Tritcheon Hash by Sue Lange    Books by Sue Lange · We, Robots                 >> View all
Category:	Science Fiction	Publisher:	Metropolis Ink	ISBN-10:	095805438x	Type:
Pages:	228	Copyright:	June 2003			Fiction

SFReader
Satire is a hard nut to crack. Come across too serious and you can alienate an audience that might not get it. Come off as being too far out there and it can end up being silly. The best satire extrapolates the normal to outrageous extremes while making it sound perfectly logical and natural. Lange takes current perceived differences between the sexes, combined with a healthy dose of tree and animal hugging, and ends up with a novel that walks the satirical line with 99% success.

Some undefined years into the future, women finally decide they've had enough. They pack up on starships and over a few decades leave men behind to a resource poor, polluted, and war- and sports-ridden Earth. Embracing activities such as aromatherapy and vegetarianism, they settle on a distant planet they name Coney Island, where they end up with a society that epitomizes the antitheses of the aggressive male-dominated culture they left behind. They remain in contact with Earth, since they've yet to discover the secret of artificial sperm, and to return those male babies born on Coney Island.

Tritcheon Hash, the main character, is a woman in love with speed. Her job is to test new faster-than-light ships, zipping out to the end of the cosmos and back in the blink of an eye. She's unhappily married to an upper echelon socialite wife with whom she has two children. On the surface, it appears she has everything, but within her lurks a core of dissatisfaction that even she can't explain. She's also haunted by an experiment she participated in as a youth in what passes for the Coney Island military academy; a group of women students and a visiting contingent of male students were tossed together to see what happen. The results, thanks to the Neanderthalish behavior of some of the men, were less than successful. But lately there have been rumbles of reunification efforts in the secret recesses of the government, and Coney Island decides they need to scout the enemy. Tritcheon is recruited and zaps off on a clandestine mission to Earth to see if men have managed to evolve out of their wicked, meat-eating, leather-wallet-carrying, sports-loving ways.

Lange writes with an undeniable energy and a Gibson-like use of slang that rings true. Though the energy and slang diminish somewhat as the story progresses, the book is never dull and is oftentimes funny. Characterization is top-notch, and the heroine faces an interesting and personal dilemma, since she ends up running into a man she had a fascination with during the brief time the female and the male students were together.

Lange's level of craft is high and the story never lags. There are instances where she provides insightful and funny (if exaggerated) observations on male/female relations and the different attitudes and habits of men and woman. In the beginning, the average male is humorously depicted as immature, aggressive, uncultured, and incapable of integration into a civilized galaxy. But near the end, the joke suddenly isn't a joke any more, and that's where I think she made a mistake. The final message of the story seems to be that the satire of men's foibles isn't really satire at all and that women are better off without them.

Despite my dissatisfaction with the way the book ended, I highly recommend it.

Dragon's Breath
Basically a sci-fi romantic comedy, this sometimes-hilarious satire on the battle of the sexes posits separate lives on a faraway planet for women, leaving all the men back on Earth to their own devices, free to pollute the fragile environment and kill each other in pointless warfare. The vegetarian, pacifist women from 30th century colony 'Coney Island' are led by Zen scientists. Pragmatic feminist leaders are secretly considering re-unification, but they aren't sure what the menfolk have been up to, alone for centuries, and FTL space probes can't get through the stratospheric blanket of murk enveloping humanity's home-world, so they send flawed Amazonian test pilot Tritcheon Hash on a solo flight to spy on mankind. Tough spacer Tritch meets her match in thoroughly domesticated biologist, Dr Bangut Walht, who's quite unlike any male that Tritch's paranoid superiors had taught her to expect. But she also has to contend with the unwelcome attentions of Colonel Slab Ricknoy, an incompetent if farcically aggressive warmonger. Should Tritch abandon her beautiful wife Drannie and two kids back on planet Coney to move in with Bangut at his GM farm? Will Drannie still be waiting for Tritch when she returns home to file her recon report? What happens when Bang and Slab both realise that they're in love with the same woman? Sue Lange's debut novel assigns the same utility value to a bucket as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy did to a towel, but there's far more going on here than just witty asides and daffy quips. There are keen insights regarding human nature, irrespective of gender, so TRITCHEON HASH is certainly worth your time and money, whether you're a diehard space opera fan, a student of life, or whatever... BOSS


Midwest Book Review
et approximately 1000 years from now, Tritcheon Hash is a hot-shot female pilot on the planet Coney Island (named for a famous Earth penal colony). Several hundred years previously, all the women from Earth packed up and moved to Coney Island, leaving the men on their own. Now, the only contact between them happens once a year in a neutral part of the galaxy. At that meeting, all male babies born on Coney Island are exchanged for a ton of frozen sperm.

For the past 50 years or so, secret contacts have been taking place between both planets concerning Reunification, a very touchy subject for both sides. The leaders of Coney Island need to know what’s happening on Earth. All their probes and long-distance readings can’t get past the Dispro Haze. It’s a mile-high layer of dust, chemicals and debris that surrounds Earth and blocks out the sun; giant xenon lamps are used to simulate the sun. Tritch is chosen as a one-person mission to Earth, but specialized training is needed, first. At the local military academy, she meets Bangut Walht, a sensitive young man (it’s the only place on Coney Island where men are allowed), to which Tritch is immediately attracted. She also meets Slab Ricknoy, a loudmouthed, arrogant jerk. The program ends, and the men are sent back to Earth, the day that Hash and Ricknoy get into a fight.

Tritch arrives on Earth, near Lake Michigan, and her cover is blown almost immediately. Earth is a place of extreme dirtiness. The air is dirty, the people are dirty and much of the planet is either full of radiation, or officially dead. She runs into Bangut Walht, who shows her the few bright spots. She also meets Slab Ricknoy, now a General, who is convinced that Hash is there to spy on him. He is also a paranoid person, who believes in endless war. Ricknoy has also impounded Hash’s ship, looking for its faster-than-light drive, called a lighterator. By galactic law, Earth is confined to the solar system. Should people like Ricknoy get an FTL drive, it would not bode well for anyone, especially the inhabitants of Coney Island.

This is a really sharp satire about men and women about which I’m sure some people will complain. I enjoyed it. It’s very easy to read, it has things to say, and it’s quite a perceptive story. Well worth checking out.