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Holdfast Chronicles #1
Walk to the End of the World
The men of the Holdfast had long treated with contempt the degenerated creatures known as "fems." To give themselves the drive to survive and reconquer the world, the men needed a common enemy. Superstitious belief had ascribed to the fems the guilt for the terrible Wasting that had destroyed the world. They were the ideal scapegoat. The truth was lost in death and decay and buried in history. It was going to be a long journey back...
214 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
1599 people want to read
About the author
Suzy McKee Charnas
76 books105 followersSuzy McKee Charnas, a native New Yorker raised and educated in Manhattan, surfaced as an author with WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974), a no-punches-pulled feminist SF novel and Campbell award finalist. The three further books that sprang from WALK (comprising a futurist, feminist epic about how people make history and create myth) closed in 1999 with THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD, a Tiptree winner (as is the series in its entirety).
Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.
Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.
Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.
Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
August 4, 2008
Let's start by determining what this book is not:
1. It is not accurately described by the back cover copy on my edition, which says,
"Alldera was a Fem, and she knew the horrors of the Holdfast, where labor fems and breeding fems were treated worse than beasts.
"She knew the legends of the free fems who roamed the scorched plains beyond the Wild.
"And she knew what she had to do."
This is not a book focused on Alldera or on the experience of the Fems themselves. This is not a book about the free fems living in the Wild (in reality or in legend). This is not a book about Alldera's plan to do "what she had to do." Actually, Alldera doesn't get any real attention until the fourth section of the book and even then the focus is less on her experiences and feelings and more on how she is able to impact one of the male characters. Her plan, hinted at as a major part of the book, is in reality only a minor part of the book and one that comes and goes fairly quickly. I had hoped that the book would be more about Alldera and the fems' situation; it appears that I will have to read Motherline, the next book in the series, in order to get that.
The actual focus of Charnas's Walk to the End of the World is more interesting than the hinted-at adventure story even though it is less about the women of this post-apocalyptic world and more about the men in power and how they struggle with, challenge, or are shaped by the societal rules that give them power and create fems as a separate and unequal class.
2. This book is not, as one reviewer on Amazon argues, "a misandryist [sic] ideological tract."
This reviewer writes,
"Most of "Walk to the End of the World" is told from a male perspective, but because it is first and foremost a misandryist ideological tract, Charnas forces her male characters into simplistic clichés of what radical feminism believes men to be: violent, hierarchical, and dysfunctional. The ecological disaster of the "Wasting", which sets up Charnas' nightmarish future, was solely the fault of men (specifically white men, of course), as is pretty much every other bad thing that happens in the book. Men fail at everything in the Holdfast, even homosexual love, and most of the time they blame women for these failures. This unrealistic view of men cripples "Walk to the End of the World" by making the male characters one-dimensional and uninteresting. They exist only to oppress the "fems", and the book seems to take an almost perverse pleasure in bringing some new and pointless male atrocity to light in almost every chapter. Instead of exploring the fascinating potential it has for father-son conflict or male friendship with other males, "Walk to the End of the World" dwells obsessively on showing men to be cruel, superstitious, and stupid. In addition, the book presents women solely as eternal victims of men, smarter and more moral because of the oppression they suffer. The only character who is at all interesting is Alldera, whose perspective we only see near the end of the book."
This is only worth bringing up because it is not an accurate description of the book and because this kind of miserading is not limited to this one reviewer. Walk to the End of the World does arise from the radical feminist movement of the 1970s, but radical feminist does not equal anti-men and Charnas's book is far from misandrist.
The situation in which the book is set relies heavily on sexist conceptions of gender roles and abilities, but Charnas actually spends a lot of time throughout this novel complicating the social and cultural divisions that have developed through Holdfast's history. These divisions place men over women, humans over animals, white over nonwhite, age over youth, etc., and are a fundamental part of the belief system of the Holdfast survivors. But many question these fundamentals. Of the major characters (Captain Kelmz, Servan D Layo, Eykar Bek, and Alldera), none wholeheartedly embrace these divisions. Some accept the misogyny of the culture but challenge the division between human and animal or young and old, while others, specifically Eykar Bek, challenge the division between male and female itself. These characters, male and female alike, are more than mere ciphers for Charnas's feminist ideology; they are fleshed out characters with weaknesses and strengths. That is what makes this book truly interesting.
As a final note, and a final quote from the Amazon review mentioned above, I want to consider this book's relation to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This particular Amazon reviewer says,
"If you want a book that seethes with unproductive rage, "Walk to the End of the World" is just the thing; if you want a terrifying look at misogyny run amuck, I'd suggest Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" instead."
Clearly, I'm not going to agree with this statement, since I don't see Charnas's book as "seeth[ing] witih unproductive rage," but the two books, though they deal with similar situations (a future world in which women have no power and are merely used for breeding and work) approach these worlds in quite different ways. It might be an interesting project to teach the two side by side and ask students which they find more effective and why. Atwood tells her story through the perspective of one of the women in the society and provides little insight into the male mindset; she also incorporates religion into her dystopian world as a means of oppression, where Charnas's means of oppression resemble much more the logic of slavery (dehumanization of the Other, breeding for better workers and more docile slaves, etc.) and does not deal explicitly with religion. The fact that these two authors can make such a similar argument about the possible oppressive future of mid-century gender roles and use such different modes of justification for this future (economic versus religious) says a lot about how widespread these gender attitudes have been in Western culture and how close we may have come (and may yet come) to seeing one of those futures come true.
1. It is not accurately described by the back cover copy on my edition, which says,
"Alldera was a Fem, and she knew the horrors of the Holdfast, where labor fems and breeding fems were treated worse than beasts.
"She knew the legends of the free fems who roamed the scorched plains beyond the Wild.
"And she knew what she had to do."
This is not a book focused on Alldera or on the experience of the Fems themselves. This is not a book about the free fems living in the Wild (in reality or in legend). This is not a book about Alldera's plan to do "what she had to do." Actually, Alldera doesn't get any real attention until the fourth section of the book and even then the focus is less on her experiences and feelings and more on how she is able to impact one of the male characters. Her plan, hinted at as a major part of the book, is in reality only a minor part of the book and one that comes and goes fairly quickly. I had hoped that the book would be more about Alldera and the fems' situation; it appears that I will have to read Motherline, the next book in the series, in order to get that.
The actual focus of Charnas's Walk to the End of the World is more interesting than the hinted-at adventure story even though it is less about the women of this post-apocalyptic world and more about the men in power and how they struggle with, challenge, or are shaped by the societal rules that give them power and create fems as a separate and unequal class.
2. This book is not, as one reviewer on Amazon argues, "a misandryist [sic] ideological tract."
This reviewer writes,
"Most of "Walk to the End of the World" is told from a male perspective, but because it is first and foremost a misandryist ideological tract, Charnas forces her male characters into simplistic clichés of what radical feminism believes men to be: violent, hierarchical, and dysfunctional. The ecological disaster of the "Wasting", which sets up Charnas' nightmarish future, was solely the fault of men (specifically white men, of course), as is pretty much every other bad thing that happens in the book. Men fail at everything in the Holdfast, even homosexual love, and most of the time they blame women for these failures. This unrealistic view of men cripples "Walk to the End of the World" by making the male characters one-dimensional and uninteresting. They exist only to oppress the "fems", and the book seems to take an almost perverse pleasure in bringing some new and pointless male atrocity to light in almost every chapter. Instead of exploring the fascinating potential it has for father-son conflict or male friendship with other males, "Walk to the End of the World" dwells obsessively on showing men to be cruel, superstitious, and stupid. In addition, the book presents women solely as eternal victims of men, smarter and more moral because of the oppression they suffer. The only character who is at all interesting is Alldera, whose perspective we only see near the end of the book."
