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The Coral Dawn Trilogy #3
Daughters of an Emerald Dusk
“Do I sense the writing of a third book in this wonderful series? I sure hope so!”—She magazine on Daughters of an Amber Noon
Late in the twenty-second century, 4,000 women escape the tyranny of a male-dominated Earth and colonize the planet of Maternas. Katherine V. Forrest’s influential 1984 novel, Daughters of a Coral Dawn, told the story of this exodus. Her 2000 novel, Daughters of an Amber Noon, told the story of the women left behind on Earth. Now she returns to Maternas at last. Fifty years have passed, and the first generation born on Maternas has reached maturity. But their vision of a perfect world is very different from the vision of the founders of the Maternas colony.
Katherine V. Forrest is the author of 15 novels, including the Daughters trilogy, the Kate Delafield mysteries and the romantic classic Curious Wine. She lives in San Francisco.
Late in the twenty-second century, 4,000 women escape the tyranny of a male-dominated Earth and colonize the planet of Maternas. Katherine V. Forrest’s influential 1984 novel, Daughters of a Coral Dawn, told the story of this exodus. Her 2000 novel, Daughters of an Amber Noon, told the story of the women left behind on Earth. Now she returns to Maternas at last. Fifty years have passed, and the first generation born on Maternas has reached maturity. But their vision of a perfect world is very different from the vision of the founders of the Maternas colony.
Katherine V. Forrest is the author of 15 novels, including the Daughters trilogy, the Kate Delafield mysteries and the romantic classic Curious Wine. She lives in San Francisco.
196 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
About the author
Katherine V. Forrest
46 books327 followersKatherine V. Forrest is a Canadian-born American writer, best known for her novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. Her books have won and been finalists for Lambda Literary Award twelve times, as well as other awards. She has been referred to by some "a founding mother of lesbian fiction writing."
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 1, 2017
End of the trilogy!! I'd so love to read more of these great ladies!
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September 15, 2008I read Forrest's last installation of her Daughters trilogy first. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't (even though the book recapitulates all the factual information you "need" from the two earlier volumes). I did go back and read the first and second installments after-the-fact, and all in all, this is an interesting trilogy. Forrest carries us through several feminist stances on contemporary society, and ultimately she calls into question the possibility of a women's utopia separated from men. It is interesting to see her take us through that utopia (in two different configurations) before showing us its limits. I was especially interested by her presentation of a group of sci-fi "Amazons" on Maternas, the planet settled by the separatist women. Forrest's Amazons follow in the footsteps of the Greek mythical Amazons but then transcend them in an interesting way: a "true" Amazon, like a "true" women-only utopia, is--in the final analysis--not human. The women of Maternas finally learn that they're more like men than they ever would have thought--and they return to Earth.
That said, the writing can be odd and inelegant. I read this book in a book group and most of the other readers found it campily bad. But there's something about the core trajectory of the trilogy that is very interesting to me and merits consideration as a meditation on current feminist thought and practice.
That said, the writing can be odd and inelegant. I read this book in a book group and most of the other readers found it campily bad. But there's something about the core trajectory of the trilogy that is very interesting to me and merits consideration as a meditation on current feminist thought and practice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2011
I think I liked this one least of the series. The next generation of women on this planet had evolved/mutated into something bizarre. Oh, and Gaia comes into things, which is both cliched and yet.. there was an interesting take on it once you got to the end.
But it also read like porn in places. They communicate by sex? Really? That was necessary? And it's not even consensual at first, not really, so that was troublesome. It might be harsh to call it gangrape, but when you try to explain why it's _not_, well.. that's really difficult to do. And just because they're all women (or evolved, mutated women) does not make it any better.
So I'm inclined to tell people to read the first book in this series and skip the others.
But it also read like porn in places. They communicate by sex? Really? That was necessary? And it's not even consensual at first, not really, so that was troublesome. It might be harsh to call it gangrape, but when you try to explain why it's _not_, well.. that's really difficult to do. And just because they're all women (or evolved, mutated women) does not make it any better.
