To Warm the Earth

by David Belden

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Science Fiction

317 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 2, 1988

Reviews

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered recently that goodreads lets you sort books on your shelves by number of ratings, so I selected this, which had a whopping five.



Summary: Roughly 2000 years in the future, billions of people live in the Galactic Collectivity, a system of space stations and planetary bases across the galaxy. They moved there after nuclear war caused a new ice age, and cut off contact with Earth. Those in the Collectivity live by the "Space Code", which instructs them to limit strong emotions, forbids sexual contact except in sanctioned communal orgies, and erase all sexual differences among them. They are gestated in artificial wombs, and genetically engineered for specific roles, with a limited amount of variation among them (all have light brown skin and straight black hair). All humans in the Collectivity undergo a type of therapy with "MAN" (Mental and Affective Nexus), an A.I. which instructs them and soothes their worries, and has access to all records of human history. They willingly submit to it, as it acts as their parent and confidant from a young age. Generally, they are reserved and somewhat neurotic. Their FTL travel is facilitated by "wraiths", sterile mutants with psychic powers who live segregated from other humans. Terra Station, orbiting Earth, is considered a slightly eccentric backwater of the Collectivity.

On Earth, humanity lives at a pre-industrial technological level, and a matriarchal syncretic system of goddess worship is the dominant religion. The priestesses of the Goddess administer medicine and religion among the people of Earth, keep ancient written records preserved, and manage massive underground fires, hoping to create a greenhouse effect to warm the Earth. Wandering "connection men" travel the Earth passing news and messages between widely spaced areas. In northern India, the priestesses live in a massive artificial cave system near a Tibetan ice sheet, while in Africa, a nascent king challenged the rule of the priestesses 100 years ago.

The story opens with Anam, a 17 year old girl, living in poverty after her family's ancestral tree grove was destroyed in a fire. When a white tiger kills her grandmother and young brother, she kills it and is shunned, as it was a sacred animal. She flees to the cave of the priestesses, where she is saved by Osen, an ancient African woman who insists the girl be given a chance to live. After being starved in a cave until she becomes hallucinatory, she is presented along with a goat to a white tiger, which spares her. She is then reluctantly accepted among the priestesses as "Mana", and becomes close to Osen.

At the same time, Govind and Gauri are gestated on Terra Station. Osen, who has psychic abilities as a "wraith-daughter", with partial wraith genes, manipulates Govind's DNA to make him an usual man, and psychically acts as his teacher. The authorities on Terra station are perturbed by his difference, but allow him to live. At four years old, he begins telling the others of his visions from Osen, which both disturb and energize the people. MAN analysts on the planet Madlarki become disturbed by reports from Terra Station, and enlist Jose, a psychologist who creates custom MAN instances for powerful people in the Collectivity, to take control of the situation. Jose is the son of a friend of the rebel woman Martin of Arable, and secretly plans to let Mana do as she pleases, altering Terra Station's MAN to accept whatever happens. The Chairperson of Terra Station begins a sexual relationship with one of the nurses, Vladimir, and consents to search for Osen on Earth.

Mana becomes estranged from Osen due to Osen's tendency to spend hours staring at the sky, and her claims to have created a child on Terra Station, which is believed uninhabited. Mana is accepted by Raita, an influential woman in the caves, and finds a lesbian lover in Sitala. When Osen reveals her plan to the priestesses, that Govind will transform the Collectivity, and warm the Earth using their technology, Mana realizes Osen intends her to travel to the station and teach Govind. However, Mana intends to become a ceremonial sitar player at one of the great fires. Mana travels with Sitala to her hometown, hoping to reconcile with her mother. She meets her connection man father Rudradaman, who advises her to take things as they come. A messenger informs Mana that Osen is dying, and she returns to the caves. Raita seems quietly triumphant, but makes a mysterious prophecy that seems to confirm Osen's claims. When a spaceship arrives near the caves, Raita imprisons Mana and Sarasvati, a friend of Osen, in Osen's room. Mana manages to arrange a rendezvous with the ship and get to it, but Raita ambushes her, and Sarasvati is killed, apparently by mistake. Mana escapes and is taken up by the ship.

