Subject: Women in Space: "The Gate of Ivory" by Doris Egan

From: [email-masked] (Lauren P. Burka)
Date: 10 Sep 93 02:47:17 GMT

It's been about 50 years since the heroine Eowyn had to disguise
herself in men's armor to join Frodo Baggins in fighting the armies of
Sauron.  Since then heroines have often had an easier time being
heroic.  The female readership of science fiction has increased, as
had the number of quality female writers.  Heroines get wider roles than
screaming and getting rescued, or flaunting gravity-defying tits on the
covers.  Or at least we can hope so.

Thus begins a haphazard series of reviews of books and their heroines.
I'll be picking over the standard review nits, and I'll also examine
the suitability of each book or series for young woman readers who
want to grow up to be astronauts, or anyone who enjoys seeing women in
action roles.

"The Gate of Ivory" is the first book of a trilogy by Doris Egan.  The
other two books are "Two-Bit Heroes" and "Guilt-Edged Ivory."  The
first one is the best.  The other two display far less imagination and
almost no character development.

Theodora of Pyrene is an anthropology student with a speciality in
folk tales residing on planet Athena.  While on an interplanetary
jaunt to Ivory, she is mugged and misses her return trip.  Months
later, Theodora (or Teddy) is making a bare living reading cards in
the marketplace.  There she encounters a handsome (all Ivorans are
handsome), dashing and devious son of a wealthy house, who hires her
to read a cursed deck of cards.

Doris Egan's Ivory is a planet of aristocrats who murder for sport,
magic that really works (even better if you have a computer to
calculate the variables), rampant bribery, emperors, twisted
loyalties, honorable rogues, ghosts, poisons, and absolutely no
chairs.  If you want lots of detailed background on how an
Earth-derived civilization evolved into Ivory, don't hold your breath.
Egan wanted to write a sort of "Arabian Nights Goes to Outer Space,"
and she's not going to let background material or continuity distract
her from her story.

Egan dedicates many pages to encounters, plot devices, and characters
that never appear again.  The books are episodic and lax about
plot resolution.  As Teddy will remind the reader, real life doesn't
have neat endings.  Except, this isn't real life.  It's a book.

So, how does Theodora measure up as a heroine?  She's a short,
redheaded, cute-in-an-asexual-sort-of-way woman in a society of of
tall, dark people, where the further up in society one travels, the
less freedom women have.  Nevertheless, she manages to achieve most of
her desires, including good sex (implied rather than detailed).  The
author gives her many chances to initiate action rather than simply
scream and get rescued.  Praise to Egan for developing a character who
has quirks and problems without being either psychotic or a whiner.
Theodora's outsider, anthropologist point of view is a neat way to
tell a story, even if it doesn't hold up for three books.

For those of you who are into numbers, I'll give "The Gate of Ivory" a
6 out of 10 (i reread it), but the other books 4's.  Theodora herself
gets a 7.

%A  Egan, Doris
%T  The Gate of Ivory
%I  DAW
%C  New York, NY
%D  1989
%P  319 pages
%G  ISBN 0-88677-328-8
%O  First of a trilogy
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<SIG>	       parsley, sage, rosemary, and strychnine        </SIG>