So I'm inclined to tell people to read the first book in this series and skip the others.
February 15, 2025
This series really deserves more credit. Each book in its plot evolves through different feminist perspectives in extremely interesting and well thought out ways. In this one utopian - specifically the female separatist dream - is both achieved and denied. It reminds me of the end of the mother lines series where the riding women leave; they are myth and symbol all along of what women evolved completely separate from patriarchy might be capable of. But no such thing is truly possible for women as they are, it is a dream one has.
And Kudos to this one for sex so good you learn about the entire history of the universe telepathically. Amazingly evolved method of communication.
And Kudos to this one for sex so good you learn about the entire history of the universe telepathically. Amazingly evolved method of communication.
June 15, 2021
If this is the closing curtain to this utopia like story, it deserves all the star ratings i can supply.
This is a three part series, the first book narrated the turmoils on earth and the processes of the group's escape as well as the escapees new home and their experiences settling in. The second book narrates the left behind on earth and their survival. This third book fuses all these women together and the presumptions of their survival.
I think my unsatisfied conclusion to the second book may have been answered or assuaged in this third book.
In all, these books for me were a delight both in fantasy and knowledge.
This is a three part series, the first book narrated the turmoils on earth and the processes of the group's escape as well as the escapees new home and their experiences settling in. The second book narrates the left behind on earth and their survival. This third book fuses all these women together and the presumptions of their survival.
I think my unsatisfied conclusion to the second book may have been answered or assuaged in this third book.
In all, these books for me were a delight both in fantasy and knowledge.
June 23, 2019
This book is a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy which began strongly in Daughters of a Coral Dawn and continued weakly in Daughters of an Amber Noon. Like the first, it is written from several voices’ perspectives, weaving a complete narrative that is active rather than expositional, which was my biggest problem with the second book. The theme is that the best intentions can have unintended consequences, as the women’s utopia created on the planet Maternas gets thrown for a loop by the very odd behavior of its younger generations. It brings in Gaia theory, that is, the theory that a planet is a self-regulating, complex system where living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings to maintain and perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. The introduction of the Unity, the now ten thousand women who settled on Maternas from Earth, has tipped the balance of Maternas and the planet is now fighting back. This book won the Lambda Literary Award for Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror in 2006, and I think it was very deserving.
Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
November 4, 2015
I've always daydreamed what a world would be like if there were inhabitants that lived with nature and tried not to control it. This book captivated me and took me to that world. Even though this book is sci-fi fiction, I find that there is a lot of truth behind it especially when it comes to Mother Earth and how, we, the human species treats her.
It's quite sad where we haven taken planet Earth with all her natural abundant resources. It's as if we've stripped her dry, and slowly killing her while we pursue our selfish needs using up limited resources without taking into consideration where we're taking it from because, quite frankly, we're end-users/receivers.
It's also interesting to note how Forrest wove Greek mythology into her story. This series was all-in-all awe inspiring and imaginative with a lot of core truths behind it.
It's quite sad where we haven taken planet Earth with all her natural abundant resources. It's as if we've stripped her dry, and slowly killing her while we pursue our selfish needs using up limited resources without taking into consideration where we're taking it from because, quite frankly, we're end-users/receivers.
It's also interesting to note how Forrest wove Greek mythology into her story. This series was all-in-all awe inspiring and imaginative with a lot of core truths behind it.
December 14, 2014
Scorchingly sexy, this the final book in The Daughters of the Coral Dawn Trilogy was masterfully written--beautiful and exciting. My only complaint is that it isn't longer. No spoilers, though I will say Forrest brings the Trilogy to a satisfying close with this novel. Of course, there's room for more should she decide to grace us with another story (as is my hope). Definitely worth the read. And as a bonus, the new publisher, Bella Books, has the entire trilogy available in an ebook bundle, so there's a good savings!
September 21, 2017
This book was truly thought provoking and pushes the reader to recognize that we do not know as much as we think we do. The conclusion to this wonderful trilogy is quite surprising. It initially made me angry because these women seemed to be doing so well at incorporating themselves into their new world. Then it made me start thinking about the fact that even the best of intentions does not guarantee a successful outcome. I recommend this book and this trilogy to anyone who likes sci-fi, fantasy, and strong, sensual women.