This is only worth bringing up because it is not an accurate description of the book and because this kind of miserading is not limited to this one reviewer. Walk to the End of the World does arise from the radical feminist movement of the 1970s, but radical feminist does not equal anti-men and Charnas's book is far from misandrist.
The situation in which the book is set relies heavily on sexist conceptions of gender roles and abilities, but Charnas actually spends a lot of time throughout this novel complicating the social and cultural divisions that have developed through Holdfast's history. These divisions place men over women, humans over animals, white over nonwhite, age over youth, etc., and are a fundamental part of the belief system of the Holdfast survivors. But many question these fundamentals. Of the major characters (Captain Kelmz, Servan D Layo, Eykar Bek, and Alldera), none wholeheartedly embrace these divisions. Some accept the misogyny of the culture but challenge the division between human and animal or young and old, while others, specifically Eykar Bek, challenge the division between male and female itself. These characters, male and female alike, are more than mere ciphers for Charnas's feminist ideology; they are fleshed out characters with weaknesses and strengths. That is what makes this book truly interesting.
As a final note, and a final quote from the Amazon review mentioned above, I want to consider this book's relation to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. This particular Amazon reviewer says,
"If you want a book that seethes with unproductive rage, "Walk to the End of the World" is just the thing; if you want a terrifying look at misogyny run amuck, I'd suggest Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" instead."
Clearly, I'm not going to agree with this statement, since I don't see Charnas's book as "seeth[ing] witih unproductive rage," but the two books, though they deal with similar situations (a future world in which women have no power and are merely used for breeding and work) approach these worlds in quite different ways. It might be an interesting project to teach the two side by side and ask students which they find more effective and why. Atwood tells her story through the perspective of one of the women in the society and provides little insight into the male mindset; she also incorporates religion into her dystopian world as a means of oppression, where Charnas's means of oppression resemble much more the logic of slavery (dehumanization of the Other, breeding for better workers and more docile slaves, etc.) and does not deal explicitly with religion. The fact that these two authors can make such a similar argument about the possible oppressive future of mid-century gender roles and use such different modes of justification for this future (economic versus religious) says a lot about how widespread these gender attitudes have been in Western culture and how close we may have come (and may yet come) to seeing one of those futures come true.
February 10, 2017
First in a series, this tells of a post eco-catastophe world in which a nightmarish society, the Holdfast, is the home of the descendants of powerful white men who survived by sheltering inside a 'Refuge' along with women whom they took inside for breeding purposes. All animals, even domestic ones, have supposedly been wiped out and so have all other non-white races who are reviled as one of the elements who brought down the previous civilisation. The main scapegoat for that, however, and everything else that goes wrong including crop failures, are women, known as 'fems'. They are either kept as "pets" by decadent men who lust after fems more than they do other men or are employed as work drudges on the heavy or unpleasant work men don't want to do.
The society, initially seen through the viewpoints of three men, is incredibly brutal and unequal, with 'fems' at the bottom, then boys, who are raised in a Boyhouse where they are subject to the (illegal but prevalent and officially ignored) paedophilic attentions of men, then the Juniors - men under thirty who have to work in various companies which are rotated at five year intervals from one 'industry' to another - and finally the Seniors, the older men. The society is 'managed' by 'dreaming', officially sanctioned drug sessions (as hemp is a major crop), the drug being used to keep the lid on the inevitable tensions especially those between the Juniors and Seniors.
The only 'winners' in the current situation are the Seniors, because the various seaweeds etc that the men live on (women have to eat much worse food including ground-up bodies of women and female children who have died) are failing to thrive, food is getting scarce and the Seniors have taken the bulk of the food for themselves. Huge tensions are building between Juniors and Seniors as a result and, as ever, fems are likely to be the targets for displaced aggression.
One of the crazy beliefs of this society is that fathers and sons are natural enemies, so must never know of their connection; however, one man took steps to discover his son's name. The life of Eykar, his son, has been totally skewed by the knowledge that his father is out there somewhere and probably coming to kill him. He and his friend, the smooth-talking rebel Servan, accompanied by a Captain who has refused to don the mantle of a senior, all set out to find Eykar's father, on the way acquiring a fem called Alldera. Despite the fact that all three have repellent views about women and the deceased non-white races, they are also outsiders who have been damaged in different ways by the appalling society in which they live.
It is only near the end of the book, when the viewpoint switches to Alldera, that we discover the fems have an underground culture, and that those whose intelligence has not been eradicated are forming a resistance. But there are two groups: young women who won't put up with the awful conditions much longer and older women who are convinced that fems can only survive by not resisting. Meanwhile the daily life of all fems is one of constant uncertainty as to whether they will be casually slaughtered by an angry man, or burned at the stake in expiation of some fancied crime.
To stop the younger fems from rising up and starting a massacre of all fems in retaliation, the older women have given Alldera the mission of going beyond the city of Troi, which marks the northernmost border of the Holdfast, to attempt to find the fabled 'free fems' (escapees from the Holdfast). She is to return with a message, supposedly from the free fems, telling the younger women to wait for rescue: a rescue her 'employers' are convinced will never come, for neither they nor Alldera believe the free fems actually exist. However, in the course of the journey to find Eykar's father, beset by many drawbacks, the group is overtaken by events and Alldera's mission becomes one of her own survival.
This is an unremittingly grim tale although the three men are all delineated as characters and we see what has twisted their development and formed their particular quirks. So it is not a one dimensional diatribe against men, despite the repellent views they hold. It is shown all the way through that men are victims of their own setup.
There were a couple of problems with the book for me. It was rather disconcerting that the back cover blurb makes it sound as if the story is all about Alldera and her mission - it isn't, we don't get to her viewpoint until section 4, and her mission is soon rendered academic by other events, so for most of it we can only infer things about women from seeing their dreadful lot from the viewpoint of their oppressors. The story is really about the men and how such a vile society has corrupted them, with only some glimmers of decency left in one or two, chiefly Eykar.
The main weakness of the book, for me, is that a lot of it is "told" through vast amounts of info-dumping about the history of the society and its customs and ways of working. This has the effect of distancing the reader from the characters. There is a lot of casual and appalling violence which doesn't really shock because despite learning of their unhappy lives, we don't become involved with them, because the focus is on imparting lots of information rather than showing us the reality of each person's actual lived experience. This isn't quite such a problem with Alldera, but as her viewpoint comes in so late in the book, it doesn't really remedy things. Having begun since to read the sequel, Motherlines I've discovered this isn't the case with the second book, so maybe the problem was due to first novel syndrome.
The society, initially seen through the viewpoints of three men, is incredibly brutal and unequal, with 'fems' at the bottom, then boys, who are raised in a Boyhouse where they are subject to the (illegal but prevalent and officially ignored) paedophilic attentions of men, then the Juniors - men under thirty who have to work in various companies which are rotated at five year intervals from one 'industry' to another - and finally the Seniors, the older men. The society is 'managed' by 'dreaming', officially sanctioned drug sessions (as hemp is a major crop), the drug being used to keep the lid on the inevitable tensions especially those between the Juniors and Seniors.
The only 'winners' in the current situation are the Seniors, because the various seaweeds etc that the men live on (women have to eat much worse food including ground-up bodies of women and female children who have died) are failing to thrive, food is getting scarce and the Seniors have taken the bulk of the food for themselves. Huge tensions are building between Juniors and Seniors as a result and, as ever, fems are likely to be the targets for displaced aggression.
