Ammonite

Nicola Griffith's science-fiction novel (and what seems to be her first published novel) is amazingly inventive and doesn't "talk down" to the reader. You don't really know at first what is going on -- just as the main character, an anthropologist named Marghe, doesn't know what she will find when she heads down to "Jeep" - a planet inhabited only by women. The reader learns, as she learns.

A virus killed all of the men who landed on Jeep as part of the Company's exploration of the planet. Many women died as well, but those that survived were changed, somehow, by the virus. The Company, unwilling to lose half their crews to the disease, has developed what they believe is an effective vaccine. Marghe is to test it, but her agenda is to learn about the social structure of the native women who are the descendents of survivors of the first colony. The biggest mystery -- how have they managed to reproduce?

The background -- climate, society, way of life -- are rich with detail. An all-female society is no more a perfect one that ours is, and the women we meet are full characters. Women are bullies, silent and undisclosing, insane, killers -- as well as nurturers, gardeners, storytellers, healers.

Echoes of "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula LeGuin in the handling of sexuality and gender roles in a new and intriguing way, this novel is definitely worth a re-read. Maybe even a permanent place on the bookshelf.