Hammerfall By C.J. Cherryh Discussed March 2008 Buy Hammerfall from Amazon.com Buy Hammerfall from Lambda Rising

Questions

1. Hammerfall is the first book of the Gene Wars. Is Hammerfall a stand-alone novel?
    
2. How does it compare to other Cherryh works? Is it post-cyberpunk genre, an adventure story or a Mythic ordeal using character archetypes?
    
3. Technology: what is the tech level for the villager and Ila and why?
    
4. What do we know about the ondat? Are they Humanoid?
    
5. The World Building modeled on patriarchal desert/Semite cultures and is this a contradiction with the Illa as the goddess/Queen?
    
6. What are the gender roles? Luz and Ila (Ishtar, Innana) the two powerful leaders both women. All the other leaders are men. The Illa and Luz what qualities to they have in common? Could they be sisters? Are they mirrors of each other? Priests versus the Au'it? Who is more important?
    
7. There are a series of contrasts: the villagers and the nomads, the City and the Nomads, the Ila and Luz, Marak and his father and the wives. How does this style work?
    
8. The polygamous marriage: The wife picks the other wives? How does this work out? Who is in charge at different points and why? Is this GLBT content?
    
9. Is the madness and Marak's rejection and betrayal by his father a GLBT allegory?
    
10. Did you like the book and would you read the rest of the series?