- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Avon Books (Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380974576
- ISBN-13: 978-0380974573
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 549,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An extraordinary literary artist offers a powerful vision of tomorrow in a world barely touched by the passing centuries.
There is life in the Nekropolis -- but no future. Hariba spent her youth here, among the exquisite paper flower wreaths her mother meticulously constructed, playing contentedly with other children around the rows and rows of old buildings housing the crumbling bones of the dead. But when an older brother's criminal indiscretion robbed Hariba of any possibility of a husband, she agreed to have herself "jessed" -- submitting to the technoblological process designed to render her docile and subservient to whomever has purchased her service. In this way, Hariba could escape the confinement of her surroundings and hopelessness of her fate...though she could never again be truly free.
At the age of twenty-six, she enters the house of a wealthy merchant as an indentured servant. It is a new world for Hariba, filled with many wondrous objects and strange amusements that she has never before seen. But there is one thing in this place that greatly disturbs her: a "harni, an intelligent, machine-bred creature of flesh and organs, a perfect replica of a man. A menial, like herself, it calls itself "Akhmim." And it unsettles Hariba with its beauty, its naive, inappropriate tenderness -- and with prying, unanswerable questions like "Why are you sad?"
But slowly, almost imperceptibly, Hariba's revulsion metamorphoses into acceptance, and then into something much more. For Akhmim, like her, is a nonentity at the very bottom of the social order -- and the harni's gentle concern for her is real. And if she shuts out the accusing voices in her head, Hariba can even forget thatAkhmim is less than human.
Dangerous thoughts, however, must inevitably lead to dangerous actions -- and outlaw emotions can breed an unholy love defying the strictly enforced edicts of God and man. Soon feelings Hariba can neither control nor ignore have her contemplating the unthinkable -- escape. But the "jessed" abandon their masters at the risk of sickness, pain, imprisonment, and perhaps even death. And there is no safe haven for a rebel servant and a runaway A.I. -- not even within the shunned, technology-barren bowels of the city of the dead.
Hugo Award winner Maureen F. McHugh has written a provocative, powerfully dazzling novel of repression and reawakening -- and a unique, profoundly moving love storythat stands alongside the acclaimed works of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood.
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First Sentence
How I came to be jessed. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
How I came to be jessed. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read this in one sitting- it quite short, and absolutely compelling. The characters & setting work perfectly with the wistful love story. This book reminded me that good sci-fi is still being written, and need not rely on high technology. I would recommend it to those who've had enough of hardcore cyberpunk, and want something a little slower and more penetrating. My only criticism- you only need to read it once to appreciate it.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
27 reviews
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
One Word of Warning
10 May 2002
Format:Hardcover
Most if not all of what has already been written about this book is true, so I will not even attempt to reiterate all of it. I will simply add one commentary for those not familiar with Maureen McHugh's work. While Ms. McHugh is an excellent writer with distinctive and elegant prose, and while exciting things do happen to characters in her books, her books are virtually entirely character centered rather than plot centered. Frequently the "action" part of the plot will be ignored in favor of following what is more personally important to the character being followed. This is particularly evident in her endings, which can be confusing to those of us used to plot-driven novels. Her novels end (and Nekropolis is no exception) at the point where the character makes a fundamental change, rather than at any given point of plot. In China Mountain Zhang, the book ends just when the most interesting plot parts would be starting. Here, the book goes on for a while after a plot driven book would have stopped, and then ends when the main character gets a hair cut - an insignificant point of plot, but a very significant step of assimilation for our protagonist. This isn't a fault in the books particularly, just something to be aware of if you haven't read her stuff before.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
A geat work of science fiction
23 Aug 2001
Format:Hardcover
In a future Morocco, slavery is legal, an institution deeply ingrained into the fiber of society. Slaves are jessed, given mind-altering drugs that make them loyal and eager to please their master. Hariba, born into poverty in the NEKROPOLIS, actually lived with her family in adjoining crypts until her brother was caught in the sin of adultery. He was flogged and sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
Hariba fearing any deep emotion sold herself into slavery and was jessed to her new master Mbarek. She becomes a housekeeper in his home where she meets the biological construct Akhmim. Despite herself, and knowing any relationship between them is illegal, she falls for him. When she is resold, she runs away from her new masters, taking Akhmim with her. Unless they can find a way to be smuggled into a country where slavery is illegal, even for Chimeras like Akhmim, the two risk capture and death at the hands of the authorities.
Maureen F. McHugh has written a literary science fiction novel that will be enjoyed by fans of Ursula LeGuin. The story line is riveting, but what makes this work so very special is the way slavery is accepted by both slave and master alike. The subcultures of the biological constructs raise interesting social and ethical issues, especially what constitutes humanity. This is a novel that makes readers think and ponder their own values system. Ms. McHugh is going to be a giant in the science fiction genre.
Harriet Klausner
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Moving story of future slavery and love
11 Jan 2002
Format:Hardcover
_Nekropolis_ is an excellent novel. It's about a young woman in near future Morocco, Hariba, who becomes "jessed": her brain chemistry is altered to make her more loyal to a given person -- and she is "sold" as a house servant to a rich man to whom her loyalty is transferred. There she meets a "harni", or "chimera" (the term "harni" turns out to refer to chimeras with a specific function, and to have a derogatory aspect, but Hariba doesn't know this), named Akhmim. "Harnis" are genetically engineered humans, who have been bred to be loyal and compliant to their masters. In a sense, then, they are bred to be "jessed". After some resentment of the harni, Hariba falls in love. After that she is sold to a new, poorer, owner, and her desperation at losing Akhmim leads her to run away, which in turn makes her very ill, a side effect of resistant the compulsions of her "jessing".
The story is told from four POV's, serially, beginning with Hariba, then Akhmim, then Hariba's mother, then Hariba's best friend, then returning to Hariba. The plot follows the consequences of Hariba's running away, and of Akhmim feeling compelled to join her in this escape. Eventually they must try to leave Morocco altogether. But the plot is not the point of the book -- rather, McHugh is mainly showing us the characters of Hariba and her mother and friend, who are all from the slum area of Fez called the Nekropolis, and how their lives, and those of their families, have been constrained by poverty; and then, even more importantly, the character of Akhmim, and the ways in which he is and is not human, and how that affects his relationship with Hariba. It is at times a very sad novel, yet also quite full of hope -- the future Morocco portrayed is not a particularly wonderful place, but the future Europe portrayed seems quite nice, really. The characters are beautifully realized, and always people we believe in, and want to know better. This is definitely one of the best SF books of 2001 - probably really a 4.5 star book.
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