Rosemary Kirstein. It’s all becoming clearer now. The wizards call themselves “the Krue” and the language of power is mathematics (which the Steerswomen also know). This is certainly not the end of the story arc, but a lot is shown (if not explained). Here it is at Powell’s.
Donorboy
Brendan Halpin. A quirky, engaging little book about a sperm donor who becomes a father to a fourteen-year-old whose mothers died when a truck of turduckens overturned on their car. See it here.
The Lost Steersman
Rosemary Kirtstein. Curiouser and curiouser. I like the characters even more, and I still want to know what’s really going on. I hope there aren’t more than one or two more books before we get to the end.
Dies the Fire
S.M. Stirling. What if. In this case, what if electricity and explosives suddenly ceased to work. That part’s never explained (there’s a blinding white flash that everyone sees)–space aliens? military experiment gone bad? magic? the gods? (One of the major groups in the novel are wiccans.) Lots of gore and fighting, a fair amount of idealism, and of course Bad Guys drunk on power.
Voyageurs
Margaret Elphinstone. A great Quaker historical novel set in the War of 1812. She’s a British author, not a Friend, I think. It’s always exciting to see someone you know in the acknowledgments. In this case, Elaine Bishop of Prairie Meeting.
Radiant
James Alan Gardner. Buddhist science fiction, complete with Sanskrit chapter headings. And a good story, to boot.
Redeeming the Lost
Elizabeth Kerner. No, not a serious religious topic. Final installment of an enjoyable fantasy series. Dragons! Female blacksmiths and assasins! Mystical healers! The Balance of the Universe!
The Village Bride of Beverly Hills
Kavita Daswani. Chick lit meets Bollywood. Like the Rabbi of 84th Street, a short, jaunty book that touches much more serious themes.
The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser
Warren Kozak. It’s a brief read, but it’s not light. Besser, a Hasidic rabbi born in Poland who escaped before the Nazi onslaught to Palestine and later moved to New York, is a mover and shaker. Not only are his early life circumstances not light, but the book is written so sympathetically that I only gradually realized that I’m probably on the opposite side of most political questions from Besser–and that he holds his positions with the totally commited, unintentional arrogance of the very old and pious. In addition, the last few chapters descend into a sentimental, flabby account of miracle stories (told by Besser, not about him).
The Steerswoman’s Road
Rosemary Kirstein. Actually a reissue of two earlier books, The Steerswoman and The Outskirter’s Secret. This could be thought of as the beginning of a mystery story. There are certainly tantalizing hints that the characters are descendants of people from Earth. Why do the wizards, the steerswomen, and the outskirters have such fragmentary understandings of how things work? Of course, we all have only a fragmentary understanding, but this story is set in a world where someone, once upon a time, had the connections. Or do the wizards actually have a full understanding? Then why are they hiding it?
I guess I’ll just have to keep reading to find out.
Fine, strong female protagonists, by the way.