Alanya to Alanya (Marq'ssan Cycle, Book One) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

...SF on a broader scale...Wells and Orwell updated for the end of the 20th century. -- Faren Miller, Locus Magazine, June 2005

Alanya to Alanya is not so much an exploration of the way humanity responds to an alien presence as an illustration of how a world under siege from its own governments finally revolts; the invaders are simply the catalyst for change. --Seattle Times, July 3, 2005

First-rate futuristic extrapolation, chilling dystopianism and a breathless adventure story that keeps you turning the pages --Cory Doctorow, Boing-Boing

Product Description

Seattle, February 2076. The Marq ssan bring business as usual to a screeching halt all over the world, and Professor Kay Zeldin joins Robert Sedgewick, US Chief of Security Services, in his war against the invaders. Soon Kay is making rather than writing history. But as she goes head-to-head against the Marq ssan, the long-buried secrets of her past resurface, and her conflicts with Sedgewick and Security Services multiply. She faces terrifying choices. Her worldview, her very grip on reality, is turned inside out. Whose side is she really on? And how far will she go in serving that side?

Samuel R. Delany writes: "The coupling of real thoughtfulness and rip-roaring excitement is as rare in science fiction as in any other genre. But here, in Alanya to Alanya, they're locked together in the most exciting-and certainly the most intelligent!-tale of alien invasion I've read in decades. Because it is believable, it's fascinating. And, in the years that have seen Margaret Thatcher go and Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice arrive, Kay Zeldin is an extraordinarily effective portrait of a political hero." Samuel R. Delany, author of Dhalgren

Politically savvy and philosophically relevant, this title puts a human face on today's problems. --Library Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Aqueduct Press (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974655961
• ISBN-13: 978-0974655963
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,107,474 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth sticking around for 5 books, July 27, 2007

By	KTB "KTB" (NYC) - See all my reviews

Just to get this out of the way, the whining of the first reviewer aside, there isn't a lot of female-centered science fiction out there compared to all the male-centered SF. So it's a welcome change to find a book like this.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and loved the idea of an alien race that attempts to help us solve our problems by forcing us to communicate in a rational way. It's an intriguing thought experiment, but disturbing as well. Duchamp imagines a world full of crappy, creepy men and their even creepier female companions. And yet I don't find this vision in any way exaggerated or unrealistic. It's just a projection of the worst we have now.

The only problem I have with the book is that I kept expecting things to go wrong for the protagonist and other main characters. Everything they set out to do is done with a minimum of Things Going Wrong. While you don't want folks thwarted at every turn, I found myself disbelieving the great number of things that go right. I wasn't sure how I felt about that at the end.

Though this is just the first book in the series, I feel like it's a complete story on its own. I am interested to find out what happens next, and where Duchamp intends all of this to end up. She is right in showing us that the work of changing a society and a culture is lengthy. It's not all going to happen at once, and it's not all going to happen just because powerful aliens drop out of the sky. But at the end of the book, I felt confident Duchamp could paint a conceivable picture of it happening somehow, so I'll stick around for the next volumes.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy how accurately this science fiction series reflects reality, February 23, 2008

By	cathryn omnivore - See all my reviews

This is a series not to be missed. It reads slowly because it is so involving--I love a book that makes me slow down, re-read, and think. It is probably a difficult book for men to read, because the main characters are female. There are a lot of creepy men and their frightening female assistants (manipulators). However, after having read science fiction for close to fifty years ("Podkayne of Mars" was my first), I have certainly read and enjoyed my share of male centered fiction. I have learned and thought a great deal from books where female characters were window-dressing at best. So, outgrow yourself, step up, open your mind, and prepare for a great read. Amazing how fascinating dystopia can be.

7 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Oh good! More one-sided gender politics., July 13, 2006

By	Michael J. Gauthier (Dover, NH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Some of the major feminists think that men are just as harmed by the demands of the male sex-role as women are by the female. Ok. Lets say that they're overstating that, that men are only 75% as harmed as women, or maybe even only 50%. What are the chances that we're all getting anything approaching a balanced view, when 99%-plus of gender commentary is done by, for, and about women - and not much of that has anything good to say about men? Many women don't want to hear anything about what life is like for men, and especially don't want to hear anything about their own sexist attitudes. The more that women-centered gender material is put out to inform all of us, the more people think we don't need to know about men, because the MOUNTAIN of women's material must surely mean men have, comparatively, nothing to complain about. And that becomes part of the reason nobody has much to say about sexism that harms men. It's considered a small-scale anomaly, and it becomes politically incorrect to assert otherwise. If sexism harms men as much as women, then to fully document that would have the effect of making women's plight seem not so deplorable, by comparison. It would no longer be a woman's issue but, instead, a people's issue. That's why it amazes me to hear some feminists say, in effect, that it isn't just a woman's issue. Well, nobody pays much attention to that; it gets buried in the women-centered mountain.