In the Mothers' Land

This is an extremely well-crafted science fiction novel that's ultimately so absorbing, I felt like I spent a lifetime in that world. It is also published as The Maerlande Chronicles - this is the same book under a different name. We follow a five-year old girl, Lisbei, as she grows up in a ward for children. More than half of the children born succumb to the Malady (an incurable, untreatable disease that comes on suddenly, and leads to a coma and death within weeks), that children under the age of 7 aren't even considered people. They are reared together in garderies, in a blissful ignorant existence. We follow Lisbei as she slowly explores the world around her, and we begin to recognize it as our own, more than a thousand years in the future. Civilization reached a technological peak, and entered the Decline. Dramatic climate and ecological shifts transformed the physical landscape. Most of the land is a toxic waste. Bethaly, where Lisbei lives, is a city-state somewhere in what used to be Europe. Not only the physical land, but also humanity has been transformed. Only a few boys are born for every hundred girls. The social order has settled into a religious, matriarchal, pacific motley of independent city-states. Lisbei is driven by a thirst for knowledge and exploration, and the delight of the book is slowly uncovering the shape of the world she lives in, the history, the birth of the religious movement 300 hundred years ago. The society depicted is a very interesting and realistic one. The book starts slow, not the least because you have no idea where you are or the context, and because of many new terms. For example, children under 7 years old are called "mostas" for "almost person." "Reds" are people in their fertile period, "Greens" are those who haven't reached puberty, and "Blues" are sterile. It would have been easier if I knew this going in. Also, Elisabeth Vonarburg does something fantastic with language that creates a very immersive experience. It was a very worthwhile read. After finishing, I ran over to the computer to see if there's more books set in that world, and apparently, The Silent City is a prequel. I had no idea while reading "The Maerlande Chronicles," it felt like a stand-alone.

I would like to start by saying that Elisabeth Vonarburg's way of introducing readers to her fictional world is, quite possibly, the best bit of world-building I've ever seen. Forget dropping the reader into the middle of something and hoping they'll catch up later; forget info-dumping the entire history of the world in the first three paragraphs. Vonarburg eases us in gently and gradually, by starting the story with the heroine, Lisbei, five years old. We learn about the world as Lisbei does, in ever-expanding circles, first the nursery and then the commune and then the larger universe. A bit more about this universe: It's a post-apocalyptic Europe, in which large areas of land are off-limits due to toxic wastes, and radiation has changed the human species such that women far outnumber men. And Lisbei is stranger still, with surprising talents and a curiosity that has the potential to shake her entire society. We follow Lisbei through her entire life, from her youthful obsession with her sister/lover Tula to her exile into faraway lands, and then circle back to Lisbei's home as she returns there later in life. Along the way, she makes some shattering discoveries about herself, her religion, and the people around her. This book completely immersed me more than most other science fiction and fantasy has done. I find myself coming back to it over and over again.

I've read this book about ten to fifteen times since I got this book. Everytime I read it, I find something new that captures my attention

In this lyric book, Lisbei, the heroine, discovers her extrordinary intelligence and secrets the matriachy of this world don't want revealed. I dare you to stop reading once you've started.