Chercher La Femme

by L. Timmel Duchamp

$19 (paperback)
$7.95 (e-book)	EPUB	MOBI

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2018 Tiptree Award Honor List

"Everything about the humanoids inhabiting the planet La Femme is beautiful and desirable. Even their names are a pleasure to the tongue, a pleasure that can be experienced only in meat space."  —Paul 22423

Advance Praise

Chercher La Femme, which unfolds in a strange, complex, alien future, effectively explores several themes: of personal identity and how it holds itself together but is also porous to experience; of communication with alien life forms and how amorphous and challenging that might be; and of the visceral power of alien forms of beauty and art, giving the story compelling depths. The tense stretch between the Pax and the "Outsiders" offers an interesting representation of the real-world tension we now live with, between low-tech societies and those racing to colonize outer (and inner, personal) space in all sorts of ways.

There's some interesting tidal stirring going on at the more cerebral levels of modern SF, which I think began with books like A Voyage to Arcturus and Solaris. It's now manifesting itself in, for example, Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach books and in this book, Chercher La Femme, as well as in films like Arrival, They Remain, and of course Annihilation. Human bafflement and consternation characterize these stories, in the face of the most alien kind of alien-ness we can imagine at this point, and a necessary softening and yielding of our age-old infatuation with a propulsive, often violent drive to control (or kill) whatever is ineffable and strange to us.
 —Suzy McKee Charnas, author of The Vampire Tapestry and the Holdfast Chronicles


"Speculative fiction at its purest."
 —-Vonda N. McIntyre, author of Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun

Reviews

Aqueduct editor Duchamp's concentrated and demanding examination of what's accepted as "self" is cleverly and convincingly presented as a simple piece of science fiction. Diplomat Julia, a member of a socialistic human society known as the Pax, is the head of a mission to a far-off world, La Femme. The mission's primary purpose is recovery of the first ship sent to make contact with La Femme's inhabitants, though further diplomatic advancement is planned as well. Julia is distracted from the mission objectives by her deep analysis of her life thus far and the utopian ideal she lives by, particularly when she deals with her splintered crew. What she and her crew find upon arrival is enough to shake them all. Duchamp (Stretto) makes abundant challenges to gender norms and raises questions of what constitutes alienness, and the novel's humanistic approach and unwavering commitment to Julia's frank introspection go beautifully with a precisely detailed world. This thoughtful tale bears rereading and contemplation.  
  —Publishers Weekly, June 2018

One of my favorite devices for SF stories is the alien race whose society presents a puzzle to humans. In this case, an expedition of men arrives on a planet whose inhabitants all appear to be women, and unusually beautiful ones as well. But this is not a variation of some 1950s cheaply made SF exploitation film. There is some subtle and intelligent examination of gender roles as well as a touch of philosophy about the limits on human ability to comprehend the universe, but none of that detracts from what is also a nicely constructed puzzle story. This was a surprisingly fast read.   (Read the whole review)
  —Critical Mass, Don D'Ammassa, Aug 19, 2018

The unintelligibility that is the substance of the novel sometimes bleeds into its form. Duchamp is dealing with a set of concepts that do not yet exist as part of our store of common knowledge, and she is virtually compelled to invent a private language to describe them. This runs the risk of creating situations where the reader lacks even the basic tools that are required to imaginatively construct what is not – or cannot – be described in the novel itself. The use of the word ‘transudation’, that cannot be further broken down, and by itself, suggests nothing, is a good example of this.

However, perhaps that’s the point? A novel that explores the boundaries of communication, of what is possible, and what is not, when two incommensurable consciousnesses meet each other, that leaves one with the haunting feeling that the effort will always come up short, must perhaps also come up short in how much it can communicate to the reader. Perhaps that vague feeling of dissatisfaction on closing the novel, a sense of something left incomplete (while nonetheless appreciating the manner in which it has been crafted, as well as Duchamp’s literary skill and imagination), is inevitable, given the themes that it deals with. To those used to the demands that Duchamp makes upon her readers, this will be familiar; to those not, it may take some getting used to, but it is an effort that will be rewarded.   (Read the whole review)
  —Foundation, Gautam Bhatia, March 2020

ISBN: 978-1-61976-147-6 (13 digit)
Publication Date: Aug 2018
paperback 320 pages