Daughters of an Amber Noon

The Coral Dawn Trilogy #2

by Katherine V. Forrest

The lesbian science-fiction classic Daughters of a Coral Dawn told the story of a group of pioneering women who disappeared from Earth and colonized the planet Maternas. But what of their sisters left behind? In the highly anticipated sequel, Katherine Forrest tells the story of a group of women called the Unity, who have vanished from society but are still living on earth. But Earth, repressive before the most accomplished and in-dispensable women disappeared, is now a hellish place ruled by the dictator Theo Zedera, known as Zed, and he is seeking the vanished women with ruthless determination. Among them is Africa Contrera, and as she struggles to build a world safe for women, she is haunted by her past, a past in which she and Zed were close friends, a past where she trusted him and shared the deadly knowledge he now uses to hunt her. Is there hope for this new hidden society of women? However resourceful they may be, can they withstand the savagery of a man who uses their own secrets against them? Just as she did 18 years ago, Katherine Forrest has created a brilliant and breathtaking saga of a divided society and the rebels courageous enough to withstand this brutal new world. Katherine Forrest is also the author of the lesbian romantic classic Curious Wine as well as the groundbreaking Kate Delafield mystery series.

Genres: Science Fiction, LGBT, Fiction, Lesbian, Fantasy, Queer, Lesbian Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Katherine 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."

Reviews

[Mats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow my misandrist dreams have already been written

[annu · Rating 4 out of 5]

tra 3.5 e 4

i love when men die <3

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purtroppo io amerò le lesbiche misandriche yayyy

[Dide · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8 star ratings
At a point i thought this sequel was going to surpass its predecessor but reaching the end...i think it fell a bit short mostly on the revelation of purpose.
I am asking myself, was it for love for her; fraternally or amorously? Or was it god complex? Or again was it a more coordinated planned expectation with others who are yet to be revealed?
Questions abound and their unresolve is making me antsy and unhappy to give this any more stars.
All the same, I am in awe of this author's depth and investment of this series. Using the author's own descriptor, the books are a synthesis of knowledge albeit for fictional purpose.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sequel to Daughters of a Coral Dawn, which you should really read first. I'm not even sure this one would make much sense without it, even though it's rather more of a parallel novel than a sequel.

It's also frequently mistitled as Daughters of an Amber Moon, as it was in our state library catalog. I can see how Amber Moon makes more sense than Amber Noon, unless of course you're aware of the other titles in the series. I just note this in case you're told your library doesn't have it or can't get it. Be sure to check for Amber Moon.

So there's this society of related not-entirely-human women who have withdrawn from the rest of humanity. They're hiding out and setting up their own utopia. But the ruler of all humanity, some dictator dude, is bent on finding where they're at.

And I liked the first book better, because that group is off setting up a colony on another planet, and I find that far more interesting. Here we're stuck on Earth and being all political or whatnot. Not that it's not still interesting, in a different way, but I didn't enjoy it as much.

However, once we finally reach the conclusion, I rather liked it better. It sort of cast the book in a different light. That it wasn't entirely what I was thinking at the time I was reading it. So it was interesting in that way and bumps it up to a solid 3 stars.

Naturally I will be reading the next book, so I can see how it all turns out.

[Cheryll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I liked it. She introduced new characters that carries forward to her next book. However, how their new living situation operates were somewhat long and drawn out especially when she explains the forced creation of lava.

I didn't necessarily feel drawn to any of her female characters though. It was the character, Theo Zedera, that I particularly found interesting.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic but not Forrest's best work. For sci-fi affectionado's the rating is a bit higher than the 3 stars I gave the book. The book proceeding this one was an awesome entry to the lesbian fiction genre when first published.

[Marie Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wise and beautifully-written, Daughters of an Amber Noon opens the mind and moves the heart. As always, Katherine V Forrest ranks among the best of storytellers. She definitely left me hanging though with the ending. Now I really want to read the next book in this trilogy.

[Megan Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

All that I can say is that the ending is so so so wonderfully written that this book stands out as one of the best reads I've had in my life. I can't even describe how incredible it is how everything fits together at the end. PLEASE READ!!

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequal to Daughters of a Coal Dawn. This one is the story of the few that were left behind. It's a pleasant continuation to her previous one, page turning and all.

