This book (and the three volume series) provides one of the best realized portrayals of a multi-species political entity (and the alien races that make it up) in modern science fiction. In many ways comparable to the diversified sentient species David Brin populated the galaxies with in his Uplift novels, Ore tells the story of how one (and soon several) humans struggle to fit into a society where they are very much in the minority. The protagonist, a human teenager from Virginia, finds himself (through a series of lucky (?) accidents) a cadet, and the sole human representative, in the equivalent of Star Trek's "Star Fleet Academy." Only in this case, instead of a human dominated federation, the aliens, of many species, are dominant. How humans fit into such a system is a major theme of the novels, but alien species share the stage, and in fact humans react to them, not the other way around. In fact, there are more alien than human characters in these novels, something itself unusual, and making these books stand out. The vaguely bat-like Gwyngs are as well described and plausible an alien species as I've seen in SF, and they are but one of many. These books are fun to read but, like life itself, are not all sweetness and light. But if you want to have a sense of how intelligent species in the universe could interact, these books offer a good perspective.

In this the first book, we meet a young Tom Gentry. On his Virginia farm he encounters drug lords, rude locals, and other strange creatures (specifically a young alien by the name of Mica). Shortly after meeting Mica Tom has a run-in with the local constabulary which leads him to believe that a trip out of town might be benificial. So he ran.........He never knew you could run so far. This book is a hoot, and is one of my favorite books. The three books in the series make for a ripping good pager turner, with characters that radiantly come to life.

In this book, the author has succeeded in making the aliens PEOPLE, not human, but people. They have personalities, lives, families, and problems. There are many different kinds of aliens in this story and they all interact in a way that is not much different than what one would expect at, say, a United Nations conference

This is the second volume of a trilogy that I have read three times over the last several years. I seldom read a book more than once.... I found it particularly fascinating for how it handled the question of why we have not been contacted by aliens and who might be out there waiting for us to be ready. An interesting speculation.

The trilogy winds up with a bittersweet ending. If you've read the previous two books, you know about the human/alien relationships -- but this one ties a bow on most of the storylines, including Tom Gentry (Red Clay) and the contact and induction of Earth into the Federation -- and Tom's dealing with his own species self-hate, as well as his past -- and his wife's unfaithfulness, as well as the Sharwan Problem. The conclusion also deals with death of two of Tom's closest friends, one a bittersweet funereal scene. The entire series is a smart read, though probably not for everyone.

Rebecca Ore presents a glimpse of years to come that brings social stratification to a completely new level. She presents a society in which knowledge is given proportionally to your class, where society offers only conformity or insanity, and into which an individual's potential seems limited. Jayne specifically struggles to find herself in this world of many obstacles. She would conform, yet the consequences are so unwelcoming. Considered crazy for being an outcast, Jayne is portrayed from a child to an adult as rebellious in the eyes of others, but she appears sympathetic and rational to the reader.

If you question societies purpose and its norms, you should definitely read this book. If you can't understand why people aren't like you, this book will provide more insight than you may think. It questions the identity of everyone and the purpose of everyone's identity. Rebecca Ore gives enough details to make the reader knowledgeable, and at the same time excludes just enough to make the reader question Jayne's identity, just as she does. Being the best I have read in the cyberpunk genre, Outlaw School should bring no hesitations to a reader in search of a great book.

Ore presents her version of a not-too-implausible future. All information and knowledge is under strict copyright and how much one has access to is determined by their authorized social rank. Computer programs run against "meat" polliticians. Society gives out medication and even surgery like candy to children with undesirable traits. The book's heroine is Jayne, a middle class kid with unconcerned parents. Alienated at school and showing a thirst for knowledge undesirable for her class, her school prescribes her mind-bending, behavior-modifying drugs. To get off them, she allows herself to be impregnated, which causes even more rejection and disapproval from her society until she is institutionalized. Bitter and enraged by her conformist society, an older Jayne joins an outlawed teacher syndicate, teaching such banned information as the psychology and computer systems to all of society's bottom feeders in the hopes that they can improve their lives through the education society feels it best they not have. This book is a perfect mix of the Bell Jar and 1984. Ore merges a surreal backdrop and many very believable characters, easy to be concerned about. The previously mentioned concept about computer programs running against people for government positions is particularly clever. If we are accepting of our leaders being so obviously coached for public appeal and conformed to the establishment of parties, why not vote for a machine? The situations faced in this book are not only faced by denizens of the early twenty-second century but by all whom hear the first period bell Monday morning. It's honestly the best new book I have read in many, many moths.

