By Greg L. Johnson
www.sfsite.com
Sometimes
good things come in smaller packages. Such is the case with the
publication this summer, in two separate volumes, of stories by Eleanor
Arnason. One is an old-fashioned science fiction adventure story, the
other a thoroughly modern take on life in the near-future Midwest as
seen through the lens of an alternate history. Both are the work of a
writer who, over the years has explored issues of gender, politics, and
social structure in novels like A Woman of the Iron People and Ring of Swords. In Tomb of the Fathers and Mammoths of the Great Plains,
she does much the same, while also displaying a sly wit and a talent
for creating likable characters who are, in their own way, quietly
subversive.
In Tomb of the Fathers, that character is
Lydia Duluth. Lydia is part of an archaeological expedition sent to
investigate the lost homeworld of the Atch. What they discover are the
remnants of a civilization and species in which human parental roles
were reversed. An accident leaves Lydia and her companions, some alien,
some artificial intelligences, stranded on the planet where they are
forced to deal with the few surviving members of the Atch. The humor
comes out of the observations of the characters and their personalities.
from Lydia’s interactions with her own built-in AI to Karl Marx-quoting
aliens. As adventure stories go, Tombs of the Fathers is a
little heavy on exposition and a little light on action, but is
nonetheless an enjoyable story which manages to make fun of social
conventions while at the same time remaining true to the spirit of the
classic planetary romances of the golden age of science fiction.
Mammoths of the Great Plains
is a different kind of story. Set in that part of the northern Midwest
where the forests give way to the plains, from Minneapolis to western
South Dakota, Mammoths is told as a piece of family history, a
story handed down from one generation to the next. It is the story of
Rosa Red Mammoth, known as Rosa Stevens in the white man’s world, and
her struggle to preserve the last of the great mammoth herds that roamed
the plains before the coming of European culture.
This is
alternate history on a personal level, much closer to the style of
Howard Waldrop than to the flamboyant alternate histories of Harry
Turtledove. Arnason mixes her narrative with bits of Lakota culture, and
the history of those proud people from the time they first met
Europeans until the late twenty-first century. In doing so, she manages
to capture the spirit and temperament of these people, a combination of
fatalism and a humorous outlook that has allowed them to hold on to
their culture even while their lands and much of their heritage were
taken away. There is also a real feel for the land, so much so that by
the end of the story the reader can imagine can imagine him or her self
standing on the edge of the high plains, watching the herds of bison and
mammoths moving across the landscape, with the Missouri River winding
its way through the background.
At a science fiction convention
in St. Paul this summer, Eleanor Arnason spoke of how she now felt free
to write whatever she pleased, and how that freedom was being channeled
into a new found creativity. If Tombs of the Fathers and Mammoths of the Great Plains
are any indication, that creativity is manifesting itself in stories
that should capture the attention of readers familiar with her past
work, and serve as a welcome introduction to readers who have not yet
been introduced to a writer whose voice remains as sharp, observant, and
individual as ever.
Copyright © 2010 by Greg L. Johnson
While
growing up, reviewer Greg L Johnson spent many days on the plains where
the buffalo and mammoths once played. His reviews also appear in the
The New York Review of Science Fiction. And, for something different,
Greg blogs about news and politics relating to outdoors issues and the
environment at Thinking Outside.
