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3.5 

Mother of Eden

By Chris Beckett
Mother of Eden by Chris Beckett digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

“We speak of a mother’s love, but we forget her power.”
Civilization has come to the alien, sunless planet its inhabitants call Eden.
 
Just a few generations ago, the planet’s five hundred inhabitants huddled together in the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees, afraid to venture out into the cold darkness around them.
 
Now, humanity has spread across Eden, and two kingdoms have emerged. Both are sustained by violence and dominated by men – and both claim to be the favored children of Gela, the woman who came to Eden long ago on a boat that could cross the stars, and became the mother of them all.
When young Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no inkling that she will become a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela’s fabled ring on her own finger—or that in this role, powerful and powerless all at once, she will try to change the course of Eden’s history.

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28 Reviews

3.5
Anxious Face with sweat“For the most part, I enjoyed this novel and it's themes of motherhood, leadership, and choices, as well as Becketts style of writing and world-building. I find the repetitive words interesting as a language development and the world continuously feels strange and unknown. But these were aspects I enjoyed of the first novel many years ago. I did not appreciate how in-your-face the patriarchy is here. I understood its necessity on the story and themes, but it just upset me, rather than having any sort of answer, question, or even legitimate reply to the issue as themes tend to do. It was built, it is the source of power on this novel, and truthfully it still dominates over the attempted themes of motherhood and womanhood. A slow start did turn into a page-turning finisher, with characters I could never be sure about, and there's a wonderful reflection by one of my favorite side characters, but then the story just ends. I know there's a third novel, but this one still ends feeling unfinished, unsatisfying. Glad to return to Eden, see you next time whenever I pick up Daughter of Eden!”

About Chris Beckett

Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge, England. His short stories have appeared in such publications as Interzone and Asimov’s Science Fiction and in numerous “year’s best” anthologies.

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