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White Queen
  

White Queen (Hardcover)

by Gwyneth Jones (Author) "Johnny could never sleep in Africa ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; First Edition edition (24 Oct 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0575046295
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575046290
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,200,223 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #36 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > J > Jones, Gwyneth

Product Description

Product Description

Three people - a journalist who contracts an AIDS-related disease, an enigmatic young woman whom he suspects is an alien being, and an attractive, older woman "pop intellectual" - play out a deadly game of sex, politics and betrayal. The author's other science fiction novels include "Kairos".

About the Author

Gwyneth Jones lives in Brighton with her husband and son. She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for BOLD AS LOVE; CASTLES MADE OF SAND was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Award. She is the previous winner of the James Tiptree Memorial Award and two World Fantasy Awards; four of her previous books have been shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply The Best, 11 Dec 2006
This review is from: White Queen (Paperback)
A demanding, tightly plotted treatment of the old theme of First Contact. White Queen features difficult, dangerous, but finally very sympathetic characters, in a near-future world full of messy situations any of which would support a book of its own. They're all doomed to collide, crash and burn, with the arrival of the brilliant, uncompromisingly alien "Aleutians". Some of the guesses have proved wrong, so there are elements that jar (India and Pakistan still "Third World" countries, the EU an economic miracle, fueled by Eastern European slave labour e.g.). But it gets five stars for being a true, sophisticated modern classic, one of the most influential books behind the British Boom. Read this and you'll know where Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Ken McLeod and the like got their cool, "UK independent" sf style.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Alien aliens! Got to read the next one, 13 April 2007
By Mishi (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: White Queen (Paperback)
Just finished reading "White Lady". Enjoyed it so much that I am posting for the first time, a review on Amazon, my favorite bookstore and source of commentaries. Like readers on another review site, I found it hard to put the book down. No plot description from me, I shall try to describe what it is about.

White Lady is the most interesting description of interaction with aliens that I, a SciFi fan for over 40 years, have come across. Usually, aliens are described as shallow stereotypes, way advanced technologically, either loathsomely aggressive or unnaturally noble, and often cosmically incomprehensible. All alien individuals in a book normally have pretty much the same personality, barring differences in importance or status (nobleness or meanness).

Gwyneth Jones' aliens are alien in a totally new way. They are, of course, incomprehensible, but mostly because they are so different from us, rather than because they are so noble or so hostile. That incomprehensibility expresses itself in every interaction between humans and aliens - each interchange contains bits of understandings and bits of misunderstandings. Because, in some ways, they are also like us. The aliens, on Earth by accident, mostly want to make money. They are not above being deceitful in their interactions with us, neither are we with them. So they are understandable, in some ways. Are they interested in having a relationship with Earth in the "Take me to your leader!" sense. Some are, some are not. Certainly, "relationship" does not mean the same thing to them as it does to us. They are not especially interested either dominating us or teaching us. They have their own interests and they are not much in agreement with eachother. The depth of these shadings is what makes the book interesting.

Gender is a key theme of the book, but do the aliens have gender? Well yes, or maybe yes but not like us. Do they have sex? Well, not much and it sounds pretty different, but yes. With humans? Well that causes some confusion too. Especially to the extent that cross-species love is involved. By taking a bit of distance do we get something worth thinking about? Yes. And once in a while, a glimpse of seeing humans as aliens through alien eyes.

Is it challenging to read? Sometimes, but not in the "Oh, I'll try to again read this later sense". I always wanted to know what happens next, but I sometimes wished to think about what I had read. As one reviewer noted on another site, we are indeed left wanting more. But hey, I suppose that is pretty normal for the first book of a trilogy.
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