Rating: 
Summary: badly written, unsympathetic characters, unlikely plot
Review: A heavy handed polemical work, this awful book has no sympathetic characters, (the protagonist is an idiot!) and a plot that makes you wonder if Tepper has any respect for the intelligence of her readers
Rating: 
Summary: A great read!
Review: The synopsis above does not do this novel justice, nor does it accurately describe it. This book provides a far more hopeful view of a mythic future than The Handmaid's Tale, and more interesting characters. Most of the science fiction novels I grew up with had female characters that were sort of like that old saw about Englishwomen's shoes; they read like they had been written by someone who had heard women described, but had never actually met any. (e.g. Heinlein's Podkanye of Mars.) The Gate to Women's Country is a refreshing change, and one heck of a good read. ( If you like this book, and you like murder mysteries, be sure to read the Shirley McClintock mysteries, also written by Tepper, under the pseudonym B.J. Oliphant.
Rating:
Summary: I re-read it twice a year!
Review: This is one of my all time favorite books - the interweaving of
mythology and plot is a fascinating & well done device. I would
highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys thought-provoking
works and alternative views of our future
Rating: 
Summary: The Gate to Women's Country
Review: (...)Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country has been a lightening rod of criticism for its frank, some would say, unfair treatment of males. Having read and heard many negative comments about the feminist agenda pursued by this novel, I fully expected a diatribe against males and a utopian society ran by women to the be the centerpiece of the story. Little did I expect the unfavorable assessment of both sexes found here. Males are depicted as being violent but easily manipulated by symbolism and perceived threats to of their "manhood". Women are depicted as weak-willed and inclined toward poor judgement. The Gate to Women's Country is not "hard science" fiction, nor is there much action or plot to engage the reader's interest. Nevertheless, it is a compelling work that explores, sometimes stereotypically, male and female behavior. The Gate to Women's Country is set in a post-holocaust Earth, segments of which have been settled and ruled by women. Inside walled enclaves women have established a system whereby males are forced to live outside the society of women in armed encampments unless, at specified ages, they expressly desire to live in "Women's Country" and abide by the rules established therein. The rigid military caste set up by males on the outside, however, puts an unrelenting amount of pressure on males to reject Women's Country and remain warriors. A cabal of women, through a variety of measures, including espionage and violence, effectively subjugate the male population or warrior caste. The socio-political nature of Women's Country vis a vis its male subjects is intricately woven into the plot. The story centers around Stavia who grows up accepting the social institutions around her but questioning their utility. She falls in love with a young warrior, Chernon, who is depicted as the typical male. Tepper uses their relationship, especially once free from Women's Country, as an especially poignant commentary on the relationship between males and females generally. Tepper paints a dismal future for both relationships. Tepper is equally scornful to women as to men here. Women's Country is an undemocratic society ruled by a self-selected group of councilwomen. These councilwomen are secretive and deceitful toward the remaining population of Women's Country. They feel this necessary because women take foolish actions based on "infatuation" (with particular males of course) and cannot be trusted with the secrets of Women's Country. The council looks, with some disdain, upon the rest of the women, who are easily manipulated using the same symbolic rhetoric and gestures used to control and manipulate the male population. Indeed, the women seem very compliant and unquestioning of the prerogative of the council to rule. The compliant nature of the women and the cyclical revolts of the men are implicit comments on the basic nature of the sexes. The society set up by Tepper is really a "negative utopia" along the lines of George Orwell's 1984 or Adolus Huxley's A Brave New World. Stavia's eventual acquiescence in the methods used by the council in Women's Country to maintain its dominance over males and its own female subjects is defeatist. Through Stavia's eyes the reader realizes the emotionally barren and socially dysfunctional result of the rift between males and females. Through this example, one can see parallels to our own society.
Rating:
Summary: The Gate to Women's Country
Review: Book Review by C. Douglas Baker
Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country has been a lightening rod of criticism for its frank, some would say, unfair treatment of males. Having read and heard many negative comments about the feminist agenda pursued by this novel, I fully expected a diatribe against males and a utopian society ran by women to the be the centerpiece of the story. Little did I expect the unfavorable assessment of both sexes found here. Males are depicted as being violent but easily manipulated by symbolism and perceived threats to of their "manhood". Women are depicted as weak-willed and inclined toward poor judgement. The Gate to Women's Country is not "hard science" fiction, nor is there much action or plot to engage the reader's interest. Nevertheless, it is a compelling work that explores, sometimes stereotypically, male and female behavior.
