I don't remember my thoughts on this book when I first read it, when I was much younger. I know I read it because I had read the second originally and loved it.

Now, rereading Mother Earth Father Sky.... Maybe got it wrong, but I understand Chagak to be thirteen years old (though I can't find the reference anymore). With that in mind, her constantly being referred to as a woman, her breasts being talked about often, and the man wanting her as wife and then having her "as wife".. It was all so uncomfortable with her age in mind. That and I worry about the descriptions of the Short Ones being coloristic characterisations but I may have misunderstood that too. 

So even if it's all just misunderstandings, with all that in mind I just don't see the point in continuing to read a series as a whole that more than one reviewer said "brutalizes women." Especially when these women are children. And, considering I remember the second book being rather brutal to the main female protagonist at least in the beginning, it's just not for me anymore. How unfortunate, considering the second was a favorite when I was younger.