Valpartha: One Woman’s Quest;
An Interstellar Romance
by
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Imagine: -An explorer being swept over the brink of a raging waterfalls, is saved by the courage of the woman he loves. Imagine: -A society where fathers give birth to babies from a marsupial-like pouch in their abdomen, and nurse with their own breast milk, as does the mother. Imagine: -A woman becomes lost while skiing across a glacier near the equator of an unknown planet. Wind-driven snow cuts visibility as she struggles to find her vehicle in a vast desolate landscape. Imagine: -A woman is trapped alone in a room as a desperate gang of rapists take over her spaceship after the captain dies of a heart attack when he learns his daughter has been raped, is comatose and is now pregnant. Imagine: -Two women both in failing marriages, make a pact to exchange husbands, in order to save the exploratory expedition. Imagine: -A native girl is abandoned by her arranged marriage husband. He returns months later with another young girl from a rival tribe and the new girl’s shaman father. In front of her entire village, the shaman father denounces the native girl’s marriage, and marries his daughter to the native girl’s husband. The native girl is five months pregnant. Imagine: -A reluctant bridegroom is tricked onto the dance floor with his fiancée. He is entrapped with her inside a large golden hoop as alien priestesses recite vows of marriage in a strange language. All their friends anxiously look on. Imagine: -An unwary young couple greedily collect gemstones from a mother-lode of emeralds at the base of a volcano, which is about to erupt. All of these incidents and more are included in Valpartha: One Woman’s Quest; An Interstellar Romance.
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About the Book
What would it be like to be an adventurous woman living for ten years on a spaceship bound for a distant star? What adventures would be in store for an intrepid female scientist and her male paramour exploring a vast unknown planet half permanently frozen and dead, the other half warm and teeming with life? What would it be like for space travelers to live in an advanced matriarchal civilization where Earth’s dominant patriarchal values are considered alien and are questioned and suppressed? These are some of the questions raised in Valpartha: One Woman’s Quest;: An Interstellar Romance. The first-person protagonist, Swedish geologist Astrid Svenson, leaves Earth behind forever to explore and record scientific findings on unknown planets for the European Space Agency. She experiences adventure, triumph, terror, mishap, but above all, love and romance, as she and her husband, French botanist Henri Brule, share their lives and love together, exploring two planets and two cultures at opposite ends of the continuum of civilization. Both the highly civilized matriarchal Valparthans and the hunter-gatherer Arkenuans welcome the space travelers onto their planets to share their cultures. On the matriarchal planet of Valpartha, good will go only so far in dealing with fundamental cultural differences and the expectations of their host society. On the wild and unknown planet of Arkenu, friendly natives sometimes rescue their expedition from hostile tribes, though at other times, they must fight alone for survival on an alien world.
About the Author
At the age of ten, my parents moved to a house on a wooded lake with a dark night sky. I was able to see the Milky Way and thousands of stars. I became fascinated by astronomy. I was also interested in art, writing, and geography. In college, I was intrigued to learn from a women’s study professor that there is no true matriarchy on Earth. While there are matrilineal societies, women do not rule directly but select male leaders. I reasoned women are as intelligent as men, why shouldn’t there be an advanced matriarchal society somewhere, and what would such a society be like? I wrote a short story on the topic, introducing the planet Valpartha, which won first prize in a national Phi Theta Kappa writing contest. This achievement was laid aside as I began a new midlife career after obtaining a master’s degree in geography at Temple University. I worked as a geographic specialist/cartographer for the US Bureau of the Census, participating in three decennial census operations. After early retirement, I began writing again in earnest, publishing Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life—a 120-page nonfiction church history for Arch Street UMC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for its 150th anniversary in 2012. The title is taken from an old Methodist hymn, which once was the urban church’s pet theme. Valpartha: One Woman’s Quest has been written since that time, in addition to writing Volume 2 of Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life, 1923–Today, which is also now ready for publication.