The Gate to Women's Country is set in a post-holocaust Earth, segments of which have been settled and ruled by women. Inside walled enclaves women have established a system whereby males are forced to live outside the society of women in armed encampments unless, at specified ages, they expressly desire to live in "Women's Country" and abide by the rules established therein. The rigid military caste set up by males on the outside, however, puts an unrelenting amount of pressure on males to reject Women's Country and remain warriors. A cabal of women, through a variety of measures, including espionage and violence, effectively subjugate the male population or warrior caste. The socio-political nature of Women's Country vis a vis its male subjects is intricately woven into the plot.
The story centers around Stavia who grows up accepting the social institutions around her but questioning their utility. She falls in love with a young warrior, Chernon, who is depicted as the typical male. Tepper uses their relationship, especially once free from Women's Country, as an especially poignant commentary on the relationship between males and females generally. Tepper paints a dismal future for both relationships.
Tepper is equally scornful to women as to men here. Women's Country is an undemocratic society ruled by a self-selected group of councilwomen. These councilwomen are secretive and deceitful toward the remaining population of Women's Country. They feel this necessary because women take foolish actions based on "infatuation" (with particular males of course) and cannot be trusted with the secrets of Women's Country. The council looks, with some disdain, upon the rest of the women, who are easily manipulated using the same symbolic rhetoric and gestures used to control and manipulate the male population. Indeed, the women seem very compliant and unquestioning of the prerogative of the council to rule. The compliant nature of the women and the cyclical revolts of the men are implicit comments on the basic nature of the sexes.
The society set up by Tepper is really a "negative utopia" along the lines of George Orwell's 1984 or Adolus Huxley's A Brave New World. Stavia's eventual acquiescence in the methods used by the council in Women's Country to maintain its dominance over males and its own female subjects is defeatist. Through Stavia's eyes the reader realizes the emotionally barren and socially dysfunctional result of the rift between males and females. Through this example, one can see parallels to our own society.
Rating:
Summary: Rewards the reader and the re-reader
Review: I have read many of Tepper's novels, but this was the first and is still by far my favorite. I find that her characters are often somewhat two-dimensional, especially the largely unsympathetic males, and her dialogue can occasionally seem awkward and stilted. However, the breathtaking ingenuity Tepper exhibits in designing and ever-so-slowly revealing the astonishing post-apocalyptic society called Women's Country more than compensates for these flaws. Gripping on a first read, this book will surprise and disturb you again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book to disagree over.
Review: Wonderful sci-fi story; reminds me of Margaret Atwood's disutopias. Would give it 5 stars except for the underlying homophobia. Of course, it was written in 1988, but still....
Rating:
Summary: well-written post-apocolypse tale
Review: Tepper's tale of a post-apocolypse society is well-written. The story centres around Stavia, a woman in Women's Country. At the beginning of the story, we see Stavia's 15-year-old son renounce his mother and become a warrior. Tepper expertly weaves adult Stavia's life as a Councilwoman practicing for a play, the play itself, and flashbacks to Stavia's childhood. Adult Stavia is a Councilwoman for Marthastown in Women's Country. In Marthastown, as in all other towns in Women's Country, the women live inside the walls of the town. Warriors live in a garrison outside the town to protect it. When women have male children, they send them at five years old to their warrior fathers. The warriors, women, and children have a carnival twice a year; outside of this biannual celebration, the warriors and women have little contact. At age fifteen, the boys are given an opportunity to return to the city as servitors. At age twenty-five, the boys become full warriors, able to take part in wars against other towns. The story explores the complex relationship between the women, servitors, and warriors. As each piece of the puzzle falls into place, we see how the women plan to use evolution to save the world from another nuclear apocolypse. This book warrants a very close read. Details which seem unimportant are major clues to the scheme revealed at the end. I did not consider the tone to be overly obnoxious, although the tone is definitely feminist.
|
