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The Merro Tree
In the far reaches of our galaxy, the artist will face the ultimate censorship.
Mikk of Vyzania, the galaxy's greatest performance master, commanded stages on all the myriad worlds. His sublime, ethereal performances were unforgettable, drawing on the most treasured traditions of every culture, every people, throughout inhabited space. His crowning achievement, and his obsession: the Somalite song dance, an art form that transcends both song and movement to become something greater and more spectacular . . . almost divine.
When tragic events caused performance of the song dance to be proscribed, Mikk was devastated . . . until his strong sense of justice forced him to defy the ban. His trial will be the most sensational in the recent history of the galaxy; the sentence he faces is death.
Now the greatest performance master must hope to become the greatest escape artist. Somehow Mikk must break the stranglehold of censorship and change the law . . . or die trying!
Mikk of Vyzania, the galaxy's greatest performance master, commanded stages on all the myriad worlds. His sublime, ethereal performances were unforgettable, drawing on the most treasured traditions of every culture, every people, throughout inhabited space. His crowning achievement, and his obsession: the Somalite song dance, an art form that transcends both song and movement to become something greater and more spectacular . . . almost divine.
When tragic events caused performance of the song dance to be proscribed, Mikk was devastated . . . until his strong sense of justice forced him to defy the ban. His trial will be the most sensational in the recent history of the galaxy; the sentence he faces is death.
Now the greatest performance master must hope to become the greatest escape artist. Somehow Mikk must break the stranglehold of censorship and change the law . . . or die trying!
437 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
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1,206 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
June 15, 2011
I want to start with a quote, as it illustrates what this book did for me:
"He gave us music that reached into the ear like a lover's tongue and changed the color of our feelings. He presented movement so exquisite and fluid it coaxed our souls out of our bodies to dance with him, weightless in the perfume of divinity."
What an exquisite and marvelous story.
It's the story of Mikk, a Vyzanian, with bright red hair, lavender eyes, and smooth white skin. He is born to a narcissistic shrew of a woman who abuses him horribly and shreaks at him until he cannot sort the stimuli that comes to him in the world and he is deemed a worthless, odd, clumsy child as he reels in bewilderment and shrinks in horror from the world. He is sent off to school where he is discovered by the performance master Huud Maroc, who takes him under his wing as an apprentice. Thus begins the story of Mikk. He meets another boy, a Droos, who is a serpent and the two of them become serassi or soul twins and lovers.
The story is also about art and the necessity of expressing it without censorship. Mikk is jailed and tried for breaking a ban and the trial and imprisonment is sprinkled throughout the story of his birth, childhood, training, and eventual mastery of performance.
It's a beautiful and compelling book, full of pain and beauty. Treat yourself. Read it.
"He gave us music that reached into the ear like a lover's tongue and changed the color of our feelings. He presented movement so exquisite and fluid it coaxed our souls out of our bodies to dance with him, weightless in the perfume of divinity."
What an exquisite and marvelous story.
It's the story of Mikk, a Vyzanian, with bright red hair, lavender eyes, and smooth white skin. He is born to a narcissistic shrew of a woman who abuses him horribly and shreaks at him until he cannot sort the stimuli that comes to him in the world and he is deemed a worthless, odd, clumsy child as he reels in bewilderment and shrinks in horror from the world. He is sent off to school where he is discovered by the performance master Huud Maroc, who takes him under his wing as an apprentice. Thus begins the story of Mikk. He meets another boy, a Droos, who is a serpent and the two of them become serassi or soul twins and lovers.
The story is also about art and the necessity of expressing it without censorship. Mikk is jailed and tried for breaking a ban and the trial and imprisonment is sprinkled throughout the story of his birth, childhood, training, and eventual mastery of performance.
It's a beautiful and compelling book, full of pain and beauty. Treat yourself. Read it.
September 5, 2016
This book was gay Footloose in space with a giant snake.
July 4, 2023
I read this several times when I was in high school and was delighted to discover it again! It is sad that this is out of print, because what with its diverse set of characters - the MC, Mikk, is pansexual in the Jack Harkness sense, and we encounter a marvelous number of intriguing species and cultures - and focus on issues of art, censorship, and cultural appropriation vs. appreciation, I think it would do very well if published today.
Edit: How did I forget to mention Thissizz, the serpentine love of Mikk's life! (I was being real brief in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ version of these reviews, initially, huh?). Their relationship is way more adorable than it has any right to be.
Full review (including why I think this needs an anime adaptation):
Edit: How did I forget to mention Thissizz, the serpentine love of Mikk's life! (I was being real brief in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ version of these reviews, initially, huh?). Their relationship is way more adorable than it has any right to be.
Full review (including why I think this needs an anime adaptation):
March 7, 2012
This is one of the few books that has changed my outlook on life. It completes me in a way that's difficult to explain unless you're of some artistic persuasion and have read it yourself. Books about the art world, theatre or acting can often be pretentious and stuffed with modern pop culture, but this is a scifi-fantasy that focuses and gets to the heart of what it means to be an artist, what it means to be censored and to fight censorship, and how it is that life can be love, but also acceptance and open mindedness, and how life can simply be without personal discrimination. I wouldn't be the person I am if I hadn't read this when I did.
