Earthsong

By Suzette Haden Elgin

Book Overview

Originally published in the 1980s, the Native Tongue trilogy is a classic dystopian tale: a testament to the power of language and women's collective action. In the stunning conclusion to the series, Earthsong imagines a completely new way of being.

The interstellar Consortium of Planets has forsaken the irredeemably violent Earth, condemning the planet to economic and ecological chaos. As the Consortium prepares to euthanize the planet, women freedom fighters are offered one last chance to correct men's brutal nature and stop the planet's annihilation.

In the final book of the Native Tongue trilogy, female linguists must once again come forward to ensure the survival of humanity.

"This angry feminist text is also an exemplary experiment in speculative fiction, deftly and implacably pursuing both a scientific hypothesis and an ideological hypothesis through all their social, moral, and emotional implications." --Ursula K. Le Guin

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1936932660
• ISBN13: 9781936932665
• Release Date: July 2019
• Publisher: Feminist Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Feminist future fantasy about language altering thought

This is the third book in a series of three, and is clearly the inferior of it's predecesors. In Native Tongue and Judas Rose, Suzette Haden Elgin wrote provokatively about the role of language in a fictional future where woman are second class citizens. Earthsong simulataneously abandons the major subject of the previous two books (the emergence of a "woman's language", laadan) and at the same time will make absolutely no sense to people who haven't read the earlier books. Also, many of the characters are mere snapshots (introduced to give us a flavor of the range of women's viewpoints in this new society) and the lack of deep characterizations and fragmented narrative can be disconcering, particularly if you like your fantasy with clear connections and resolution. I don't mean to sound totally negative, for there are some thought-provoking ideas here- particularly a new way to solve the problem of human starvation. But these ideas stretch the boundries of scientific credibility. For all these reasons, I give Earthsong a 4.