Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780380794782
ISBN number: 0380794780
Label: Eos
Manufacturer: Eos
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 331
Printing Date: March 01, 1998
Publishing house: Eos
Release Date: March 01, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 1695189
Studio: Eos
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It has been a century since a small group of humans was marooned on a distant planet. Now their descendants struggle with rising infertility, infant mortality, and mysterious birth defects for which no cause--or cure--can be found. Reproduction has become essential, and those who cannot produce children are scorned. Anais, a brilliant female doctor born with inexplicable physical abnormalities, falls victim to this severe treatment.
But then comes a startling revelation during an examination of a remarkably preserved corpse, a member of the planet's long extinct native race. With horror, Anais discovers that the ancient creature has deformities nearly identical to her own. There must be some link between the planet's past and the plight of the present-day humans, and Anais must find it before she is exiled forever--thwarting her society's last chance for survival.It has been a century since a small group of humans was marooned on a distant planet. Now their descendants struggle with rising infertility, infant mortality, and mysterious birth defects for which no cause--or cure--can be found. Reproduction has become essential, and those who cannot produce children are scorned. Anais, a brilliant female doctor born with inexplicable physical abnormalities, falls victim to this severe treatment.
But then comes a startling revelation during an examination of a remarkably preserved corpse, a member of the planets long extinct native race. With horror, Anais discovers that the ancient creature has deformities nearly identical to her own. There must be some link between the planets past and the plight of the present-day humans, and Anais must find it before she is exiled forever--thwarting her societys last chance for survival.
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Rated by buyers 
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Stephen Leigh's DARK WATER'S EMBRACE is a profound exploration of the human differences of gender, and the true fluidity of the continuum between "male" and "female" and "other."
If you've ever felt different, clumsy, alienated, unable to fit into the steretypical sex and gender roles, then I recommend this novel highly. You will find yourself in it, and you will find a measure of healing. On the other hand, if you've always felt comfortable with your gender, I still recommend you take a look to see how other individuals in our midst live, and how they feel.
The agony and shame of social shunning and persecution and the slow gentle balm of understanding is portrayed against the backdrop of a very satisfying science fiction metaphor of a haunting alien world.
The narrative is rich with alien "terms" of the world Mictlan and yet suprisingly effortless to remember and fast-paced, and everything can be easily gleaned from the context or can even be looked up in the handly glossary. I found the "Ker" gender pronouns very smooth and easy to get used to.
Comparisons can be drawn to Ursula K. Le Guin's treatment of gender and sexuality, but I believe this work stands on its own and contributes unique elements to the tradition.
It is not surprising that this book won the Spectrum Award for best novel of 1999.
Rated by buyers 
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Dark Water's Embrace is a very creative, very complex, and very unique book. A group of humans were stranded on an alien planet, and this is the story of their descendants. Leigh creates new words and a new culture. This is what makes the book confusing, and hard to follow. I found myself constantly referring to the "translations". In the beginning is a list of their words they've created, and which are used in the book. It's a neat idea, but it's very distracting. For example, using Ke and Ker for she and her. You get used to it, but now and then, they throw in a really bizarre word which refers to a plant life, animal, or something else.
Keep in mind this book has a lot of sexual references, to activity and body parts. It especially has a lot of homosexual references.
Other than that, it's really not a bad book. It's just overcomplex, when it doesn't need to be. If you're not a big sci-fi fan, you won't like this. If you're big on Star Trek, and other sci-fi, you'll probably eat this up with a spoon.
Rated by buyers -
"Dark Water's Embrace" revolves around a tiny colony of humans marooned on an alien planet, whose biology induces in them a high rate of mutation and infant mortality. In their struggle for life, they encounter odds that predict their long-term survival is impossible. Interspersed in this impending tragedy is the story of the planet's previous - and now ominously extinct - native race, the Miccail.
But more than this, "Dark Water's Embrace" is a first-class social treatise on human nature. In it, author Stephen Leigh conveys how blind faith, obstinate prejudice and racism work against the human, in totally irrational yet completely familiar ways, leading him to self-destruction. The issue in particular in this well-paced story is the element of the Miccail's third gender. Without spoiling the reader, suffice to say it allows the book to deal with the notion of alternate sexualities, or what we call "deviant sexuality" and how, in the context of a science fiction drama, mankind's stubborn inability to re-adapt or re-evaluate old and now irrelevant taboos can spell his doom.
Stephen Leigh writes in bite-sized chapters (or sub-chapters?), each alternating between different times, different people, different contexts and even mediums. With this he strips away a strict chronological linearity and makes the unfolding very much timeless. The weaving of his plot is without cliché, a credit to its relative simplicity. A small glossary is provided for some of the colonists' colloqualisms as well as the Miccail's language - this incidently reflects on Leigh's attempts to make his worlds culturally distinctive, an authorial effort which always deserves praise.
Although the central theme of alternate sexuality may "disturb" some readers, in my opinion, Stephen Leigh has successfully rendered his story with abundant grace, intelligence as well as compassion. The solemn-tragic atmosphere of the story unfolds with feeling as well as dignity, and at no point does it descend into anything tasteless or gratuitous, not even in terms of sex. The lessons of sacrifice which take place across time are particularly moving. And ultimately we are treated with a conclusion brimming with humility, enlightenment and hope, out of nothing less than the quest for preservation and procreation of life, regardless of its means.
Rated by buyers -
I bought this book on a whim (it was on my recommended list) and read in in one day. Wow. Very interesting writing style, combined with wonderful characters and a fabulous idea... I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys "What if?" stories.
Rated by buyers 
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A century ago, a tiny group of humans was stranded on a not entirely hospitable planet. The descendants struggle to survive the elements, as well as their own mutations and infertility. Anaïs is not entirely male or female, so she's seen as a threat to the community since she's also a lesbian. In order to survive, the community instituted a breeding program which states that all women need to have children. With the unearthing of the remains of one of the planet's native population, Anaïs finds what could be the keys to the community's survival, but fear of the unknown and of difference rules here, and Anaïs might not survive to implement the changes. It's an intriguing story of third genders, that is confused by the shifting viewpoints and time periods (Anaïs's time, the time when the native population's civilization was beginning to end, and the time when the humans were very first struggling to survive on the planet). The other storylines give information that Anaïs could never know, so it's almost necessary to make the novel work, and I found myself more interested in the third gender information than about the characters and the interplay between them. It's overall a great book, but the varying of the viewpoints might put off some readers.
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