September 1, 2015
This book is amazing. I bought it off ebay and 3 pages in, I already knew I didn't regret my purchase. It's fantastic. By nominal page 10 (about 3 for me because I'd apparently accidentally skipped the actual beginning into thing on my first read), I already cared about the main character, and he'd just been born. (I mean, I went back and read the beginning part, and knowing a bit more about the character from linear beginning, I actually cared more.)
It's fantastic, really. Absolutely amazing. It's a story within a story, but not really because the entire time, it's the same story. It starts in media res, kind of, but also tells the story from the beginning of the linear timeline.
The ending, though...
Is it really that easily resolved?
I thought I'd have a bit of a book hangover after finishing, but I don't, really. I think I had the majority of my book-gasms as I was reading.
It's an amazing and deeply complex story, even if the resolution seemed rather...hasty.
Oh, I give up. I was trying to come up with something amazing and profound to say about this book matching its amazingness and profundity, but it seems I have a headache and it's making it rather difficult to concentrate.
This book is amazing. The characters are amazing. The world is fantastic. I'm glad I own a copy.
-over and out-
It's fantastic, really. Absolutely amazing. It's a story within a story, but not really because the entire time, it's the same story. It starts in media res, kind of, but also tells the story from the beginning of the linear timeline.
The ending, though...
Is it really that easily resolved?
I thought I'd have a bit of a book hangover after finishing, but I don't, really. I think I had the majority of my book-gasms as I was reading.
It's an amazing and deeply complex story, even if the resolution seemed rather...hasty.
Oh, I give up. I was trying to come up with something amazing and profound to say about this book matching its amazingness and profundity, but it seems I have a headache and it's making it rather difficult to concentrate.
This book is amazing. The characters are amazing. The world is fantastic. I'm glad I own a copy.
-over and out-
July 7, 2015
This book was something wonderful to experience. It was so incredibly unique. And thought-provoking, as it dealt with censorship. You don't need to like sci-fi in order to get completely immersed and lost in this. I loved how the book was structured between Mikk's present day trial and his childhood upbringing. His training to become one of the greatest performance masters thoroughout the universe, and his sweet romance with Thissiz especially. His romance with Thissiz (literally a giant snake) was one of the most interesting interspecies relationships I've read about, that's for sure. I was never bored for one second.
I did feel just a little disappointed with how things were resolved in the end (it was too easy), which is why it didn't quite reach 5 stars for me. But this goes down as one of my most memorable (if not THE most) and favorite books of this year.
**Upped a star because I still think about this**
I did feel just a little disappointed with how things were resolved in the end (it was too easy), which is why it didn't quite reach 5 stars for me. But this goes down as one of my most memorable (if not THE most) and favorite books of this year.
**Upped a star because I still think about this**
January 21, 2018
I need to think about this.
Edit (Jan 21st): Ok so this book had some parts that made me raise an eyebrow but fair is fair: I couldn’t stop reading, I cared way too much about the characters, and I’m still thinking about this book occasionally.
Edit (Jan 21st): Ok so this book had some parts that made me raise an eyebrow but fair is fair: I couldn’t stop reading, I cared way too much about the characters, and I’m still thinking about this book occasionally.
March 24, 2018
20 years ago, this book would have got about a 15/5 from me. It was the first queer romance I ever read. It had some of the most alien aliens I had ever encountered. And it had Deep Ideas about the ownership of art and culture, and the ethics of performance in a connected world of cultural interchange.
Part of my reaction is because over the years I've come to have much higher expectations for both queer representation and explorations of cultural appropriation versus cultural "diffusion" or appreciation. And maybe that's a little unfair, because this book was published in 1997 and things were much more grim in those days. But also it's kind of fair because the book does not only exist in 1997, but also now, in this time when there are much better works and also still way too much that hits this level or below on one or both scales.
But also I've come to have much higher expectations for straight-up writing, and that's really what pulled this book down for me. I could see how as a teen I'd been dazzled by an apparent diversity of non-humans whose bodies and cultures functioned very differently than my own; as an adult, however, I noticed how many of those non-human bodies and cultures were simplistic expressions of familiar stereotypes. The ugly, fat controlling assholes. The animalistic, violent, barbaric savages. The sexy hedonists. The perfect paragons of compassion. And the characters we got to know weren't much better, nor was the prose in which they were described, or the majority of the events that occurred (I'd say the plot, but really I'd argue that the Plot happens in the "entre'acts" while the majority of the book is a kind of extended prologue).
So I forgive baby Rebekkah for loving this book so much, but I still can't give it the star rating she would have liked.
Part of my reaction is because over the years I've come to have much higher expectations for both queer representation and explorations of cultural appropriation versus cultural "diffusion" or appreciation. And maybe that's a little unfair, because this book was published in 1997 and things were much more grim in those days. But also it's kind of fair because the book does not only exist in 1997, but also now, in this time when there are much better works and also still way too much that hits this level or below on one or both scales.
