Diane Duane, Lior and the Sea
Diane Duane, The Span
Diane Duane, Parting Gifts

Diane Duane, Not on My Patch
Diane Duane, Uptown Local and Other Interventions

I've always tended to think of Diane Duane as a "long-form" writer. I associate her with novels, unlike, say, James Tiptree Jr. or Eleanor Arnason, who i think of more as short-form writers (despite the fact that both have written novels that I've read and much enjoyed). But recently I have been reading a lot of the shorter fiction that is available on her website, and I am now aware, as I was not before, that her short-form work is every bit as compelling and enjoyable.

Of particular delight for me are three novellas set in Duane's Middle Kingdoms universe, the setting for her Tale of the Five. Part of what is so powerful for me about this particular universe, among all those that Duane has created or worked in, is the degree of integration of a spiritual or philosophical perspective that greatly appeals to me with the telling of profoundly engaging personal journeys that Duane achieves (not to say she doesn't do this elsewhere, of course, because she does, it's just that it is in the Middle Kingdom books that I feel it the most). The Span and Parting Gifts focus on the same character, Sirronde, a Rodmistress (the magic users of this particular universe) - the first tells us a key story of Sirronde's early career, the second takes place at the end of her journeys. Both are excellent. Duane plans to write a third novella set between these two, and I am much looking forward to it. Lior and the Sea ... is a beautiful love story, one in which the parties involved find both a deep sense of who they are, and a profound union with each other.

Not on My Patch is set in the Young Wizards universe, and it made me weep over the ultimate fate of a lopsided pumpkin. That's good storytelling.

Uptown Local and Other Interventions is a collection of short stories, some funny, some fascinating, some deeply moving. I laughed, I cried. You know how in most short story collections, here's a few stories that really hit the mark for you, some that are OK but nothing to write home about, and some that just miss the mark? Well, this collection wasn't like that - every single story got to me in one way or another. YMMV, and we have already established here and elsewhere that Duane generally manages to hit most if not all of my squee buttons, but I can whole-heartedly say that if you like Duane's work and haven't read these shorter pieces, then go visit her online bookstore and buy them. you won't regret it.

Cory Doctorow, Little Brother

This is a YA novel, but like so many recent YA novels its subject matter is dark and adult. It's really just the age of the protagonist that makes it YA. And the subject matter is timely and important.

A group of high school kids - nerds with 133t skilz - who have off school to complete the next stage of a game that involves geocaching, code breaking, and such, are caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist attack in San Francisco. Because they are in the wrong place, and because they are carrying sophisticated technical equipment, they are detained without access to parents or lawyers and brutally interrogated. One of these kids, Marcus, responds to this experience and the growing atmosphere of fascist control disguised as security concerns to organise resistance among other young, computer savvy kids.

Little Brother is simultaneously a dystopian novel of resistance to oppression, a well-argued defence of civil rights and a technical guide to keeping your electronic identity out of the hands of the overseers. The changes in tone required to pull this off are not always as seamless as they could be, but I found it quite engrossing. Pace, plot and characterisation were all strong.

My only complaint is that ultimately, the worst abuses of the post-terrorist regime are attributed to the personal inclinations of a few people instead of being part and parcel of the authoritarian and fear-based mode of response, and the resolution was too easy, too optimistic - but then, it is a YA and perhaps that is appropriate.

If I had my druthers, I'd have everyone, young adult or not, read it. Lots to think about.

Nicola Griffith, Ammonite

Somehow, i had managed to miss reading this very wonderful book before. I knew about it, of course - it's one of the books always mentioned when the talk turns for feminist science fiction and especially to feminist science fiction that speculates on what societies might be like if there were no men.

There are several ways to "read" books about hypothetical woman-only societies. One way is to see them as thought experiments exploring how women might see themselves and their potentials in a world without the possibility of gendered roles and gendered positions of power - the range of female abilities and behaviours possible when all the positions are totally open for women to occupy, and when power has no relation to gender and all the possible kinds of power are accessible to women.

