The Slave and The Free: Books 1 and 2 of 'The Holdfast Chronicles': 'Walk to the End of the World' an (Paperback)

"Walk to the End of the World" fails for a variety of reasons, the most important of which can be traced to its radical feminist ideology. While the anger inherent in this ideology is understandable considering the abuses to which women have been subjected throughout human history, by itself it makes for poor literature, as is true with most radical ideologies.

Most of "Walk to the End of the World" is told from a male perspective, but because it is first and foremost a misandryist ideological tract, Charnas forces her male characters into simplistic clichés of what radical feminism believes men to be: violent, hierarchical, and dysfunctional. The ecological disaster of the "Wasting", which sets up Charnas' nightmarish future, was solely the fault of men (specifically white men, of course), as is pretty much every other bad thing that happens in the book. Men fail at everything in the Holdfast, even homosexual love, and most of the time they blame women for these failures. This unrealistic view of men cripples "Walk to the End of the World" by making the male characters one-dimensional and uninteresting. They exist only to oppress the "fems", and the book seems to take an almost perverse pleasure in bringing some new and pointless male atrocity to light in almost every chapter. Instead of exploring the fascinating potential it has for father-son conflict or male friendship with other males, "Walk to the End of the World" dwells obsessively on showing men to be cruel, superstitious, and stupid. In addition, the book presents women solely as eternal victims of men, smarter and more moral because of the oppression they suffer. The only character who is at all interesting is Alldera, whose perspective we only see near the end of the book.

The result is a book which cannot be taken seriously, and which brings to mind John Norman's controversial Gor novels (though from a purely technical standpoint Charnas is a far better writer than Norman), only here the failing is misandry where for Norman it is misogyny. In both cases the extreme oversimplification of gender roles and relations cripples the stories' efforts, and we learn nothing from them; at best we might be entertained. If you want a book that seethes with unproductive rage, "Walk to the End of the World" is just the thing; if you want a terrifying look at misogyny run amuck, I'd suggest Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" instead.

In "Motherlines", however, Charnas shows us that despite the failings of the first Holdfast book, she is quite capable of writing interesting, engaging fiction. Because there are no male characters in "Motherlines", the main failings of "Walk to the End of the World" are for the most part avoided; even the misandry in "Motherlines" works because we are in the point of view of women who have either been mistreated by men or who simply have no experience with them. The tension and conflict between the "free fems" and the "Motherline tribes" is nicely handled, and nowhere in the book do we sense an ideological underpinning. Unlike the men of "Walk to the End of the World", the women of "Motherlines" are richly diverse in their behavior and display a full range of human emotions, good and bad. The description of life in a nomadic, horse-based society flows with realism (provided one gets past the rather icky mating process used by the Motherline tribes) and shows a deep familiarity with its subject matter.

Best of all, "Motherlines" is a character based book, which is unusual in science fiction. We get to know these women as they each grow as people, and unlike most science fiction writers, Charnas does not bury us in unnecessary detail by explaining exactly why things in her world work the way they do. Instead we get a story of people; they happen to be women, but that's not so important. What's important is that they are interesting. It is to Charnas' credit that her female-only world is not presented as a paradise, which given the hostility to men in "Walk to the End of the World" would have been the politically correct thing for a radical feminist to do (and here I was pleasantly surprised to find my expectations in this regard to be wrong). Instead we get a story that presents women as fully-fleshed characters, which is a rarity in science fiction.

In sum, one star for "Walk to the End of the World" and four stars for "Motherlines".

More I will not tell, but for a reader like me, who at heart knows we are all lonely souls passing through the universe, there is something addictively seductive in a story of a loner who flees from one trap of slavery to the next, thinking and analyzing as she goes, trying to decide what she really wants. Many good scifi books are in this vein of an explorer of strange civilizations not understanding how to find his/her own "happiness", how to fit in.

What makes it all more pertinent to us now in 2001 is that the book was written 25 years ago, at the height of the women's movement in the USA, and reeks of an antipathy towards men because of their power over women. Since another generation has been born since then without that chip on their shoulder (theoreti8cally!!!), it's almost historic to read this now. You can think later, how far have women come, really? Are things different than then? I think so, but that's another subject.

Excellent story, with only one caveat - odd names and many of them make the plot sometimes hard to follow. The author also has the traditional mindset to let the reader know if a woman is "goodlooking" or not, regardless if it's relevant to the story.

Amazing how the beauty question will never be laid to rest. Women will always have it tough in this regard, as aging Michael Douglas can lure young actresses to bed, wed them and breed 'em.

Charnas writes in a spare, calm style that sets off the strangeness of the plot and setting to great effect. All of the Holdfast books (the series is now complete after four volumes) take place in an indeterminately distant future after the world ecosystem has collapsed and nearly all humans have died, along with most large species of animals. The residents of the Holdfast are descendants of the lucky few who were able to hide out underground in secret government shelters and who emerged after "the Wasting" to found a new society. The men of the Holdfast think they know what caused the collapse of civilization: the influence of women. Now known as 'fems', women are drudges and breeders and are beaten or killed for the flimsiest of reasons or no reason at all.

The first book recounts the journey of three men and a fem to find the father of one of the men. The plot twists are completely unpredictable and harrowing. It left me shaken, but giddy with all that the author had attempted and succeeded at. The second book follows the fem out into the wilderness beyond the Holdfast, where she discovers an undreamt of society of women who breed horses and reproduce without need of men. She also discovers a group of escaped fems like herself. And all is not sweetness and light. These are wonderful books that address power relationships with a psychological realism and depth of thought that I haven't often seen. And they are founding texts of feminist sf.