152. (December 2025) Ammonite by Nicola Griffith — The Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club

Ammonite 1: The Story

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:02:53 +0000

Did you like it? Were you convinced?

Ammonite 3: The Cultures

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:03:57 +0000

Nicola Griffith spends a fair amount of time describing several cultures and groups- the Company with its several divisions, the Echraidhe, the community of Ollfoss, the seafarers. Were they different enough from each other? Was this variation interesting or important to the story? Credible?

Ammonite 7: Gaming

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:07:15 +0000

Could this book be gamed? If so, how would you do it and what would be the focus of the game? RPG, board game, table-top? If none of these, why not?

Ammonite 6: The Ending

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:06:32 +0000

It felt (to me at least) as though Nicola Griffith wrote the ending leaving herself the option to carry the story on with subsequent stories. So far as I know she never did this. Do you think this would have worked or is the world played out in terms of fiction?

Ammonite 5: Parallels

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:05:12 +0000

There were several parallels in this book - The Word for World is Forest, Avatar, Dune (where the virus stands in for spice) and no doubt several others. Did this work for you? Did you like the parallels or were you annoyed by them?

Ammonite 4: Human Development

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:04:25 +0000

In the story, Marghe was already well versed in control of her body's systems by various techniques broadly akin to yoga. This was greatly accelerated by her experience on Jeep. Did you find that interesting or did it make her less human?

Ammonite 2: The World of Jeep

RichardAbbott — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 19:03:26 +0000

Did it feel like an alien world that humans might be drawn to settle on? Why or why not?

About Nicola Griffith

RichardAbbott — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:25:07 +0000

Nicola Griffith is a native of Yorkshire, England, now a dual US/UK citizen. Author of nine novels (Ammonite, Slow River, The Blue Place, Stay, Always, Hild, So Lucky, Spear and Menewood) and a multi-media memoir (And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner notes to a writer's early life). Co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of original queer f/sf/h stories. Essayist. Teacher. Blogger. Founder and co-host of #criplit. Winner of two (2) Washington State Book Award, the Societyof Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize, the Nebula, Tiptree, World Fantasy Awards, and six (6) Lambda Literary Awards. She holds a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, is a wheelchair martial artist, married to writer Kelley Eskridge, and lives in Seattle.

Cover blurb for Ammonite

RichardAbbott — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:23:48 +0000

Change or die. These are the only options available on the planet Jeep. Centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. Now, generations after the colony has lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit Jeep - and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives.

Terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives. In the face of this crisis, anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrives to test a new vaccine. As she risks death to uncover the women's biological secret, she finds that she, too, is changing - and realizes that not only has she found a home on Jeep, but that she alone carries the seeds of its destruction ...

Winner of:

James Tiptree, Jr. Award
Lambda Literary Award
Premio Italia

Shortlisted for:

Arthur C. Clarke Award
Locus Award
BSFA Award