Name: The Kindly Ones
ISBN: 9780575043619

Melissa Scott

The Kindly Ones

Janice Hopper

An interesting depiction of a couple of harsh worlds with equally harsh social strictures. I'm assuming the title is meant to be ironic?

I am almost always interesting in reading about living in harsh conditions, and how people manage to survive or even thrive there. I am less happy reading about oppressive social systems, especially those with clans that require loyalty on pain of expulsion. I guess it's better to be declared "dead" and then be shunned by your family than to actually be put to real death. All the "ghosts" can then ally with one another and have their own society outside the Family/Clan strictures. But I still don't care for it.

Confession: I never noticed that the viewpoint character, Trey Maturin, was never refered to as either male or female. I am not the most observant toy in the box. (I also read the Earthsea books multiple times before I realized that the characters weren't while. And I didn't figure it out for myself then either. I read it in a review. Duh.)

I found the story interesting but not engrossing. I was curious about how it all came out. Sweeping change in a civilization is never easy, especially when it happens through violence.

I thought the book was well-written, but not inspiring. A solid 3 stars.

The Kindly Ones

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