Kelso (Everran’s Bane
) paints a hypnotic but prose-drowned portrait of a complex matriarchal society powered by “qherrique,” a semisentient stone that can control minds and power machinery. When a male Outlander is found on the streets of Amberlight, robbed, raped and left for dead by a girl gang, the qherrique informs Tellurith, the powerful head of Telluir House, that he must be kept alive. As Tellurith’s household nurses the stranger back to health, he reveals the terrible truth about the nearby rulers who purchase qherrique statuettes from Amberlight and use them to enslave people and wage war. As Tellurith comes to see and question the rampant poverty and bias in Amberlight, she opens a furious debate over the Houses’ responsibility to make sure qherrique is used wisely at home and abroad. Kelso’s self-consciously overwrought verbiage (“Crafters’ coats and cloaks festoon the pearl-grime”) distracts from an otherwise intriguing exploration of sexual politics and the difficult calculus of leadership. (Nov.)
