Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A Paradigm of Earth
    Unavailable
    A Paradigm of Earth
    Unavailable
    A Paradigm of Earth
    Ebook426 pages7 hours

    A Paradigm of Earth

    By Candas Jane Dorsey

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A feminist science fiction novel exploring sexuality and politics by the author of the Tiptree and IAFA/Crawford Award-winning Black Wine.

    Candas Jane Dorsey's first novel, the fantasy Black Wine, won three significant awards and got enthusiastic reviews across the United States and Canada. Now Dorsey returns with a literary SF parable about a woman named Morgan and her offbeat household.

    In the near future, when political and social conservatism dominate society, Morgan inherits a big, century-old mansion in a prairie city and moves there to rebuild her life. She fills the house with sexual misfits and political outcasts, in a sense, orphans like herself. But the final tenant is one she never could have imagined: an alien child.


    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 26, 2001
    ISBN9781429973120
    Unavailable
    A Paradigm of Earth
    Author

    Candas Jane Dorsey

    Candas Jane Dorsey is a Canadian poet and novelist whose works span across genre boundaries, having written poetry, fiction, mainstream and speculative, short and long form, arts journalism and advocacy, television and stage scripts, magazine and newspaper articles, and reviews. She has served on the executive board of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, as editor-in-chief at The Books Collective from 1992 through 2005, and was a founder of SF Canada. In 1998, Dorsey received the Prix Aurora Award for her novel, Black Wine. Dorsey currently teaches and holds workshops and readings. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.  

    Read more from Candas Jane Dorsey

    Related to A Paradigm of Earth

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Octavia E. Butler on Mars

      Dec 15, 2021

      Octavia E. Butler on Mars
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Book Eaters

      Aug 10, 2022

      The Book Eaters
      1 min read

    • Article

      'The Raven Tower' Rises From Shakespearean Foundations

      Feb 26, 2019

      Ann Leckie's new fantasy novel is packed with family intrigue, throne-room maneuvering and nods to Hamlet in its story of a son who comes home to find his father missing and his uncle in power.

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Mountain In The Sea

      Feb 22, 2023

      The Mountain In The Sea
      1 min read

    • Article

      Shards Of Earth

      May 19, 2021

      Shards Of Earth
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Blood Trials

      Apr 20, 2022

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 400 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author NE Davenport Publisher Harper Voyager Mixing fantasy with military SF, Texas-based NE Davenport’s debut initially plays out as a coming-of-age story. It’s one with some particularly tough

      1 min read

    • Article

      Raybearer

      Aug 12, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 496 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Jordan Ifueko Publisher Hot Key Books This is Jordan Ifueko’s first novel, and it’s already evident that this young Nigerian-American author is going to be one hell of a force once she re

      1 min read

    • Article

      Infinity Gate

      Mar 22, 2023

      Infinity Gate
      2 min read

    • Article

      Bugs In The Valley

      Oct 10, 2021

      “So, did you fix nature?” I leaned over the stool at the bar. “Excuse me?” “Ethics class,” I said. Amaya stared at me blankly. “Stanford,” I continued, “you argued science for the greater good means editing genes to improve humanity, population contr

      19 min read

    • Article

      Kim Stanley Robinson

      Sep 9, 2020

      IT IS, KIM STANLEY ROBINSON NOTES, QUITE possible “to conclude that we’re doomed, that the trajectory we’re on is so powerful that we won’t get our shit together fast enough to avoid a mass extinction event and total catastrophe”. But what if humanit

      3 min read

    • Article

      All Our Hidden Gifts

      May 19, 2021

      RELEASED 27 MAY 400 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Caroline O’Donoghue Publisher Walker Books This YA mystery, set in Ireland, is a lesson in the perils of fortune-telling. Maeve is a teenager who stumbles upon some old tarot cards and uncovers a tal

      1 min read

    • Article

      Death to Character Descriptions

      Dec 27, 2018

      Here’s the secret to writing compelling character descriptions: Cut them out entirely. A writer’s most powerful tool is the reader’s imagination. Don’t waste it, especially when you’re introducing characters and the particulars of their appearance. T

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Black Sun’ Weaves Fantastic Worlds In Faraway Lands

      Dec 21, 2020

      An ambitious fantasy series is packed with vibrant characters and political intrigue – and isn't stuck in the classic Eurocentric setting, either.

      3 min read

    • Article

      It’s Kind of a Funny Story: A Conversation With Susan Jane Gilman

      Feb 3, 2020

      This past fall I was once again in Cincinnati’s Mercantile Library to hear an author speak about her new book. I went in with no real expectations—I hadn’t read any of Susan Jane Gilman’s books yet; I just take any opportunity to hear writers talk ab

      5 min read

    Reviews for A Paradigm of Earth

    3.5/5

    5 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      If Jane Austen wrote about queers and aliens and government agents and artists, it would come out somewhat like this.
    • 2/5
      I've anticipated reading this book for a long time. Dorsey's Black Wine was a book that I seriously loved, and kept recommending to people for years. Sadly, this book not only didn't live up to the expectations created by Black Wine, it frankly just wasn't very good. The premise sounds intriguing - an alien comes to earth to learn about humanity, and ends up in a co-op household full of non-conformists and artists. I liked a lot of the concepts - how the main character explores different types of love for different people through sexuality, etc. And some of the language and imagery is lovely. Still, maybe it has something to do with its near-contemporary setting (rather than the remote world of Black Wine), but the book felt more like a socio-political lecture than a novel. The messages, rather than working smoothly through the metaphors of fantasy, were very in-your-face and clunky. The characters felt like their traits were imposed on them by using a checklist (black, gay, disabled, lesbian, dancer, artist, etc.), rather than stemming from the experiences of real people. The protagonist's emotions were spoken of at great length, but didn't feel convincing. The antagonist was even more mystifying - with motivations which were nearly completely opaque, and unconvincing when admitted in an awkwardly-stuck-in, cliched confessional. The plot lacked tension, even when dramatic events were occurring. This may sound harsh, and it's probably much harsher than it would have been if I hadn't fully expected to be giving this book 5 stars - but I can't even come close to doing so.
    • 4/5
      A Paradigm of Earth, by founder, and fellow SF Canada member Candas Jane Dorsey, is a remarkable work of literary science fiction. Although the premise of first contact is not new, Dorsey brings to the discussion a complex, poetic exploration of what it means to be human. Through the characters of Blue, one of twelve aliens dropped on Earth to become the essence of humanity, and his mentor, Morgan, a woman immobilized with grief, Dorsey incarnates a story part CanLit, part SF, part crime mystery. Her characters are vivid and compelling, avoiding stereotype. Her premise suspends all disbelief with facility and elegance. The writing is tight and yet poetic; the pacing deceptively brisk. Further, Dorsey unfolds her tale without devolving to the kitsch tech-speak which is the failure, and alienation, of so many popular SF writers, and as a result Dorsey creates an emotional environment that will bring a tender heart to tears. If you love the work of Ursula K. LeGuin, you will fall in love with this story by Candas Jane Dorsey.
    • 3/5
      Will be thinking about this one for awhile. And about how I kept thinking of Blue as male, despite the author's goal to present Blue as non-gendered. Would I have felt the same if the main character had not been female? Interesting.
    • 3/5
      This book was intriguing in concept, but it was just a bit over blown for me. There was too much imagery, melancholy and failed? introspection. So, while the book was interesting and enjoyable in its way I had trouble engaging with it. It felt a bit like a thought exercise rather then real people. In essence it is not really my thing, but interesting and I'm sure exactly what some people are looking to read.