Ammonite is the story of a woman, Marghe, from a culture that has traditional assumptions about gender roles and behaviours, not unlike our own, who is sent to the planet Jeep, which is inhabited solely by women. This planet, originally colonised centuries ago,is home to a virus that killed off all the men in the original settlement party, and subtly changed those women who survived in several ways, one of which makes parthenogenesis possible. Jeep, a lost and rediscovered colony, has been quarantined due to the presence of the virus - but it is also a planet with resources that could be exploited to great profit if it were possible to eradicate the virus or nullify its effects. Marghe's task is two-fold - to study the society that has developed on Jeep, and to be a test subject for a vaccine that, it is hoped, will make it possible for Jeep to be opened up for development.

Marghe's transition from observer to participant in the social fabric of Jeep is fascinating as a personal journey and thought-provoking as an examination of a non-gendered society. The book also weaves in additional themes of living in balance with the world - a kind of intuitive ecological feminism - and of the consequences of colonialsm on an indigenous people.

The actual mechanism through which women on Jeep are able to reproduce is (as in Suzy McKee Charnas' Motherlines series) somewhat of a parthenogenesis McGuffin - completely unrealistic but necessary to the creation of the society the author wishes to explore, although it may also have roots in a certain variety of New Age feminist mysticism. But somehow it does not bother me, in either Griffith's or Charnas' work, because the point of these books is to look at woman-only societies, and if one posits a low-tech world, some other form of intervention is required to enable such a world to exist and flourish.

I'm glad I finally got around to reading Ammonite.

Jes Battis, Infernal Affairs

Occult Special Investigator Tess Corday finds herself and her team faced with an unusual case - dispatched to diplomatically retrieve the body of a child demon from the hands of the regular police system before an autopsy raises questions about the victim, Corday and her associates arrive jut in time to see the body revive as the coroner is just beginning his examination of the presumed corpse, and to fend off the attack of a powerful demon who appears determined to see that the resurrected demon child goes back to being quite dead.

Unravelling the mystery and ensuring the safety of the your demon will not only call on all the powers of Corday, her allies, and CORE, but also bring her closer to her own hidden past and the identity of her demon father.

Occult police procedurals are fun. What more can I say?

Kate Elliott, the Crown of Stars series:

Prince of Dogs
The Burning Stone
Child of Flame
The Gathering Storm
In the Ruins
Crown of Stars

A couple of years ago, I read the first volume of Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars epic fantasy series, King’s Dragon. I enjoyed it immensely, but encountered some difficulties locating the remaining volumes of the series, and it was one of those series that I knew I would have to have all the volumes on hand before I continued reading. So it wasn’t until just recently that I was able to finish reading this, but it was worth the wait and every bit as satisfying as I’d expected.

As Constant Reader must surely know by know, I love complicated series with a cast of… well, not thousands, perhaps, but certainly enough to sustain a number of intricate plotlines, with a significant number of strong women characters, complex world-building, and a healthy dose of politics and intrigue. This series delivers all that in spades, and I love for both the grand sweep and scope of the story and the fine detail of the chracters and their world.

Set against a civilization inspired by the late medieval period of Europe’s history, complete with religious ferment, internal power struggles, civil wars, sorceries and heresies, and invading “barbarian” forces, the multiple threads of narrative weave around the actions of three young people – Liath, a kinless orphan with a mysterious and magical heritage, Sanglant, the half-human bastard son of the king of Wender and Varre, and Alain, adopted son of a family of fisherfolk with strange gifts and an even strange path to follow.

And there’s a cataclysmic past event, dimly remembered by humans (and other people of the Earth), involving the almost mythical, feared and hated Ashoi, and barely understood prophecies that warn of an impending vast and dangerous threat.

What delighted me was that unlike our own medieval period, in this world, most cultures exhibit either gender equality, or give the primary political and/or religious power to women. There are female warlords and rulers and supreme heads of churches and clan elders and sorcerers all over the place. My one problem was that initially I found the character of Liath somewhat disappointing, and wanted to shake some sense and some backbone into her – but I was patient and eventually was rewarded by seeing her come into her power and become my favourite character.

Highly recommended to those who enjoy great multi-volume epic fantasy sagas.

