Heart Of Gold: A Novel

Heart of Gold: A Novel

Amazon.com Review Science fiction fans, don't be fooled by the cover suggesting a regency romance. Readers of Sharon Shinn's Archangel series will recall how she can craft an interesting, well-paced story that blends romance and science fiction. In the world of Heart of Gold, two major races vie for dominance: the matriarchal indigo and the patriarchal gulden. For centuries they have lived separate lives, but times are changing. More young indigo men attend college before marrying, more young people are moving to the city and meeting others of different races, and strict Apartheid-type laws have been lifted. Kit is a high caste indigo woman who was raised in the gulden society by her eccentric, anthropologist father. Nolan is an indigo man who's been allowed to pursue advanced science studies and work at the esteemed Biolab for a few years. He's developed two drugs that have saved gulden lives from fatal diseases, although his accomplishments aren't appreciated by his family. Nolan, Kit, and their companions are dragged into a flash point political situation, complicated by Kit's love for a young gulden leader who may or may not be responsible for recent terrorist acts. For romance readers, Heart of Gold may provide an introduction to science fiction elements such as social speculation, gender, and technological innovation. For science fiction readers, it provides a fast-moving tale that addresses topics relevant to our time: race, ethnicity, gender, discrimination, family ties, and that ubiquitous truth: "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of." --Bonnie Bouman On a planet torn apart by class and economic divisions and feuding factions, Nolan, a rational scientist of the privileged class, and Katrini, a born rebel, are drawn together in a forbidden love that could change their world forever. By the author of The Shape-Changer's Wife. Original. From Publishers Weekly Though Shinn's earlier Archangel received considerable praise, this flimsy attempt at crossing romance with SF in an imaginary society that reverses customary gender roles results in a hybrid as sterile and ungainly as a mule. Downright mulish (when not irritatingly mawkish) is Shinn's heroine, Kitrini Candachi, of the blue-skinned indigo matriarchal aristocracy that dominates part of Shinn's ill-defined alien planet. Kit stubbornly loves Jex, the imprisoned terrorist son of king Chay Zanlan, ruler of the planet's lordly male chauvinist "gulden" (or golden-hued) race. Shinn's third race, the albinos, silently do most of the menial labor, conveniently freeing Kit and Nolan Adelpho, a sensitive blueskin scientist, to trade angsty episodes of self-doubt and recrimination. Jex's love-'em-and-leave-'em attitude hurls Kit into interminable fits of weeping that seriously impede Shinn's attempt to draw her as a feminist reformer able to cure both major races of the errors of their traditional ways. Unceremoniously dumped by Jex, Kit falls into Nolan's arms while he foils ludicrously villainous attempts by blue and gold leaders to kill off each other's population with race-specific, bioengineered plagues. Blobs of fuzzy sociopolitical preaching clot what little narrative nudges Shinn's two story lines along, while her characters, indigo and gulden alike, seem equally cardboardy--and downright colorless despite their hues. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal On a planet torn apart by racial, sexual, and societal prejudices, two members of the elite blueskin caste find themselves drawn into a battle for true justice and equality while struggling with their own innate assumptions about love and honor. Shinn's latest novel explores the complex struggles of decent people caught in a web of deceit and treachery as they discover the common ground that underlies superficial differences. The author of The Alleluia Files crafts an elegant and suspenseful tale that belongs