[Nyki Mancera · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, the ending…

I can’t believe how much of this book I had forgotten that I read more than a decade ago. I believe at the time it did not resonate with me as much as it does right now. It is funny how my life in a way sort of replicates the maxim of this book. Being bi and in my younger years invited men into my life in all aspects. But as time went on, things changed and not through force, but I would imagine an subconscious decision at some point. But there are no men in my personal realm. I work with them. But over the past 13 years it seems a shifting has happened. I no longer have a “need” for them in this space. And this space has become very serene and nonconfrontational. I have two daughters who for the last 13 years have not seen a ma in our homes in any personal relationship way. And they’re healthy emotionally, mentally, and physically self assured women. They’re very comfortable in their own being. It’s quite wondrous. It makes me believe this is what the absence of men in their personal sphere has accomplished. I probably would not have made that leap had I not read this book.

I look out into the world and I see the devastation that men has wrought to our world in the past and currently. This book sort of foretells what has happened. My daughters 19 and 30 years old have neither known a man. Neither of them want children. It is in effect, the end of my genetic line. Something has happened that is not seen. But is feels like a shifting aware from being fruitful and multiplying. A shifting away from male dominance. Right now, there is a scramble in America for anti-choice to ban sage and legal abortions in America. The scramble to take away birth-control choices for women. The increase in LGBT hate and criminality of it. Right now, there is a war in the Ukraine. There is famine, global climate chaos, the consolidation of wealth in the top 1%, the ownership of food, land, and resources in the hands of so few people, the continual genocidal efforts against non-white people and so on. This book intrinsically almost tells the tale on what I am seeing. It looks like a natural shift that is happening in my personal life playing out on a much larger scale perhaps.

Are we done? That’s the question I have. When a nature as “exceptional” as America has purported itself elects a man that they did back in 2016 leads me to believe that the answer may in fact be, “Yes!” Theo said that out of the millions of years that we’ve been here, that we have not further evolved as mankind (homo-sapiens). I believe it. Women are waiting til much later to even begin their families if at all. Women are deciding not to have children for one reason or another has caused our government to believe that they will force us to do no matter how the pregnancy comes about, no matter whether it be medically viable or not.

This book tells why this shifting has occurred, well in its fictional sense. But it comes down to biological decision. We’re changing. We cannot procreate on our own, although there some species that can. I believe with all the things that have been set forth by man’s actions that we’re headed that way. Women will outnumber men in the way we procreate today. Then it will foster in nature a way for women to do ourselves either with another woman or something that we control within our own bodies somehow. I am not a scientist. Just giving food for thought.

Lastly, the end of the book is fitting. Life and death begins and ends as we know it in Africa, with an among Africans is so apropos.

[Susan Welch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of disappointing after the first one, this one just didn't hit the same highs for me. The characters all had a sameness to their voices that made the perspectives confusing. There was a lot of exposition when there should have been action. The biggest thing was I kept seeing promises of an amazing ending and although I liked how it ended in some ways, I really didn't like how it got there and who was responsible for it. It was weird and unsatisfying. At least this book, written twenty years later, acknowledged trans people exist, but in every other aspect it's inferior to the first book.

Spoilers ahead for ranting on the ending:

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I hated that the win was essentially handed over to them by the evil dictator and everybody essentially just went oh okay, that was a bit much but thanks I guess? The whole point of these books is this super intelligent race of women and the big reveal is that a man did all this to save them? Because supposedly women are incapable of violence and violence was also supposedly the only answer? Are women brave and strong and smart and the rightful inheritors of Earth or are they delicate flowers who can't do what needs to be done? (The first book has several examples of the women making hard choices so it's clearly possible!) Now it's true all the smart ideas did come from one of the women (Africa) but still the fact that this guy just hands it all over with the big reveal in the penultimate chapter just did NOT sit well with me, especially after he did so much big evil. Also, his second in command evil guy who is supposedly slightly less evil because he isn't crazy about torture gets to be the one survivor and live a happy if irrelevant retirement with beautiful women serving him drinks? Wtf was that?? I had to go back and think am I missing something here? Are we now supposed to sympathize with the guys who have been persecuting women and destroying entire countries and say ah well they had the world's best interests at heart after all. Literally crazy. The idea of women being the next stage of evolution is also kind of weird because these are alien human hybrids so the claim of this being the Earth's doing kind of falls apart.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is crazy as hell, in the best way! I am truly blown away by it, and surprisingly like it even better than the first. Initially, I was a bit disappointed that this sequel was back on Earth, and abandoning the Maternas story. But what a great choice this actually was. Forrest constructs a tense and exciting plot - this is more of a thriller than the more leisurely "Coral Dawn" - with a huge and compelling mystery at the center. What is Theo Zedera's deal? And what will happen to our protagonist women on Earth? And the answers to these questions, particularly the first one are SO satisfying. I was almost laughing at it I loved it so much! I have actually encountered such ideas before - and independently thought them - but the evolutionary plan is fleshed out quite well and engagingly here, and most importantly brought to fruition in the most surprising, hilarious, and thought-provoking way. It does well what the best science fiction does - make you truly think about our current society and its future in a new light, bringing together various technological trends (which are orders of magnitude more pronounced than they were when this was initially published in 2002).

