Tritcheon Hash [Kindle Edition]

"Tritcheon Hash" is a funny romp through a future where women basically got tired of men, then left them to stew in their juices on a rapidly declining Earth. They colonize their own planet, "Coney Island," and live in an all-female society.

The title character is a hot-shot pilot, not-so-happily married to her beautiful and smart wife, yet married to her job. She's a brawler, a risk-taker, an aggressive woman--perhaps more "man-like" than other women. She is selected to travel back to Earth to check on what is really happening there. There is a movement to perhaps bring back the two genders together, but the women cannot penetrate the haze of pollution and junk which now surround the planet with electronic means, so they have to sneak in Tritcheon Hash as a spy-observer. She fails miserably at being covert, but she is able to get a basic idea of life on Earth, and after stealing a ship (hers was dismantled) she escapes and eventually makes it back to Coney Island.

The novel succeeds on many levels. It is unique, that is for sure. This is not your standard SciFi. The entire concept is weird and refreshing. The humor mostly works, and the writing style, while it takes getting used to, is fun to read.

And the story is certainly earthy. From the beginning when Tritcheon Hash, after sitting for hours in a test vehicle which won't run, has sweat running down her back and into her butt, driving her mad with the desire to scratch, to her sexual encounter with a man back on Earth, well, this main character is a real human with real, physical needs.

Where it doesn't work is that the author seems to try and interject too many other styles, ala Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. Sue Lange has her own, enviable style, but on a few occasions, she throws in a long forming pun in the form of a story or writes an out-and-out joke, and to me, at least, this took away from the fast-paced flow of her main story.

There were a few other glitches, such as how many trips it took to get all women to Coney Island and the fact that on a starving planet, the men only ate meat and even made their cardboard out of animal parts while ignoring vegetable matter (used to feed animals). But as a humorous satire, I guess you can forgive those. But I thought the main character's period of insanity was a little forced, and I don't think that added to the story.

Overall, though, this is a great read. I love the concept of the novel, and I liked the execution. The author took a chance on writing this, something I wish other authors would do. I thoroughly recommend this novel.

This is not your grandfather's science fiction, for all that it includes spaceflight and plenty of adventure. Sue Lange has a gift for adding a humorous, sometimes satirical edge, to tropes we all take for granted, and for getting the details right: the first scene, where Tritch is waiting to take off on a test flight and has an itch in a private place is worth the price of the book alone.

But the book is more than a romp. Setting up a world in which women have abandoned Earth to the men and established their own, more advanced civilization, it doesn't end up in the place we might expect. A trip to Earth costs Tritch more than she might have expected -- the men are much more complicated than the conventional wisdom about them on her planet -- and given the things that happen, she is lucky to regain her sanity.

The story adds to the genre of women's separatist fiction, but takes it in new directions. It sets up the potential for male fantasy as well -- surely women can't live without sex with men! -- and doesn't go there, either.

Yes, it's feminist. While I appreciate it that some male reviewers have rushed to say that it isn't because they want to encourage other men to read it, that's based on a simplistic idea of feminism. Tritcheon Hash is feminist because it makes the reader think about the way gender works in our world. After all, good science fiction is a literature of ideas. And this book proves those ideas don't have to be presented in boring fashion.

Very much worth your time.

Set approximately 1000 years from now, Tritcheon Hash is a hot-shot female pilot on the planet Coney Island (named for a famous Earth penal colony). Several hundred years previously, all the women from Earth packed up and moved to Coney Island, leaving the men on their own. Now, the only contact between them happens once a year in a neutral part of the galaxy. At that meeting, all male babies born on Coney Island are exchanged for a ton of frozen sperm.

For the past 50 years or so, secret contacts have been taking place between both planets concerning Reunification, a very touchy subject for both sides. The leaders of Coney Island need to know what's happening on Earth. All their probes and long-distance readings can't get past the Dispro Haze. It's a mile-high layer of dust, chemicals and debris that surrounds Earth and blocks out the sun; giant xenon lamps are used to simulate the sun. Tritch is chosen as a one-person mission to Earth, but specialized training is needed, first. At the local military academy, she meets Bangut Walht, a sensitive young man (it's the only place on Coney Island where men are allowed), to which Tritch is immediately attracted. She also meets Slab Ricknoy, a loudmouthed, arrogant jerk. The program ends, and the men are sent back to Earth, the day that Hash and Ricknoy get into a fight.

Tritch arrives on Earth, near Lake Michigan, and her cover is blown almost immediately. Earth is a place of extreme dirtiness. The air is dirty, the people are dirty and much of the planet is either full of radiation, or officially dead. She runs into Bangut Walht, who shows her the few bright spots. She also meets Slab Ricknoy, now a General, who is convinced that Hash is there to spy on him. He is also a paranoid person, who believes in endless war. Ricknoy has also impounded Hash's ship, looking for its faster-than-light drive, called a lighterator. By galactic law, Earth is confined to the solar system. Should people like Ricknoy get an FTL drive, it would not bode well for anyone, especially the inhabitants of Coney Island.

This is a really sharp satire about men and women about which I'm sure some people will complain. I enjoyed it. It's very easy to read, it has things to say, and it's quite a perceptive story. Well worth checking out.