Describing the book as an 'explicitly lesbian drama', the review added that Griffith wrote with 'skill and charm'. Kirkus Reviews directed praise at Griffith's setting, writing that her 'grim near-future' was convincing. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997, and the Lambda Literary Award in 1996. In the final thread, Lore separates from Spanner and works in a sewage treatment plant, before eventually confronting her family. After an escape attempt, she turns to making a living from sex shows and scamming the wealthy, in the company of a woman, Spanner, who gives her shelter. In the second, Lore is kidnapped, and her family refuses to ransom her. Lore has to contend with her abusive family members at the same time. The first in the internal chronology tells of Lore Van Oesterling, the scion of a rich and powerful family, being trained for a high-ranking position in its industry of genetically modified bacteria. The novel features three narrative strands. The novel received critical praise for its writing and setting, while its use of multiple narrative modes was criticised.

It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Lambda Literary Award. Only by confronting her family, her past, and her own demons could Lore meld together who she had once been, who she had become, and the person she intended to be.Slow River is a science fiction novel by British writer Nicola Griffith, first published in 1995. And even as Lore agreed to play Spanner's game one final time, she found that there was still the price of being a Van Oesterling to be paid. Or she could leave Spanner and find herself again by becoming someone else: stealing the identity implant of a dead woman, taking over her life, and creating a new future.īut to start again, Lore required Spanner's talents - Spanner, who needed her and hated her, and who always had a price. Lore had a choice: She could stay in the shadows - stay with Spanner - and risk losing herself forever. but the cost of her new found freedom was crime and deception, and she paid it over and over again, until she had become someone she loathed. No one could find Lore now: not the police, not her family, and not the kidnappers who had left her in that alley to die.

Then out of the rain walked Spanner, predator and thief, who took her in, cared for her wound, and taught her how to reinvent herself again and again.

and now she was nobody, and she had to hide. Lore Van Oesterling had been the daughter of one of the world's most powerful families.

She was naked, a foot-long gash in her back was still bleeding, and her identity implant was gone. She awoke in an alley to the splash of rain. A masterwork of feminist SF - winner of the 1997 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Slow River by Nicola Griffith