Ore's Outlaw School is an intricately woven blanket following the life of Jayne, a woman living in a world where lies are passed as truth and the "real" truth is hidden at all costs.

This book is very enjoyable for its quickly-changing environment and its strong development of its characters. There is a strong contrast between the straightforwardness of Jayne's character (even her problems are clean-cut, with one good and one bad choice; she never faces the gray choice) and the complexity of other characters. For example, Jayne's continually fighting a battle between the presented truth and the "real" truth. Once Mick, her teenage lover, tells Jayne that she can't be monitored when purchasing a pregnancy test (which was a threat, according to her society), she continually sees the lies which are presented as truths to herself. She no longer seems to be confused by facts; if they were presented to her by society, they were wrong. Society, according to her, never told the truth; everyone deserves to be told the truth.

However, other characters do not agree with this, creating a gray area which Jayne avoids. They are happy living in lies, and once they know they are being lied to, they are unhappy.

Jayne also fights a continual battle in which she must decide whether to volunteer for suicide or continue living. However, in her mind, she could never commit suicide. She insists that she will never commit suicide, that she will survive no matter what. However, Suzanne throws herself into situations where she is likely to die; in the end, she never really desires death. She lives her life in the gray, complicating herself with dreams of ending her life as a dominatrix and her desire to continue living. Suzanne also lives in the gray because while she is a dominatrix in sexual positions, she has very little control over her own life. She is not always strong, while Jayne is always sure of her choices, showing a certain amount of personal strength. She is one of the more ambiguous characters that presents herself in Jayne's black-and-white world.

Ore's distopian view of the future, where the hero is an outlaw, is akin to that of Shockwave Rider and Neuromancer. However, while technology is a strong theme and Jayne fights a battle against technology, Outlaw School's main focus is not on technology, making it different from the average cyberpunk novel. Most of the text focuses on characterization. Ore's strongpoint is her ability to create realistic characters with intricate personalities. For example, Jayne is presented as someone with a troubled, haunting past that will never leave her. Throughout the book, different aspects of her past continually mix with her present. No matter how far she travels from home, the past still haunts her; she can never leave it behind. For example, when she moves to South Carolina, she goes to a funhouse with Suzanne and relives the painful experience that changed her life forever. She relives it over and over in the funhouse, even though Suzanne insists that Jayne has control over what she experiences.

Jayne also sees herself as a rebel, one who refuses to fit into her own class in society. She is continually trying to break through the restraints society puts on her, from her childhood days when she's too smart for a middle-class child to her adult days when she refuses to choose a legal profession. Jayne continually fights to help others break through the class barriers.

The main purpose of this book is its focus on the issues of society. Society creates its own truth, so what happens if the truth it creates is not true at all? Can one trust their own society? Where is our society heading? Are we going to be thrown into a world that focuses on the caste system, like the society in this novel? Is the caste system a good choice, keeping the wealthy in the wealthy class and the poor too far down in society to advance?

There's a strong focus on reality. If people are happy in a world of lies, should they be shown the truth? If one knows the truth, is it their duty to pass on the truth to the rest of society?

Technology appears often in this book. Technology allows the sick to live in a world of beautiful pictures, letting them leave the world of pain and disease. However, they see it as painful and tortuous, and it does not stop Jayne from later recalling her pain when she was under its influence. Also, technology allows for computer-created politicians to come into power, passes on the false reality that is passed as truth, and allows for police to track many criminals who are only in search of the truth that is hidden for hackers to uncover. With all of the dangers that technology presents, should it play such a strong role in our lives? If we give technology full power now, is our society heading towards this presented distopia?

This book also has underlying issues about gender roles (mainly focusing on female subservience and weakness), self-mutilation, and sexuality. In this futuristic society, women mutilate themselves so that men can observe their lives and keep them safe. Many women willingly trade an eye for a camera that allows men to view their lives. However, Jayne refuses to fall into this category, no matter how tempting it appears to her as a child. Later readers see the detrimental effects of this socially-encouraged lifestyle. Finally, Jayne questions her heterosexuality multiple times throughout the book.

This book will be enjoyed by anyone who considers themselves to be rebellious, who had a troublesome childhood that follows them everywhere, who questions the role of technology in their life, who wants to think deeply about where society is heading, who enjoys studying distorted gender roles (The Handmaid's Tale, for example), or who simply wants a taste of a different style of cyberpunk/science fiction.

