I was fairly blown away by the world-building and detailed societies Slonczewski came up with in this book. Having never read her before, A Door Into Ocean was a pleasant surprise. This is top-notch anthropological SF with the characters driving the plot forward. If you like Le Guin's Hainish books, (especially The Dispossessed), Vinge's Snow Queen books, or Russell's Rakhat duology, (The Sparrow/Children of God), then this book should be right up your street. I'll be looking to add the other volumes in this loosely connected series to my library soon. ( )

Solid but annoying. The cover blurb reference to Dune is not unreasonable. This is sort of a water world version, with a culture clash between outsiders and those who have adapted to oceanic environment. Though much is made of the author's scientific background, surprisingly few info-dumps occur explaining the ecosystems.

The annoying part is the heavy handed natives good, warrior patriarchy bad. I kept waiting for some nuance or depth to appear in the handling of the two sides, but it never came.

Recommended but it wasn't a breakout book for me. ( )

What a world Slonczewski has built! Intricate and profound, with cool ideas about biotechnology and how a completely non-violent culture would work. The only problems I found were with 1) the main antagonist - too flat and cartoonish, and 2) the length - this is a very long book. ( )

I enjoyed this book tremendously. The concept was delightful and unique, and the science was incorporated well so that it was important to the plot and believable. An ocean planet populated by women leads to many interesting ideas. The conflict with the neighboring planet also believable. The only jarring aspect to this story, for me, was the Spinel character, who seemed rougher than the others. Some of his statements just didn't feel right to me. ( )

Shora is a world without land. The humans who colonized it chose to reshape themselves, instead of terraforming the planet. Sharers, as the descendents of the colonists call themselves, strive to live in balance with each other and their world. Although they have incredibly advanced biological science, they try to change as little as possible about the natural ecology of Shora, even though it means losing friends and loved ones to vast monsters that roam the ocean. Their highest goal is to strengthen the ecological and social web that ties each creature to another. But they share their solar system with Valedon, a feudal, warlike world. And Valedon wants to expand its hold. Can the pacifists of Shora find a way to understand, and be understood by, their invaders?

I've seen other reviews that decry this book as gender-essentialist lesbian separatism, and I have to disagree. The Sharers are all female, and they are, as a group, very wise. But the book doesn't seem to present being wise as the natural extention of being an all-female society. The original colonists created a society that prizes consensus and pacifism, and those are the priorities they passed on to their descendents. There are many Sharers who are not wise in the least, who are hot-headed, blood-thirsty, or narrow-minded. The Valedon soldiers are male and female, and their chief torturer is a woman. And it's not like men are left out of the book--a male Valedon first learns from a wise (male) seer, then becomes a Sharer. We spend a large portion of the book inside his head, and much of the latter half inside another man's.

I really enjoyed reading the Sharers' struggles. They're incredibly inspirational, and I loved their society (even though I'd hate to live on their world). They refuse to do anything that might harm the Valedons (prefering civil disobedience), but the Valedons only value strength. It's fascinating conflict, but the resolution felt like a cop-out: the Valedons accidentally become convinced that the Sharers have created a time-bomb plague, that could wipe out the Valedons if ever the Sharers are wiped out themselves, and so they decide to leave the Sharers in peace. That aside, the societies Slonczewski create are engrossingly unique, and the conflict between them made me very tense and anxious. ( )