What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
Fireship / Mother and Child
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. scifi: humans oppressed by aliens, on a colony world w/habitable moon (spoilers) [s]
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Hmm,, that's a lot of helpful detail. Um - when did you read it, or when do you think it may have been written? Do you remember whether the author was popular, or obscure? And, as always, feel free to bump this thread every month or two! :)
I read it within the last year or two, but it almost certainly was older. I'm not positive when it was written, but feels like it had to have been later than the 70s. I don't think it was a famous author, but maybe a tier two author?
ok - that should be more than enough clues - someone will recognize it someday! :)
Come on, bkl, we've got lots of clues here, where are you and your mad search skills??
"Mother and Child" Joan D. Vinge
Method - I found enough information here: http://deafness.about.com/od/deaflite... (In "Additional Resources" at the bottom) to bring me here: https://ritdml.rit.edu/bitstream/hand...
That Vinge looks good, when I look at the review(s). Need to figure out where else it's been published.edit:
"Mother and Child" appears to also have been published in _Phoenix in the Ashes_ as well as _Fireship / Mother and Child_. So, yes, solved.
But yeah, I think I missed my author qualifications, cuz I think I regard Vinge as much closer (if not completely) as a tier 1 author, not tier 2...
I hope it is correct. Either way, I like her books (so far) so I have added it to my ever growing list! :-)
organizing, nothing to see here.
Setup describes the protagonist people as having some special powers, some of them can magically tell what happens at a distance, some of them have the ability to see far away, and some of them can see close up, and some can see with better clarity.
(view spoiler)[Eventually you find out that they're all human, and that most of them have bad vision, and are deaf. But some people in society are not. (hide spoiler)]
The protag people are barbarians and revere the magic powers and are attempting to breed them up. Lead is a girl who becomes a woman, and a smith that she likes. They're allowed to breed and, unlike many others, are fertile.
However the king of a more civilized group who also has come to the conclusion that breeding better heirs is the way to go, snatches her... and looks like kills her lover (maybe it's a husband? handfasted? whatever). Takes her home, and rapes her, since he's been unable to have heirs with other women.
His culture enforces normality (view spoiler)[ie: punctures eardrums of those who aren't deaf, and otherwise makes people more 'normal'. (hide spoiler)]
There's a priesthood which helps do that/enforces it. Which is fighting (factionally) against the king's power.
Then there are shape-changing aliens who don the guise of very perfect humans, who have great tech. (view spoiler)[Turns out they've been keeping the humans down because they're scared of them. (hide spoiler)]
The planet they're on has a habitable moon, which once had been colonized by humans.
Alien, who has begun to sympathize with humans, ends up snatching the pregnant woman, (view spoiler)[who the kingdom thinks is pregnant with the heir (but in reality is the Smith's child) (hide spoiler)] and hiding out on the moon. Alien ends up reproducing too.
I'm hoping this is a short story, but I suspect it's a novel. It was definitely in the form-factor of a MMPB.