The people on Terra Station are terrified of Mana, quarantining her, and perform a surgery on her abdomen. Mana is disturbed by the excessive order, lack of privacy, and sterility of the station. After months of quarantine, she is allowed to see Govind, who rejects her. Mana despondently tries to befriend Vladimir, who is chastened when another finds them hugging in the hallway. While trying to find a way to turn the station to Gaia worship, Mana discovers a detailed program for creating a religion in Osen's journals, and becomes disgusted with Osen's manipulations. The Chairperson propositions Mana, who tries to reject him, but he begs her, and she bargains him down to a kiss in exchange for organizing a dance on the station. Mana attempts to lead a dance familiar to her, but the awkwardness of the people stymie her, until she simply directs them to "spin", which they take to quickly. They are interrupted by the station auditor, who she orders away, but she loses the rhythm. Govind takes up the dance and leads the people around the station, even letting out the wraiths, and takes everyone to the hub, where sunlight is piped in and there is little centrifugal force. Govind glories in the sun, but Mana has a mental breakdown, believing she is failing in her task. Receiving MAN's records a year later, Jose reflects on the failure of his MAN program to aid her.

17 years pass. A young man Passarin, grandson of Martin, living outside the Collectivity on the planet Starlight, abandons his lover to meet Jose and begin spying on the Collectivity. Jose has been monitoring Terra Station and Mana's progress. Rocco, one of Jose's sons, tells Jose his scheme to introduce breeding to the elite of Collectivity society, which enrages Jose. He also tells of his plan to travel to Terra Station, and takes Passarin and Jose with him.

Mana has organized a small society of Gaia worshippers: herself, Chairperson, Vladimir, and an elderly janitor Arun. Together they try and implement Osen's plans, but make little progress. Govind is an unruly young man, becoming enmeshed in various fads he spreads throughout the station, while Gauri has retreated within herself and devotes her time to physical training. Interrupting Govind in the wraith quarters, Mana has sex with him, which seems to disarm him. Govind enters their secret society, and begins recruiting others into it. Mana organizes a Holi festival, and soon the station is transformed emotionally, but Mana again becomes apprehensive about the direction Govind is taking the worship of the goddess, teaching her as "Sophia", disembodied wisdom, to the stationpeople. Gauri and Govind have sex in a bacteriological lab, leading to her becoming infected with an unknown bacterium and entering a coma. Govind repudiates sex and wins a surprise upset in a sports match he had previously promised to play in. Govind, Gauri, Mana and Jose board Rocco's ship to Madlarki. Passarin has a heartfelt conversation with Gauri, where he tells her of his childhood and his approval of the Space Code, and gives her the spinning top his lover on Starlight gave him. Rocco betrays them, sending Govind to the planet Karp, and Gauri is dropped off at Rocco's breeding colony on Sky.

Seven years later, Passarin has adapted to Collectivity society, but Arable Two demands his return. Mana lives with Jose on Madlarki and continues monitoring Terra Station, which has maintained the new direction Govind gave to it. Govind has created a cult of a Galactic Spirit on Karp, including inducting a high military official, Mqrisi, into his fold. Additionally, Govind's rejection of sex has allowed him to cultivate his latent psychic powers, communicating telepathically with the wraiths. Gauri lives on the Sky breeding colony, where she has given birth to five children. When a nurse attempts to destroy Passarin's top, she fights back, which will result in her being "brain-peeled" to remove all aggression. She and another breeder decide to foment a rebellion, enlisting the other breeders. They take control of a genetic lab and threaten to kill themselves and the genetic personnel, as well as release dangerous bacteria. This results in Mqrisi being sent to quell the situation, with Govind tagging along. Mana, Jose, and Passarin travel to Sky, hoping to rescue Govind. Meeting together in Rocco's ship, Mana and Govind convert Mqrisi. Passarin becomes suspicious of Govind's use of his psychic powers for religious purposes.