One of the crazy beliefs of this society is that fathers and sons are natural enemies, so must never know of their connection; however, one man took steps to discover his son's name. The life of Eykar, his son, has been totally skewed by the knowledge that his father is out there somewhere and probably coming to kill him. He and his friend, the smooth-talking rebel Servan, accompanied by a Captain who has refused to don the mantle of a senior, all set out to find Eykar's father, on the way acquiring a fem called Alldera. Despite the fact that all three have repellent views about women and the deceased non-white races, they are also outsiders who have been damaged in different ways by the appalling society in which they live.
It is only near the end of the book, when the viewpoint switches to Alldera, that we discover the fems have an underground culture, and that those whose intelligence has not been eradicated are forming a resistance. But there are two groups: young women who won't put up with the awful conditions much longer and older women who are convinced that fems can only survive by not resisting. Meanwhile the daily life of all fems is one of constant uncertainty as to whether they will be casually slaughtered by an angry man, or burned at the stake in expiation of some fancied crime.
To stop the younger fems from rising up and starting a massacre of all fems in retaliation, the older women have given Alldera the mission of going beyond the city of Troi, which marks the northernmost border of the Holdfast, to attempt to find the fabled 'free fems' (escapees from the Holdfast). She is to return with a message, supposedly from the free fems, telling the younger women to wait for rescue: a rescue her 'employers' are convinced will never come, for neither they nor Alldera believe the free fems actually exist. However, in the course of the journey to find Eykar's father, beset by many drawbacks, the group is overtaken by events and Alldera's mission becomes one of her own survival.
This is an unremittingly grim tale although the three men are all delineated as characters and we see what has twisted their development and formed their particular quirks. So it is not a one dimensional diatribe against men, despite the repellent views they hold. It is shown all the way through that men are victims of their own setup.
There were a couple of problems with the book for me. It was rather disconcerting that the back cover blurb makes it sound as if the story is all about Alldera and her mission - it isn't, we don't get to her viewpoint until section 4, and her mission is soon rendered academic by other events, so for most of it we can only infer things about women from seeing their dreadful lot from the viewpoint of their oppressors. The story is really about the men and how such a vile society has corrupted them, with only some glimmers of decency left in one or two, chiefly Eykar.
The main weakness of the book, for me, is that a lot of it is "told" through vast amounts of info-dumping about the history of the society and its customs and ways of working. This has the effect of distancing the reader from the characters. There is a lot of casual and appalling violence which doesn't really shock because despite learning of their unhappy lives, we don't become involved with them, because the focus is on imparting lots of information rather than showing us the reality of each person's actual lived experience. This isn't quite such a problem with Alldera, but as her viewpoint comes in so late in the book, it doesn't really remedy things. Having begun since to read the sequel, Motherlines I've discovered this isn't the case with the second book, so maybe the problem was due to first novel syndrome.
November 10, 2015
I have this omnibus called Radical Utopias that I am currently reading. This is the first book in the volume (including The Female Man and Triton). I had never heard of this book by Charnas, or even her name, which I'm sure means I'm failing as a feminist since apparently she's a huge feminist name in the science fiction world.
This is one of those occasions where I'm not really sure how to review the book. It's the first book in the Holdfast Chronicles, and it appears there are three other books in the series. I'm sure I would have a better appreciation for this book if I read the others, but unfortunately I'm not sure if I want to now that I've read this book.
There's a review who comments about a review she saw which called the book or the author a misandrist, and this person refuted that. I'm... not so sure. Again, I would probably have a stronger stance if I read the entire series, and it may be unfair to judge base solely on this book.
But this book only leads to questions for me. This "utopia" - what is it? It's a post-apocalyptic, and women are blamed for everything, they have no real voice, they answer only when spoken to.
You know, I actually don't care. This is an ugly book. Often I can read ugly books and feel like there's a purpose, but that is not the case here. Perhaps the purpose comes through later in the series, and maybe I'll make my way through it since I do not feel I am giving this book its due justice. For that reason alone I give it two stars - just on the off-chance there's something better coming in the series.
I felt no connection to any of the characters, not even the "fem"-with-the-most, Alldera. None of this worked for me.
Someone who has read the whole series - let me know if I should continue.
This is one of those occasions where I'm not really sure how to review the book. It's the first book in the Holdfast Chronicles, and it appears there are three other books in the series. I'm sure I would have a better appreciation for this book if I read the others, but unfortunately I'm not sure if I want to now that I've read this book.
There's a review who comments about a review she saw which called the book or the author a misandrist, and this person refuted that. I'm... not so sure. Again, I would probably have a stronger stance if I read the entire series, and it may be unfair to judge base solely on this book.
But this book only leads to questions for me. This "utopia" - what is it? It's a post-apocalyptic, and women are blamed for everything, they have no real voice, they answer only when spoken to.
You know, I actually don't care. This is an ugly book. Often I can read ugly books and feel like there's a purpose, but that is not the case here. Perhaps the purpose comes through later in the series, and maybe I'll make my way through it since I do not feel I am giving this book its due justice. For that reason alone I give it two stars - just on the off-chance there's something better coming in the series.
I felt no connection to any of the characters, not even the "fem"-with-the-most, Alldera. None of this worked for me.
Someone who has read the whole series - let me know if I should continue.
August 18, 2011
In the mood for a good piece of postapocalyptic, feminist sci-fi? Well, then, I've got a doozy for you! Suzy McKee Charnas' first novel, "Walk to the End of the World" (1974), is just such a book, combining a tough little tale with a healthy dose of sociopolitical rumination. Taking place many years after mankind has destroyed its planet with wars and pollution, "leaving it to the wild weeds," it introduces the reader to the society of the Holdfast, a seaside community whose inhabitants subsist on the seaweed, kelp and hemp they manage to farm. Charnas reveals an extraordinary wealth of detail regarding the Holdfast's customs, religion and cultures; her depth of imagination, not to mention writing skills, are most impressive, especially for a beginner novelist. Perhaps the most salient aspect of life in this postapocalyptic world is the degraded status of its female members. Known simply as fems, they are blamed by the men for the wars of destruction, and looked on as witches fit for nothing more than breeding and drudge labor. Fathers in the Holdfast never learn who their sons are, as these male cubs are quickly placed in the so-called "Boyhouse" right after birth to quickly remove the female taint. Society, for the most part, is based on a hierarchy of Youths and Seniors, and homosexual relationships amongst the Youths and amongst the Seniors are the norm. The use of hemp to elicit dreams is encouraged amongst the Youths in their fruition into men (an entire society based on pot ingestion!), whilst automatonlike Rovers (soldiers constantly kept narcotized by the drug) guard the various private companies that work in five-year shifts to farm the district. It is in this unique setting that Charnas introduces us to the book's four main characters.
We meet Eykar Bek, the "Endtendant" of Endpath, the state-sponsored euthanasia station, who goes on a quest to find the father he never knew; his boyhood friend, Servan d Layo, the so-called DarkDreamer and a roguish gadfly; Captain Kelmz, a soldier and master handler of the Rovers; and Alldera, a seemingly ignorant fem who naturally has a lot more going on behind her blank face than the men ever imagined. The journey that the four go on together shows us a wide cross section of Holdfast life, and it is not a pretty one. This is a very brutal book at times, with shocking bursts of casual violence and very little in the way of sentiment. It is a very serious book, with hardly any humor to speak of, and some important points to make. The novel was chosen for inclusion in David Pringle's excellent overview volume "Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels," and like all the other books on Pringle's list (well, the 70 or so that I've read, anyway), it displays remarkable imaginative flair and shoots off fresh ideas like sparks off a Catherine wheel. The book may be accused of leaving the main characters' ultimate fate up in the air, and of not giving us a precise enough idea of the size and population of the Holdfast (not to mention the possibility of existent life outside of it), but those issues are, I would guess, dealt with in the next three books in what has since become known as the "Holdfast Chronicles." Those next books, for those who are interested (and I can't imagine any reader of "Walk to the End of the World" who would not be interested in learning more), are "Motherlines" (1978), "The Furies" (1994) and "The Conqueror's Child" (1999). If they're on a par with this first installment, or with another excellent Charnas novel that I read some years ago, "The Vampire Tapestry" (1980), readers will be in for some nice treats indeed....
