Juna is the sole survivor of a team of surveyors marooned in the dense and isolated Tendu rain forest, an uninhabitable world for humans. Her only ...
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Jul 21, 2010
JoyfulK
rated it: 
This science fiction novel has all the elements of a great read, and deserves a place alongside great social science fiction classics such as Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness. Thomson puts together a fascinating world, a compelling non-human point-of-view character (alternating with a human point-of-view character so we can have some familiar place to hang our hats), and a carefully thought out social system that values sustainability. Then she throws in an interesting plot, plenty of character d
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Mar 09, 2011
Liza
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I first read this book in middle school and have been trying to get my hands on it ever since. Having purchased it online and reread it instantly, I can confirm that this is one of my most favorite books. The world of the Tendu is painted so clearly that I actually smelled the forest, tasted the fruit, felt the allu'a. A lot of concepts in the book (connecting to each other and the world via allu'a, a human partly transforming into an alien body) remind me so much of James Cameron's Avatar that
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Jul 07, 2008
Matt
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One of my pet peeves is a sterotypical first contact story in which the aliens vaguely resemble anthromorpic Earth animals, have limited technology, and are protrayed as 'noble savages'. I tend to dislike any of those things and think that they somewhat harm the story, especially when they come together.
This story has all those 'problems', and yet I enjoyed it alot because, quite honestly, it is the single best story of the type I've read in that well travelled path. This is the on More...
This story has all those 'problems', and yet I enjoyed it alot because, quite honestly, it is the single best story of the type I've read in that well travelled path. This is the on More...
Aug 20, 2007
Aerin
rated it: 
I tracked down this out-of-print book because it was recommended on Language Log ([http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003783.html]) as being an interesting science fiction take on linguistic fieldwork and "one of the best discussions of contact with a radically different intelligent species" they'd ever read. Yeah, yeah, I'm a nerd.
On the surface, The Color of Distance is science fiction, but it's really a fictionalized ethnography. Having taken a cultura More...
On the surface, The Color of Distance is science fiction, but it's really a fictionalized ethnography. Having taken a cultura More...
Apr 06, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
One of my main criteria when rating a book - and, when skillfully done, one aspect of the writer's art that can just leave me in awe - is the author's ability to bring the reader into an unfamiliar culture with a minimum of pedantry or obvious explication. Given that the culture of this book is one where the inhabitants communicate by shifting patterns and colors (like squids), scents, and other chemical signatures, Thomson's world-building ranks right up there with Frank Herbert's, IMO.
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Jan 11, 2010
Jennifer
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An amazing novel about what it means to be human. The main character is the sole human survivor of a ship that crashed on an inhabited foreign planet. She must survive and even acculturate into the extremely foreign culture. Superior writing and character development make this the best science fiction book I've ever read.
(Re-read it in Feb 2002)
(Re-read it in Feb 2002)
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Dec 04, 2008
Kelly
rated it:
This was an awesome read. I could hardly put it down. It put me in mind of the Daniel Quinn book 'If they give you lined paper, write sideways'. It was a study in learning an alien culture and then trying to explain why yours is so messed up in comparison. Lots of fun. :)
Nov 04, 2010
Eli
rated it:
When I was watching Avatar, there were places where I thought, "Oh, right, Color of Distance dealt with that aspect in a really cool way..." Only the book of course goes deeper into the nuances of what it would be like to have first contact etc. Worth reading.
Jan 13, 2012
Jen
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I read this many years ago, and found it utterly absorbing. A good read, well written and an excellent tale about how to understand other cultures from the emic perspective.
Aug 18, 2008
Diane
rated it:
From Amazon, April 22, 2000: Great story about VERY unusual aliens!
This is one of the best SF books I have read in many years. Having the story told from the viewpoints of both Juna and the aliens was very different. It was fascinating to see the same things from totally different points of view, especially at the beginning before Juna realizes how intelligent the Tendu really are. I thought that the communication by colors and symbols was also very unique and well th More...
This is one of the best SF books I have read in many years. Having the story told from the viewpoints of both Juna and the aliens was very different. It was fascinating to see the same things from totally different points of view, especially at the beginning before Juna realizes how intelligent the Tendu really are. I thought that the communication by colors and symbols was also very unique and well th More...
Sep 30, 2011
Steve
rated it:
Excellent story of alien culture from the point of view of a human becoming an alien being. Everyone I've given this book loves it.
Jan 05, 2009
Thomas
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This was pretty damn awesome if you like sci-fi This lady lands on an alien planet, but she's allergic to the atmosphere so the aliens have to reconstruct her DNA so she's more like them. It tells of how she adapts to their culture and learns to communicate by changing the color of her skin. The author switches constantly between the alien's point of view and that of the human to keep it interesting.
May 14, 2008
Kressel
rated it:
I'm not a big SF fan, but my husband is, and whenever he reads one with good characterization and relationships, he recommends it to me. He was spot-on with this one. It's a "first contact" novel, which means an earthling is stranded on some other planet and has to adapt to the culture of that other planet. In this case, the planet is technologically backward, but in healing, it's light years ahead. More explanation than that would give too much away, but suffice it say, the author h
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Nov 26, 2008
Candyg
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Loved this book, for some inexplicable reason. Maybe the right time the right place?
Sep 29, 2007
Sammi
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this is a one star kind of book . i hated it a lot. i mean, it was kind of an interesting plot and twist, but all the sexual things in it were just unbearably awful. I mean, this book should not be recomened to seventh graders. AND all the sexual stuff wasn't even written well. Come one people, if you are an author, you should not be using dumb 10th grade sex innuendos. I'm in 8th grade and I wouldn't pout that into a story.
May 16, 2011
Will
rated it: 
Read this book several years ago. It's an okay book, but highly derivative of early Alan Dean Foster. The ecology review is better, but the aliens are really "just like us" only "living in harmony with their environment" which at this point puts it between Avatar, Ferngully and Dances With Wolves as the most overused plot point ever.
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May 11, 2007
Melissa
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I thought this book had a decent story and set-up, but the end of the book sort of got sloppy and slightly incoherent. There were a lot of story points that suddenly came out of nowhere and didn't seem to fit. That said, the environment and setting were very well crafted, and on the whole I did enjoy this book.
Feb 03, 2010
Aram
rated it:
An excellent science fiction novel. If you are a SF reader or writer you need to pick up this book.
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