John Scalzi, Agent to the Stars

OK, this is just plain hilarious. It's high concept to the core - What if the first aliens to visit our planet are so unpalatable that they need to high a high-powered agent to "sell" them to Earthfolk? And where it goes from there is pretty much non-stop funny of all shades from some simple farce and slapstick to some profound satire on the entertainment business and on human nature.

Note that I said "pretty much non-stop" - because there are also some moments of tragedy and some very important ethical considerations that ground the novel and make it much more than what it at first appears to be.

Worth reading, and also at times worth thinking about. I have some quibbles with the ultimate unveiling strategy - there's something about it that doesn't sit quite right with me, and I think it has to do with - how do I say this without spoiling the scene? - stealing focus from a legitimate celebration of exemplary work and thus robbing other people of well-deserved recognition. Even if the reason is an important one. Just didn't quite seem fair.

But it's a small quibble, and one I can live with.

Judith Tarr, Bring Down the Sun

Judith Tarr writes wonderful historical fantasy. She takes real characters, places and times, and tells a story that builds on is known about them, imbuing the tale with the mystery of gods and magic.

In Bring Down the Sun, Tarr tells a story about Olympias (also known as Polyxena and Myrtale), the mother of Alexander the Great, following the outlines of her life as recorded by Plutarch, several centuries after her death. The magic enters the tale from the beginning, with the young Polyxena being raised to be a priestess in a Triple Goddess cult and the hints we gather from the elder Priestesses that Polyxena carries within her some powerful but unexplained gifts. Polyxena later is initiated into the Dionysian mysteries (taking the name Myrtale at this point) where she meets and forms a bond – part sexual, part magical – with the young Philip of Macedonia, who seeks her for his (fourth) wife. The story continues up to the birth of the young Alexander, with Myrtale facing intrigue from Philip’s other wives and from various magical sources, including the cult she served as a young girl and a cult of “Thessalonian witches” – priestesses of yet another ancient mystical tradition who are aware of Myrtale’s hidden power and seek to bring make her one of their own.

What I found frustrating about this book, despite my enjoyment of the story, the magic, and the strong women characters, is that it seems unfinished. I had hoped it was the first in a series, but it has been three years and there’s no sign of a sequel on the horizon. There is still so much of the past that Tarr has imagined for Myrtale that remains hidden, and so much more that is known of Olympias’ life past the birth of Alexander, that the book does not address. I will just have to keep looking to see if Tarr returns to this story.

Tanya Huff, Truth of Valor

In or out of the Marines, Tanya Huff's Torin Kerr kicks ass!

In the latest installment of Huff's MilSF Confederation series, Kerr, having left the Marines to go into partnership with her lover, deepspace salvage operator Craig Ryder, finds herself floundering in civilian life, especially when it comes to trying to integrate herself into the culture of the civilian salvage operators - an independent bunch at best, whose philosophies and customs are quite different from the Marines she has lived and worked among for so many years.

The difference is brought sharply home when Kerr and her partner find evidence of pirates preying on salvage operators, and Ryder is himself captured by the pirates. Ryder's friends and fellow operators refuse Torin's request for help in tracking down the pirates and trying to rescue him - a response that is almost unbelievable to someone imbued with the Marine Corps philosophy to leave no one behind.

Determined to find and save her lover no matter what the cost, Torin contacts old friends and mounts a rescue against all odds. What else would you expect her to do?

And at the end, a hint of more to come, which may take the Confederation's most kick-ass heroine in a new and promising direction.

Liz Williams, The Shadow Pavilion

The continuing adventures of DI Chen and his ever-growing circle of partners-in-detection have reached new, if somewhat complicated heights.

Mhara, the beneficiary of one of Chen's previous investigations, is formally installed as Emperor of Heaven, and initiates changes which he hopes will bring Heaven and Earth closer together, reversing the course his Father had been set on. but not everyone in Heaven is happy with the idea of change - especially change that involves both greater freedom and greater responsibility for the citizens of Heaven, and Mhara finds himself the target of an assassination attempt. Chen is tasked to find - and foil - the demon assassin; meanwhile, his wife, the demon Inari, is drawn into the dimension "in between" where the assassin lives in the mysterious Shadow Pavilion.

