The Rainbow Cadenza
The Rainbow Cadenza is a science fiction novel by J. Neil Schulman which won the 1984 Prometheus Award for libertarian science fiction.
Plot summary
The novel tells the story of Joan Darris, a laser art composer and performer, and her interactions with her society.
The novel portrays a future nominally-libertarian world government, in which many social taboos of the middle-twentieth century have been eliminated—for instance, gay marriage, drug use, sex work, and Wicca are all deemed socially acceptable. However, women, greatly outnumbered by men, are required to perform a three-year term of sexual servitude, and the "Touchables" underclass can be hunted for sport.
The main themes of the novel are social libertarianism vs. societal control, freedom of self, and what is permissible for the greater good.
Legacy
It was published two years before Margaret Atwood's similarly themed The Handmaid's Tale.[1]
Upon the 1986 publication of the Avon mass-market paperback Laserium coordinated an all-classical-music Rainbow Cadenza show which played at the Griffith Observatory and other planetarium venues in the United States and Canada.[2]
Reception
Beth Wickenberg writing for the Arizona Daily Star praised the novel's feminist content coming from a male writer:
"(Joan Darris) is a reminder that women in her future world still need liberation. It strikes me as strange – and fills me with hope – that a man would write a novel, especially a science-fiction novel, with such a feminist message. ... 'The Rainbow Cadenza' is imaginative and stylishly written, well worth its price for the moral questions it raises, even to those who are not science-fiction buffs. Schulman manipulates his words and characters much as the lasegrapher controls the colors and shapes of a composition. Each climaxes with a sign of hope: a rainbow."[3]
Greg Costikyan reviewed The Rainbow Cadenza in Ares Magazine #16 and commented that "The Rainbow Cadenza is a personal novel of an artist attempting to survive and grow despite the oppression of the state, and attempting to discharge obligations to friends despite all legal and emotional obstacles. Jan Darris is, to my mind, one of the most appealing heroines of modern science fiction."[4]
References
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- Wheels Within Wheels by F. Paul Wilson (1979)
- The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith (1982)
- Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan (1983)
- The Rainbow Cadenza by J. Neil Schulman (1984)
- The Cybernetic Samurai by Victor Milán (1986)
- Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge (1987)
- The Jehovah Contract by Victor Koman (1988)
- Moon of Ice by Brad Linaweaver (1989)
- Solomon's Knife by Victor Koman (1990)
- In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn (1991)
- Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael F. Flynn (1992)
- The Multiplex Man by James P. Hogan (1993)
- Pallas by L. Neil Smith (1994)
- The Stars Are Also Fire by Poul Anderson (1995)
- The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod (1996)
- Kings of the High Frontier by Victor Koman (1997)
- The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod (1998)
- The Golden Globe by John Varley (1999)
- A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (2000)
- The Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith (2001)
- Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury (2002)
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett (2003)
- Sims by F. Paul Wilson (2004)
- The System of the World by Neal Stephenson (2005)
- Learning the World by Ken MacLeod (2006)
- Glasshouse by Charles Stross (2007)
- The Gladiator by Harry Turtledove and Ha'penny by Jo Walton (2008)
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (2009)
- The Unincorporated Man by Dani and Eytan Kollin (2010)
- Darkship Thieves by Sarah A. Hoyt (2011)
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (2012)
- Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow (2013)
- Homeland by Cory Doctorow and Nexus by Ramez Naam (2014)
- Influx by Daniel Suarez (2015)
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson (2016)
- The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo (2017)
- The Powers of the Earth by Travis J I Corcoran (2018)
- Causes of Separation by Travis J I Corcoran (2019)
- Alliance Rising by C. J. Cherryh and Jane S. Fancher (2020)