Winterstrike 

Author: Liz Williams

Publisher: Tor UK

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy

Web: http://mevennen.livejournal.com/

Published: June 2009 

Winterstrike spy Hestia Mar has been sent to Caud to recover details of an ancient weapon. During her stay in the Martian city, she encounters the ghost of a warrior who’s the encoded representation of the city’s bombed library. Hestia manages to access the library’s data, but realises too late what she has done: by downloading the information, she’s virtually guanteed the use of the weapon against Caud by her own government. Meanwhile, in Winterstrike itself, Hestia’s cousin, Shorn – imprisoned by her family for accidentally consorting with a male – manages to escape. Her sister Essegui, purusing her to the dangerous mountains, discovers a plot by creatures who hold the secrets of the Martian past and future. While Essegui battles forces back in Winterstrike, Hestia travels to Earth in an attempt to save her city … 

A Crisis on Mars in the Far Distant Future 

Having reviewed however many books written by male writers since I began writing for GeekPlanet Online, it may come as a shock and a horror but, women do actually not only read within the science fiction and fantasy genre, but they occasionally even write within it, too. One of the most interesting of these is Liz Williams and with Winterstrike we find her – as the Guardian would have it – at her most “beautifully written, seamlessly plotted and profound.” It’s not easy for any author to live up to such hyperbole, and when it’s scrawled across the front cover it can unfairly raise the readers’ expectations of the novel to dizzying heights. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that while Winterstrike is far from unproblematic, it does combine a very interesting story with some thought provoking ideas. 

Winterstrike evokes a richly textured universe that’s impressive in its blend of gothic science fiction and fantasy. It’s set on Mars in the far future, and there’s a real sense of ancient history. Various Ages have come and gone, Matriarchies rising and falling as the planet slowly rotated through its 687-day years, such that colonisation by Earth was so long ago some believe humanity in fact evolved on that world. This is a society whose defensive armour employs haunt-tech, where pieces of souls can be stolen, and in which libraries take ghost form. On the coldest day of the year the inhabitants of the city of Winterstrike celebrate the festival of Ombre, little caring that on Earth the continents have slowly drowned, leaving only occasional islands and distant memories of Londress and Paris. The excissieres – scissor women who converse among themselves through the play of holographic wounds across their flesh and armour – police the Martian streets, upholding the law while maintaining the separation between humans and the Changed, creatures created long ago by experiments. These include the Demotheas, Kappa, and the Vulpen, the latter of which are the genetically altered remnants of ancient men who were long ago phased out of society by Matriarch elders, and are now feared as terrible monsters. For Winterstrike, like all the other Martian cities, is home to a culture composed only of women.  

This causes a problem for Leretui, when one Ombre evening she encounters a man. As punishment she’s locked away for a year, but when she goes missing her sister, Essegui, is forced to search for her across the Martian landscape. Meanwhile, their cousin Hestia searches for a powerful weapon in the library of Caud, but around them the political relationship between the Martian cities is rapidly deteriorating, all the while watched by the marginalised remains of those genetic experiments who wait silently with their plots and plans. The story is intriguing, the characters engaging, and at the same time Williams’ evokes some very interesting issues.  

The idea of a world populated only by women is not a new one; indeed, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is not only perhaps the most famous example, but also a key staple of early feminist speculative fiction. However, where this was a story founded around an ideal utopian social order, free of war, conflict and domination, where it was a polemic which lampooned the male gender and diametrically opposed the social potentials of masculinity and femininity, Williams has created a Martian society in Winterstrike which, despite its more advanced technology, is really no better than anything we experience today.  

Winterstrike’s is a culture riddled by prejudice. The Changed were once the Matriarch’s great hope for creating an evolved form of our species, but what they were left with were either marginalised (the Kappas) as primitive, or outright rejected (the Vulpen) to the extent that mere contact was enough to indict a young woman (Leretui/Shorn) and inflict a punishment of isolation. War still exists, as seen in the antagonistic relationship between Winterstrike and Caud, and terrible weapons are still used. Exploitation still occurs, people (women) are still bound by social expectations; and on a more personal scale, they still suffer the same problems in their relationships. Essegui and Leretui’s family are still crippled by (their mothers’) problems, in particular, Alleghetta’s political ambitions and Thea’s alcoholism. One character states that, “The oldest legends tell of cycles: how first women dominated, and then men, and now women again. We need to get past that kind of thinking. We need equality … Equality between genders. Equality between different human species.” There’s a dramatic irony behind the words of this individual, and yet her point remains: through rejecting men, the women of this book have not achieved equality, implying that the ills of a society ills are not the result of one half but of everyone, regardless of gender. As such, Winterstrike is an interesting, thought provoking read, regardless of whether you’re looking for fun story, or something to stimulate the grey matter. 

Nevertheless, there are problems. Hestia and Essegui have very different backgrounds: the former is a spy while the latter has had a domestic lifestyle. Despite this, their behaviour and reaction to events is virtually identical, and this issue isn’t helped by Williams’ writing. While it can’t be denied that she has an exceptional talent for creating quite beautiful, lyrical prose, events are related by Hestia and Essegui in the first person, and there’s nothing linguistically to distinguish between them. As such it takes a great deal of attention to determine who is where and when and doing what and why, and often we’re forced to rely on the chapter headings. Indeed, the most intriguing character – Leretui/Shorn – is conveyed in the third person, and is the more interesting not only because she has a clear character arc, but because she emerges much more convincingly as an individual. The second problem refers to the repeated kidnappings. 

People get abducted a lot in Winterstrike; indeed, it seems that, in the far future of Mars, this is the thing to do. Hestia is caught by the excissieres, while Essegui, Leretui/Shorn and the Centipede Queen are kidnapped at various point by Mantis, and Hestia and Rubirosa are captured by the Kappa, and yet, it never seems to matter because they all – even Essegui, with her sheltered childhood – manage to free themselves within a couple of pages, thereby removing any sense of suspense or threat. The repetitive easy escapes become unimaginative devices to keep the narrative moving, and when they serve little further purpose it engenders irritation rather than interest. With a little further attention to characterisation and plotting these problems could easily have been ironed out.