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Book Review: Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
Title: Ammonite
Author: Nicola Griffith
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2002 (1992)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 414
Total Page Count: 158,123
Text Number: 461
Read Because: reviewed by![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
phoenixreads, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The planet Jeep's native population—themselves humans who immigrated centuries before—are all female. Anthropologist Marghe comes to explore their unique culture, and to field-test a vaccine against the virus which created it. Griffith takes an intriguing and problematic trope—a female-only culture—and works magic on it by seeing it not as gendered dystopia or male fantasy but as a human civilization, varied and complex. It's fantastic. Thematically (both as a trope inversion and as a study of human adaptability), Ammonite is at times heavy-handed. But Griffith's has a powerful and evocative voice, Marghe is well-defined with a meaningful arc, and Jeep is vibrant, difficult, intelligently constructed, thoughtfully explored. There's a pleasant balance of worldbuilding via daily survival, overarching themes, and plot, so, while Ammonite can be earnest to a fault, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I only wish that Griffith had addressed the issue of gender identity. While it's almost a relief that sexual orientation is a non-issue, I was left wondering: What is the native population's concept of gender? (Does the presence of male flora and fauna and/or their genetic memories effect it?) How does it interact with the gender binary that offworlders (presumably) have? In such a carefully built and explored world, where the full breadth of female identity is such an obvious focus, ignoring the diversity of biological sex and social gender feels like an oversight.
Author: Nicola Griffith
Published: New York: Ballantine Books, 2002 (1992)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 414
Total Page Count: 158,123
Text Number: 461
Read Because: reviewed by
phoenixreads, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: The planet Jeep's native population—themselves humans who immigrated centuries before—are all female. Anthropologist Marghe comes to explore their unique culture, and to field-test a vaccine against the virus which created it. Griffith takes an intriguing and problematic trope—a female-only culture—and works magic on it by seeing it not as gendered dystopia or male fantasy but as a human civilization, varied and complex. It's fantastic. Thematically (both as a trope inversion and as a study of human adaptability), Ammonite is at times heavy-handed. But Griffith's has a powerful and evocative voice, Marghe is well-defined with a meaningful arc, and Jeep is vibrant, difficult, intelligently constructed, thoughtfully explored. There's a pleasant balance of worldbuilding via daily survival, overarching themes, and plot, so, while Ammonite can be earnest to a fault, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I only wish that Griffith had addressed the issue of gender identity. While it's almost a relief that sexual orientation is a non-issue, I was left wondering: What is the native population's concept of gender? (Does the presence of male flora and fauna and/or their genetic memories effect it?) How does it interact with the gender binary that offworlders (presumably) have? In such a carefully built and explored world, where the full breadth of female identity is such an obvious focus, ignoring the diversity of biological sex and social gender feels like an oversight.