Chen's partner, Inspector Zhu Irzh - a demon on long-term reassignment from Hell has been kidnapped in the course of a police investigation, and finds himself in the hunting lodge of the Indian god Agni, where he and Inari's badger/teakettle familiar are to be hunted by Agni's harem of tiger-demonesses.Is it a co-incidence that Zhu Irzh's fiancee is herself a tiger-demoness? Of course it isn't. Meanwhile, yet another tiger-demoness, summoned up years ago by a Bollywood screenwriter hoping to use her unearthly talents to make it big in the industry, is on the rampage throughout Singapore Three.

While I enjoyed the book, I felt it suffered somewhat by being a bit over-crowded. There were two full storylines here, and I'm not sure the either of them received the treatment they deserved. Particularly in the case of the assassination plotline, which failed, in my opinion, to fully explore a fascinating character, that of the two-spirited assassin Lord Lady Seijin, who is both male and female. I would also have liked to see more about the politics of Heaven. Also, the kidnapping plotline offered the potential to see much more of the Indian heavens and hells - we did see some of how this is set up, but that aspect of the material seemed a bit rushed.

In short, this could, I think, have been two separate novels, which might have made for even more enjoyment, and a more complete experience of both storylines.

This, however, will not stop me from reading the next installment, The Iron Khan - assuming I can get my hands on a copy. Williams has had to switch publishers three times so far in the course of this series, and so far it seems to only be available in hardcover or as an ebook. I have been waiting for a trade or mass market paperbook, but I suspect I will soon have to just go for the ebook.

And at last, I am up to date. It's early January 2012 and I have at least mentioned all the books I read during my hiatus. So, here are my favourite reads of 2011, and the 2011 statistics, and then we are off to a new start (I hope) for 2012.

Best Books I Read in 2011

Jo Walton, Among Others
Ursula LeGuin, The Wild Girls
Eleanor Arnason, Mammoths of the Great Plains
Lyda Morehouse, Resurrection Code
Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
Margaret Atwood, Good Bones
Lee Maracle, I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism
Sarah Schulman, The Child


In 2011, I read 79 books, 70 fiction and nine non-fiction; 15 of these were re-reads (20%). A total of three of these were anthologies, and so have been excluded from the demographic analysis of authorship.

By gender:
Books written by women: 68.4%
Books written by men: 30.3%
One book was co-written by a man and a woman

By nationality:
American: 78.3%
British: 5.3%
Canadian: 11.8%
Other: 3.9%

Book by writers of colour: 5.3%

I have two goals for the coming year:

1. Eliminate a significant proportion of my TBR file, which, including e-books, stands at over 300 books

2. Focus more on diversity in reading, something that had quite gone by the wayside in the past two years, as I was reading a lot of comfort books, including re-reads - which, the older they are, the more likely they are to be written by white American men.

Karin Lowachee, The Gaslight Dogs

This is a powerful story about a young woman, Sjenn, who bears a gift that is intended to be used for the protection of her people. She is stolen away from her own culture and forced to make her gift serve the ends of her people's enemies. Her confusion, alienation, and struggle to survive, maintain her identity and return to her people are all part of an engrossing personal story.

This is also a brilliant examination of colonialism and forced assimilation. Heavily influenced by Lowachee's experiences living in the Canadian North, and clearly based in part on the history of Canada's indigenous northern peoples with white imperialist nations, it shows hard truths about the processes and impacts of the colonial project.

As in her earlier works, which exposed the horrifying effects of war on children, including those forced to become child soldiers, without being in any way didactic or sacrificing the art of storytelling, Lowachee has given us a reading experience par excellence - fully realised and compelling characters, a well-developed and intriguing secondary world, and a riveting story. At the same time she makes us think about the questions of power inequities between peoples, and about what history looks like from the perspective of those who have been deprived of their voice by a dominant culture.

