Mission Child

A colonized world develops a unique identity and culture. Years later, one of its citizens develops a unique identity as well, adapting to her culture by taking on the identity of a man. Soon, she finds that her gender-blurring actually appeals to her in ways beyond what her situation demands of her. I love Mission Child as much as McHugh's more popular novel China Mountain Zhang, which received the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. McHugh is a great writer who can involve readers in any scene, regardless of how much or how little action that scene contains. The language seems descriptive to an extreme, but she still manages to tie those descriptions into the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Before reading her work, I read reviews that included complaints about her supposedly not focusing on plot. Readers can find countless formulaic, plot-driven science fiction and fantasy novels, but they won't find many original and evocative writers of McHugh's caliber. McHugh's other novels include Nekropolis and Half the Day Is Night.

Maureen McHugh has outdone her previous two novels (Half the Day is Night, China Mountain Zhang) by a quantum leap with Mission Child.Mission Child tells the futuristic odyssey of Janna, a young woman who undergoes many changes in her search for a role in life. From her begining as a child of the Hamra Mission, a low-tech culture on a world long-ago colonized by Earth, Janna sets forth on a journey across the planet when her clan is murdered by invaders. It is the first time Janna must come to grips with death, but certainly not the last. As Janna travels from city to city, we see the colonization of the planet through her eyes. She encounters several different cultures, all vaguely familiar to the reader, yet altered by their adaptation to their new world. McHugh does an incredible job of presenting these cultures through Janna's eyes in a believeable way. McHugh's grasp of the narrative is amazing.I rank this book up there with SF classics like Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. Definitely a must-read book.

Brought back deep memories of my experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa, 25 years ago.

Maureen McHugh has already proved herself to be the single best builder of lived-in sf worlds working in the field today. Her talent for capturing ordinary people is stronger than ever in Mission Child, but those ordinary people are living very adventurous lives. McHugh has added a lot of beauty to her always spare and graceful prose. This coming-of-age story features war, guns, reindeer, alien hi-tech, pirates, Laplander cyberpunk, and a cross-dressing shaman who is one of the most memorable characters in SF this decade. My favorite SF book of the last five years.

Maureen McHugh is known for the grace and subtlety of her prose. She does not disappoint in this latest journey into the developing heart of a young girl, coming of age amid the chaos of a changing world._Mission Child_ explores the world of a pre-industrial child as she begins to cope with the destruction of her secure tribal culture and her exploration of the alien industrial environment in which she must learn to survive.I gained a new understanding for what it must be like to suddenly find oneself an utter stranger to one's land and even oneself. Jan/Janna is no great hero. She makes terrible mistakes, has good luck and bad, is blown by the winds of her own emotions as much as by the winds of change that sweep her world. But it is the triumph of her sense of self that keeps us rooting for her.There are no easy answers in this book--no cookie-cutter endings. It was a wonderful story. I enjoyed it very much.