Seeking the Title of An Out of Print, Science Fiction Novel

March 20, 2012 8:08 AM

I'm looking for the title of a novel. The novel is set in the future, in a utopian society. Men and women have reverted to sexist roles (men farm and women cook and clean). The protagonist is a young woman, who runs away from home to go join one of the many military schools populating her country. The book has a male author, and last I checked it was no longer in print.

The rest of the plot is, essentially, this: She starts a love affair with someone else at the school. Eventually, she gets busted, goes home, and then runs away again to go rescue someone who has undertaken the test that all young men in the society have to take sooner or later. (I believe the person she is rescuing is her brother or her cousin.) No one knows what the test is until they take it, and the main character discovers she has to retrieve a piece of a radio active rock in the middle of this horrible wasteland.

She retrieves the rock, saves whomever she sets out to save, and then runs away from home, to join some merchant friends who are leaving her planet behind for other places.

Thanks for your help!

posted by emilynoa to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: The Girl from the Emeraline Island - Robert S. Blum. I treasure my copy - I read it first from the library, and it took forever to find my own.
posted by jb at 10:22 PM on March 20, 2012

Response by poster: I took a quick look at the cover, and that's definitely the book. Thank you!
posted by emilynoa at 4:28 AM on March 21, 2012

You gave a great description - it was instantly recognizable
posted by jb at 6:48 AM on March 21, 2012