The Braided World (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Deep in the night, the river flowed: a black, hot flood, here in this drowned world..." (more)
Key Phrases: young hoda, other hoda, braided world, Captain Darrow, Anton Prados, Sergeant Webb (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A desperate expedition from a dying Earth, financed by middle-aged singer Bailey Shaw, finds hope and despair on an alien planet in this sedate sequel to Kenyon's Maximum Ice. Bailey's objective is to recover the genetic diversity Earth lost when a dark-matter cloud killed off a large percentage of the population. These precious DNA codes supposedly reside on a planet that closely resembles Earth. When Bailey and her crew arrive at their destination, however, they find their movements limited by the Dassa, a people who look human but lack human morals. In order to proceed with their search, the crew must first cozy up to Dassa King Vidori, who may have a secret agenda, and come to terms with some unsettling cultural differences. Most Dassa females, for instance, can reproduce only by swimming in ponds called varium, and those who are able to carry a baby inside their bodies are sterilized and forced into slavery. Kenyon's talent for creating complex cultures shines through in the Dassa's many beliefs and customs. Unfortunately, the cultural clash between humans and Dassa and the search for humanity's lost genetic heritage causes far less conflict than what one would expect. As a result, this plodding story fails to hold readers rapt, but its cultural richness may appeal to those with an interest in anthropology.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Earth is covered with the odd construct called Ice (see Kenyon's Maximum Ice [BKL F 1 02]), and the starship Restoration, financed by a millionaire opera singer trying to atone for a secret sin, has responded to a mysterious call suggesting that what Earth lacks-- genetic diversity--can be found on a distant planet. By the time the ship arrives, its crew is desperately plague-stricken. Bailey Shaw exerts her financier's prerogative to choose the dying captain's replacement from two first-rate candidates--a process that makes the two bitter rivals. The Restoration's destination is the home of the Dassa, who resemble humans but reproduce by such exotic means that the presence of humans threatens their cultural stability. After witnessing a Dassa girl's mutilation for being capable of bearing children the human way, new captain Anton thinks such cultural collapse might be acceptable. But friendship with a high-born Dassa woman leads him to appreciate her people. Kenyon's stark presentation of a profoundly foreign culture is as powerful and moving as Ursula K. LeGuin's in her similar stories. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (February 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553583794
• ISBN-13: 978-0553583793
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #936,039 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Book from Kay Kenyon, March 24, 2003

By	Bert Krages (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kay Kenyon has established a reputation among science fiction writers for her ability to create "other worlds" that is well deserved. Less often mentioned, is her skill at developing the secondary characters in her works and how well she incorporates them into the plots. Braided World is loaded with intrigue at many levels as over a dozen characters deal with the issues of personal power, changing societies, duty, loyalty, and tolerance. The remarkable part of the novel is how clearly it depicts these issues without getting bogged down or becoming confusing. Although the book is founded on the scenario described in Kenyon's prior novel, Maximum Ice, the characters and setting are completely different. If you are getting bored with science fiction that features mostly a lot of whiz-bang and golly-gee, and want to read something that is exciting but a bit more literary, The Braided World is highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Well Built World, August 19, 2003

By	lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

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"The Braided World" returns us to the universe of Kenyon's "Maximum Ice," but a long time after the ending of that novel, and with none of the same characters.

Quickly, almost adventure game like, Kenyon sets the stage (you may think you've missed a novel in the sequence; you haven't), and then plunges you quickly into the world of the Dassa--humanlike, but not human, with a totally different way of reproducing.

Kenyon constructs this alien world so carefully (and with all of its beauty and all of its cruelty well thought out) that maybe you'll think she's actually been there. The characters are fascinating; the science seems plausible, and Kenyon hasn't lost her ability to do action scenes convincingly. (Some aren't for the squeamish, and definitely not for the under-13 set.)

What's most intriguing, however, is the way Kenyon turns the classic quest story on its head. When the humans find what they're looking for, and it's time to head home, some of them begin to think that perhaps that's not the best idea after all.

Read the tale; find out why.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful SF, February 4, 2003

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Between the deaths caused by the Black Cloud and the resulting demises caused by runaway plagues, Earth is dying. It no longer has a sufficient gene pool capable of creating a viable population. Humanity's only hope lies in a message from a planet thirty light years away stating Earth can reclaim what it has lost. Billionaire Bailey Shaw funds a ship, the Restoration, which takes people to this orb, but what they find there shocks them.

The native Dassa look human-like, but do not reproduce the same way. Women that can breed get their tongues cut out and become slaves called hoda. The Dassa is not the ones who sent the message but their creators the Quads did. Nobody alive on the planet knows where the genetic markers that earth desperately needs can be found. Unless someone uncovers the puzzle, the human race will die out.

The two races that look almost identical on the surface have very different thought processes and ways of reproducing. Both distrust one another when they first meet. The punishment the Dassa mete out to childbearing women is horrific but the Terrans can do nothing to help them. If the hoda want freedom they must fight for it on their own because the people from earth must concentrate on their prime mission of saving the species. The audience will feel that Dassa society exists and author Kay Kenyon has visited the realm she has written about in her novel THE BRAIDED WORLD, which enable the audience to experience second hand this alien but fascinating orb.

Harriet Klausner