The Furies (novel)

The Furies is the third novel in the Holdfast Chronicles by Suzy McKee Charnas. In this book, published 15 years after the original two volumes, the Free Fems pull together an army and attempt to overthrow the Holdfast, a society in which all women are enslaved to men. Alldera, the protagonist of the first two volumes, is the leader of the army.

Charnas undertakes a thoughtful and nuanced tale of warfare between an entrenched but overstressed culture and a group of passionate exiles. The novel is especially notable for the ways in which it describes the violent impulses of ex-slaves when the tables are turned on their masters, and the fragmenting of the invading army as their successes mount.

Publications

• 1994: Tor
• 1995: Tor
• 1995: Women's Press