Daughter of Elysium

A modern classic, Joan Slonczewski's A Door Into Ocean earned the author overwhelming critical acclaim, and comparisons to such respected science fiction luminaries as Frank Herbert and Ursula K. Le Gain. Now, once again, she opens wide the portals into the remarkable ocean world of Shora - and ushers the reader into a breathtaking realm of scientific and ecological wonders...where death-hastening perils hide behind deceptive veneer of harmony and peace.
Across the galactic Fold, Raincloud Windclan and her family wend their way toward Elysium - a pristine, technologically advanced city of scientists, teachers, politicians and intergalactic bankers that floats serenely on the surface of a water world. A Clicker "goddess" from an environmentally unstable tribal planet, Raincloud has come at the request of Elysium's leaders, who urgently need her linguistic and diplomatic skills to help avert an impending war with the barbaric Urulites. But it is scientific knowledge that attracts her husband, Blackbear, to this strange, incomprehensible city. For he fervently wishes to share with his own people the Elysians' greatest achievement: immortality.
For centuries the pleasure-loving Elysians have co-existed with the Sharers - Shora's enigmatic, compassionate "lifeshapers," living precariously on natural "rafts" outside the urban limits.
But greed and complacency have bred among the ageless city dwellers contempt for their treaties and agreements with the true masters of their planet...and for the intelligent machines that attend to their every whim. Yet only a chosen few - the foreigner Windclans included - recognize the internal corruption that is destroying the eternal society...and the devastating resentments and future-threatening hatreds brewing within a dangerous community of nano-sentient "servants" empowered by the awesome might of the words "I am."