We meet Eykar Bek, the "Endtendant" of Endpath, the state-sponsored euthanasia station, who goes on a quest to find the father he never knew; his boyhood friend, Servan d Layo, the so-called DarkDreamer and a roguish gadfly; Captain Kelmz, a soldier and master handler of the Rovers; and Alldera, a seemingly ignorant fem who naturally has a lot more going on behind her blank face than the men ever imagined. The journey that the four go on together shows us a wide cross section of Holdfast life, and it is not a pretty one. This is a very brutal book at times, with shocking bursts of casual violence and very little in the way of sentiment. It is a very serious book, with hardly any humor to speak of, and some important points to make. The novel was chosen for inclusion in David Pringle's excellent overview volume "Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels," and like all the other books on Pringle's list (well, the 70 or so that I've read, anyway), it displays remarkable imaginative flair and shoots off fresh ideas like sparks off a Catherine wheel. The book may be accused of leaving the main characters' ultimate fate up in the air, and of not giving us a precise enough idea of the size and population of the Holdfast (not to mention the possibility of existent life outside of it), but those issues are, I would guess, dealt with in the next three books in what has since become known as the "Holdfast Chronicles." Those next books, for those who are interested (and I can't imagine any reader of "Walk to the End of the World" who would not be interested in learning more), are "Motherlines" (1978), "The Furies" (1994) and "The Conqueror's Child" (1999). If they're on a par with this first installment, or with another excellent Charnas novel that I read some years ago, "The Vampire Tapestry" (1980), readers will be in for some nice treats indeed....
March 23, 2016
Rather grim and bleak but readable and entertaining 1970s feminist dystopia. I may extend this review when I've had more of a chance to absorb it!
October 22, 2020
13 December 2009 - *. It starts with the cover art. Imagine a guy in a jock strap backhanding two scantily clad young women kneeling before him, presided over by a giant Billy-Idol-like angry face. I kid you not. The setting of the story is a post-apocalyptic world of scarcity run by rigidly hierarchical, woman-hating, and stupid men. There are enslaved women and they live in total degradation, but are peripheral to the main story. Just when two of the male characters begin to develop signs of genuine affection for each other, and there seems to be some sort of explanation for why the society is so warped, the whole thing blows up again with characters striking out at one another for reasons I can't understand. There could be some meaning behind it like everyone is a victim of their upbringing, but it's just not worth digging for. The book deals with gender issues, hence the retrospective Tiptree Award. But I can't see how this book could have won any award, because I can't decide if it's more offensive to gay men or to straight men. Apparently, there are three sequels. Sheesh.
Want to read
March 20, 2023Marissa Lingen's reread notes, 2023:
" I reread Suzy McKee Charnas’s Walk to the End of the World recently, and it isn’t any less applicable than it was when Suzy wrote it before I was born—it isn’t any less brutal—but I think just the very fact that it is a novel from before I was born means—we already have that one. If that perspective is going to get through to someone, we can hand them Walk to the End of the World, we can hand them all these other classics that have been looking at this topic. And so I think there’s a very interesting challenge, how to get a different angle so that people won’t think, yes, I’ve already heard that argument, it’s already been handled—and pulling in sff genre furniture is an interesting way to go about that."
1974 book. I can't recall if I've read it or not. Maybe? Local libraries don't have it.
" I reread Suzy McKee Charnas’s Walk to the End of the World recently, and it isn’t any less applicable than it was when Suzy wrote it before I was born—it isn’t any less brutal—but I think just the very fact that it is a novel from before I was born means—we already have that one. If that perspective is going to get through to someone, we can hand them Walk to the End of the World, we can hand them all these other classics that have been looking at this topic. And so I think there’s a very interesting challenge, how to get a different angle so that people won’t think, yes, I’ve already heard that argument, it’s already been handled—and pulling in sff genre furniture is an interesting way to go about that."
1974 book. I can't recall if I've read it or not. Maybe? Local libraries don't have it.
September 29, 2020
Hi ha novel·les que creen un món molt interessant però la trama només se centra en això, en canvi aquesta té les dues coses, la història té sentit i, tot i que al principi potser costa una mica d'entrar, realment descobreixes el món a través d'ella. Un món postapocalíptic en el qual després d'una guerra els animals desapareixen i les dones són menys que esclaves.
No li poso 5 estrelles perquè crec que com que la traducció era bastant dolenta en alguns moments em perdia. Espero que alguna editorial en faci una traducció especialitzada i algun dia les hi pugui posar.
No li poso 5 estrelles perquè crec que com que la traducció era bastant dolenta en alguns moments em perdia. Espero que alguna editorial en faci una traducció especialitzada i algun dia les hi pugui posar.
March 11, 2008
This book was hard to read.
It takes place post nuclear holocaust. All the animals are dead, and the only humans who survived were top military officials and their wives. Women were blamed for the destruction of the world and in this new society are a degraded caste called 'fems'. Holdfast society is organized in rigid hierarchies, Seniors and Juniors divided by an age line, men and 'unmen' all of which are dead except fems. The people subsist on seaweed and marijuana--apparently the only plant that grows.
Charnas approaches her protagonist, the fem Alldera, through the narrations of three men. While they tell their stories, the men sketch out the structure and culture of this alien world. They explain life as they experience it, as part of the dominant class, but not as part of the power structure. In their own way each of the three male narrators has been hurt by the rules and relentless impersonality of holdfast life. But only Alldera can completely subvert the ideology of that world as part of the exploited class. There is a low-lying resistance among the fems that manifests itself in their own leadership structures--the matris--and is communicated among their own by means of songs that appear to be about something else. Charnas steals a lot from American slave culture for a novel in which all blacks are dead. In fact everybody is dead except for the Aryan race.
It's a chilling book. A startling counterpoint to the Marxist argument that says women are oppressed because of the ownership of private property. I think I need to read the sequel because I need more closure and more resolution than is offered at the end of this book. I used to think that Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was a scary parable about ideology carried all the way to the logical end. This book is so much scarier.
It takes place post nuclear holocaust. All the animals are dead, and the only humans who survived were top military officials and their wives. Women were blamed for the destruction of the world and in this new society are a degraded caste called 'fems'. Holdfast society is organized in rigid hierarchies, Seniors and Juniors divided by an age line, men and 'unmen' all of which are dead except fems. The people subsist on seaweed and marijuana--apparently the only plant that grows.
Charnas approaches her protagonist, the fem Alldera, through the narrations of three men. While they tell their stories, the men sketch out the structure and culture of this alien world. They explain life as they experience it, as part of the dominant class, but not as part of the power structure. In their own way each of the three male narrators has been hurt by the rules and relentless impersonality of holdfast life. But only Alldera can completely subvert the ideology of that world as part of the exploited class. There is a low-lying resistance among the fems that manifests itself in their own leadership structures--the matris--and is communicated among their own by means of songs that appear to be about something else. Charnas steals a lot from American slave culture for a novel in which all blacks are dead. In fact everybody is dead except for the Aryan race.
It's a chilling book. A startling counterpoint to the Marxist argument that says women are oppressed because of the ownership of private property. I think I need to read the sequel because I need more closure and more resolution than is offered at the end of this book. I used to think that Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was a scary parable about ideology carried all the way to the logical end. This book is so much scarier.
February 6, 2016
As with Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest, if I had not known that this was highly regarded amongst feminist sf types I would have given this book up in the first couple of pages. Charnas is utterly devastating in her representation of men and their attitudes towards one another, and their attitudes towards women - "fems" - and towards history and power. While I don't honestly think things would go this way, it still works as a horrifying critique and savage prophecy of the outcomes of patriarchy.
