Cards of Grief (Jane Yolen)

Cards of Grief
Jane Yolen
Ace
Fiction, Fantasy/Science Fiction
** (Bad)

DESCRIPTION: To the people of the stars, the world was called Henderson's IV, but to the seven tribes it was L'Lal'Lor, the Planet of the Grievers. Decimated by an ancient cataclysm, the surviving natives built a matriarchal culture around grief, elevating the concept to the highest of art forms... until the offworld visitors inadvertently altered their trajectory in a tale of miscommunication, betrayal, envy, and something the locals had no word for: love.

REVIEW: In its time, this book, with Yolen's usual lyrical (if occasionally stiff) style, was an award-winner, a poetic glimpse of forbidden love and a dying culture transformed by human contact. Unfortunately, I didn't read this book in its time. I read it in 2020, and there's plenty here that just plain does not age well.
I could start with the way the "swarthy" common tribes are inherently and unquestionably inferior to the tall, pale, and slender "Royal" line of Grievers, who only mingle with their lessers because population decline has led to serious inbreeding and fertility issues. Even the humans, who are theoretically more advanced and have been exposed to numerous alien cultures on numerous worlds, refer to the non-Royal locals as "trogs" (for troglodytes) and "monkeys" on multiple occasions. There's a somewhat twisted and unpleasant undertone to sex and breeding throughout, not helped by characters tending to be flat archetypes/stereotypes, to the point where I'm not even sure there's a point discussing the individuals themselves: a prodigal Master Griever with whom everyone is enchanted at first sight, a scheming and shrewish Queen, an ambitious prince, and a human anthropologist who loses all perspective when he delves too deep into the local culture. Even the offworld humans are rather flat... not to mention stupid on one major point. Their goal is always to avoid cultural contamination, relying first on hidden recorders to observe and learn the local ways before first contact - but what, precisely, do they expect to happen when they literally land a rocket ship outside a city in a pre-industrial culture and come traipsing out in their silver suits for a meet-and-greet with the leader? How is a culture not going to be contaminated on some level... and what is the point of open contact at all? There are distinct parallels to how white colonists tended to overwhelm local cultures, with an iffy takeaway at the ending that tends to reinforce the idea of the human way generally being the better and more productive/progressive way, despite some lip service to how the native viewpoint deeply moved the contact crew. (This isn't really a spoiler, given that this is generally how first contact stories go, especially when the book was written.)
Those issues aside, Yolen's prose is, as mentioned, well crafted, and the culture of the Grievers is interesting (once one gets past the racism and sexism and flatness of the characters involved, who aren't always likable but could be interesting.) Unfortunately, Cards of Grief is a victim of its age. I'm not even sure I could recommend it as a first contact story these days without so many caveats as to end up not being a recommendation at all, which is why I ultimately shaved off the half-star its style almost earned it back.

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