J F Bone

The Lani People

First published in the USA as a Bantam paperback, 1962. Corgi paperback first published in UK 1962. Currently available as an ebook from Embiid (ISBN 1-58787-075-4) and through Project Gutenberg

The rating of this book in terms of nudity and naturism presents a problem. Although one of the main characters is nude whenever and wherever possible throughout the story, and although she and her fellow Lani are socially nude by preference, they are not - despite the book's title - "people". As the early chapters make clear, these creatures are animals, sub-human. They may have intelligence, speech, dexterity and, with the exception of a long tail, the appearance of humans, but legally they are like cattle.

Bone's hero is Jac Kennon, an ambitious vet, whose wealth-enhancing career move to the planet Kardon gives him full responsibility for the health and well being of Lani in the breeding and marketing operation of the powerful Alexander family. Kennon is shocked by his early encounters with Lani - particularly as some have had their tails docked so as to appear fully human. In the same way that the social divide between masters and servants in Piers Anthony's Adept series is always made obvious by clothing, Lani are normally nude or clothed only in the skimpiest of costumes. The Alexanders have a monopoly on the supply of Lani, since there are no males, and breeding is by the Alexanders' secret and complex monozygotic process. Quite how the Lani survived before the arrival of humans to run this process is one of several questions carefully avoided.

Lani are used for many purposes, from manual labour to highly technical jobs, and Kennon has a bright and vivacious red-headed Lani as his assistant. Inevitably, Lani are also sex-toys for the privileged, but Kennon abhors this, and refuses the offers of a free choice of bed-companions from amongst his charges. The extracts illustrate these various aspects of the Lani and Kennon's responses.

Bone, a respected vet whose Animal Anatomy & Physiology went through several issues, mixes a trans-species love story with an animal rights debate. Despite various setbacks along the way, everyone lives happily ever after in the end - which revelation should not detract from any reader's enjoyment, since Bone makes little effort to raise obstacles to progress which cannot be overcome with a judicious mix of intellect, hard work, determination and an entirely reasonable sprinkling of occasional good luck. Overall I found the story too undemanding. Perhaps the issues of rights, responsibilities and humanity cannot be considered effectively in Bone's somewhat simplistic hypothetical society. Perhaps in 1962 the mass market was not ready for a novel which addressed the US civil rights debate more directly than Bone does. The net result is a book which I suggest is worth picking up if you see it in a second-hand bookshop, but not one to seek out especially. As for the ratings, in the end I have made my decisions as if the Lani were human.

Ratings:

Nudity	Naturist nudity	A good read?

Last updated 2005 October 31.
 
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