But also I've come to have much higher expectations for straight-up writing, and that's really what pulled this book down for me. I could see how as a teen I'd been dazzled by an apparent diversity of non-humans whose bodies and cultures functioned very differently than my own; as an adult, however, I noticed how many of those non-human bodies and cultures were simplistic expressions of familiar stereotypes. The ugly, fat controlling assholes. The animalistic, violent, barbaric savages. The sexy hedonists. The perfect paragons of compassion. And the characters we got to know weren't much better, nor was the prose in which they were described, or the majority of the events that occurred (I'd say the plot, but really I'd argue that the Plot happens in the "entre'acts" while the majority of the book is a kind of extended prologue).
So I forgive baby Rebekkah for loving this book so much, but I still can't give it the star rating she would have liked.
January 13, 2016
My heart started fluttering about halfway through this book, and now that I've finished, it's still fluttering with affection. I was entertained from beginning to end. I laughed out loud many times, and I was close to tears a few times. It's a shame that this book did not sell as well as it should have because I found it magical. I wish Waitman had many more books out there. She has a gift.
The great and expansive cast of characters charmed me the most. It's hard not to fall in love with Mikk. His life and travels are fascinating and were wonderful to read. Master Huud Maroc is one of the best father-figures I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in fiction. He stole my heart the moment he said, "I'm a perfectionist and a bastard." I honestly believe that Maya the Cephalopod is MY serassi. And Martin, Beast, Martin was so damn funny and relatable. Who hasn't met someone that they simultaneously despised and admired ? Oh, and the final remark about Oplup the gourmand censor? I CACKLED.
If you see The Merro Tree in the library or used bookstore, GRAB IT. I can't imagine anyone not finding something they like in this book.
Additional Comment: I've read five more books since I read The Merro Tree, but this is still the book I find myself thinking about. If that's not proof that it's good, I don't know what is.
The great and expansive cast of characters charmed me the most. It's hard not to fall in love with Mikk. His life and travels are fascinating and were wonderful to read. Master Huud Maroc is one of the best father-figures I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in fiction. He stole my heart the moment he said, "I'm a perfectionist and a bastard." I honestly believe that Maya the Cephalopod is MY serassi. And Martin, Beast, Martin was so damn funny and relatable. Who hasn't met someone that they simultaneously despised and admired ? Oh, and the final remark about Oplup the gourmand censor? I CACKLED.
If you see The Merro Tree in the library or used bookstore, GRAB IT. I can't imagine anyone not finding something they like in this book.
Additional Comment: I've read five more books since I read The Merro Tree, but this is still the book I find myself thinking about. If that's not proof that it's good, I don't know what is.
July 7, 2008
Waitman excels at creating alien cultures and physiologies that are truly alien to human readers. This, her first novel, follows gifted performance master Mikk, who is haunted by childhood traumas, inspired by his love for a sentient singing snake, and driven to fight censorship and laziness of mind wherever he goes.
July 12, 2017
I first read The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman when I was fifteen or thereabouts, which I know for sure only because of the publication date (1997); I stumbled across it while it was still in bookstores, and I know I didn’t stumble on it late because after I read it, I checked bookstores for her name every time I went to one, which was at least twice a week, and this is how I came across her second book (The Divided, 1999). So I had to be 14 or 15.
I was in high school, and I had, at the time, a spare period right after lunch, which made it very easy to get a lot of reading done, and I assumed I had time to get through the rest of the book by then. I was almost right—I got through all but the last ten pages, when I had to go to my English class, which was taught by a diminutive, wonderfully kind but notoriously iron-willed woman named Ms. Saint-Pierre (everyone loved her, and yet, there were rumors—mostly spread by Ms. SP herself, I suspect—that the last student who talked too loudly while she was teaching class ended up dead in a stairwell).
At any rate, she usually started class off with warm-up/breathing exercises to get us in the creative spirit, so I tried to frantically read through the last ten pages hidden in my desk, because I literally couldn’t bring myself to put the book down. You need to understand that I wasn’t a standoffish student—I was eager to please, desperate to get high marks, and although I sometimes read in classes that I was very far ahead in, I only did it with a teacher’s permission.
Well, she noticed. “Put that away, Meredith,� she said, and, without meaning to, I blurted out:
“But I’m only three pages from the end!�
She stared at me for about ten seconds. I could see her feelings crossing her face: on the one hand, she’s teaching a class here, and needs the students to pay attention. On the other hand, the class she’s teaching is English: Creative Writing, and honestly, what is she even doing this for if not this?
“Well, hurry up and finish it then,� she told me, and went on with class.
This anecdote is partly because it’s one of my strongest memories of the first time I read this book, sure, but it’s mostly to illustrate how arresting it is. I had never done that before, and I never did it again, and when the words came out of my mouth I felt my heart just stop—but it was better that than not read it through to the end.
Anyway, the point is, I reread it over the last couple of days.