Charnas writes in a post-apocalyptic world where it seems that only a tiny proportion of white men, and fewer women, have survived to try and rebuild some sort of civilisation. And we know they are all white because there is specific mention of how excellent it is that one class of unmen - the Dirties - are gone, and in case the reader was really obtuse there's a song enumerating just who the Dirties were. I cannot imagine reading this as a non-white person, given it was hard enough as a white woman.
Anyway the destruction of the world has been blamed on the unmen - beasts, Dirties, and fems. The inclusion of beasts in this list is the most bizarre bit to me, because would men really have forgotten that animals were not human and had no connection to civilisation and therefore its destruction? I guess if there were no animals left and you were creating a story to apportion blame, you might. Anyway the Dirties apparently fought against the righteous actions of the true (white) men, and fems were witches who constantly fought against men because they're agents of chaos and the void.
Not content with this level of terrifying prediction, Charnas also suggests that patriarchy would (d)evolve into ruthless competition between, basically, sons and fathers. To the point of de-identifying familial ties so there can be no seeking out and killing progenitor/descendent; and to the point of reinterpreting Christianity as the Son defying the Father and being punished as a result. (Which is magnificent and disturbing and just whoa.)
The story revolves around the quest of a son for his father - because he's unique in knowing this information. At heart it's a very simple and straightforward story but the world that Charnas has created for it is anything but. Through the quest the reader sees basically the entirety of the new civilisation, as well as how the various segments of society work and all the dangerous undercurrents that are at play. The four different points of view, giving very different perspectives, all work seamlessly to develop Charnas' vision - which is really a warning.
This book is brilliant and terrifying and not for the faint of heart not because of violence to persons but because of violence to notions of civility and humanity. Well, mine anyway; maybe I'm just a bleeding heart liberal. I can't imagine what would happen if an MRA dude read it; I'd be rather scared they'd miss the irony.
I actually read this as the first in the Radical Utopias omnibus. The next is The Female Man, and I'm not sure my brain can handle rereading that. The third is a Delany that I'm pretty sure I haven't read, so I will certainly get to that soon.
Charnas writes in a post-apocalyptic world where it seems that only a tiny proportion of white men, and fewer women, have survived to try and rebuild some sort of civilisation. And we know they are all white because there is specific mention of how excellent it is that one class of unmen - the Dirties - are gone, and in case the reader was really obtuse there's a song enumerating just who the Dirties were. I cannot imagine reading this as a non-white person, given it was hard enough as a white woman.
Anyway the destruction of the world has been blamed on the unmen - beasts, Dirties, and fems. The inclusion of beasts in this list is the most bizarre bit to me, because would men really have forgotten that animals were not human and had no connection to civilisation and therefore its destruction? I guess if there were no animals left and you were creating a story to apportion blame, you might. Anyway the Dirties apparently fought against the righteous actions of the true (white) men, and fems were witches who constantly fought against men because they're agents of chaos and the void.
Not content with this level of terrifying prediction, Charnas also suggests that patriarchy would (d)evolve into ruthless competition between, basically, sons and fathers. To the point of de-identifying familial ties so there can be no seeking out and killing progenitor/descendent; and to the point of reinterpreting Christianity as the Son defying the Father and being punished as a result. (Which is magnificent and disturbing and just whoa.)
The story revolves around the quest of a son for his father - because he's unique in knowing this information. At heart it's a very simple and straightforward story but the world that Charnas has created for it is anything but. Through the quest the reader sees basically the entirety of the new civilisation, as well as how the various segments of society work and all the dangerous undercurrents that are at play. The four different points of view, giving very different perspectives, all work seamlessly to develop Charnas' vision - which is really a warning.
This book is brilliant and terrifying and not for the faint of heart not because of violence to persons but because of violence to notions of civility and humanity. Well, mine anyway; maybe I'm just a bleeding heart liberal. I can't imagine what would happen if an MRA dude read it; I'd be rather scared they'd miss the irony.
I actually read this as the first in the Radical Utopias omnibus. The next is The Female Man, and I'm not sure my brain can handle rereading that. The third is a Delany that I'm pretty sure I haven't read, so I will certainly get to that soon.
December 15, 2019
Después de la reseña de C busqué un ejemplar de segunda mano que aparecío on line a buen precio. Lo dejé para el verano y así poder leer uno de mis subgeneros favoritos: post-apocalipsis.
Después de esta introducción intrascendete, decir que el libro me dio mucho que pensar. Primero cuesta algo entrar en la historia. Está contada desde el punto de vista de distintos personajes que van cambiando conforme transcurre la historia. Se trata de un futuro post-guerra nuclear en que las mujeres son tratadas como ganado, ni siquiera como esclavas, y la verdad es que el título resume muy bien la historia. Nada de esperanzas ni "hopepunk" un mundo donde todo se ha ido a la mierda y todo apunta a que va peor. Te deja con mal sabor de boca casi todo el tiempo, y los típicos personjes que son los que salvan al mundo en otras ocasiones aquí solo sirven para hundirte más en la miseria moral.
Le doy 4 estrellas, ****, y no 5 en parte por que a ratos me costaba seguir el hilo de la historia. No sé si es la traducción que a veces tiene fallos o que al llamar a los mismos personajes de diferentes formas te obliga a releer o intentar saber a qué se refiere sin tenerlo muy claro. Pero vamos que salvo esto una lectura interesante y desoladora.
Después de esta introducción intrascendete, decir que el libro me dio mucho que pensar. Primero cuesta algo entrar en la historia. Está contada desde el punto de vista de distintos personajes que van cambiando conforme transcurre la historia. Se trata de un futuro post-guerra nuclear en que las mujeres son tratadas como ganado, ni siquiera como esclavas, y la verdad es que el título resume muy bien la historia. Nada de esperanzas ni "hopepunk" un mundo donde todo se ha ido a la mierda y todo apunta a que va peor. Te deja con mal sabor de boca casi todo el tiempo, y los típicos personjes que son los que salvan al mundo en otras ocasiones aquí solo sirven para hundirte más en la miseria moral.
Le doy 4 estrellas, ****, y no 5 en parte por que a ratos me costaba seguir el hilo de la historia. No sé si es la traducción que a veces tiene fallos o que al llamar a los mismos personajes de diferentes formas te obliga a releer o intentar saber a qué se refiere sin tenerlo muy claro. Pero vamos que salvo esto una lectura interesante y desoladora.
April 18, 2021
Odd book. It seems to be aiming for near social science fiction, with joke references to bra burning and cover copy that stresses verisimilitude, but the fictional society is marked by severe discontinuity with past or present cultures that have a gender hierarchy. It clearly makes a statement with all its new systems, but doesn't seem interested in exploring that statement further.
I don't know. I didn't have a great time with this, but it feels so much like half a story that I'm considering reading the sequel.
EDIT: Having read the second book, I liked that better, but nothing in it deepens the elements of the first setting.
I don't know. I didn't have a great time with this, but it feels so much like half a story that I'm considering reading the sequel.
EDIT: Having read the second book, I liked that better, but nothing in it deepens the elements of the first setting.
