Raymond's Reviews #20

%T Star Sister
%A Juanita Coulson
%I Del Rey/Ballantine
%D March 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 219
%G 0-345-36522-4

This book is kind of a wish-fulfillment fantasy for sane feminists -- the story of an idealistic young community activist who gets accidentally tele- ported out into the big wide galaxy and carves harself a new career as one of a utopian crew of interstellar do-gooders.

No, really -- it's not that bad. Well, at least, it's not as bad as you'd expect from the gooey premise. Consider that similar SF novels in the past have often devolved into nasty compendia of collectivist political correctness, anti-male stridency and general fuzzy-minded blather (Sheri Tepper's The Gate To Women's Country stands out as a recent horrible example, especially obnoxious because it was so well-written and convincing). Then thank the Triple Goddess that Coulson has more sense, and can resist the temptation to lecture (too bad she doesn't write as well).

OK, so Coulson's "science" is an arrant crock and her galaxy is riddled with space-opera cliches like near-omnipotent crystalline beings who lend their Special Powers to the good guys (no Boskonians, though). The fact remains that this book is, well, likeable -- naively charming, like a month-old puppy. And occasionally it displays some real ethical insight amidst its all its pieties about equality and pacifism and the fundamental niceness of everybody.

If there's a teenage girl in your life -- you, your daughter, your sister, your girlfriend -- point her at Star Sister. She'll like it and may even learn a useful value or two.