In the occupied lab, Gauri has been leading the breeder women in Gaian worships. When Govind arrives, he is allowed in, and asks Gauri to come with him, telling her of the thousands he has converted in a just a few years. She refuses, unless the Collectivity will agree to all of the demands of the breeders, otherwise she will die with them as planned. Govind sends Mana in, who joins in their worship, and tells Passarin she will join Gauri. Passarin at first alienates her with his skepticism of religion, until he tells her Starlight will probably take her and the breeders, and warm the Earth as well. Mqrisi plans to kill the breeders in the night, and Govind agrees. Starlight wraiths arrive, and using Passarin, teleport the breeders near an airlock. Mana and Jose elect to stay and try to guide Govind. On the escape craft, the pilot tells Passarin that Starlight will surely choose to warm the Earth, causing Passarin to make a dash back to the airlock. Govind arrives with soldiers, and Mana tries to convince him to come to Starlight. He seems unreceptive, and she and Jose make a dash for the craft without respirators. Passarin is injured by the soldiers, but throws respirators to them. Mana drags both Jose and Passarin to the craft, and all escape.


Reads almost as a companion piece to Brenda Gates Smith's Secrets of the Ancient Goddess, concerned with the same themes of neo-pagan feminism, but from the opposite end of imagined human history. There's a utopian and dystopian element to both, and a desire to find some synthesis between the two for human flourishing. But Secrets was in large part a romance story, while To Warm the Earth is not. Love is a theme and a driving force for its characters, but except in a few scenes has not much focus on the page. The conditions of the world and society form an equal part along with the feelings and inner lives of its characters.

Both the post-apocalyptic Earth and the space station life of the Collectivity get focus and exploration, though only the first third takes place on Earth. It echoes forward in the actions of Mana and the changes she manages to make to Terra Station. It has utopian elements in the relations of men and women, but its primitive state means life is difficult. By contrast, the Collectivity experiences no hardships, and indeed allows none. The relations of men and women are solved by forcibly suppressing all difference between them. Neither society is perfect, but the book makes the point that the straitjacket was at one point a necessity for human survival, one that is now clung to out of fear, and can provide a measure of relief from the pains of life. The author shows a clear preference for one over the other, but he doesn't need to excessively demonize it to show its undesirability.

That sort of even-handedness extends to the characters. They form a pleasing variety of types. Serious, jokers, outgoing, closed-off, analytic, impulsive. Some of their trajectories really surprised me. I never would've guessed that Chairperson would ultimately end up a good man and one of Mana's close allies. Govind's villainous turn isn't quite as hard to guess.. Their variety allows for a high degree of subtlety in determining the course of the story. There isn't always a "right way" clearly presented, making it harder to guess which choices are the right ones, and which characters are making them (at least most of them, anyway). The religious feelings of the characters find many different expressions as well, and Mana feels at various times very differently about things. Whether she is moving toward or drifting away from her true self and her purpose, or whether those things are even the same thing, remains a mystery to her much of the time. This variety and ambiguity prevents a feeling of monotony, even in the middle portion when little seems to be "happening", at least externally.

The plotting has a telescoping quality. It takes nearly 100 pages before Mana's quest even becomes clear, then some time after that for her to make any progress, but near the end things accelerate quickly, and the last 50 pages are moving a mile a minute. I'm torn between feeling that the speed of the narrative lends it a climactic quality all its own, or whether some decompression and added context for the final section would have improved things. The story ends right at the climax, with the goal of the title, if not actually accomplished, implied to be as good as done.

However, there are many elements that imply a sequel was intended. Govind's character is left conspicuously incomplete. He would obviously gain a great deal of power in the Collectivity as the years go by, knows where Earth is and the significance it has to his spiritual quest. It seems likely he would eventually try and bring it into his fold, in opposition to Starlight. Starlight is presented as a true utopia, combining the emotional openness and honesty of Earth with the technological might of the Collectivity, but it receives little direct focus. The origins of the parallel society of the wraiths, and their closer integration with humanity on Starlight, goes unexplored. Other points, such as a follower of Govind who is implied to want his role as leader, and the Collectivity's obsession with non-existent aliens, also suggest future developments. The author bio says he was working on another novel, but it was never published. The only evidence that a sequel was intended is that a re-issue of Children of Arable calls the books a "trilogy". (This is actually a sequel to that book, but I didn't realize until part-way through. It works as a standalone novel.) Where the story might have gone is a mystery.

[Linda Rusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Thoroughly enjoyable read! 317 pages of new ideas, imagery and characters. Goddess bless and renew our spirit and live for Gaia!