The Merro Tree is the story of Mikk of the planet Vyzania, a shy, self-hating, abused boy who becomes the galaxy’s greatest performance master (singer, actor, dancer, comic, instrumentalist—he can do it all) and, maybe more importantly, a self-confident man who can stand up for what he believes in. It’s a story about the nature of art and censorship and how the two intersect, and does so on a stage set out as a space opera. It stars almost entirely aliens (no human characters even appear until the halfway point of the story) and is nevertheless utterly relatable.
The basic premise is simple: Mikk is on trial for violating a galactic ban against performing a specific form of song-dance, and is trying to argue the ban as unjust. If he succeeds, it’s a victory for art as a whole; if he fails, the penalty is exile or death. This forms the frame narrative of the story, which weaves in and out with the life that has brought him to this point (a full 500 years time) and then, near the end—bursts free into an energetic present. The weaving of this narrative is, frankly, brilliant, because it manages to a) keep the frame consistent and chronological, b) keep the past consistent and chronological, and c) reveal things in each one that explains the meanings in the other in a fluid dance back and forth across that boundary.
It’s also a queer work in a time when there frankly wasn’t a lot of it. I didn’t find it because of that—although I did pick up a lot of queer books in my teens when I had first stumbled across some and was desperate for more, by virtue of finding a list someone kept on an old anime site and hunting all the works on it down—but I’d grabbed it off the shelf because it looked interesting. In typical style of the time, there was no mention of the queerness on the cover in any form (hence why I had to find a list for the others), so instead I got to stumble over it in a confused joy. The protagonist is pan or bisexual, in love with another male character (who is also a snake alien! Which, I mean, great, I am frankly here for this), and is nonmonogamous in a way that the book celebrates rather than going for either the ‘cheating� or ‘scandalous� route. Mikk’s love for Thissizz overflows constantly throughout the story, but Thissizz’s wives and Mikk’s other lovers are also celebrated as valuable, neither one threatening the other.
It’s not a perfect book—it’s a first book and it reads as such; the pov switches back and forth mid-section numerous times, and there are a number of tropes (the grotesquely fat villain, for one) and prose style traits that are pretty typical of 80s-90s sci-fi. The opening is also a little rough and hard to get into, because the switches between past and present need to be set up before they can start to inform anything. But none of this gets in the way of my need to give it five stars for what it does do, let alone what it did specifically for me. This book was a huge part of why I started writing.
It is, unfortunately, out of print, and I wish very much that someone would pick it up and republish it, because I very much want more people to read it and want the income to go to the author. I still check bookstores for her name every time I’m in them, just in case. And I hope you’ll seek it out anyway used.
It’s a book that deserves reading.
I was in high school, and I had, at the time, a spare period right after lunch, which made it very easy to get a lot of reading done, and I assumed I had time to get through the rest of the book by then. I was almost right—I got through all but the last ten pages, when I had to go to my English class, which was taught by a diminutive, wonderfully kind but notoriously iron-willed woman named Ms. Saint-Pierre (everyone loved her, and yet, there were rumors—mostly spread by Ms. SP herself, I suspect—that the last student who talked too loudly while she was teaching class ended up dead in a stairwell).
At any rate, she usually started class off with warm-up/breathing exercises to get us in the creative spirit, so I tried to frantically read through the last ten pages hidden in my desk, because I literally couldn’t bring myself to put the book down. You need to understand that I wasn’t a standoffish student—I was eager to please, desperate to get high marks, and although I sometimes read in classes that I was very far ahead in, I only did it with a teacher’s permission.
Well, she noticed. “Put that away, Meredith,� she said, and, without meaning to, I blurted out:
“But I’m only three pages from the end!�
She stared at me for about ten seconds. I could see her feelings crossing her face: on the one hand, she’s teaching a class here, and needs the students to pay attention. On the other hand, the class she’s teaching is English: Creative Writing, and honestly, what is she even doing this for if not this?
“Well, hurry up and finish it then,� she told me, and went on with class.
This anecdote is partly because it’s one of my strongest memories of the first time I read this book, sure, but it’s mostly to illustrate how arresting it is. I had never done that before, and I never did it again, and when the words came out of my mouth I felt my heart just stop—but it was better that than not read it through to the end.
Anyway, the point is, I reread it over the last couple of days.
The Merro Tree is the story of Mikk of the planet Vyzania, a shy, self-hating, abused boy who becomes the galaxy’s greatest performance master (singer, actor, dancer, comic, instrumentalist—he can do it all) and, maybe more importantly, a self-confident man who can stand up for what he believes in. It’s a story about the nature of art and censorship and how the two intersect, and does so on a stage set out as a space opera. It stars almost entirely aliens (no human characters even appear until the halfway point of the story) and is nevertheless utterly relatable.
