A Paradigm of Earth
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A feminist science fiction novel exploring sexuality and politics by the author of the Tiptree and IAFA/Crawford Award-winning Black Wine.
Candas Jane Dorsey's first novel, the fantasy Black Wine, won three significant awards and got enthusiastic reviews across the United States and Canada. Now Dorsey returns with a literary SF parable about a woman named Morgan and her offbeat household.
In the near future, when political and social conservatism dominate society, Morgan inherits a big, century-old mansion in a prairie city and moves there to rebuild her life. She fills the house with sexual misfits and political outcasts, in a sense, orphans like herself. But the final tenant is one she never could have imagined: an alien child.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Candas Jane Dorsey
Candas Jane Dorsey is a Canadian poet and novelist whose works span across genre boundaries, having written poetry, fiction, mainstream and speculative, short and long form, arts journalism and advocacy, television and stage scripts, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews. She has served on the executive board of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, as editor-in-chief at The Books Collective from 1992 through 2005, and was a founder of SF Canada. In 1998, Dorsey received the Prix Aurora Award for her novel, Black Wine. Dorsey currently teaches and holds workshops and readings. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
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Reviews for A Paradigm of Earth
5 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If Jane Austen wrote about queers and aliens and government agents and artists, it would come out somewhat like this.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I've anticipated reading this book for a long time. Dorsey's Black Wine was a book that I seriously loved, and kept recommending to people for years. Sadly, this book not only didn't live up to the expectations created by Black Wine, it frankly just wasn't very good. The premise sounds intriguing - an alien comes to earth to learn about humanity, and ends up in a co-op household full of non-conformists and artists. I liked a lot of the concepts - how the main character explores different types of love for different people through sexuality, etc. And some of the language and imagery is lovely. Still, maybe it has something to do with its near-contemporary setting (rather than the remote world of Black Wine), but the book felt more like a socio-political lecture than a novel. The messages, rather than working smoothly through the metaphors of fantasy, were very in-your-face and clunky. The characters felt like their traits were imposed on them by using a checklist (black, gay, disabled, lesbian, dancer, artist, etc.), rather than stemming from the experiences of real people. The protagonist's emotions were spoken of at great length, but didn't feel convincing. The antagonist was even more mystifying - with motivations which were nearly completely opaque, and unconvincing when admitted in an awkwardly-stuck-in, cliched confessional. The plot lacked tension, even when dramatic events were occurring. This may sound harsh, and it's probably much harsher than it would have been if I hadn't fully expected to be giving this book 5 stars - but I can't even come close to doing so.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Paradigm of Earth, by founder, and fellow SF Canada member Candas Jane Dorsey, is a remarkable work of literary science fiction. Although the premise of first contact is not new, Dorsey brings to the discussion a complex, poetic exploration of what it means to be human. Through the characters of Blue, one of twelve aliens dropped on Earth to become the essence of humanity, and his mentor, Morgan, a woman immobilized with grief, Dorsey incarnates a story part CanLit, part SF, part crime mystery. Her characters are vivid and compelling, avoiding stereotype. Her premise suspends all disbelief with facility and elegance. The writing is tight and yet poetic; the pacing deceptively brisk. Further, Dorsey unfolds her tale without devolving to the kitsch tech-speak which is the failure, and alienation, of so many popular SF writers, and as a result Dorsey creates an emotional environment that will bring a tender heart to tears. If you love the work of Ursula K. LeGuin, you will fall in love with this story by Candas Jane Dorsey.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Will be thinking about this one for awhile. And about how I kept thinking of Blue as male, despite the author's goal to present Blue as non-gendered. Would I have felt the same if the main character had not been female? Interesting.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book was intriguing in concept, but it was just a bit over blown for me. There was too much imagery, melancholy and failed? introspection. So, while the book was interesting and enjoyable in its way I had trouble engaging with it. It felt a bit like a thought exercise rather then real people. In essence it is not really my thing, but interesting and I'm sure exactly what some people are looking to read.