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Rating: 
Summary: the book of separatist feminist fears
Review: A superficial look would result in discarding the book as a summary of the irrational ideology separatist lesbian and feminists tend to harbour. (I have met some so I can compare with real life.) But apart of revealing the abstruse ideology of these social fringe group the book does more: it captures the reader in a world of struggle of a formerly oppressed group against the dominant group and exposes the underlying ethics or nonethics beneeth. The atrocities described in this book are real, happening today in various countries torn by civil war, be it in the former jugoslavia, in ruanda or in afganistan. This book sheds light on the sociolocal and psychological dynamics and this is its very strenght. Apart from that it is one of the very few books where I skipped whole chapters because of boredom - but still was intrigued ennough later to return and find out what actually happened in the story. Even decieded to buy a sequel. But then I collect queer s/f and fantasy books.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: Hard to believe anyone could find anything in it boring enough to skip through. I tore through it in a day. The characters are especially well drawn and distinct. I don't know how Charnas does it. The themes aren't wishy-washy and wimpy. Don't you want to yell at the book sometimes? Or at least what the people do and think? Yes. That's good. Some have found the sequel, "The Conqueror's Child" to be better, or "Motherlines" before it, but this one is in my opinion the the best, most brutal one of the bunch. It's fast and action-packed, one of those great showdowns, vindications, coups de grace, whatever. Sorry this is a patchy review, I tried!
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Hard to believe anyone could find anything in it boring enough to skip through. I tore through it in a day. The characters are especially well drawn and distinct. I don't know how Charnas does it. The themes aren't wishy-washy and wimpy. Don't you want to yell at the book sometimes? Or at least what the people do and think? Yes. That's good. Some have found the sequel, "The Conqueror's Child" to be better, or "Motherlines" before it, but this one is in my opinion the the best, most brutal one of the bunch. It's fast and action-packed, one of those great showdowns, vindications, coups de grace, whatever. Sorry this is a patchy review, I tried!
Rating:
Summary: a decent conclusion, but not fulfilling
Review: I received this in hardback as a gift and I'm glad I didn't spend the money on it. Paperback, I would have bought.
The characters seem less developed and the conclusions a little too convenient for my tastes.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful and evocative novel.
Review: The Furies is a book that makes you think. I found it captivating and couldn' t put it down once I started it. Alldera is a heroin complete with self-doubt and other human failings. Her relationships with Sheel, Eykar Bek and her own people, the Free Fems make for great action and emotion. A totally believable character. I found the Riding Women of the grasslands facinating.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful and evocative novel.
Review: The Furies is a book that makes you think. I found it captivating and couldn' t put it down once I started it. Alldera is a heroin complete with self-doubt and other human failings. Her relationships with Sheel, Eykar Bek and her own people, the Free Fems make for great action and emotion. A totally believable character. I found the Riding Women of the grasslands facinating.
Rating: 
Summary: This futuristic, feminist epic isn't quite over yet.
Review: This is not the end of this sequence of books; a fourth and
final volume is in the works.
Readers should be aware that this group of books
has been written more or less in "real time" -- that is, the whole sequence will cover a period of about 25 years, and
the first book, WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD, was published
in 1974. I didn't plan it this way, but because the novels
have come out of my own experience of the growth and
development of feminism during my own adult lifetime, each
book reflects real-world changes as well as changes in my
perceptions of the problems of sexism and people's responses
to sexism. That's why each book is not only another step
in a sort of improvisational SF feminist epic, but a com-
plete and free-standing novel in its own right.
When I began THE FURIES, I thought I was going directly to the synthesis that would complete the series,
having done sexism taken to its furthest extreme with WALK
TO THE END OF THE WORLD (thesis) and then a pastoral (but
not particularly peaceful) society of women only in MOTHER-
LINES (antithesis). One reason THE FURIES took so long to
write was that I wanted to skip over the harshest part --
an actual war, or more properly a slave-revolt, of the "fems" against their male masters -- and go right to a
better life for all; just as so many women with feminist
ideals wish desperately to be able to "skip" the harshest
part in reality, the part where we seem to have the most to
lose and the most to suffer, the part where we demand full
recognition of our humanity and do whatever it takes to
get it.
Once I accepted the challenge of writing my way through a small, hot war, the projected "third and final
volume" became two books, THE FURIES, and the last book,
which has no title yet but which I think of as Sorrel's book (Sorrel is the daughter of Alldera, leader of the
slave-revolt). I'm glad now that I couldn't just cut to Utopia
(which I don't believe in anyway, and Sorrl's book won't be
a Utopia either) because while working on THE FURIES I found
that a story of warfare over the deepest, most bitterly
contested division of humankind could come out bursting
not just power and pain, but with with irrepressible energy,
and -- as much for the author as for readers -- surprises
and delights; so don't be afraid of it, read it; and if you
like it, rejoice: there's more to come!
Rating:
Summary: The most important feminist novel of the last five years
Review: Yep, not most important feminist SF novel, but most important feminist novel. Getting to edit and publish
THE FURIES is one of the most important things I've done in my life.
This one is the real thing: a nitty-gritty examination
of how bad it can get between women and men (and between
women and women), and of just how hard people have to
work to make even the slightest inroads into fixing it.
Book 3 of 4 in the Holdfast series.
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