The basic premise is simple: Mikk is on trial for violating a galactic ban against performing a specific form of song-dance, and is trying to argue the ban as unjust. If he succeeds, it’s a victory for art as a whole; if he fails, the penalty is exile or death. This forms the frame narrative of the story, which weaves in and out with the life that has brought him to this point (a full 500 years time) and then, near the end—bursts free into an energetic present. The weaving of this narrative is, frankly, brilliant, because it manages to a) keep the frame consistent and chronological, b) keep the past consistent and chronological, and c) reveal things in each one that explains the meanings in the other in a fluid dance back and forth across that boundary.
It’s also a queer work in a time when there frankly wasn’t a lot of it. I didn’t find it because of that—although I did pick up a lot of queer books in my teens when I had first stumbled across some and was desperate for more, by virtue of finding a list someone kept on an old anime site and hunting all the works on it down—but I’d grabbed it off the shelf because it looked interesting. In typical style of the time, there was no mention of the queerness on the cover in any form (hence why I had to find a list for the others), so instead I got to stumble over it in a confused joy. The protagonist is pan or bisexual, in love with another male character (who is also a snake alien! Which, I mean, great, I am frankly here for this), and is nonmonogamous in a way that the book celebrates rather than going for either the ‘cheating� or ‘scandalous� route. Mikk’s love for Thissizz overflows constantly throughout the story, but Thissizz’s wives and Mikk’s other lovers are also celebrated as valuable, neither one threatening the other.
It’s not a perfect book—it’s a first book and it reads as such; the pov switches back and forth mid-section numerous times, and there are a number of tropes (the grotesquely fat villain, for one) and prose style traits that are pretty typical of 80s-90s sci-fi. The opening is also a little rough and hard to get into, because the switches between past and present need to be set up before they can start to inform anything. But none of this gets in the way of my need to give it five stars for what it does do, let alone what it did specifically for me. This book was a huge part of why I started writing.
It is, unfortunately, out of print, and I wish very much that someone would pick it up and republish it, because I very much want more people to read it and want the income to go to the author. I still check bookstores for her name every time I’m in them, just in case. And I hope you’ll seek it out anyway used.
It’s a book that deserves reading.
October 29, 2019
What a wonderful surprise. A beautiful book about art, love, relationships and doing what you feel is right no matter what happens. Loved this.
October 11, 2020
I ordered this book used on Amazon & am so glad I did. It was rather hard to track down (in that it's not widely available and is not an ebook).
I didn't really know much about this going into it. I don't even know why I purchased it; the synopsis wasn't that gripping. Perhaps I like titles that have an obscure element from the story in it.
Waitman's writing was...shall I say: exquisite. It was very much a prose on the issue of performing arts and how censorship can be a tragedy when it comes in contact with it. I am not a performing artist, however I am a graphic artist and this book touched many chords with me; made me think about how if, I, specifically, was prohibited from creating something I love just because I may be interpreting it in a different way.
The Merro Tree was beautifully written; the characters were very well hashed out and Waitman gave the reader lots of credit and didn't spoon feed information to you.
One thing that caught me off-guard (which I should have easily figured out just looking at the bookshelves this book is in) was the .
I would recommend this book if you're in the mood for something with more substance to it. I can see how it would be a book where one would have to be in the mood for it.
I took 9 days to read this which is a very long time for me. It wasn't long (436 pages or something), but I felt like I had to take my time; soaking up every word.
I didn't really know much about this going into it. I don't even know why I purchased it; the synopsis wasn't that gripping. Perhaps I like titles that have an obscure element from the story in it.
Waitman's writing was...shall I say: exquisite. It was very much a prose on the issue of performing arts and how censorship can be a tragedy when it comes in contact with it. I am not a performing artist, however I am a graphic artist and this book touched many chords with me; made me think about how if, I, specifically, was prohibited from creating something I love just because I may be interpreting it in a different way.
The Merro Tree was beautifully written; the characters were very well hashed out and Waitman gave the reader lots of credit and didn't spoon feed information to you.
One thing that caught me off-guard (which I should have easily figured out just looking at the bookshelves this book is in) was the .
I would recommend this book if you're in the mood for something with more substance to it. I can see how it would be a book where one would have to be in the mood for it.
I took 9 days to read this which is a very long time for me. It wasn't long (436 pages or something), but I felt like I had to take my time; soaking up every word.
September 28, 2013
I picked this up as it was part of the Del Rey Discovery series, and I'd seen extremely good reviews of it, praising this debut novel to the skies...
Well, it was a good, enjoyable space-opera-type story, but I think my expectations had been raised a little bit too high. It was fun - reminded me quite a bit of Deborah Chester's "Golden One" trilogy - a sci-fi/fantasy setting with lots of different co-existing races (mostly inspired by different kinds of animals) and an adventure with themes of freedom and etc...
However, it's not really "deep" and the supposedly-barrier-pushing same-sex-interspecies love affair was neither explicit nor shocking.... (the protagonist is soulmates with a snake-like character).
The story deals with Mikk - a multi-talented artist who is on trial by an interplanetary Council which governs art for performing the songdance of a recently-extinct race, against their wishes and the Council's specific ban. It's told in parallel form, one strand showing us Mikk's life and rise to success, and the other dealing with his current troubles.
