Reading Group Guide

MOTHER OF EDEN
Chris Beckett
We speak of a mothers love, but we forget her power.

MOTHER OF EDEN by Chris Beckett

On-sale: May 12, 2015 - 480 pp.
PAPERBACK: 978-0-8041-3870-3
EBOOK: 978-0-8041-3871-0

Civilization has come to the alien, sunless planet its inhabitants call
Eden. Just a few generations ago, the planets five hundred inhabitants
huddled together in the light and warmth of the forests lanterntrees,
afraid to venture out into the cold darkness around them.

Now, humanity has spread across Eden, and two kingdoms have
emerged. Both are sustained by violence and dominated by menand both claim to be the favored
children of Gela, the woman who came to Eden long ago on a boat that could cross the stars, and
became the mother of them all.
When young Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she
believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no inkling that she will
become a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gelas fabled ring on her own fingeror that in this
role, powerful and powerless all at once, she will try to change the course of Edens history.

CHRIS BECKETT is a university lecturer living in Cambridge, England. His short stories have appeared
in such publications as Interzone and Asimovs Science Fiction and in numerous years best
anthologies. To connect with Chris, visit his blog at www.chris-beckett.com/blog/.
Please note: In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it
is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this novelas well as the ending. If you have not finished
reading MOTHER OF EDEN, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Eden has no day or night, no annual cycle of seasons; instead, the people of Eden
have their own way of measuring timethree different ways, in fact. What might
have led to the evolution of different time-telling methods?
2. After two centuries, there are still hostile feelings between followers of David and
the followers of John. How is such hostility sustained among people who werent
even bornand indeed whose grandparents werent even bornwhen the original
conflict took place?
3. How does a society like New Earth evolve? Why do the small people let it stay like
that?
4. What function is played by the cutbats in the society of New Earth?

5. Starlight believes that men control women in New Earth, not because women are
powerless, but because women seem to them very powerful indeed. Do you agree?
6. Starlight is viewed, in the course of this book, through the eyes of several other
women, including her sister Glitterfish, Julie, Quietstream, Lucy Johnson, and the
metaldiggers Clare and Mary. What does each see in her? How much do they see
what is really there?
7. Is Greenstone weak? What would he be like if he was strong? Do we apply different
criteria for weak and strong when talking about men and about women?
8. What has this book to say about the nature of power?
9. According to a tradition on Knee Tree Grounds, Jeff Redlantern observed that the
past is always changing, and that the important and unchanging thing is the present.
This is not the view taken by the Johnfolk or the Davidfolk. Do you agree more with
Jeff Redlantern or the Johnfolk and Davidfolk?
10. What is the significance of the Secret Story?
11. Can one generation pass on an important truth or insight to future generations in a
way that will keep it intact?
12. As in Tolkiens famous trilogy, a ring is very powerful in this story. What are the
similarities and differences between this ring and the ring in The Lord of the Rings?
13. Among other things, this book could be described as dealing with the classic sciencefiction theme of alien encounter. What is this books particular take on it, and how
does it differ from other examples you have seen?

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