Scott, Melissa: Shadow Man
Shadow Man (1995)
Written by: Melissa Scott
Genre: Feminist Science Fiction
Pages: 308 (Trade Paperback)
Why I Read It: This book was recommended to me once upon a time ago by Nica Berry, who I went to grad school with. Gender issues fascinated the both of us but for different reasons, but when she told me about this feminist SF novel where not two, but five different sexes were the norm, I knew I had to read it. Of course, it just took me forever to get around to it once I finally got my paws on it (which wasn't as easy as you'd think… I got this back before Kindles were ever out, and since it was out of print, had to surf used-book channels!).
The premise: ganked from BN.com: In the far future, human culture has developed five distinctive genders due to the effects of a drug easing sickness from faster-than-light travel. But on the planet Hara, where society is increasingly instability, caught between hard-liner traditions and the realities of life, only male and female genders are legal, and the "odd-bodied" population are forced to pass as one or the other. Warreven Stiller, a lawyer and an intersexed person, is an advocate for those who have violated Haran taboos. When Hara regains contact with the Concord worlds, Warreven finds a larger role in breaking the long-standing role society has forced on "him," but the search for personal identity becomes a battleground of political intrigue and cultural clash.
Winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay/Lesbian Science Fiction, Shadow Man remains one of the more important modern, speculative novels ever published in the field of gender- and sexual identity.
Five human sexual identities are spread throughout the galaxy, and humanity has adjusted to this new culture. Except on Hara--there everyone must choose to be a man or a woman and that decision is final. Warreven, a Haran man, could have married the son of the ruler of the planet--if he had chosen to be a woman. The result of the conflict is one of the most bizarre identity crises in science fiction.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yes, but it's kind of book where spoilers don't make THAT big of difference, so you should be fine. However, if you're spoiler-phobic, just skip to "My Rating" and you should be fine. Everyone else, onward.
I really wish I'd read this book back when it was recommended to me (which would've been 2006-2008), simply because I can see how Scott's society could've helped inform my own world-building of my SF thesis novel. Not that we were doing anything similar in terms of content, but the political tensions were solid and real, and I could've learned a great deal from how Scott chose to handle her tensions in this book. Not that I haven't learned anything now, mind you. I'm just saying it would've been more beneficial a couple of years ago.
The book captured my interest right away, despite the steep learning curve I had to undertake in order to understand how not just one society worked (Hara) but two (Concord). In some ways, I felt a bit cheated: we never really get to see Concord society outside of Tatian's POV, and he's always on Hara. I would've liked to see how the universe really functioned outside of Hara, because in Scott's world, THAT's the norm, where there are five sexes and all of that's considered normal. Being able to see men, women, herms, fems and mems where they were being forced to hide who and what they were would've made the comparison to Hara all the more stark. Hara, where regardless of actual genetics, you are either male or female, and you have to pick one and live with it (sometimes, living with it means actual surgery). As it stood, because we were always on Hara and saw how herms, mems, and fems were oppressed (from both an insider's POV and an outsider's POV), I felt a little cheated. The analogy to current society became all the more obvious, and while I'm not sure how much of this book is meant change minds versus preach to the choir, a solid point of comparison would've been powerful, and incredibly useful for me as a reader.
Because this was an interesting comparison to the previous book I'd tried and failed to finish. Like in Archon, the reader is thrown into Shadow Man and told to sink or swim. There's a safety net and some lifejackets thrown in at least: every time there's a POV change, not only is the section marked with the character's name, but we also get a few choice definitions from the glossary found in the back of the book, and those choice definitions are useful for the section ahead. Still, I felt myself floundering, and at one point, wondering why I was bothering when I had so many books in the TBR pile. The difference between this and Archon, I realized, is that Shadow Man is more my speed: soft, social, feminist SF that focuses on people and society rather than the latest and greatest gadgets and explosions the genre can sometimes offer. More to the point, it was interesting. Figuring out how everything worked was something of a point of pride, and I didn't mind because it was more my wheelhouse, so I kept going.
The science behind the five sexes was simple, and I'll quote from the book so I don't screw up the explanation (pages 28-29):
The First Wave of Emigration had ended in 207, when people finally made the connection between hyperlumin -- hyperlumin-A, he corrected himself, […] -- and the increased rate of miscarriages and intersexual births. FTL travel had ended almost overnight -- no one wanted to risk the mutation, but it was impossible to travel through the jump points without taking hyperlumin to suppress the FTL shock -- and hundreds of colonies had been virtually abandoned.
