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A review by jmeyers888
The Conquest of Gola by Leslie F. Stone
3.0
This story is considered to be one of the greatest influential feminist SF stories of it's time. This book was written in the 30's during a time that women were oppressed, especially as SF writers. I had read before reading this story that in an interview, after Stone had given up wring, she said that John W. Campbell had returned one of her submissions with the comment: "I do not believe that women are capable of writing science fiction - nor do I approve of it!"
I was very excited about reading it this story because I'd read that it had very strong female characters. Stone's imagination is phenomenal. I think it's difficult to come up with a believable alien race that is completely different than us. But she was able to do this successfully. I also thought that her writing was great.
However, I did not care for the characters. I was looking forward to reading about the strong female characters, and yes they were that. But she wrote them in a way that made them seem just as ignorant, sexist and oppressive as the men of her time. I'm sure she did this on purpose, but I was hoping to have read of a female character that was "better than that." I was hoping to read of a strong minded female character. But instead I got an ignorant sexist female character who thought she knew everything just because she was more powerful than men.
I was very excited about reading it this story because I'd read that it had very strong female characters. Stone's imagination is phenomenal. I think it's difficult to come up with a believable alien race that is completely different than us. But she was able to do this successfully. I also thought that her writing was great.
However, I did not care for the characters. I was looking forward to reading about the strong female characters, and yes they were that. But she wrote them in a way that made them seem just as ignorant, sexist and oppressive as the men of her time. I'm sure she did this on purpose, but I was hoping to have read of a female character that was "better than that." I was hoping to read of a strong minded female character. But instead I got an ignorant sexist female character who thought she knew everything just because she was more powerful than men.