First, I resent having to give this novel even 1 star. It was that bad. The story was difficult to follow - why do I have to work that hard when reading a story? Maybe if the author had bothered to re-read it and edit it, rather than finishing it and dashing it off to the publisher, as is evidently the case. That it was published at all still amazes me.
The worst thing about it however is that it is poorly written. The author's grasp of the language is, at best, "modern". She does not employ it well, and besides being ugly and frustrating to plough through, it makes understanding the tortured plot that much harder.

There was a time when, to be published, you needed to be able to write reasonable English, and tell a story well. No longer.

As for the gushing reviews published here, I hazard a guess that they are written by people known to the author. They do not seem to be about the book I read.

Some books are so bad, they can be fun. This is not one of those.

This has got to be the absolute WORST book I've ever read in my entire life. I got to page ten and started yawning, and by page 20 I determined that kindling was the best use for this book. It's not worth the 5 bucks to ship it back even.

Gaia's Toys, by Rebecca Ore, takes several unique characters ranging from a socially abused 'drode head,' Willie, to a captured and reformed 'eco-warrior', Allison, to an over zealous scientist, Dr. Rae, and somehow crosses their paths so that they all come neatly together at the conclusion of the novel.

Through these characters Ore creates a futuristic world where technology continually overpowers nature so that human life becomes more and more less human. 'Eco-warriors' fight a never-ending battle against corporate chemical producers and oil refineries that seem to needlessly destroy and disrespect nature. Doctors create genetically altered insects that are designed to tranquilize and soothe the simple minded 'drode head' population. Surgery is done with nanomachines, which are microscopic virus like particles designed to physically alter and rebuild human beings.

Ore uses many unique technological terms and sub-plots to add flavor to her book, but she somehow fails to neatly pull all of the elements together realistically and give her novel adequate closure. Several places throughout the novel seem hastily written, while others made it seem that Ore was struggling with the advanced terminology used in the book. The initial plot becomes blurred, and the reader is turned towards the newly emerging theme of trust. Several passages and sections of complex dialogue need to be re-read in order to give the reader a sense of semi-understanding. The book begins to crawl through the door that Gibson and Stephenson opened, but it lacks the plot and overall understanding that would allow it to emerge as a unique work itself.

I give Gaia's Toys two stars, but I challenge anyone truly interested in the Cyberpunk genre to give it a shot.

I just finished reading Slow Funeral, by Rebecca Ore, an author who apparently usually writes technologically-fantastical futuristic sci-fi dystopian novels for Tor Books (who published this novel as well).

This book, however, is set in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bracken County, VA, and basically follows the story of a young woman, Maude Fuller, who, having "escaped" the rural, folk-magic-infested land of Appalachia for Berkeley, CA, returns to Bracken County to care for her dying grandmother, Partridge Roar. Maude is almost an antihero; when the book opens she's feigning insanity in order to live off of welfare checks and picks up men in bars hoping they'll stay interested in her long enough to take her to dinners in nice restaurants. As such, you never are sure if she's motivated by self-service/avarice/cowardice, or generosity/benevolence/thoughtfulness in her choice to move back home with Partridge to be her live-in caretaker. Despite this, i found her likeable and sympathetic enough to want to follow her story.

There are numerous subplots (too numerous to mention, and probably even too numerous for the author to have undertaken, as they aren't all terribly well fleshed-out...but i digress), but the storyline that most grabbed my attention involves a quilt that Partridge and Maude make together. Partridge had cut out the pieces to a quilt top before falling ill, and intends to teach Maude to patchwork it together, referring to it as her "death quilt." When the quilt is finished, Partridge believes that she will die, and she asks to be buried wrapped in it.

All in all, i found the author's style a bit too clipped and distant for my taste, though the subject matter and the storylines were engrossing enough that i still finished the book. A lot of the dialogue read almost like a play script instead of a novel, with very little indication of inflections or body language to clue the reader in to how the characters meant what they were saying. Interesting, in that it afforded many opportunities for interpretation, but also difficult to follow at times. I would recommend it (with the caveat that it is a bit disorienting plotwise and stylistically stark) to those interested in the geographical setting, quilting, an interesting supernatural extrapolation on folk-magic, and those who enjoy that reeling, jerky, antiseptic writing style common to Ms. Ore's usual genre (dystopic scifi).