Helpful Score: 1
A sci-fi adventure, a political drama, and a love story.
The colony of Maya has few habitable areas; and two distinct groups of
settlers. One group is "Changed" - genetically enhanced, confident in
their superiority. They live in a mountain complex, served by
technology that gives them every luxury. The other group, down below,
are more what we would see as "normal" humans - they live in a
crowded, poverty-stricken, but often joyous and life-filled community
called Babelion, that, due to its Hindu background, we might see as
bearing some resemblance to urban living in India today.
In a token nod to 'fairness,' the young people of both communities are
tested for ability together - if they can communicate with the
artificial intelligence than runs the mountain community, they are
allowed to live there. Of course, none of the young people from
Babelion ever pass the test. But the test provides an opportunity for
a young 'changed' woman, Della, to meet a boy from the other side of
the tracks - and her tryst results in her bearing a son, Anselm.
Unwelcome among his mother's people, Anselm grows up to become a
political leader and revolutionary firebrand in Babelion, agitating
for equal rights.
But more may be going on than just this local struggle, as a larger
drama is gradually revealed, involving the rulers of a galactic empire
which the forsaken people of Maya had entirely forgotten....
A rich and complex book - and a very enjoyable one. Shariann Lewitt is
definitely an under-recognized author.
The colony of Maya has few habitable areas; and two distinct groups of
settlers. One group is "Changed" - genetically enhanced, confident in
their superiority. They live in a mountain complex, served by
technology that gives them every luxury. The other group, down below,
are more what we would see as "normal" humans - they live in a
crowded, poverty-stricken, but often joyous and life-filled community
called Babelion, that, due to its Hindu background, we might see as
bearing some resemblance to urban living in India today.
In a token nod to 'fairness,' the young people of both communities are
tested for ability together - if they can communicate with the
artificial intelligence than runs the mountain community, they are
allowed to live there. Of course, none of the young people from
Babelion ever pass the test. But the test provides an opportunity for
a young 'changed' woman, Della, to meet a boy from the other side of
the tracks - and her tryst results in her bearing a son, Anselm.
Unwelcome among his mother's people, Anselm grows up to become a
political leader and revolutionary firebrand in Babelion, agitating
for equal rights.
But more may be going on than just this local struggle, as a larger
drama is gradually revealed, involving the rulers of a galactic empire
which the forsaken people of Maya had entirely forgotten....
A rich and complex book - and a very enjoyable one. Shariann Lewitt is
definitely an under-recognized author.
From the back cover:
The harsh world of Maya is run by the Changed; a carefully inbred aristocracy clustered in their hillside city, high above the wretched swarms of human colonists. For generations now the Changed have been altering their own genes and their children's. They're smarter, faster, longer-lived - and acutely aware of their own superiority. What they don't admit is that they have become a separate species.
Every year, the Changed allow a handpicked group of human children to come and be tested alongside their own. But the Changed know, as the humans do not, that it's a sham. The humans will always fail. It's a subtle way of teaching them their place.
Then, one year, Arsen shows up: strong, smart, charismatic, and not at all convinved of the superiority of the Changed. No problem, really - until he hookos up with Della, born and bred Changed but every bit as rebellious.
What the two of them start will tip their whole universe as they know it over on its side, and start it rolling downhill...
The harsh world of Maya is run by the Changed; a carefully inbred aristocracy clustered in their hillside city, high above the wretched swarms of human colonists. For generations now the Changed have been altering their own genes and their children's. They're smarter, faster, longer-lived - and acutely aware of their own superiority. What they don't admit is that they have become a separate species.
Every year, the Changed allow a handpicked group of human children to come and be tested alongside their own. But the Changed know, as the humans do not, that it's a sham. The humans will always fail. It's a subtle way of teaching them their place.
Then, one year, Arsen shows up: strong, smart, charismatic, and not at all convinved of the superiority of the Changed. No problem, really - until he hookos up with Della, born and bred Changed but every bit as rebellious.
What the two of them start will tip their whole universe as they know it over on its side, and start it rolling downhill...
A sci-fi adventure, a political drama, and a love story.
The colony of Maya has few habitable areas; and two distinct groups of
settlers. One group is "Changed" - genetically enhanced, confident in
their superiority. They live in a mountain complex, served by
technology that gives them every luxury. The other group, down below,
are more what we would see as "normal" humans - they live in a
crowded, poverty-stricken, but often joyous and life-filled community
called Babelion, that, due to its Hindu background, we might see as
bearing some resemblance to urban living in India today.
In a token nod to 'fairness,' the young people of both communities are
tested for ability together - if they can communicate with the
artificial intelligence than runs the mountain community, they are
allowed to live there. Of course, none of the young people from
Babelion ever pass the test. But the test provides an opportunity for
a young 'changed' woman, Della, to meet a boy from the other side of
the tracks - and her tryst results in her bearing a son, Anselm.
Unwelcome among his mother's people, Anselm grows up to become a
political leader and revolutionary firebrand in Babelion, agitating
for equal rights.
But more may be going on than just this local struggle, as a larger
drama is gradually revealed, involving the rulers of a galactic empire
which the forsaken people of Maya had entirely forgotten....
A rich and complex book - and a very enjoyable one. Shariann Lewitt is
definitely an under-recognized author.
The colony of Maya has few habitable areas; and two distinct groups of
settlers. One group is "Changed" - genetically enhanced, confident in
their superiority. They live in a mountain complex, served by
technology that gives them every luxury. The other group, down below,
are more what we would see as "normal" humans - they live in a
crowded, poverty-stricken, but often joyous and life-filled community
called Babelion, that, due to its Hindu background, we might see as
bearing some resemblance to urban living in India today.
In a token nod to 'fairness,' the young people of both communities are
tested for ability together - if they can communicate with the
artificial intelligence than runs the mountain community, they are
allowed to live there. Of course, none of the young people from
Babelion ever pass the test. But the test provides an opportunity for
a young 'changed' woman, Della, to meet a boy from the other side of
the tracks - and her tryst results in her bearing a son, Anselm.
Unwelcome among his mother's people, Anselm grows up to become a
political leader and revolutionary firebrand in Babelion, agitating
for equal rights.
But more may be going on than just this local struggle, as a larger
drama is gradually revealed, involving the rulers of a galactic empire
which the forsaken people of Maya had entirely forgotten....
A rich and complex book - and a very enjoyable one. Shariann Lewitt is
definitely an under-recognized author.
Thoughtful sf and romance- fascinating.
Thought provoking science fiction.
Maya is a world controlled by a self-perpetuating aristocracy, the Changed, who maintain their superiority by tinkering with the genes of their children. This long tradition of genetic manipulation and the brain patterning that goes with it allows the Changed to interface with the Exchange, a computer-based community of blended intelligences. Those who are merely human are denied such opportunities and are consigned to the squalor of the city of Babelion. When Arsen, a young man of Babelion, meets Della, a young Changed woman--both of whom, naturally, are strong, smart, and single-mindedly rebellious--the stage is set for a galloping SF adventure.
