Reviews: Nicola Griffith

Web Pages:

• nicolagriffith.com
• See also Dave Slusher's Nicola Griffith Page for more information -- this is a great page, with full bibliographic stuff, links to essays and speeches, schedule, chance to talk with Nicola, etc.
  
• Interview w/ Nicola re: Ammonite, etc.

Ammonite

Ammonite is one of the few novels I have read in which there are only female characters (Suzy McKee Charnas' Motherlines is another). Not one single male. In this novel the protagonist is sent to a planet by "Corporate," to observe the natives. The basic premise is that a mysterious virus on this planet has killed all the men and made it possible for the women to reproduce without the men. Our hero goes on a quest to discover answers and in the process creates a life in the society and helps to stop a war. As one might expect in a novel peopled only with women, there are quite a number of admirably strong and capable women. This is no lesbian separatist epic from the 70s, however; a world ruled by women is hardly idyllic and women are shown to be fully as capable of evil and insane behavior as men. (Ammonite won the 1994 James Tiptree, Jr., Memorial Award. --lq, 5/26/95.

Read the FSFFU listserv Book Discussion Group discussion of Ammonite (3/98, 220K)

Slow River

Slow River is an evocative and seductive novel written by Nicola Griffith, the British expatriate who's first novel "Ammonite" released in 1993, received both the Tiptree Award and the Lamda Award.

Frances Lorien van de Oest, or Lore, is the youngest daughter of a powerful and wealthy family who have made their vast fortune manufacturing microbes used in waste water treatment and recycling plants around the world. Lore is kidnapped, held for a ransom that is never paid, and eventually dumped naked and injured in a dark & cold alley in an unfamiliar European city. The kidnappers have removed Lore's identification chip implant, and without it Lore has no identity and cannot exist in this near future urban society.

Lore is rescued by Spanner, a callous 'data pirate', who provides her with a new identity;introduces her to the murky realms of the subculture she inhabits, the various scams she devises; and becomes her lover. Lore works with Spanner to repay her indebtedness, until she realises she is losing her integrity and has to make a choice. She finds a job working night-shift in a waste water treatment plant, and must try to disguise the fact that she understands more about the plant than her immediate superiors. The unprincipled night manager is cutting costs without considering the drastic consequences any changes made to the delicately balanced eco-technology will have. The build up to the impending catastrophe is suspenseful and dramatic, the detailed description Griffith gives of the plant, the individuals who work there and the technology tangibly graphic.

Throughout Slow River with it's multi overlapping layers, Griffith uses her skill and vivid imagery to draw the reader into the story. It's impossible not to be drawn into the flow, as she reveals Lore's past layer by layer and allows the Van de Oest family to emerge and surface, finally revealing themselves as naked and as blemished as Lore was in the opening sentences of the book. She has with Slow River proven once again what a formidable talent she has, crafting together this book so that the reader sees the layers of the story appear, each layer colouring and informing the next, and each one changing the colour of what's underneath.

Let the heart of this story: the river running through it, carry you on a journey with Lore as she redefines who she is, who she has been, and must ultimately decide who she is going to be. The richly textured journey of Slow River, with it's underlying tows and currents, will take you through many places: some that are lonely and dark; some reeking of corruption and malice; some intensely erotic; some that will leave you wondering what the future holds for all of us, and throughout you will sense the river, whispering or torrential, putrid or pristine, menacing or irresistible.

--jb, 6/8/96.

Slow River tied with Melissa Scott's Shadowman for the 1996 Lambda Award. Also won the Nebula Award (4/24/97).