December 12, 2014
This book is a fun read - by a feminist, lesbian author - that begins a series of 4 speculative fiction books. They all take place in world post-nuclear-apocalypse that is fragmented and lacking most of the pre-apocalptic technology, societal structures, food sources, and borders. This first book in the series (written in the 70s, and very second-wave-feminismy) takes place in a small nation/society that has no contact with other societies outside their borders. They are the descendants of some high-ranking military officials who bunkered-down with their families when they saw things were going bad and the result is a current society that is structured around a kind of bastardized military hierarchy in which women are enslaved and blamed for the war and for all evil in the world. The male hierarchy is organized and policed strictly by an age ranking system. The book takes place following several years of famine, in which we get the sense that things may be reaching a boiling point. The book follows a group of three men who are on a journey together and who are all peripheral/marginal to the society in some way (which makes their perspectives quite interesting). Then the final section of the book is from a woman's point of view (who has been accompanying them but who is discussed very little up to that point) who gives us a totally new perspective on another culture (fem culture) within the society. The next book takes place in a different (nomadic, matriarchal) society outside the borders of the Holdfast. Really interesting book, though it is starting to show it's age. Made me anxious to read the rest for sure!
March 3, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
"Suzy McKee Charnas’ Walk to the End of the World (1974) is the first of four novels in The Holdfast Chronicles sequence (1974-1999) that charts the slow forces of change in a post-apocalyptical future where women (“fems”) are chattel. Kate Macdonald, in her wonderful review of Ammonite (1993) characterized Nicola Griffith’s novel as “instantly […] feminist: not stealth, or muted, or sub-conscious.” Walk to the End of the World falls squarely, and powerfully into this category. Told with intensity and vigor, Charnas brands the reader with her vision, a searing and festering landscape where white men have either exterminated the remaining “unmen” (the “Dirties”) or subjugated them (the “fems”) after a manmade cataclysm. Complex [...]"
"Suzy McKee Charnas’ Walk to the End of the World (1974) is the first of four novels in The Holdfast Chronicles sequence (1974-1999) that charts the slow forces of change in a post-apocalyptical future where women (“fems”) are chattel. Kate Macdonald, in her wonderful review of Ammonite (1993) characterized Nicola Griffith’s novel as “instantly […] feminist: not stealth, or muted, or sub-conscious.” Walk to the End of the World falls squarely, and powerfully into this category. Told with intensity and vigor, Charnas brands the reader with her vision, a searing and festering landscape where white men have either exterminated the remaining “unmen” (the “Dirties”) or subjugated them (the “fems”) after a manmade cataclysm. Complex [...]"
March 5, 2016
At once prophetic and absurd, Charnas builds a far-future society resulting from far-out superstitions drawn from the Oedipal complex, and borrowing realistic cultural elements from the American slavery era. With highly nuanced male characters and only one female protagonist (who doesn't speak until the final quarter), this often feels more like fantasy satire than overt feminist social critique. The clumsy action and deadpan dialogue furthers that feeling, especially when most of it dissolves away in the final two stages.
November 9, 2019
This book has an odd, disjointed structure, being narrated sequentially from the point of view of four of its characters, Captain Kelmz, Servan d Layo, Eykar Bek and Alldera, before the final section, called Destination, which switches between the last three of those. It was a bit of a slog at first as there was a significant degree of information dumping and much of the story was told, not shown to us.
The setting is many, many years after The Wasting where most of humanity was wiped out by various environmental disasters and their accompanying wars. The remains of humanity are congregated in a smallish land area known as Holdfast, bounded on two sides by The Wild and stretching from the inland town of ’Troi to Lammintown and Bayo on the coast with a slight seaside extension to Endpath. (These are – unneccesarily - outlined on a map which follows the dedication page.)
Holdfast is a subsistence society run by men who blame the descent of the species on women, here known as Fems and treated as subhuman slaves barely fit for the necessary breeding (which is looked on with more than distaste by the men, who are supposed to prefer same-sex encounters.) The litany of those “Dirties” who are the butt of the men’s displeasure at their reduced state is a list of all those whom political right-wingers have traditionally despised. They chant, “Reds, Blacks, Browns, Kinks; Gooks, Dagos, Greasers, Chinks; Ragheads, Niggas, Kites, Dinks,” and, “Lonhairs, Raggles, Bleedingarts; Faggas, Hibbies, Families, Kids; Junkies, Skinheads, Collegeists; Ef-eet Iron-mentalists,” adding, “Bird, Cat, Chick, Sow, Filly, Tigress, Bitch, Cow,” and, “the dreadful weapons of the unmen; cancer, raybees, deedeetee; Zinc, lead and mer-cur-ee.”
I note that in that second last list, of derogatory terms for women, Charnas has missed out the most potent, the c-word, which her characters would more probably have gloried in. (It may be she thought it would not get past her publishers. Possibly she tried, and they vetoed it.)
In Holdfast, intergenerational conflict is thought to be inevitable and male children are brought up not knowing who their father is (and vice versa.) This provides part of the motor for the plot as Eykar Bek, once Endtendant at Endpath, to where men go at the end of their lives for a ritual suicide, knows his father is Raff Maggomas but not his whereabouts. The plot involves d Layo, Bek and the fem Alldera variously hiding out from the men at Lammintown and Bayo before travelling to ’Troi where the final confrontationt takes place. As Alldera is set on finding the legendary free women in The Wild, whom we do not meet (and into which we do not venture) in this novel, scope is afforded for a sequel.
At time of first publication in 1974 the future postulated here may have seemed an overly pessimistic view of the future of gender relations - which then were becoming more fluid in the West. But suppression of women never really went away in the wider world and in these days of resurgent male chauvinism in the so-called “mature” democracies and the less polite areas of the internet, it is frighteningly plausible.
Undoubtedly feminist as Charnas’s intent was, as a novel, taking the gender relationships aside, the mechanics of Walk to the End of the World’s plot and the degree (or lack of it) of characterisation were pretty standard SF fare for the time.
The setting is many, many years after The Wasting where most of humanity was wiped out by various environmental disasters and their accompanying wars. The remains of humanity are congregated in a smallish land area known as Holdfast, bounded on two sides by The Wild and stretching from the inland town of ’Troi to Lammintown and Bayo on the coast with a slight seaside extension to Endpath. (These are – unneccesarily - outlined on a map which follows the dedication page.)
Holdfast is a subsistence society run by men who blame the descent of the species on women, here known as Fems and treated as subhuman slaves barely fit for the necessary breeding (which is looked on with more than distaste by the men, who are supposed to prefer same-sex encounters.) The litany of those “Dirties” who are the butt of the men’s displeasure at their reduced state is a list of all those whom political right-wingers have traditionally despised. They chant, “Reds, Blacks, Browns, Kinks; Gooks, Dagos, Greasers, Chinks; Ragheads, Niggas, Kites, Dinks,” and, “Lonhairs, Raggles, Bleedingarts; Faggas, Hibbies, Families, Kids; Junkies, Skinheads, Collegeists; Ef-eet Iron-mentalists,” adding, “Bird, Cat, Chick, Sow, Filly, Tigress, Bitch, Cow,” and, “the dreadful weapons of the unmen; cancer, raybees, deedeetee; Zinc, lead and mer-cur-ee.”
I note that in that second last list, of derogatory terms for women, Charnas has missed out the most potent, the c-word, which her characters would more probably have gloried in. (It may be she thought it would not get past her publishers. Possibly she tried, and they vetoed it.)
In Holdfast, intergenerational conflict is thought to be inevitable and male children are brought up not knowing who their father is (and vice versa.) This provides part of the motor for the plot as Eykar Bek, once Endtendant at Endpath, to where men go at the end of their lives for a ritual suicide, knows his father is Raff Maggomas but not his whereabouts. The plot involves d Layo, Bek and the fem Alldera variously hiding out from the men at Lammintown and Bayo before travelling to ’Troi where the final confrontationt takes place. As Alldera is set on finding the legendary free women in The Wild, whom we do not meet (and into which we do not venture) in this novel, scope is afforded for a sequel.