There are some interesting ideas here, especially the issue of who art really belongs to, and whether a people can or should feel that they "own" something, and whether an outsider can truly understand the expresssion of another culture... But I could have wished that that the discussion delved a little deeper into these issues - and at the end, the way everything wrapped up felt very pat, to me.
This book won the The Compton Crook Award for Best New Novel, but since then (1997) Waitman has only published one other novel. Perhaps she's decided writing is not the field for her? She doesn't seem to have a website.
Well, it was a good, enjoyable space-opera-type story, but I think my expectations had been raised a little bit too high. It was fun - reminded me quite a bit of Deborah Chester's "Golden One" trilogy - a sci-fi/fantasy setting with lots of different co-existing races (mostly inspired by different kinds of animals) and an adventure with themes of freedom and etc...
However, it's not really "deep" and the supposedly-barrier-pushing same-sex-interspecies love affair was neither explicit nor shocking.... (the protagonist is soulmates with a snake-like character).
The story deals with Mikk - a multi-talented artist who is on trial by an interplanetary Council which governs art for performing the songdance of a recently-extinct race, against their wishes and the Council's specific ban. It's told in parallel form, one strand showing us Mikk's life and rise to success, and the other dealing with his current troubles.
There are some interesting ideas here, especially the issue of who art really belongs to, and whether a people can or should feel that they "own" something, and whether an outsider can truly understand the expresssion of another culture... But I could have wished that that the discussion delved a little deeper into these issues - and at the end, the way everything wrapped up felt very pat, to me.
This book won the The Compton Crook Award for Best New Novel, but since then (1997) Waitman has only published one other novel. Perhaps she's decided writing is not the field for her? She doesn't seem to have a website.
June 6, 2020
Ask me my favorite book on different days and you’re bound to get different answers. But this is one that’s been at the top of that list more than once.
“Tribune people will protest whether they have the right or not. It’s the nature of thinking creatures.�
“Tribune people will protest whether they have the right or not. It’s the nature of thinking creatures.�
September 26, 2017
"It's true everywhere. Those who want power are usually the least qualified to hold it."
This book is many things. I may not have enjoyed every single thing, but it was a joy nonetheless.
First off, this book is actually political, venturing to mainly censorship, to interspecies sex to even "pedophilia". Anyways..I just really liked this book and loved the ending. I didn't feel things get dragged out, which is common for 400+ pages books. The romance was A plus too.
The main characters are good, but MAYA is my favorite. I'm intrigued by her since page 97, and I just love every single part she's mentioned, no matter how short. I will miss you my eight legged, six eyed cephalopod. :')
This book is many things. I may not have enjoyed every single thing, but it was a joy nonetheless.
First off, this book is actually political, venturing to mainly censorship, to interspecies sex to even "pedophilia". Anyways..I just really liked this book and loved the ending. I didn't feel things get dragged out, which is common for 400+ pages books. The romance was A plus too.
The main characters are good, but MAYA is my favorite. I'm intrigued by her since page 97, and I just love every single part she's mentioned, no matter how short. I will miss you my eight legged, six eyed cephalopod. :')
June 1, 2024
An obscure SF novel about a troubled young artist overcoming a traumatic childhood and finding his own voice in a galaxy full of different alien cultures. He faces censorship and torture, but has the enduring love of a giant snerson (snake-person) to help him through. This was a surprisingly affecting book for me, and once I got into it I felt a real excitement for the setting. It feels very 90s, and there are some cringeworthy spots, but taken as a whole Waitman's writing really grabbed me. The central love story is fairly radical - gay alien soulmates discovering themselves! - but the journeys Mikk goes on, the conflicts he endures, and the allies he gains along the way, really pulled me in. A hidden gem that I hope gets rediscovered by more people.
Read
June 19, 2020Bought this book for the interspecies non-monogamy, which turns out to be a relatively small portion of the book. Fairly decent world building, at once an ode to the power of art and a bit obscure about it, because it's almost entirely describing art I don't know which can't move me.
Very much a story about art being not something anyone can own, feels a bit like an argument that cultural appropriation isn't real.
Nonetheless, I almost really enjoyed it, but it had an extremely gross fathating portrait of the villain, all the more ridiculous because it the romantic interest was a giant snake.
Very much a story about art being not something anyone can own, feels a bit like an argument that cultural appropriation isn't real.
Nonetheless, I almost really enjoyed it, but it had an extremely gross fathating portrait of the villain, all the more ridiculous because it the romantic interest was a giant snake.
February 11, 2020
How did I not have this listed here already? This book has been one of my favorites since the first time I read it. It's beautiful and tragic and sweet and amazing.
I will admit that on later rereads, the body issues with the villain really bother me. But I know the story, and I am content to skip those chapters so I can cheer on Mikk and Thissiz.
I will admit that on later rereads, the body issues with the villain really bother me. But I know the story, and I am content to skip those chapters so I can cheer on Mikk and Thissiz.