I also appreciate Forrest's efforts to put some thought and research in the science in this book (and the first). Of course I'm sure if you are a biology or geology Ph.D you could point out all sorts of flaws but its clear efforts was put in, which always makes the scientific ideas and execution far more fascinating. Makes it more like actual science fiction, not just fiction with a science flavor.

I've read so much feminist science fiction but this series so far stands out as a true highlight in the genre so far. It's a shame it's so obscure. It should be read more widely by sci-fi fans.

[Grace Mead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, we've veered closer to dystopia. I disagree with the central political message of this book, but give it five stars because it is technically well done, exciting, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. It has all the hallmarks of the two other books I've read by Forrest: artful prose, excellent dialogue, the exposition required of political fiction done in a way that doesn't bog down the plot, a plot both believable and with enough twists to generate narrative tension, and well-drawn characters, both flat and round. But I've known far too many wonderful humans, who happen to be men, to agree with its central message. I've not yet read the third book, but will do so shortly, and it may put this volume in a whole new light. And I've found, over the years, that I tend to learn the most by reading ideas with which I don't wholly agree (which also, apparently, abound).

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Daughters trilogy. In the first book, Daughters of a Coral Dawn, four thousand descendants of Mother leave Earth to form a women’s utopia on a distant planet. Two thousand of their sisters remain on Earth for various reasons. This book follows their story. I didn’t find it as gripping as the first novel. Even though this book came out eighteen years after the first, it feels like sophomore slump. There was a lot of exposition. Rather than showing me what happened, it was a lot of telling me what happened. Even the ending had epilogue-like chapters explaining what had happened rather than taking me through the events as they unfolded.

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[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai vraiment vraiment préféré ce volume par rapport au précédent, même si certains aspects du livre et certaines forces du précédent (la romance) n'étaient pas vraiment toujours au rendez-vous et que j'avais deviné dès le début les motivations derrière les actions du dictateur. Le world-building, la tension narrative, le jeu de chat et souris et quelques points narratifs secondaires étaient tous très intéressant dans celui-ci.

Encore une fois, toutefois, on est pas mal en équilibre sur cette corde tendue entre la dénonciation de l'eugénisme et une sorte de révérence en quelque sorte? Aussi appeler sa protagoniste Africa Contrera née à Nairobi manque un peu de nuance, mais ça remplit bien son rôle de pulp SF lesbien (même si, encore une fois, le premier tome était plus réussit à cet égard et le deuxième volume laisse très peu de place pour en développer).

[Lujira Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing 2nd book about the women left on Earth after the 4,000 left for Maternas. They're hiding out from Zed, the dictator, who is using all the technology available to find them. A rather surprising and yet pleasant ending. It shapes up as a fight (not physical but mental) between Theo Zedera and Africa Contrera. the leader of the Unity as she works to save the sisters. Zed and Africa are intellectual equals. However, he's using the information Africa gave him to now search for the sisters still on Earth. Great reading and fast. Some intriguing science Forrest used.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite of the trilogy. The characters aren't that distinct, especially from the main characters of Book 1, and the story just wasn't as gripping. I do think the ending really provided a tidier explanation for why all the Unity are lesbians, beyond the fact that all of them are geniuses, which seemed a somewhat insufficient reason for every single member of the Unity preferring women sexually, it turns out men are being evolutionarily discarded in this world.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sequel to Daughters of a Coral Dawn continues the lesbian utopian vision Katherine Forrest began in the first book. Like the first, it's hard to imagine people that actually behave the way they do in the book, but as a vision of what a world might be like, it's an interesting read.

[Michelle Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it's just that time in my life when I don't think all people should all have a happy ending. I thoroughly enjoyed the ending of this book. I don't think everyone should have a get out of jail free card. I don't think a person's stuff makes a person better than another person. I don't think it's ok to lie, cheat and hurt others with no consequence.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good follow up to Coral Dawn. Same limitations of lesbian fiction, however.

[Gina Barnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unsure of story line...incomplete

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story and mostly believable. A strong middle book. Can't wait to start the third one.

[Chrissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad she wrote this sequel. Lived up to the first and that is difficult