Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

Change or die: the only options available on the Durallium Company-owned planet GP. The planet's deadly virus had killed most of the original colonists -- and changed the rest irrevocably. Centuries after the colony had lost touch with the rest of humanity, the Company returned to exploit GP, and its forces found themselves fighting for their lives. Afraid of spreading the virus, the Company had left its remaining employees in place, afraid and isolated from the natives.Then anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrived on GP, sent to test a new vaccine against the virus. As she risked death to uncover the natives' biological secret, she found that she, too, was changing, and realized that not only had she found a home on GP -- she herself carried the seeds of its destruction . . . WINNER OF THE LAMBDA AND TIPTREE AWARDSFrom the Paperback edition.

Planet of ladies
nuturing, making babies,
some light mass murder.

A novel with plenty to like and little to love.

I loved so much of this, even if the plot was a little weak at times. I loved how at the very beginning, you feel the danger of walking into the contaminated zone. I loved the descriptions of the beautiful but primitive furniture and buildings. I loved getting in the head of a commander trying to make the right decision.

DNF - PG 161

Why?

What am I even reading?

There is the kernel of an interesting plot here - too bad it is swallowed by wordy descriptors of things that don't need to be described half as well as they are and vacuous characters that keep me at a distance the entire time. (I mean, what the hell, horses are described more thoroughly than any character. More thoroughly than all the characters combined. Did we really need a description of what the main character's urine smelt like, too?) (Also, bear in mind that there is a scene where Marghe is being told by another woman how she tortured a third woman to death by dismembering her while she was still alive. Moderately graphic detail, I would say.)

The writing style isn't for me, with the wordy words that don't say anything and the overuse of simile. I was interested in the disease enough that I kept reading, hoping that there would be revelations.

Instead we get things happening to Marghe, Marghe being all distant from everything and everyone - and sometimes regretting it - and then Marghe being captured by a band of what I believe was supposed to be barbarian nomads. Pages and pages of Marghe with barbarian nomads and her going from half thinking of escape to wondering how they reproduce to controlling her blood flow. (She's supposedly something like an anthropologist, but she sounds more like a doctor, most of the time.)

I just...I persevered as much as I could, because and the disease was curious enough to me that I was doing something I've literally never done before: reading solely because of the plot. But...I feel like the author has forgotten that there's a plot and has made the disease just something else for Marghe to internally angst over.

I've read as much as I can, but Marghe has just escaped and she still feels as distant to me as ever and I am done.