Stayed up way later than I should have finishing this!

It's not so much "what happened" - actually, the book is fairly low on "plot" - rather, it follows the (rather traumatic and itinerant) life of a woman from a primitive society on a colony planet, from the brink of womanhood to middle age, along the way dealing with issues of gender and sexuality, "appropriate technology," and finding a place to call home.
But the writing is just so good that it feels like a thriller!

I highly recommend it.

I bought this book as it was one of the novels nominated for the 2000 Nebula awards.

Essentially, this is the story of a woman's journey from roughly teen age to late adulthood, exploring the definitions of self and home.

Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of story that gets me interested. Disaster after disaster strikes the main character, and then, right at the end, she has a bit of personal growth. Bah. Not my cup of tea.

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I thought it was kind of boring, and definitely not as "post-apocalyptic" as I had thought from reading the other reviews. Plus, I felt the author used bad language / cursing for shock value in some places, while in other places her descriptive language was practically nonexistent. In short, I thought it was a bit choppy, a bit plodding, and not nearly as well-written as I had expected from this author.

Pretty good book. Recommended to me as having a transgender main character, which is kinda true but not. Jan is not TG in the sense we have commonly - it's not really a choice. Can't say much more without giving the plot away!

A powerful fable, a stirring adventure, and a profoundly moving portrait of a lost woman in search of an identity as she walks the narrow fault line dividing female and male, child and adult, dark realty and illuminated dream.

Interesting story of cultural conflict between various societies on a human colony world, as well as between the colonist's descendants and later arrivals from Earth. The main character, although female, spends much of life living as a man, within societies of varied gender roles.

An interesting view of how people adapt to culture change. While set in a science ficiton setting, it could also be happening in third world earth. Main character was sympathetic and believable

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