# Science Fiction book help, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2002, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832 "2002-03-18T04:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/1 "2002-03-18T04:31:49Z")
I read a book, I liked it, and for the life of me I can’t remember the title or the writer (only that I’ve never read anything else of his). In a nutshell - on some planet several centuries after Earth’s supposed destruction, the immortal, cybernetically-enhanced woman who founded the colony is facing a Marxist rebellion, while suddenly a ship appears claiming to be from home. The whole story takes place in the last few days before the ship arrives, and it has a nifty little twist ending. It’s a recent book - last five years or so - and it’s written in an intelligent, subtle fashion, focusing more on characters than on gadgets. It’s also quite political, and you all know how rare _that_ is in SF. The writer is someone well-regarded, and - I’m pretty sure - male. Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/2 "2002-03-18T05:31:53Z")
Hmmm…I want to say Ken Mcleod, but his stories take place on Earth for the most part… Here, try [this link](http://www.sfsite.com/fm/show.html?rw,50socialist,1) . It’s a list of books that “every socialist should read”. You should be able to find what you’re looking for there. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/3 "2002-03-18T05:36:03Z")
Was this set really far in the future, and were the women of this world’s genitalia different from those of modern humans in any way? If so I know what story you are talking about, and the author is on the tip of my tongue (he wrote several stories in the same general future history), but I can’t remember right now. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/4 "2002-03-18T05:50:27Z")
No, it wasn’t far-future - in fact, I’d call it “post-cyberpunk”. Sort of a Heinlein future. NOt much of an emphasis on technology, really. And it was stongly _anti_-Marxist, although it used extreme examples to prove its point. ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/5 "2002-03-18T06:05:20Z")
Hmmm…no way in hell it could be Ken Mcleod then. He’s a staunch leftist. The link probably didn’t help either, did it? For some odd reason, David Brin comes to mind and so does Harry Turtledove. I don’t know why. I guess it’s easier to just throw author’s names to see if one sounds like what you’re looking for. Heheeheh ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/6 "2002-03-18T06:13:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jurhael \* > \*\*Hmmm…no way in hell it could be Ken Mcleod then. He’s a staunch leftist. The link probably didn’t help either, did it? > > For some odd reason, David Brin comes to mind and so does Harry Turtledove. I don’t know why. I guess it’s easier to just throw author’s names to see if one sounds like what you’re looking for. Heheeheh \*\* David Brin probably comes to mind because he wrote ‘Glory Season’, which was a novel set on a world dominated by women. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/7 "2002-03-18T07:35:18Z")
The thing is, this isn’t a society dominated by women, it’s a society dominated by _a_ woman - a government super-agent who fled Earth’s destruction in a spaceship packed with human embryos, and set up a benign, centuries-long dictatorship. Earth, BTW, was destroyed by A.I.s/Hackers/computer viruses (what they were is never fully explained) named after some sort of mythological beast - banshees, maybe. Sorry to nag you guys about this, but I _really_ enjoyed this book, and my copy is packed in a box 7,000 miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/science-fiction-book-help-please/98832/8 "2002-03-18T11:29:59Z")
IIRC, Ken Macleod’s _The Stone Canal_ is set in a quasi\_Heinleinian anarcho-libertarian dystopia (as distinct from the anarcho-communist dystopia in its sequel _The Cassini Division_). Some of the other details seem to fit… but it’s a while since I’ve read _The Stone Canal_.