The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri Tepper

A fantasy fiction alternate society where the vast majority of men are considered to be violent, monsterous creatures that shouldn't be allowed to reproduce and that shouldn't be allowed to be a part of civilized society. This book suggests that roughly 5% of men are decent and that we perhaps should use eugenics to rid ourselves of the violence, power seeking activities which permeate our world.

Beautifully done. Slightly reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird. Advocation of eugenics is not an easy one to manage but it's done very well here. I strongly agreed with the points Tepper made throughout. This here is a template to remember.

Similar to Bakker the main character has no ace up his sleeve, instead it's other side characters. Also the injustice isn't glaringly blunt.

Plot develops quite slowly, I almost didn't get into it. The flashes to the greek play I didn't like at the time but in hindsight seemed brilliant. Yet if attempting to appeal to a large audience are probably a mistake.

Beautiful analogies. That so many men perhaps could be good but are coerced, pressured into being "manly"/"not gay" and thus becoming harmful ugly creatures. In regular society thus permeates. In this society they thus choose to stay in Warrior country. To be one of the few "sissies" who comes back to Women's Country takes an exceptional man. But it's stark and easier to see whereas in our real world we can't see that the same thing is happening on a hourly basis, in our social norms.

Loved the bigamist Mormon society at the end also.

This story is not as capitivating as Hobb, Martin, or even Bakker. But the ideas could be life changing to a person who reads this at the right time. As such I'd say it's the best fantasy fiction I've ever read. A much more important author than Bakker who edges into tediousness but whom I still read because of the side characters hidden aces.