Don’t Bite The Sun

Tanith Lee 1976 Buy from Amazon.com

This is the first Four Bee book, combined with the sequel Drinking Sapphire Wine into the volume Biting the Sun.

An interesting point to note before before beginning this book is that it is written in the first person, and the main character is never named. No one even refers to them by name, which isn’t that difficult to cover up due to the prevalence of slang, so the main character is often called “Ooma”, a term of endearment.

The slang in the novel is a sign of the character’s peer group, all young people are known as “Jang”, a stage of life between childhood and “Older Person” status. Jang are expected to be frivolous, dress extravagantly and revealingly, to steal, to speak in slang, and to cause moderate amounts of havoc. This is the correct and proper way for Jang to behave. They are expected to enjoy taking “ecstasy” and it is traditional for them to get married for an afternoon or longer if they want to “have love”. When they want a new body, they commit “suicide”, and their life essence is given a new body, which they can design themselves.

This could be considered a coming of age novel, or perhaps even a dystopia. Everyone knows their place and the committee of benevolent androids oversees their behaviour and lives to make sure it all goes as it should.

The main character tries to find meaning in her life, by looking for useful work (there is none), having a child (this too fails) and finally by exploring the planet outside the cities. In the end though, the closest thing she can find to happiness is dancing in the wild with her pet.

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