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A Door Into Ocean (Elysium Cycle)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312876524
Edition: 1st
ISBN: 0312876521
Label: Orb Books
Manufacturer: Orb Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: October 13, 2000
Publisher: Orb Books
Studio: Orb Books
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Editorial Review:
A Door into Ocean is the novel upon which the author's reputation as an important SF writer principally rests. A ground-breaking work both of feminist SF and of world-building hard SF, it concerns the Sharers of Shora, a nation of women on a distant moon in the far future who are pacifists, highly advanced in biological sciences, and who reproduce by parthenogenesis--there are no males--and tells of the conflicts that erupt when a neighboring civilization decides to develop their ocean world, and send in an army.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Philosophical Science Fiction Literature, (Focuses on Sharing, Feminism, Environment)
This book details how a culture based on sharing interacts with a culture based on war. While reading, I never forgot the Lifeshapers of Shora could engineer a killing plague and destroy the entire empire of Valedon. At will. Their levels of bioscience are only matched by their maturity, their drive to share healing rather than fear. Slonczewski doesn't tell us, she shows us this, and amazingly captures the frustration and emotions of the main characters. This is why the novel is amazing.
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Rating: - It doesn't get much better than this.
Not since reading Ursula Le Quin's The Dispossessed has a book drawn me in to what a "Realistic Utopia" could be like. The attempted invasion of Shora by a militaristic galactic empire is a beautiful study in cross-cultural inability to communicate. The author's use of language to reflect culture and culture clash reminded me of Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue. A must-read.
Rating:  - One of those books that make you think
Story:
The ocean moon of shora orbits the planet valden on the frontier of the patraichs empire. For a thousands of years no one knew that there was life on this planet until a group of traders landed look to see if they could expand there trade or find more resources to sell. To their suprise they found the ocean to be inhabited by the raft dwelling shorans, who are all female and blue skinned, who live a peaceful if different life among the endless waves. Forty years later the the empreor's ... Read More
Rating:  - Where Are the Actual Men?
A book in which men are poorly considered. Either they are female copies (Spinel) or male dominants (Realgar). Nothing in between. No real sex either to reproduce but a kind of parthenogenesis. A part of what being human is about denied for an idealistic female construction leading to a dull life. I doubt any civilization would ever survive as described on Shora. All those flaws make the story pretty naive and the book rather boring. I didn't adhere to any character and plodded on to finish it.
Rating: - One Of The Classic Novels of Both Feminist Science Fiction & Space Opera
Joan Slonczewski's "A Door Into Ocean" is definitely a masterpiece of science fiction literature, comparable to the best ever written from the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel Delany, and Bruce Sterling, to name but a few of our finest American writers of science fiction. In this astonishing, thoughtful novel published originally back in 1986, whose universal themes of environmental awareness and relationships between two distinctly different groups of humanity that see only themselves as human are ... Read More
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