stars Culture Shock, May 14, 2011

By 

themarsman (Georgetown, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Still Forms on Foxfield (Paperback)

Fearing an imminent nuclear holocaust, a group of Quakers sets out in the 21st century to settle a planet around the star Tau Ceti. For nearly a hundred years, this group of Quakers have survived -- and coexisted with its native species -- on the planet they dubbed Foxfield. For nearly a century, Foxfielders believed they were all that was left of Humanity after the feared holocaust. Now, Humanity has made contact with those living on Foxfield...and there have been an awful lot of changes. Can the small group of Humans living on Foxfield reintegrate back into greater Human society? Or will those living on Foxfield choose to separate themselves from the rest of Humanity?

Joan Slonczewski's Still Forms on Foxfield is an interesting study of people surviving on an alien world with alien creatures very different from us. The Commensal's are evolved "plantoids" who appear to have developed a quasi-hive mind...individuals are able to think and perform tasks on their own, but are still part of the overall "Whole". But despite living in peace with the Commensals for nearly a century, those living on Foxfield still understand very little about them...and when the rest of Humanity makes contact with those on Foxfield and wants to reintegrate them into the fold it sets up a conflict between the two disparate entities. Not a conflict with guns and bombs, but a conflict of ideas and how those ideas affect everyone who lives on Foxfield...and beyond.

Slonczewski is great at depicting connections. Connections between people. Connections between societies and cultures. Where this book doesn't manage to hold up is in the "scientific details". Slonczewski strength is in the way she describes the interactions between the Commensals and Human's, both those living on Foxfield and those from Earth. But she seemed to want to throw into the story a mishmash of astrophysics and quantum theory that didn't really serve much of a purpose and at times hindered the relational depictions within the story. Nonethless, Still Forms on Foxfield is worth reading as a character study of people surviving on an alien world -- with alien creatures -- and coping with stresses that they could not have predicted.