February 16, 2022
Lovely story and full of that feel of "found family" ... Only thing I don't like is the whole back-and-forth format of doing Present Day then Past then Present Day again. I've always hated that, though, so it's a personal bias. I feel like the story would've just been fine being linear.
January 11, 2025
This was recommended to me a few years ago, but the book is out of print. I was lucky enough to find a used copy. Worth searching for. It's about the dangers of censorship, but it never hits you over the head with it.
April 17, 2020
An inter-galactic theatrical performer and his alien lover preserve the sacred songdance of a dying culture.
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June 2, 2020Thanks for the recommendation, Katie!
July 12, 2021
Love this book, the storyline is timeless.
January 13, 2020
I think everyone has a book they read as a preteen that hit just right at just the right time, that helped give shape to an important part of them. For my sister it was Magic's Pawn; for me it was The Merro Tree.
Objectively, I cannot say this is a good book. Each chapter bops back and forth in time until the two streams meet up for a rather lackluster resolution to what is honestly the least interesting part of the story. It's disorienting at best and interrupts its own rhythm. But! This was the first time I read a book with entirely nonhuman characters (one humanoid, one very much not) in a loving relationship. It became immediately and deeply important to me. There was something here that was exactly what I didn't know I wanted, and ever since I've searched for those intimate moments that have nothing to do with humanity. There's love in the stars, because love is universal.
So, little preteen me, have your four star rating. This book was and is important to me.
Objectively, I cannot say this is a good book. Each chapter bops back and forth in time until the two streams meet up for a rather lackluster resolution to what is honestly the least interesting part of the story. It's disorienting at best and interrupts its own rhythm. But! This was the first time I read a book with entirely nonhuman characters (one humanoid, one very much not) in a loving relationship. It became immediately and deeply important to me. There was something here that was exactly what I didn't know I wanted, and ever since I've searched for those intimate moments that have nothing to do with humanity. There's love in the stars, because love is universal.
So, little preteen me, have your four star rating. This book was and is important to me.
August 17, 2017
I remembered this old favourite a few days ago, located it, put it on my shelf, and decided that I wanted to reread it soon. I ended up reading it much sooner than I'd thought at first, because I simply couldn't resist.
Mikk of Vyzania is, of course, the best character. We kept seeing new things about him, always another way in which he was more and better - I would say superhuman, except he is Vyzanian, not Terran - he seems almost divine, but he is never above anyone else, he is still equal to everyone else. Despite everything, he keeps doing beautiful things in defiance of everything. I don't doubt that he is the greatest performance master in the galaxy.
Thissizz seems perfect. I don't know if it's because we only see him through Mikk's eyes, who, madly in love as he is, sees only good things.
Performance Master Huud Maroc is slightly intimidating, but he is very warmhearted, and a loving master.
Maya is the best though! Tiny little Werevan! She's fiercer than an army!
Mikk's journey as an apprentice is heartwarming. It is amazing to see him "grow into himself", as one character - was it Master Huud? - so nicely put it. His career as a full performance master, by contrast, feels uneasy somehow. Even the happy bits, in between darker moments.
I'm wondering if there might be a bit of Iliad theme in the songdance incident during the Election Games. I'm still thinking whether I can get a comparison to work.
I'm not sure how much I like the end. The Messenger saving Mikk seems like a deus ex machina to me. I am not entirely sure what to think of the sudden complete fall of the Council, either.
The worldbuilding is great, too. The story is told from the perspective of a Vyzanian among other intelligent spacefaring species, and Terrans do appear, but relatively late in the story. They are short-lived, intolerant, small-minded, self-important, and just difficult in general - so quite realistic. I do wonder why Terra is the only place that seems to have any kind of political and cultural divisions.
I am not quite sure why, but I like the Belians as the most technologically advanced species. My guess is that I'm happy that the most powerful species is peaceful and tolerant.
The H'n N'kae also appeal to me somehow. I have always been interested in spacefaring insectoids, and it is nice that they are not 'the enemy', for a change. For people described as very martial, they seem very open and tolerant, and well-written. They have high culture, something which many intelligent insectoids in other science fiction I've read don't seem to have, and appreciate art from other cultures; they are willing to teach outworlders their martial art - hearing that Mikk as a "Gold Wing in H'n N'kae personal warfare" strikes fear in people's hearts; despite seeming to be a hive with a single queen, they have individuality; they are willing to help others in need; they don't seem to be at war with anyone (though no one else seems to be at war either)... As you can tell, I am fascinated by the H'n N'kae. It is a shame that they had such a small role, and a shame, too, that we didn't get to read about so many other spacefaring species. I got the impression that there are hundreds of known sentients in this book's galaxy.
It is impossible for me to casually read The Merro Tree. It is an intense experience, and I always, always stay up late when reading it, even if I am nowhere even near finishing it. This might be the third or the fourth time I read this, but that hasn't changed, and I still love it just as much as before.
Mikk of Vyzania is, of course, the best character. We kept seeing new things about him, always another way in which he was more and better - I would say superhuman, except he is Vyzanian, not Terran - he seems almost divine, but he is never above anyone else, he is still equal to everyone else. Despite everything, he keeps doing beautiful things in defiance of everything. I don't doubt that he is the greatest performance master in the galaxy.
