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Title: Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee ISBN: 0-553-58130-9 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful!
Comment: Although I have been a devoted Tanith Lee fan since I discovered her work sometime last year, I had only experienced her science-fiction work with "The Silver Metal Lover." I shamelessly adore that book; thus, when I heard that another of her earlier science-fictions was being reprinted, I both jumped to buy it and worried a bit about what it might be like. I shouldn't have even bothered to worry. "Biting the Sun" is fantastic.
The book is really two novels in one. The first, "Don't Bite the Sun," deals with traditional dystopian themes, all written in Lee's brilliant, colorful prose and enacted by a crazy and fascinating set of characters. From the beginning the story throws you off balance and pulls you in: come on, what other novel opens with its narrator committing suicide? In the futuristic city of Four-BEE a strict age-based caste system dictates its inhabitants' lives, particularly the lives of the Jang, whose adolescence seems to last at least fifty years. You can do anything when you're a Jang. Drink, do drugs, marry, have love, kill yourself, all as many times as you like in whatever body you prefer; the only thing you can't do is...stop being a Jang. Thus when the anonymous, mainly-female protagonist decides to rebel against Four-BEE, but it's hard. When nothing is forbidden, what can you protest? Apparently there's something, because the second novel, "Drinking Sapphire Wine," deals with the other half of the story: what happens when the narrator finally ticks off the Powers That Be and is exiled from Four-BEE. Although I understand that the books were originally published as separate works, they mesh seamlessly into one another. In theory one could read "Drinking Sapphire Wine" without reading "Don't Bite the Sun"...but why miss the fun? Lee's Four-BEE is a weird and wild place, where pure hedonism is ultimately revealed to be hollow, but it's a delight to read about.
(By the way, I would like to agree wholeheartedly with the prior reviewer: the moment "the pet" entered the action, I thought immediately of Tanaquil's peeve. Those of you who have no clue what we're talking about...read "Black Unicorn" and its sequels and find out!)
Having enjoyed immensely both "The Silver Metal Lover" and "Biting the Sun," two very different looks at the future, I will continue look out for more of Lee's science fiction. Meanwhile, those of you that have never read "Biting the Sun," stop wasting your time reading this review, go out and read the book! Not as though the Quasi-Robots will enforce this suggestion, but unless you do so, I doubt the following song will make much sense: "I only want to have love with you, for you are so derisann..."
Rating: 5
Summary: The meaning of life is sought here, and found.
Comment: To start off, Biting the Sun is a beautifully written novel. Tanith Lee uses excellent language that is both intelligible and fun to read. The book opens up into a world that could very well someday turn out to be earth, revealing a very high tech, but also empty society. When you are a human in the three cities, robots make the rules. The robots are in charge, and indefinetly decide the fate of the humans. It would be hard to say that the people of these cities do not have everything they want. They can be beautiful, do not have to work, and have a very select set of rules. When they buy something, they pay by saying thank you, and a machine sucks the emotion from them, turning it into energy to run the cities. Suicide is not forever here, just until you're body is taken by robots to limbo to design a new one. All you could ever want, right? Wrong, our main character, the lovable protagonist is anything but satisfied. She (being predominately female) begins to feel empty, and begins to search for satisfaction. She searches, but cannot find, for she wants true adventures, and wants life to be like what she has read and heard of in the history tower. She seeks to bite the sun, to rebel against society, and in the end pays a price for it. But what she gains is more valuable then what she has lost.
Rating: 5
Summary: This lovely, ghastly mess that is the human condition
Comment: A soulless people living in an artificial biosphere in the desert. An advanced civilization turned in upon itself as it reaches levels of hedonism and depravity far surpassing that of the late Roman Empire. A picture of horror disguised as the ultimate beauty and pleasure.
Tanith Lee has created a world in which humans are the obsolete masters of a society so advanced that death itself is impossible. Life on the other hand is an endless pursuit of pleasure for plesaure's sake. No material possession, no experience cannot be had by the elite Jang class of citizens (you could even say it was considered their duty to experiment with play). Work is performed entirely by robot automatons so that humans can indulge themselves in whatever way suits their fancies. Want to try a new body? Commit suicide and come back with a different look, a different gender, antennae if you like. Nothing is criminal or forbidden save one thing: murder.
The depiction of this world ( called 4-B) and an unusual young heroine who dares to buck the system to find meaning in her life resonated with me. Seeing her exhaust every avenue available to her for true self-discovery was a painful and beautiful thing; eventually, she realized that there was something terribly wrong with a society in which God and morals had no place. Therefore, the only option left was to flee from the protection of the AI overseers and their sheltered paradise to become truly human and mortal at last. Reading this was like watching a soul being born.
The author was not exactly covering new territory in her plot line; it became obvious to me halfway through that this was a variation on the popular Biblical tale of the Fall. Whether the Jang caste (perpetual teenagers of a sort) represents Angels or Mankind in a weird state of depraved innocence is vague, but the central characters all became human at some point. Rather than symbolizing a sad end to a good thing, however, the outcast Jang experienced a sort of spiritual and physical awakening, an uplifting if you will. This is truly a tale of redemption where life can bloom in the desert once again.
With some of the most lyrical prose ever to be found in SF, Biting the Sun reaches a rare level of literary excellence for the genre. Still, there are moments of pure recognition as the characters have their foibles and stumbles. In all, I loved reading it and could recommend it to anybody who might have the fortitude to witness the casual tragedy of this peculiar dystopian world.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
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Title: The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee ISBN: 0553581279 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: White As Snow by Tanith Lee ISBN: 0312875495 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 07 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Wolf Wing (The Claidi Journals Book 4) by Tanith Lee ISBN: 0525471626 Publisher: Dutton Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Vivia by Tanith Lee ISBN: 0751521353 Publisher: Trafalgar Square Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.99 |
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Title: Prentice Hall Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, The by Garyn G. Roberts ISBN: 0130212806 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 18 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $70.00 |
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