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Rating: 
Summary: excellent story telling
Review: Eleanor Arnason is a gifted writer, of whom, I am sure we will
be hearing alot more from. The story is magical. The only
exception I have with the book, is the future written about
by Eleanor of earth. The book is copyrighted 1991 and the story is set at least two centuries in the future and the author
still depicts a historically viable soviet union and a marxist, Engelian
socialist future, which on the face of the story, is absurd.
Also why do they keep putting a picture of a woman holding a
skull of the cover of the hardback and paperback? What does this
have to do with the story?
Rating:
Summary: Something to think about.
Review: The world-building in this book was superb. Set on the home planet of the only other sentient species ever found, the characters in this book are anthropologists who are trying to understand this new kind of intelligent life. In the process, they discover more about themselves than the objects of their studies. Listed as a Utopian novel in many reviews, it is not. However, it does include a distinct future Earth (in the human anthropologist's memories, actions, and attitudes) that could be described as a Utopia of sorts. This is a book for those of us who like to think, and it's one of the best books of this kind I have ever read. Do try it.
Rating:
Summary: A+ : a wonderful anthropological first-contact novel.
Review: There's always some trepidation when one begins to re-read a fondly-remembered book. Will it hold up? Will it be as good as I remember? Happily, Ms. Arnason's wonderful prose soon caught me once again inher spell....Lixia, the viewpoint character, is a Hawaiian anthropologist from an
Earth still recovering from the excesses of the 20th century. She's
nerving herself up to enter her first alien village at Sigma Draconis -- 'There was no point in sneaking around. If they caught me spying, I'd be
in real trouble. The best thing was to walk right in. The technique hadn't worked in New Jersey, of course. The people there
had tried to sacrifice me to their god, the Destroyer of Cities...' Nia, a woman of the Iron People, is a smith and a pervert - she once loved
a man. Her neighbors drove her from their village in disgrace. Now
she has a smithy near a village of the Copper People -- the village Lixia had
come to study. Lixia's first contact doesn't go well -- she is driven out. Nia
takes her in, befriends her, and they become travel companions. The next
village they visit is kinder: "This person without fur is amazing. She knows nothing about
anything. But she is willing to listen, and she doesn't interrupt." Lixia and Nia are joined by Dexter Seawarrior, Ph.D., an Angeleno
aborigine. His people prize mellowness and truth; Dexter is devious
and ambitious. He left his tribe, went to school, and is now a tenured
professor at Berkeley.... The book is filled with complicated people, some of them human,muddling through life. "When a shamaness of an alien village, having handled for the momentthe problem of an alien intruder, walks away complaining aloud, 'Why do these things always happen to me?' the reader knows she's in trustworthy hands. High marks." -- Suzy McKee Charnas -- plus more nice cover blurbs from P. Sargent, Ch. Platt, MJ Engh, John
Sladek, Gw. Jones & UK Le Guin. They liked it, I liked it, and you will too. Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Rating:
Summary: A+ : a wonderful anthropological first-contact novel.
Review: There's always some trepidation when one begins to re-read a fondly-remembered book. Will it hold up? Will it be as good as I remember? Happily, Ms. Arnason's wonderful prose soon caught me once again inher spell.... Lixia, the viewpoint character, is a Hawaiian anthropologist from an
Earth still recovering from the excesses of the 20th century. She's
nerving herself up to enter her first alien village at Sigma Draconis -- 'There was no point in sneaking around. If they caught me spying, I'd be
in real trouble. The best thing was to walk right in. The technique hadn't worked in New Jersey, of course. The people there
had tried to sacrifice me to their god, the Destroyer of Cities...' Nia, a woman of the Iron People, is a smith and a pervert - she once loved
a man. Her neighbors drove her from their village in disgrace. Now
she has a smithy near a village of the Copper People -- the village Lixia had
come to study. Lixia's first contact doesn't go well -- she is driven out. Nia
takes her in, befriends her, and they become travel companions. The next
village they visit is kinder: "This person without fur is amazing. She knows nothing about
anything. But she is willing to listen, and she doesn't interrupt." Lixia and Nia are joined by Dexter Seawarrior, Ph.D., an Angeleno
aborigine. His people prize mellowness and truth; Dexter is devious
and ambitious. He left his tribe, went to school, and is now a tenured
professor at Berkeley.... The book is filled with complicated people, some of them human,muddling through life. "When a shamaness of an alien village, having handled for the momentthe problem of an alien intruder, walks away complaining aloud, 'Why do these things always happen to me?' the reader knows she's in trustworthy hands. High marks." -- Suzy McKee Charnas -- plus more nice cover blurbs from P. Sargent, Ch. Platt, MJ Engh, John
Sladek, Gw. Jones & UK Le Guin. They liked it, I liked it, and you will too. Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Rating:
Summary: I cannot properly express how great this book is......
Review: This is my all-time favorite fiction book. Like the other reviewer, I wish Arnason was more prolific. There are so many themes in Iron that could be explored with sequels. This is a interesting and powerful book, for many reasons. The portrayal of human society, the portrayal of an alien society. The struggles and perspectives of the women protagonists as they journey through the alien world. The conflict of the humans and its resolution. The conflict of the aliens and its resolution. I have reread the book many times and have not been disappointed.
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