August 8, 2023
hard to believe
…that this bed of the series takes off as soon as they make it to Maternas from earth. It seems to never end for Joss and her penchant for lonely, hurt, depressed, but brilliantly strong women. Losing Africa was wrong. Then she meets Emerald no more than 5 minutes arriving on Maternas. Emerald notices her and makes a move fast. The attraction is instant whether they know where it is headed or not.
One thing that I liked about this series is the planetary view of what is advanced and sentient. Humans, no matter who they are have a certain amount of hubris that comes with them. One of the things that I have aid over the years is that we are a pariah to the natural order of things we n planet earth. We’ve raped, plundered and pillaged our way to ripping out the very essence of what makes this planet so beautiful, but also habitable. We’ve allowed ownership of our governing bodies to sell land to some and not all. We are the ONLY species that has to pay to be born and then pay to live on this planet. That there set up what has befallen this planet since the industrial age.
When they arrived on Maternas, I thought it was such a beautiful thing for these women to go. A place where there are no men. And it was wonderful. But through how mankind evolved on planet earth made them incompatible. Even with what seemed like the least amount of harm. It was true. They tried to live on this planet and NOT take from it. But they treated it according to what went wrong on their planet. It did not work here.
Joss was an amazing conduit used to bring this point home. It explains our relationship to planet earth and what we’ve done. It reminds me of the movie Avatar. They live as one with everything around them. It is how we were meant to be. We forced ourselves to make nature work for us instead of allowing ourselves to become what we needed to be in order to thrive and become one with our birthplace. But the explanation given makes so much sense, whether it is true or scientific or not.
I watched the movie “The Happening” and I believe at some point, our rule here will come to an end and we will have done it to ourselves.
The dialogue that Joss has with the descendants of Mother and a spokesperson for Maternas was so eye opening. It also saddened me to my core. What we’ve done to this planet in the name of avarice, greed, power, money and control is unconscionable and unspeakable. How can a living breathing giant be dug up and plastered with steel and concrete everywhere? The loss of trees and habitats and species is innumerable. We kill and destroy things, people and other sentient beings everywhere we go, knowingly.
This book feels like a call to duty, a call to action. It is a wake up call.
Side note: I think Jess belonged to Emerald. I do believe part of Venus said at the end. But I also don’t know the extent of what happened and what Jess experienced while she was with the lost generation of women. I sometimes wonder, if it tapped into something so primal at our core and she recognized what we were meant to be and could not I know it at that level. Did it so profoundly change her that there was no way she could ever go back. I wonder did she become a newer transitioning being that could have happened to most of them had they arrived welcomed? Perhaps she was transitioning like the lost generation did. Maybe she was born to be “here” and knew when her being was being called and made alive. It would have to be so altering that there was no way back. I’m not a writer nor am I as articulate as one…but this Joss situation has me thinking a lot.
This is an amazing series. I waist there was more in the series. I wish so much time hadn’t been wasted on a rescue mission and more time spent with Emerald, Megan and the women of the lost generation. And I would like to know more about the “reasons” that Joss remained…
…that this bed of the series takes off as soon as they make it to Maternas from earth. It seems to never end for Joss and her penchant for lonely, hurt, depressed, but brilliantly strong women. Losing Africa was wrong. Then she meets Emerald no more than 5 minutes arriving on Maternas. Emerald notices her and makes a move fast. The attraction is instant whether they know where it is headed or not.
One thing that I liked about this series is the planetary view of what is advanced and sentient. Humans, no matter who they are have a certain amount of hubris that comes with them. One of the things that I have aid over the years is that we are a pariah to the natural order of things we n planet earth. We’ve raped, plundered and pillaged our way to ripping out the very essence of what makes this planet so beautiful, but also habitable. We’ve allowed ownership of our governing bodies to sell land to some and not all. We are the ONLY species that has to pay to be born and then pay to live on this planet. That there set up what has befallen this planet since the industrial age.
