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White Queen (Paperback)

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

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (29 Jan 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 057560378X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0575603783
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 330,079 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

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Product Description

Review

From Jones (Divine Endurance, 1987): a multilayered account of an insidious invasion. In 2038, alien landers touch down in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Alaska, but so low-key are the resulting contacts that nobody notices the humanoid aliens mingling with the natives. Then Johnny Guglioli, a Typhoid Mary infected with a "petrovirus" that destroys the blue-clay cores of computers, and aging newshound Braemar Wilson communicate with the feminine-seeming unorthodox poet Clavel, learning of the aliens' apparent telepathic talents and remarkable abilities with living machines. But what do they want? Are they superior? How did they come to Earth? Unknown to Johnny, who has an affinity for Clavel, Braemar has founded White Queen - a clandestine group opposed to the aliens and intent on finding out as much as possible. However, when a White Queen agent attempts to take a tissue sample, the aliens kill her and somehow disrupt human machines across the world; war is only narrowly averted. The aliens, it seems, are hermaphroditic, have a sort of serial immortality, tell lies when it suits them, and understand humans as little as humans understand them. Finally, though most humans believe the aliens to be good and peaceful, Braemar and Johnny attempt to gain entry to their hidden multigeneration starship by instantaneous mental transfer, thus precipitating a showdown. Often hard to follow, what with the incessant shifts of character and scene, but the utterly convincing aliens are developed with rare skill and insight. A mixed outcome, then: deep and dense, rich and rewarding, frequently demanding and difficult. (Kirkus Reviews)


Product Description

Johnny Guglioli used to be a journalist, but his QV virus has rendered him an outcast. In exile from his native America, he encounters an enigmatic young woman. He is convinced she is an alien, and that she is part of a small force sent to reconnoitre Earth.
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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
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
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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