What do You think about Venus Of Dreams (1986)?
I read this and the sequel, Venus of Shadows when I was at university and remembered enjoying it. Now that the trilogy is complete, I've decided to try it again so I can read the final book intelligently.Very good read. The characterization and world building were excellent. Some of the dialogue seemed stilted but all in all a good book. I think what kept me interested is the way Sargent crafted the main character, Iris. Iris is "real". That is, she is not a perfect character and at times Sargent is quite ruthless with her. As the story goes on, Iris' flaws are readily apparent: she is faithless, grasping, self-centered, and egotistical. She uses people, refuses to take responsibility for her part in the responses others have to her behavior and is just generally not a person I would choose to hang around with. She is just that bad. The thing is, the story is good enough to carry you through to see her get better. Oh Iris is still quite flawed, but by the end of the book, she is more willing to accept her flaws and at least try to be a decent human being. She grows. She changes. She matures. I appreciate that in a human being and in a character. I look forward to re-reading the next in the series.
—Beth
I pulled this out of my bookshelf in my campaign to reread my old sci-fi books. The themes are strongly tied to the issues raised by the women's movement at the time. It will be interesting as the story unfolds to see how it looks on what I just noticed is the 25th (give or take) anniversary of the book's publication.Okay, I finished it. After the first section it goes downhill fast. The main problem is with with main character, Iris. She was an unfeeling(?), ambitious person who used people (I guess). But it took me half the book to figure this out, that is, if I'm even reading her correctly. Not because Iris was complex, but because of the wishy-washy way in which she was written. Her husband Chen would have made a far more interesting main character.As far as world-building, the farming community where Iris grew up was very interesting and captured my attention. But once she left for Venus, the book because very blah. There wasn't anything particular unique: it was a sort of generic story of a) terraforming and b) one group oppressing another group. I finally finished the book only to discover it was a trilogy. I have no desire to read books #2 and #3.
—Betsy
