Master of None

Rating:
Summary: masterful science fiction
Review: In the distant future, mankind has colonized many planets, but it is the Nine Families of Vanar that control the worms, artifacts made and abandoned by an ancient race that enables female pilots to fly to three hundred systems reducing interstellar distances. The Vanar take other ships with them as they traverse the universe with their monopoly. On the planet itself the women citizens are the ruling class while the men are slaves needed to help produce the next generation females.

Ambitious botanist Nathan Crewe convinces a space pilot to take him to Vanar where he plans to pick specimens to prove his theory. The authorities catch him within an hour of landing and inform him he will never leave. Nathan is adopted by one of the powerful Nine Families and is forced to marry into one of the Nine Families. Although he is less than chattel, Nathan feels Vanar is home and begins a legal fight to make changes to the social caste system.

MASTER OF NONE is an in depth look at a society in which women hold all power while men need permission to simply leave the house, are unable to attend university, or hold a job beyond breeder. Nathan coming from the outside thinks initially the planet is backwoods, but begins to change his mind as he gets to know people. Could he be suffering from the Stockholm syndrome or just believe that Vanar is home? He wants to make change so that his gender has rights paralleling much of the civil rights movement. Women on Varna are not evil or deliberately cruel; instead they have been raised to believe they are superior. This is a masterful science fiction tale that cleverly spotlights social inequities.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: in a women's world
Review: Rebeccasreads recommends MASTER OF NONE as an adventure in space-cum-soap opera role reversal, heavy on the socio-economics. Imagine what life might be like if you were male & you'd landed in a nation where your gender is not only despised, it is proscribed: from the way you look, what you eat, where you go, how you walk & talk. N. Lee Wood has created such a world & we watch as Nathan must learn his place in the scheme of things, or meet a fate worse than death.

Underneath this seemingly perfect female-friendly society on the planet Vanar, something is brewing & Nathan's skill in botany turns out to be the reason why he was enticed there ... if he can make anyone listen to him. & that's the problem: this is a society who distrust anything males have to say. How can he make them listen to the news of their impending doom?

MASTER OF NONE is all about relationships, power plays & saving the world. You will have to learn another language & another world view.

Rating:
Summary: Not Fluff!
Review: This is the first book by N. Lee Wood that I've read and I was impressed. The story, writing, and social commentary was on par with Sherri S. Tepper's "Gate To Women's Country", Valerie Freireich's "Testament", C. J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" series and Joan Vinge's "Catspaw" books. The main character is engaging and I was drug from chapter to chapter to see what would unfold for him next. The whole text is woven through with politics, relationships, angst, vivid imagery and unexpected plot turns that lead to a satisfying ending. What a great read!