- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Ace (TRD) (May 3 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0441011365
- ISBN-13: 978-0441011360
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.2 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 581 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #938,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Initially a conventional first-contact story, Marley's sensitive, lyrical SF novel, set on 23rd-century Earth and the oceanic world Virimund, swiftly evolves into a meditation intertwining spiritual values, godhood itself and romantic love. Marley's feminist springboard is her acceptance of Mary of Magdala, long considered a reformed prostitute, as Christ's first disciple. The Magdalenes, a celibate Roman Catholic order of women priests known as Enquirers, travel the galaxy as anthropological investigators, "to shed light into dark places." Assigned to probe Oa, a mysterious child discovered on Virimund, empathetic Isabel soon learns that Oa represents one of humanity's deepest yearnings, for the fountain of eternal youth. Torn between her forbidden love for Dr. Simon Edwards, like herself a healer, and her sacred vow of celibacy, Isabel asks Simon to help Oa escape the megaworld ExtraSolar Corporation, whose general administrator, Gretchen Boreson, has her own devious reasons to claim Oa and her few fellow "anchens," the abandoned children of Virimund. Told in alternating glimpses through Isabel's and Oa's viewpoints and reintroducing the enigmatic character Jin-Li Chung from the author's The Terrorists of Irustan (1999), the book treats feminism's central issues gently, skirting the strident swamps of passion and the fatal abyss of sentimentality, with tender insights into love and sacrifice all too rare today.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Oa appears to be a 10-year-old, taken by Dr. Adetti from her home planet, Virimund, a lost-colony world that ExtraSolar Corporation considers ideal for its power park. Isabel, a priest of the Magdalen Order, is called in to investigate and act as Oa's guardian. Slowly, with help from Simon Edwards of the World Health and Welfare Organization, she realizes Oa's secret. Oa and the other children of the Sikassa are infected with a virus that makes them perpetually prepubescent and practically immortal. Adetti and ExtraSolar administrator Gretchen Boreson see Oa as a potential fountain of youth, not as a person. Of course, things aren't that simple, and when Boreson and Adetti go to Virimund for further study, the immortality virus exacts a higher-than-expected price. All Oa and the other children want is to become normal and grow up. Fortunately, immortality is never easy, although it is curable. Marley attacks the problems she poses satisfactorily, with a well-placed plot and characterizations, in particular, that are engaging even amid the tangles of interpersonal relations. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully realized and executed,
By A Customer
This review is from: Child Goddess (Hardcover)
Marley's meditation on age, faith, and humanity is at once universal and very, very personal. My personal favorite of her books so far, The Child Goddess manages to deal with many different issues but at the same time retain direction and feeling. In particular, the character of Oa is one who has stuck with me long after I finished the novel. All in all, a wonderful read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Story of love and faith,
By A Customer
This review is from: Child Goddess (Hardcover)
This is really a novel of love, love between a man and a woman, love for a child, love of God. Isabel Burke's journey is one of self-discovery as well as courage, and Oa of Virimund, the old child, makes her own journey of devotion, in the face of terrible struggles. These characters will catch you up in their story, and stay with you long after you turn the last page. Highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
very entertaining look at a futuristic outer space society,
By
This review is from: Child Goddess (Hardcover)
In the distant future energy is needed to keep the expansion of the human race into the galaxy going. Power parks on uninhabited planets are built to supply that need. On the planet Virmund, a colony of lost children is discovered but nowhere on that orb are any adults. The Extra Solar Corporation, responsible for the building of the power park, takes back one of the children, keeps her in isolation, and runs medical tests for fourteen months.Isabel Burke, a priest in the order of Magdalene, is appointed as guardian for the child. However from the time she makes contact with the child, she is also put in isolation, unable to communicate in person with anyone from the outside. Thanks to the help of a gentle worker in the complex, Isabel is able to make contact with her ex-lover. Simon who has a lot of political clout is also a highly regarded physician. He discovers that Oa is over hundred years old but acts and thinks like a child and the powers that be want the secret of her inability to grow old. A group flies to Virmund to find out what is keeping the children young and killing the adults on the planet. Louise Marley has written a very entertaining science fiction novel that deals with current social issues such as women becoming priests in the Catholic Church. The mystery of the children on Virmund is handled in a believable way using scientific methods based on research used today. The children who have no desire to be Peter Pans want to experience the wonders of aging. The tale belongs to the heroine facing adversity but determined to do the right thing. Harriet Klausner
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