Hara was one of those abandoned colonies, and when it's re-discovered by the Concord worlds later, its society is such that only recognizes two genders, despite the fact that really, all five genders sexes exist on the planet. But that's where things get really confusing: Hara's the planet that only recognizes two genders, and Concord is the place where all five are recognized. Yet, we know nothing about standard sexual practices for those five sexes in Concord, but we learn that Hara is the place to experiment sexually, which makes no sense to me. One would imagine that Harans would want to travel off-world to experiment where such experiments would be accepted, no?
My confusion is due in part to my own expectations coming into the novel, but to be honest, I still don't have everything worked out. Later in the book we learn that when Warreven has to leave Hara, 3e (yes, that's how the pronoun is written, there's more than he or she in this novel) would be considered a whore because 3e's a herm? Oh, color me SO CONFUSED. Immigration is a motivating factor for some of the political tensions in the book, but you would think that more herms, mems, and fems would be dying to get off this planet so they could live somewhere where they didn't have to conform to male or female. And yet, we learn it's not all peaches in cream, which I don't have a problem with in theory. Only since I don't really understand how things work in Concord (how herms, mems, and fems are accepted, how they build families, how's attracted to who, etc), I feel lost in terms of what I should want for the characters.
One desire is obvious: you want the characters like Warreven and all the other herms, mems, and fems to be see as people on Hara and to be recognized for the sex they are, not the gender society forces them to chose to be. This is some of the more satisfying portions of the novel, because the conflict is clear, it's analogous to current society (sadly), and you know where the characters stand. When I said earlier that I wish the book hadn't been quite so analogous to current society, I was referring more to the point of wishing for that much-needed point of comparison. This would've fleshed out the results in a way that I could really get behind: they'd either be accepted by their own world, or they'd have to flee off-world.
Which, to be fair, is essentially what it boils down to. But there were so many hints that Concord society would treat Warreven unfairly that I wondered what the hell was going on where, you know?
For the record, this could totally be a "me-problem." Shadow Man is a book that I suspect readers get more out of with multiple reads, and I'm certain that would be true for me, should I ever decide to re-read this. What doesn't make sense now might make all the sense in the world on a second read, you know? But for now, be it my fault or the author's or a mix of both, I'm confused.
But the world-building was certainly convincing. The ranas, the ghost ranas, how pretty much all consumables were laced with some kind of drug, and how Harans were somehow immune to HIV, but there was always the treat of that one strain that'd rip that immunity to shreds.
There were little things that gave me trouble: the similarity between the names Temelathe (father) and Tendlathe (son) gave me more fits than you'd believe, and I had to keep telling myself when seeing the full name to look for a "d" so I'd know which character I was dealing with. I also found myself wondering, rather grumpily at one point, why Concord just didn't take over. Concord's a bigger government with more planets and resources, right? I think the answer to that is 1) it's too easy and 2) the way Scott has set up her universe, Hara's rather out of the way, so it would probably cost way too much to bring one backward planet up to speed.
My Rating: Worth Reading, with Reservations
For all of my confusion, I did enjoy this book. The premise was too interesting to ignore, and while I often felt at a loss for what was happening and why, seeing these two viewpoints pitted against each other made for some very tense reading later in the book. I mean, seriously: five sexes, but our main character, Warreven, lives on a world where the five sexes are ignored and herms, mems, and fems have to choose to be male or female, a decision that can be irrevocable, if it goes to surgery. While the set-up is rather analogous to today and how our current society handles (or doesn't handle) transgendered and intersexual peoples, let alone sexual orientation. It's a heavy book in terms of subject matter, and really requires a careful, thoughtful reading. I suspect it's something that gets better and better the more often it's read, and I know I'll at least understand more should I ever pick it up again. Fans of soft SF, social SF, or feminist SF should definitely give this a shot, but definitely be aware this isn't easy-breezy reading, though the author does everything she can to help the reader along.
Cover Commentary: This cover has always creeped me out. For starters, the actual pale-bile coloring is very ugly, the font placement is obtrusive, and that's not even discussing the art itself, of Warreven, which is disturbing in its own way, but works beautifully, because you're supposed to look close at the face and wonder about that mix of male and female attributes. So while it creeps me out, I like that part. Still, I wish this book could get a better cover, at least in the coloring department (even the Kindle version of the cover is seriously lacking). :)
Next up: Killing Rites by M.L.N. Hanover