One warning - this is the first volume of an intended trilogy, and so Sjenn's story is incomplete and many questions about the workings of the worlds she lives in remain to be answered. I am hoping that Sjenn's people will escape the fate so many indigenous peoples have faced.

for those interested, there is a good review by Jaymee Goh on tor.com.


Jo Walton, Among Others

I suspect that anyone who reads heavily in the science fiction and fantasy genres who has not heard of this amazing book has been living under a rock at the bottom of the sea on Europa for the past year.

Among Others is told in the format of a personal narrative, the diary of a young girl who has survived traumatic events and has now been taken away from the places and people she knows among her mother's relatives, and placed in the custody of her long-absent father, who promptly sends her to boarding school. The personal, cultural and social gaps between a working class Welsh girl and her mostly upper class English schoolmates, between a withdrawn and bookish girl in love with science fiction and fantasy and the "mundanes" around her, are part of why Mori is constantly "among others." But Mori is also the daughter of a power-mad witch, and she and her twin sister have the power to see the magic and the otherworldly beings that are invisible to most humans - here again Mori is and has long been living among others. (Even further, because the world of humans and the old dwelling places of the fairies are intertwined, it can also be said that human society itself is unknowing conducted among others.)

This book is so rich on so many levels - it's the story of a young girl growing up, dealing with disability and grief and the consequences of a dysfunctional family. It's about the battle between light and dark, the drive for power-over vs the nurturing of power-together. It's about the nature of perception and the power of belief. About finding one's identity and one's own inner power. About the loss of connection and intention in modern society, about the hollowness of work done without emotional investment. About the callous destruction of nature in the service of yet more sterile progress. About the necessity of magic. It is also, in a marvelously self-referential way, about how alternative fiction feeds the minds and souls of people who want to think about and explore all these things, and more.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.


Kirill Yeskov, The Last Ringbearer (translated by Yisroel Markov)

And speaking of those who have been deprived of their voice by a dominant culture, this very interesting work turns The Lord of the Rings on its head and tells the story of how a society seeking to move toward scientific enlightenment and democratic rule is almost destroyed by a hidebound culture in which power is limited to the few and progress has been stifled, keeping the people in ignorance and thralldom. Following the maxim that history is told - and usually distorted greatly - by the victors, Yeskov takes as his fulcrum the themes of nature vs, industry and magic vs, science that are woven through The Lord of the Rings and valorises the side that Tolkien demonised. A fascinating look at how changing perspective changes everything.

I must being your attention to a wonderful small press. I mean, what else can you call a publishing house whose co-founder says things like "The challenge, I think, has always been not only to better inform 'the movement', but to figure out how to get the ideas across to everyone else. In effect, how do we actively contribute to building a movement (however defined) which is genuinely going to take on Capital and the state."?

PM Press publishes both fiction and non-fiction, everything from classics of anarchist thought to vegan cookbooks to science fiction with a left wing consciousness.I've already mentioned one book I ordered from them, Eleanor Arnason's Mammoths of the Great Plains. I actually bought three books from PM Press last year (and plan on buying several more this year). All three books are from their Outspoken Authors series, which showcases authors like Arnason, Ursula Le Guin, Nalo Hopkinson among others. Each volume contains one or more pieces of shorter fiction (novella length or less) plus an interview and a biographical sketch. And they are publishing some very interesting work in this series.


Terry Bison, The Left Left Behind

The title piece in this volume is an absolutely hilarious satire of the Rapture movement in general and the scenario presented in the Left Behind books in particular.

Actually, this is what the publisher says about this piece and the other short piece in the volume:

The Left Behind novels (about the so-called “Rapture” in which all the born-agains ascend straight to heaven) are among the bestselling Christian books in the US, describing in lurid detail the adventures of those “left behind” to battle the Anti-Christ. Put Bisson and the Born-Agains together, and what do you get? The Left Left Behind--a sardonic, merciless, tasteless, take-no-prisoners satire of the entire apocalyptic enterprise that spares no one--predatory preachers, goth lingerie, Pacifica radio, Indian casinos, gangsta rap, and even “art cars” at Burning Man.