Thissizz seems perfect. I don't know if it's because we only see him through Mikk's eyes, who, madly in love as he is, sees only good things.
Performance Master Huud Maroc is slightly intimidating, but he is very warmhearted, and a loving master.
Maya is the best though! Tiny little Werevan! She's fiercer than an army!
Mikk's journey as an apprentice is heartwarming. It is amazing to see him "grow into himself", as one character - was it Master Huud? - so nicely put it. His career as a full performance master, by contrast, feels uneasy somehow. Even the happy bits, in between darker moments.
I'm wondering if there might be a bit of Iliad theme in the songdance incident during the Election Games. I'm still thinking whether I can get a comparison to work.
I'm not sure how much I like the end. The Messenger saving Mikk seems like a deus ex machina to me. I am not entirely sure what to think of the sudden complete fall of the Council, either.
The worldbuilding is great, too. The story is told from the perspective of a Vyzanian among other intelligent spacefaring species, and Terrans do appear, but relatively late in the story. They are short-lived, intolerant, small-minded, self-important, and just difficult in general - so quite realistic. I do wonder why Terra is the only place that seems to have any kind of political and cultural divisions.
I am not quite sure why, but I like the Belians as the most technologically advanced species. My guess is that I'm happy that the most powerful species is peaceful and tolerant.
The H'n N'kae also appeal to me somehow. I have always been interested in spacefaring insectoids, and it is nice that they are not 'the enemy', for a change. For people described as very martial, they seem very open and tolerant, and well-written. They have high culture, something which many intelligent insectoids in other science fiction I've read don't seem to have, and appreciate art from other cultures; they are willing to teach outworlders their martial art - hearing that Mikk as a "Gold Wing in H'n N'kae personal warfare" strikes fear in people's hearts; despite seeming to be a hive with a single queen, they have individuality; they are willing to help others in need; they don't seem to be at war with anyone (though no one else seems to be at war either)... As you can tell, I am fascinated by the H'n N'kae. It is a shame that they had such a small role, and a shame, too, that we didn't get to read about so many other spacefaring species. I got the impression that there are hundreds of known sentients in this book's galaxy.
It is impossible for me to casually read The Merro Tree. It is an intense experience, and I always, always stay up late when reading it, even if I am nowhere even near finishing it. This might be the third or the fourth time I read this, but that hasn't changed, and I still love it just as much as before.
December 30, 2019
I adored this book in my 20s when I was a classical music major. In my 40s? Still excellent with many good points but for various reasons no longer subscribe to the underlying thought because the way it is presented tends to be more complicated in reality. Yes, I know - intentionally vague. Regardless, I think it is worth the read and you can come to your own conclusions.
September 29, 2016
This is to days one of my favorite books, hands down.
December 21, 2020
This was my favorite book when I was 16, and it remained a favorite for many years. This was my first time re-visiting it in at least 10-12 years, though, and there were some things that just didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped, including: a) some serious fat-shaming and weirdness about weight, especially as the primary antagonist is from a race that basically eats themselves to death, and the protagonist is repeatedly described as thin and lean (and beautiful); and b) some vaguely uncomfortable cultural appropriation (and occasional stereotyping) that is largely dismissed as irrelevant by the text.
Despite the parts of this book that didn't age well, I still very much enjoyed it. This was one of the first books I ever read with queer representation, and it also was one of the first sci-fi books I read that did lots of world-building when it came to performing arts. Some of the messages about censorship and freedom of expression feel perhaps a bit more anvilicious to me now, but there is still a lot of good at the heart of this book. Mikk is perhaps something of a purple-eyed, red-headed Gary Stu (who looks like Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie!) but he's still a sympathetic character. His search for his place in life after a childhood of abuse and neglect, and the difficulties of his sensory, focus, and attention issues still speaks to me. There are also a lot of other well drawn, colorful characters throughout the book. The universe it is set in is very full and fantastic.
I guess my caveat to any new reader would be that this book was published in 1997, and it feels its age at times. But it's definitely a book that will stay on my shelves to be re-visited again in years to come.
Despite the parts of this book that didn't age well, I still very much enjoyed it. This was one of the first books I ever read with queer representation, and it also was one of the first sci-fi books I read that did lots of world-building when it came to performing arts. Some of the messages about censorship and freedom of expression feel perhaps a bit more anvilicious to me now, but there is still a lot of good at the heart of this book. Mikk is perhaps something of a purple-eyed, red-headed Gary Stu (who looks like Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie!) but he's still a sympathetic character. His search for his place in life after a childhood of abuse and neglect, and the difficulties of his sensory, focus, and attention issues still speaks to me. There are also a lot of other well drawn, colorful characters throughout the book. The universe it is set in is very full and fantastic.
I guess my caveat to any new reader would be that this book was published in 1997, and it feels its age at times. But it's definitely a book that will stay on my shelves to be re-visited again in years to come.
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