When they arrived on Maternas, I thought it was such a beautiful thing for these women to go. A place where there are no men. And it was wonderful. But through how mankind evolved on planet earth made them incompatible. Even with what seemed like the least amount of harm. It was true. They tried to live on this planet and NOT take from it. But they treated it according to what went wrong on their planet. It did not work here.
Joss was an amazing conduit used to bring this point home. It explains our relationship to planet earth and what we’ve done. It reminds me of the movie Avatar. They live as one with everything around them. It is how we were meant to be. We forced ourselves to make nature work for us instead of allowing ourselves to become what we needed to be in order to thrive and become one with our birthplace. But the explanation given makes so much sense, whether it is true or scientific or not.
I watched the movie “The Happening” and I believe at some point, our rule here will come to an end and we will have done it to ourselves.
The dialogue that Joss has with the descendants of Mother and a spokesperson for Maternas was so eye opening. It also saddened me to my core. What we’ve done to this planet in the name of avarice, greed, power, money and control is unconscionable and unspeakable. How can a living breathing giant be dug up and plastered with steel and concrete everywhere? The loss of trees and habitats and species is innumerable. We kill and destroy things, people and other sentient beings everywhere we go, knowingly.
This book feels like a call to duty, a call to action. It is a wake up call.
Side note: I think Jess belonged to Emerald. I do believe part of Venus said at the end. But I also don’t know the extent of what happened and what Jess experienced while she was with the lost generation of women. I sometimes wonder, if it tapped into something so primal at our core and she recognized what we were meant to be and could not I know it at that level. Did it so profoundly change her that there was no way she could ever go back. I wonder did she become a newer transitioning being that could have happened to most of them had they arrived welcomed? Perhaps she was transitioning like the lost generation did. Maybe she was born to be “here” and knew when her being was being called and made alive. It would have to be so altering that there was no way back. I’m not a writer nor am I as articulate as one…but this Joss situation has me thinking a lot.
This is an amazing series. I waist there was more in the series. I wish so much time hadn’t been wasted on a rescue mission and more time spent with Emerald, Megan and the women of the lost generation. And I would like to know more about the “reasons” that Joss remained…
January 27, 2025
Wow, what a conclusion to this crazy trilogy. Book 1 was entertaining, Book 2 fell a little flat, but Book 3 was even better than Book 1. The official summary doesn't tell you much, but it really is a story about the newer generation of women on Maternas changing and shunning old society and their mothers for fascinating reasons. Very sci-fi (not hard sci fi, though), mysterious, and in the end, pretty damn satisfying with the answer. All with tons of lesbian sex. What a weird bit of lesbian fiction history.
March 1, 2025
A surprise ending that made sense even as a surprise. Fifty years have passed since DAWN. The sisters left on Earth now return to Maternas bur things are not as smooth as the returnees expect. The younger women do not greet the travelers though they hover around at the landing. There is a rupture of beliefs between the elders and the younger generation. Will the first generation born on Maternas and their children be able to co-exist? I didn't expect the ending and yet saw how it made sense.
March 26, 2026
Better than the second book but not as good as the first one. It's an interesting idea but some of the problems from book two show up - most of the characters' "voices" sound the same, and there's an awful lot of long expositions. This trilogy was probably better left as a single book honestly, as it was for two decades.
May 27, 2019
A bit disappointing
Big fan of the first of this series. 2nd was good. This one was just a bit odd and sad.
Big fan of the first of this series. 2nd was good. This one was just a bit odd and sad.
August 4, 2019
Best salacious sex scenes of the entire series. Totally bizarrely envisioned sci-fi! Now that's some fuckin world building.... Amen!
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September 12, 2022Definitely very pulpy, definitely outdated, and wayyyy too many characters to reasonably keep track of. And yet? This made me eager to explore for more lesbian sci-fi.
October 20, 2013
I just had to write a review, the sole reason I made an account on here. This book is good; however, there are moments I call 'wtf'. What one of the characters, Joss, does to another, Emerald, is the same thing the love of Joss' life did to her in book two of Daughters.