At time of first publication in 1974 the future postulated here may have seemed an overly pessimistic view of the future of gender relations - which then were becoming more fluid in the West. But suppression of women never really went away in the wider world and in these days of resurgent male chauvinism in the so-called “mature” democracies and the less polite areas of the internet, it is frighteningly plausible.
Undoubtedly feminist as Charnas’s intent was, as a novel, taking the gender relationships aside, the mechanics of Walk to the End of the World’s plot and the degree (or lack of it) of characterisation were pretty standard SF fare for the time.
March 29, 2024
A testosterone-fueled nightmare written by a feminist author and an outstanding post apocalypse novel. After the Wasting, men have managed to convince everyone--including themselves--that it was all the fault of women (fems). The Holdfast is all that remains of mankind, and people survive on meagre crops such as seaweed and hemp. All animals are extinct. Society is strictly segregated by sex. Men rule and fems serve. Homosexuality is the norm--fems are only suitable for breeding. Of course, some men are still attracted to fems, but this is a perversion. The society of men is further segregated into Boys, Juniors and Seniors. Knowledge of one's parents is forbidden because fathers and sons are natural enemies (fems corrupt sons against fathers). The novel concerns one Junior named Bek who is haunted by the fact that he knows his father's identity, and he has lived his life expecting his father to kill him at any moment. The novel follows Bek's journey to find his father who is a controversial figure. During the quest, society begins to crumble because crops are failing, and the culmination of the novel has Bek finding his father as rebellion breaks out. This is not a cozy catastrophe such as the Pelbar Cycle (which does have brutal elements). This is much closer to Neal Barrett's Through Darkest America. Despite the violence and degradation, Barrett's novel is often humorous and the setting is similar to American westerns. In contrast, Walk to the End of the World is bleak, and I'd compare the setting to The Night Land or the far, far future in The Time Machine. I'm eager to read the sequels.
May 11, 2021
I couldn’t get into this at all from the beginning, there were too many unknowns and the new world was too obscure for me to get on board with it and I guess I was too impatient to let it unfold naturally. Instead I skim read until about a third in and it was only when the fems were introduced that I started to get it. I thought the fems storyline was fascinating to read and really put the dystopian world into perspective. I couldn’t wait to see how Alderra impacted the journey/story and I found her section was much better. The Destination section was also really good and I felt like this really sets the rest of the Holdfast series up.
There is certainly a lot going on in this and a lot of themes but I particularly enjoyed the exploration of ecology and the danger to the future of the world if we continue to abuse it the way we have. It’s a warning story and I enjoyed seeing the dystopian world that we could end up with if we continue the way we are going.
This one is very much focused on the men and their role in the new world and I’m hoping that the next book in the series, Motherlines, will be more focused on the women as this was my favourite aspect of this book.
There is certainly a lot going on in this and a lot of themes but I particularly enjoyed the exploration of ecology and the danger to the future of the world if we continue to abuse it the way we have. It’s a warning story and I enjoyed seeing the dystopian world that we could end up with if we continue the way we are going.
This one is very much focused on the men and their role in the new world and I’m hoping that the next book in the series, Motherlines, will be more focused on the women as this was my favourite aspect of this book.
February 25, 2018
So the environment has collapsed and the survivors have rebuilt a society built on sexism and racism, where the "fems" are very much at the bottom of the pile (because they caused the whole apocalypse thing by their evil influence and witchy ways).
And that sounds cliched, but this book isn't quite what I expected, it does have interesting ideas (particularly as how homosexuality is now the norm for families as the fems are seen as less than human) and the world building gives a society unlike anything else I've read. But it's not altogether successful as a book, there's little plot - it's yet another post-apocalyptic book where all the characters go on a journey. The male characters are all very similar (and unlikeable, mainly because of the world in which they live), and yet they still get a chapter each to give their viewpoint. The most interesting character (rebel fem Alldera) doesn't really appear until the last quarter of the book. I also think the style is clunky, and doesn't really flow. But I am going to find the next one.
And that sounds cliched, but this book isn't quite what I expected, it does have interesting ideas (particularly as how homosexuality is now the norm for families as the fems are seen as less than human) and the world building gives a society unlike anything else I've read. But it's not altogether successful as a book, there's little plot - it's yet another post-apocalyptic book where all the characters go on a journey. The male characters are all very similar (and unlikeable, mainly because of the world in which they live), and yet they still get a chapter each to give their viewpoint. The most interesting character (rebel fem Alldera) doesn't really appear until the last quarter of the book. I also think the style is clunky, and doesn't really flow. But I am going to find the next one.
June 23, 2020
This is the first dystopian novel I’ve read in a long time where men dominate women. And it’s the first one I’ve read from the point of view of the men. It takes place many years after nuclear war and women are treated as property, slaves, and even as pets. It’s disturbing as hell. Unfortunately, the message was lost in the writing style of the book; it was non-stop exposition. I continually lost the plot because either a character or the third person omniscient narrator always seemed to go back in time to explain some aspect of a character’s life or some point in the history of how the world got to this point. Nonetheless, this book plus its sequels, together known as “The Holdfast Chronicles”, is in the Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame. This book plus its first sequel, together known as “The Slave and the Free”, won an Otherwise Award (formerly known as the Tiptree Award) retrospective honor.
Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
February 28, 2020
For a book that’s published in the 1970s to late 1990s, Suzy McKee Charnas really outdone herself in writing The Holdfast Chronicles.
Known as the feminist science fiction writer, this book is about how women are used as breeding slaves and not as partners. It is also about the freedom and power for women, and goes to show how far society would be mean to women as long as the women are being limited of their freedom. Feminism has become more apparent now in the 21st century. We see Gender Studies as something that we can take a course from to learn, countries trying to implement as much gender equality as possible so women are no longer seen as second-class human beings.
When these women have power, it becomes apparent that women can be as powerful as men when they take over the world. Or at least, have a woman’s point of view when making policies and new laws.
Known as the feminist science fiction writer, this book is about how women are used as breeding slaves and not as partners. It is also about the freedom and power for women, and goes to show how far society would be mean to women as long as the women are being limited of their freedom. Feminism has become more apparent now in the 21st century. We see Gender Studies as something that we can take a course from to learn, countries trying to implement as much gender equality as possible so women are no longer seen as second-class human beings.
When these women have power, it becomes apparent that women can be as powerful as men when they take over the world. Or at least, have a woman’s point of view when making policies and new laws.
March 27, 2025
The book has a great start. The first 50 pages are a masterpiece. A sinister and disturbing masterpiece, but very interesting, layered and so on.
Then... well, then you have massive infodumpings, alternating with fast-paced action, so fast-paced that it seems like a series of events that barely connects with the characters.
I would still read it for the patriarchal lore, disturbingly familiar, yet completely distorted.
Then... well, then you have massive infodumpings, alternating with fast-paced action, so fast-paced that it seems like a series of events that barely connects with the characters.
I would still read it for the patriarchal lore, disturbingly familiar, yet completely distorted.
January 25, 2024
This book has everything: Men subjugating "fems," subsistence kelp farming, cannibalism, heterosexuality as perversion, human cheese, mutant marijuana... It answers the question, "What if a handful of super rich white guys and their unfortunate wives were the only animal life to survive a world-ending cataclysm?"
March 18, 2019
I read half of it before letting go. I find the premise interesting but i can`t connect with the book at all. I may revisit eventually.
May 26, 2019
Picked this series up from a trade shelf in a youth hostel in Europe. Did not know what I was in for. While I can't say I "liked" it, the series definitely stuck with me.
May 10, 2023
Pretty bleak, but surprisingly well written with cohesive story telling, world building and character development. Looking forward to the sequel!
May 3, 2025
Ancient Greek gender roles but make it post apocalyptic.
Suzy McKee Charnas you’re wiiiiild for this one!
Suzy McKee Charnas you’re wiiiiild for this one!
March 24, 2009
One interesting niche of science fiction is that written from a feminist point of view. After all, what better way to comment on gender roles than through science fiction, where new gender-less creatures can be created or where societies can be created out of whole cloth that turn assumptions of gender roles upside down?
Walk to the End of the World is the latest novel I have read from David Pringle's list of top 100 sci fi books that has pretty much been my reading guide for the past few years:
http://www.listology.com/content_show...
The novel portrays a society that has become completely male-dominated after a catastrophic apocalyptic event many generations ago. Females are extremely oppressed due to a mythology created that blames their gender for the destruction that has limited resources and land available for settlement. This mythology has also created a society of male clans that compete for dominance. The details of the whole societal structure that is setup in this world is rather complex and not entirely believable given the historical information you are given, but I just concluded that there might be a world beyond this society's borders... it has just been forbidden to enter.
Regardless, what's the most powerful about this book is the description of absolute female oppression. This is done in one way through the first 3 sections (out of four) of the novel, which each take the perspective of one of the main male characters. No detail is spared, from the talk of doing your duty at the "breeding houses", to the illegal training of females as runners, to the coded language and protest songs the females must use to communicate without raising suspicions of intelligence, to other things much more brutal.
Compelling enough on it's own, but the fourth section, which concludes the novel, is told from the perspective of one of the more self-aware women in this world who assists the male characters on a quest. As you get used to the completely crushed mental and physical spirits of the women in this world, this section satisfied a strong curiousity about what it is personally liked for the oppressed to live this way. I can't recall at the moment any other books that force a perspective from the exploiter and the exploited but I liked the shift that happens in the fourth section.
There is much more to this story, but I give it some demotions for not being interesting enough to take my focus off of why women were treated this way and what harm this chauvinistic setup does to the psychology of this whole society. Having these characters wander around to their destination does allow you to see and imagine different parts of the book's world, but it's a problem when the details of the narrative read too much as a diversion into the world's description. Even in that case, there were a few instances where the world didn't seem believable in that rather than becoming male-dominated (with it's implications) it seemed to become more primitive, relying on religious ceremonies and sacrifices. It's not explained very well how a possibly modern society could sink on a downward spiral so far, but maybe that is what the author is trying to state. That once you scapegoat the weak, it's only a matter of a few more generations before you slink back into paganism.
That being said, the book isn't very long, and it serves sci-fi's main purpose for me, which is to paint through words a completely new picture in your mind of an alien society.
Walk to the End of the World is the latest novel I have read from David Pringle's list of top 100 sci fi books that has pretty much been my reading guide for the past few years:
http://www.listology.com/content_show...
The novel portrays a society that has become completely male-dominated after a catastrophic apocalyptic event many generations ago. Females are extremely oppressed due to a mythology created that blames their gender for the destruction that has limited resources and land available for settlement. This mythology has also created a society of male clans that compete for dominance. The details of the whole societal structure that is setup in this world is rather complex and not entirely believable given the historical information you are given, but I just concluded that there might be a world beyond this society's borders... it has just been forbidden to enter.
Regardless, what's the most powerful about this book is the description of absolute female oppression. This is done in one way through the first 3 sections (out of four) of the novel, which each take the perspective of one of the main male characters. No detail is spared, from the talk of doing your duty at the "breeding houses", to the illegal training of females as runners, to the coded language and protest songs the females must use to communicate without raising suspicions of intelligence, to other things much more brutal.
Compelling enough on it's own, but the fourth section, which concludes the novel, is told from the perspective of one of the more self-aware women in this world who assists the male characters on a quest. As you get used to the completely crushed mental and physical spirits of the women in this world, this section satisfied a strong curiousity about what it is personally liked for the oppressed to live this way. I can't recall at the moment any other books that force a perspective from the exploiter and the exploited but I liked the shift that happens in the fourth section.
There is much more to this story, but I give it some demotions for not being interesting enough to take my focus off of why women were treated this way and what harm this chauvinistic setup does to the psychology of this whole society. Having these characters wander around to their destination does allow you to see and imagine different parts of the book's world, but it's a problem when the details of the narrative read too much as a diversion into the world's description. Even in that case, there were a few instances where the world didn't seem believable in that rather than becoming male-dominated (with it's implications) it seemed to become more primitive, relying on religious ceremonies and sacrifices. It's not explained very well how a possibly modern society could sink on a downward spiral so far, but maybe that is what the author is trying to state. That once you scapegoat the weak, it's only a matter of a few more generations before you slink back into paganism.
That being said, the book isn't very long, and it serves sci-fi's main purpose for me, which is to paint through words a completely new picture in your mind of an alien society.
April 12, 2014
The book takes place many generations after a world-ending event called the Wasting, wherein all of mankind's natural resources ran out and the majority of the world's population died, along with most larger animals.
In the settlement called Holdfast, society is broken up in two key ways; first by age, Seniors and Juniors, who each have specific roles and rarely interact with each other in any way that isn't antagonistic, and secondly, by gender.
In the world of the story the Wasting is now blamed on women (called fems in the novel), who were thought to be the cause of the end of the old world and have now been reduced to labour and breeding animals, not actually considered creature with souls or any value except their necessary function in continuing the human race.
As a man raised in a house of women, who has since moved into his own house (and filled it with his wife and daughters) reading the book was a bizarre experience for me, the author does a great job at creating the society and all of its rules, and by breaking the book into smaller parts and focusing each on a different character, the reader is able to get a very good idea of how this world works.
The book was followed by three sequels: Motherlines (1978), The Furies (1994), and The Conqueror's Child (1999), all of which have now been added to my list of books I hope to read this year.
A little dated in concept and writing style, but definitely a worthwhile read.
In the settlement called Holdfast, society is broken up in two key ways; first by age, Seniors and Juniors, who each have specific roles and rarely interact with each other in any way that isn't antagonistic, and secondly, by gender.
In the world of the story the Wasting is now blamed on women (called fems in the novel), who were thought to be the cause of the end of the old world and have now been reduced to labour and breeding animals, not actually considered creature with souls or any value except their necessary function in continuing the human race.
As a man raised in a house of women, who has since moved into his own house (and filled it with his wife and daughters) reading the book was a bizarre experience for me, the author does a great job at creating the society and all of its rules, and by breaking the book into smaller parts and focusing each on a different character, the reader is able to get a very good idea of how this world works.
The book was followed by three sequels: Motherlines (1978), The Furies (1994), and The Conqueror's Child (1999), all of which have now been added to my list of books I hope to read this year.
A little dated in concept and writing style, but definitely a worthwhile read.
January 4, 2019
Not withstanding the rather comical cover of the original release, this book was a brutal trip through a far-distant (though perhaps not as far as we think) future in which white men have succeeded in wiping out not only most of nature, but also all people of color and a large portion of womankind. What women remain are used for propagation and slave labor.
Still shocking - at least to me - in 2018, I can only imagine the pearl-clutching that went on when it was first published. Violent and gorgeously written, bleak, but with an undercurrent of hope for the future, Walk to the End of the World is a worthy addition to your library if you're a fan of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (seriously, who ISN'T) or dystopian fiction in general. If you're easily offended, though, this might be pretty challenging. Basically the entire book is one big possible trigger. It's followed up by two other books which I plan to read in 2019.
Still shocking - at least to me - in 2018, I can only imagine the pearl-clutching that went on when it was first published. Violent and gorgeously written, bleak, but with an undercurrent of hope for the future, Walk to the End of the World is a worthy addition to your library if you're a fan of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (seriously, who ISN'T) or dystopian fiction in general. If you're easily offended, though, this might be pretty challenging. Basically the entire book is one big possible trigger. It's followed up by two other books which I plan to read in 2019.
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