Flesh and Gold

________________________________________Rating: "A". Gorgeous writing, wonderful 1960-ish space-opera plot, marred by an unsuccessful ending. Recommended. Sta'atha Anfa Skerow is a senior interworld judge on the GalFed Assizes Circuit. A citizen of the Northern Spine Federation on Khagodis, she resembles (to Solthree eyes) a "streamlined baby allosaurus". A routine smuggling trial on Fthel V opens a trapdoor into a cesspool of treachery and corruption, cruelty and murder, slavery and redemption in a far-distant future."My knife is missing," Nohl said."What does that matter?" Ferrier turned his eyes from the smoking volcanic peak on the horizon to the east and watched the waters of the bay dancing in glints of light from the lowering sun. On Khagodis the air is so thin that the stars are sometimes visible in daylight; now in the flaring blue Ferrier could see three of the system's other worlds. He had hooked the oxygen tube into the corner of his mouth and it bubbled slightly.Amber lights glinted on Nohl's scales. With a pearl talon he flicked away an insect buzzing near his eye and looked down at the the thin figure whose head came to his elbow. Ferrier was wearing white against the equatorial heat; his short jacket was closely fitted, and had double-breasted black buttons. Nohl was thinking that Ferrier's eyes were like the buttons, fixed and sharp on white skin. A thin skin over arrogance and greed. * * *She felt other eyes on her. The madam, a blue-skinned Varvani woman, was standing in the doorway; she balanced her elephantine legs on gold clogs, and the enormous bosom above her chain-mail skirt was tattooed with red kissystars... "Don't block the window, dear heart. You want a sample, come on in." * * *Zella's people [on New Southsea] were secular fundamentalists who lived on solar energy, avoided electronics more complicated than radios, raised all their own food, and went to bed with the chickens. The energetic young left early and sometimes came back when they were tired. Zella did not repudiate her community's ideals, but wanted excitement. She was getting it.Well. The first two paragraphs open the novel. What can I say? "Gee, I wish I could write like this?"Instead, here is Ursula K Le Guin's cover quote:"Sex, violence, intricate plotting, light-speed pacing, an amazing variety of aliens, touches of Philip K Dick's sardonic humor and Cordwainer Smith's obstinate idealism make this novel dazzling.""Flesh & Gold" is a delight to read. I found myself constantly backing up to reread choice bits, and to check earlier glosses on the large and, umm, colorful cast. Gotlieb's prose is spare, elegant, polished to a lapidary glitter. As I approached the end, I wondered how she would tie off loose threads and resolve the novel. Well, she didn't. The book just tails off and stops. Oh well. Jack Vance never figured out how to end a novel either.So - enjoy the ride, which is truly

As a satisfied customer I'd like to thank you kindly for including my own book in your list of recommendations for me. I can say without reservation that after three years of hard work wwriting it I have already read it many times.Yours faithfullyPhyllis Gotlieb

Several admirable plot synopses have already been provided above, so I'll try to stay away from a summary. But I will say that "Flesh and Gold" is an excellent book: as science fiction, as a mystery, as a novel with real and believable characters. Set in the same future universe as Gotlieb's "A Judgement of Dragons" and its sequels, the story features an amazing array of aliens and humans whose environment is as fantastic as the characters themselves. Skerow is a Khagodi, a telepathic saurian whose world's atmosphere is so thin that all its stars can be seen in the daytime; she works as a circuit judge on Fthel V, otherwise known as Starry Nova, which is a seedy flash-brilliant world full of crime and entirely fascinating. Kobai is a "delphine," a kind of mer-woman bred as a gold-finding slave in the seas of Khagodis...without the knowledge of the Khagodi government. The Lyhhrt are protoplasmic lumps who build themselves intricate workshells of precious metals; the Praximfi change shape as part of their religious rituals; determining the gender of a Pinxin gives the studious reader a headache. The human characters are no less compelling. Ned Gattes, a professional gladiator and part-time GalFed agent, gets stuck with the role of hero-in-spite-of-himself; yet he's not a stock character by any means, but as fully-fleshed as Skerow or Kobai or even Skerow's bottled-brain ancestors who have gone a bit nuts as a result of their immortal confinement but are still willing to give their great-great-great-granddaughter a helping hand. The true test of any book is whether or not it can hold up under a second reading. So far "Flesh and Gold" has taken two readings without hurt and I expect a third will be equally as good. This is a special kind of book. Gotlieb does not write science fiction about gadgetry; there is no "gimmick" to the story. Nor are the characters a framework to hang the mystery on; that has no trick to it either. Phyllis Gotlieb writes intricate fiction about people-and whether they are human, saurian, or robotic, she makes them real. And that makes it good.

"Flesh and Gold" is an amazing SciFi novel. Phyllis Gotlieb has used her poetic style to create an atmospheric story with the pacing of a crime novel. It tells the stories of such a variety of beings, humaniod and other, with such insight into character...something unexpected in most SciFi books. There's Skerow, a naive, gilled lizard woman, her opal sucking pet, an amphibious eel-tailed mer-woman called Kobai, psychic slugs given mobility in elaborate carapaces made of gold, silver and copper called Lyhhrt, and humanoid futuristic gladiators both male and female. The planet on which they have imprisoned themselves is as much a character as any of these aliens. A truly fantastic book by a little known though prolific author.