From the beginning of this book, there are foreshadows; an example is when Joss meets three of women from the younger generation. There she desires to be like Venus just like she did at the end of Book 2. She desired to be with numerous women, to all share pleasure. Yet she's attracted to Emerald because she reminds Joss of Africa.
So they go to this Amazonian area and this is where the 'wtf' begins. Joss pretty much allows Emerald to fall in love with her, even though each night she sleeps with these women so as to obtain messages vital for the sisterhood. Yes, that's important but also during this time Joss is discovering the joys of being in this area, this life. Similar to that of the Bonobonos; the primates who have sex with one another for pleasure and communication.
Joss lives the desire always wanted and shares a night with no two same woman; however, there is one woman she goes back to and one who goes to her. They make love and not sex unlike the other encounters and when it becomes really heated the other Amazonias come in to take part of the action and they do not reject.
Joss falls for this woman and chooses to stay with her pretty much leaving Emerald. This is pretty much what Africa does in Book 2. Africa goes off with Theo, the man, the only man she ever loved, so as to be with him forever. Africa loved Theo, why else go with him...and Joss loves this new life, why else be with it? But ironically, what I'm having a hard time with is, it was okay for Africa to go off with Theo and leave Joss. But it isn't okay for Joss to leave off with the 'voluptuious woman' and Amazonias.
*I rated this book 3 stars because I found myself skipping pages to get to the point. But I quite enjoyed the sex scenes, but they're not as explicit to be called 'porn'...maybe soft core porn.
From the beginning of this book, there are foreshadows; an example is when Joss meets three of women from the younger generation. There she desires to be like Venus just like she did at the end of Book 2. She desired to be with numerous women, to all share pleasure. Yet she's attracted to Emerald because she reminds Joss of Africa.
So they go to this Amazonian area and this is where the 'wtf' begins. Joss pretty much allows Emerald to fall in love with her, even though each night she sleeps with these women so as to obtain messages vital for the sisterhood. Yes, that's important but also during this time Joss is discovering the joys of being in this area, this life. Similar to that of the Bonobonos; the primates who have sex with one another for pleasure and communication.
Joss lives the desire always wanted and shares a night with no two same woman; however, there is one woman she goes back to and one who goes to her. They make love and not sex unlike the other encounters and when it becomes really heated the other Amazonias come in to take part of the action and they do not reject.
Joss falls for this woman and chooses to stay with her pretty much leaving Emerald. This is pretty much what Africa does in Book 2. Africa goes off with Theo, the man, the only man she ever loved, so as to be with him forever. Africa loved Theo, why else go with him...and Joss loves this new life, why else be with it? But ironically, what I'm having a hard time with is, it was okay for Africa to go off with Theo and leave Joss. But it isn't okay for Joss to leave off with the 'voluptuious woman' and Amazonias.
*I rated this book 3 stars because I found myself skipping pages to get to the point. But I quite enjoyed the sex scenes, but they're not as explicit to be called 'porn'...maybe soft core porn.
November 17, 2012
I was ecstatic to see a new book in this series since I had such fond memories of Daughters of a Coral Dawn from reading it as a young woman. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the promise of the earlier books in the series.
I found the "environmentalist" plot point pretty creepy, and although I'm not one to shy away from some sex in books, this one read a lot more like porn than like a novel. It didn't work for me at all, and although I finished it, I don't think it will be one that I'll reread.
I found the "environmentalist" plot point pretty creepy, and although I'm not one to shy away from some sex in books, this one read a lot more like porn than like a novel. It didn't work for me at all, and although I finished it, I don't think it will be one that I'll reread.
January 14, 2018
I read the whole series, so I had to read this one. I enjoyed following the series, but still was a little preachy overall.
April 7, 2009
Didn't finish. Prose was uninspiring, and there are books higher on my "to read" list as far as the separatist trope goes...
June 27, 2014
Points for originality and good use of language. Loses a star or two for jumping the shark, IMHO.Some things are just too fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews