Motherlines
Motherlines is a novel by Suzy McKee Charnas, originally published in 1978. It is the second book in the Holdfast Chronicles. It is believed to be the first novel with no male characters ever published by a mainstream (not explicitly feminist) publisher.
At the end of the previous novel, Walk to the End of the World, enslaved "fem" Alldera escapes from her male owners and flees into the wilderness, which is reputed to be inhabited only by wild beasts. There she finds the all-female culture of the Riding Women, who never were slaves in the Holdfast. Eventually, she also encounters the Free Fems, an escaped-slave culture.
Charnas spends a lot of time and imagination developing these two cultures, examining child-rearing, family and kinship, economics, and sexuality. (As a result of some pre-Holocaust experimentation, the Riding Women are able to reproduce in a complex relationship with their horses--although the horses do not contribute genetic material to the process). The Free Fems are childless, but not celibate.
This novel, along with Walk to the End of the World were joint winners of one of the thre Retrospective Tiptree Awards in 1996.
Editions and translations
- Jul 1978, New York: Putnam/Berkeley, ISBN 0-399-12170-6. (hardcover) cover by Jerry Cosgrove
- Oct 1979, New York: Berkley, ISBN 0-425-04157-3. (paperback) cover by Doug Beekman
- 1981, London: Coronet, ISBN 0-340-26789-5. (paperback)
- 1984, München, Germany: Droemer/Knauer Verlag, ISBN 34-2605-772-7. (German edition, translated by Thomas Ziegler as Alldera und die Amazonen)
- Aug 1989, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-4154-9. (trade paperback, Omnibus edition together with Walk to the End of the World as Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines) cover by Barbara Lofthouse
- Apr 1995, London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-7043-4154-9. (trade paperback, Omnibus edition together with Walk to the End of the World as Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines) cover by Bobbie Russon
- May 1999, New York: Tor Books/Orb Books, ISBN 0-312-86912-6. (trade paperback, Omnibus edition together with Walk to the End of the World as The Slave and the Free) cover by Jon Sullivan