Blodeuedd's Monday Review: Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett

'We speak of a mother's love, but we forget her power. Power over life. Power to give and to withhold.'

Generations after the breakup of the human family of Eden, the Johnfolk emphasize knowledge and innovation, the Davidfolk tradition and cohesion. But both have built hierarchical societies sustained by violence and dominated by men - and both claim to be the favored children of a long-dead woman from Earth that all Eden knows as Gela, the mother of them all.

When Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no idea that she will be a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela's ring on her own finger.

And she has no idea of the enemies she will make, no inkling that a time will come when she, like John Redlantern, will choose to kill... 

My thoughts:

What to do when you crash on an alien planet and there are two of you left? You have a few babies, but hey what next? Yes, euww. And then 400? years later there are a lot of people on this planet, and they are all related. There are some major birth defects too, and those without them are treated better. It is a stone age society that in some parts have gone over to the iron age.

And it is a fascinating world. In the last book we saw how John Redlantern wanted to explore more of the world. Now 200 years later people have spread, and built more villages. But as society changes things also gets worse. It is a world who is all Mother Gela would have wanted us to this! And also a society where men now have taken power and look at women as lesser. As society changes it is not always for the better. Now they also kill those who do not think like them.

In this world we have Starlight, a woman from a tiny fishing village. But she wants more from life, and who can blame her, there is a whole world to explore, and she is stuck on a tiny island. She is naive, but so are they all. She is impulsive in her quest for more. But she is smart.

Greenstone, oh poor guy, he was just too kind and they meet and she gets to explore the world across the Pool. Which takes out to another society, and one of the bad ones. When people make rules there are always those who suffers.

There are actually many POVS in this one. We follow Starlight, but we gets bits and pieces from others around her and how they feel about things. Those she left behind. Those who rule. Those who follow.

People are idiots. ...but Not all, Starlight's village was a good one, they treated each other fairly and felt like everyone is equally important. They had fled the others and the squabbling. But the rest, oh people.

There will be another book, and I look forward to that one. I wonder where that book will take us. I do wonder if Earth will finally get here and what they will think of these inbred idiots who think they rule the world....

Conclusion:

A great sci-fi. Even the language had evolved. So interesting. 

Cover

meh

Paperback, 480 pages
Published April 7th 2016 by Corvus (first published May 12th 2015)
Dark Eden #2
Sci.fi
Library