Plus: "Special Relativity," a one-act drama that answers the question: When Albert Einstein, Paul Robeson, and J. Edgar Hoover are raised from the dead at an anti-Bush rally, which one wears the dress? As with all Outspoken Author books, there is a deep interview and autobiography: at length, in-depth, no-holds-barred and all-bets off: an extended tour though the mind and work, the history and politics of our Outspoken Author. Surprises are promised.

And it's all true.


Ursula LeGuin, The Wild Girls

Constant Reader must know by now that I believe Ursula Le Guin to be a goddess. Possibly an avatar of the child of Athene and Kwan Yin. A beacon of wisdom and compassionate understanding, while remaining a warrior of the mind determined to bring light to that which brings about injustice. The Wild Girls is pure Le Guin, compressed to diamond sharpness. The story cuts into heart and mind and lays bare the power relations of a rigid and hierarchical society built on inequalities of class, race and gender. Of course, it's only a story. Or is it? I love Le Guin's work because she makes me feel and think.

There's a good traditional review of the book by Brit Mandelo on Tor.dom.

It's a grab bag of volumes from some of my favourite fantasy series! Well, in a couple of cases, loosely associated with my favourite fantasy series.


Mercedes Lackey, Intrigues
Mercedes Lackey, Changes

Volumes two and three of The Collegium Chronicles. In some ways, this series is very much like Lackey's very first Velgarth series, in which Valdemar and the Heralds were introduced through the eyes of Talia, an abused child whisked away from a life of misery to become a person of importance and destiny. But the particulars are different and the time is different and it's still great fun.


Mercedes Lackey, Sleeping Beauty

The latest in Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series. I actually think this series is among the most interesting work that Lackey has done. These are all engaging stories in their own right, but at the same time Lackey is both analysing and deconstructing traditional folk and fairy tale motifs, and rewriting those tales with a feminist perspective. I like.


Katharine Kerr, The Silver Mage

The last volume of Kerr's epic Deverry cycle. Truly epic in scope, what makes this series unique is that, it's not just about the heroics and politics of a rich and diverse fantasy world and the interplay of characters and nations, it's also a story of spiritual redemption across time for the key characters, who are reborn again and again until the actions that wove their spirits together are finally resolved, and in a sense for the nation of Deverry, for in this last volume we discover the events that set the movements of nations through the series, across hundreds of years. An excellent ending for one of the great fantasy series.


Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic

First volume of The Immortals series. Set in Pierce's Tortal universe, this new series shares some characters - at least so far - with her first series, Song of the Lioness (aka the Alanna Adventures). What I've liked about Pierce's work from the beginning is that these are YA novels in which young women get to do great and heroic things.


Kristen Britain, Blackveil

Fourth volume of the Green Rider series. This volume took the series to some very dark places - both in the Blackveil forest and in the kingdom of Sacoridia. Along with epic deeds, we also find deceit, betrayal of trust and corruption on a number of levels and in some disappointing places. But things have to get darker before dawn, don't they?


Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Fury

The fourth volume of the Chronicles of Elantra series (aka the "Cast" series). As this series has progressed, the protagonist Kaylin Nera, a member of the Hawks - the police force of the city of Elantra - has been drawn into situations that have given her entry and a unique understanding of the various races that live, more or less peaceably, in the City. In this volume, she must deal with some of the consequences of her last major mission, which involved the telepathic Tha'alani, while engaging in a personal quest to clear the name of her friend and superior officer, a Leontine accused of murder. And we are carried a bit further along in learning more about Kaylin's own past and powers and what is happening in the region known as Nightshade, where Kaylin once lived.


Jack Whyte, Order in Chaos

Final volume in the Templar Trilogy. Whyte completes the story of his alternate history secret order concealed within the historically secretive Order of Knights Templar with the destruction of the Templars. As with most Templar fantasies, the remnants of the order ( and the secret inner circle) flee to England and Scotland where their legacy lives on - an element of the Templar mythos that probably has its genesis in the fact that the Templars were not persecuted nearly as violently in England as they were in continental Europe, so that while the order itself was disbanded, many former Templars lived on in England and a number of survivors from Europe made their way across the Channel to begin new lives.


Liz Williams, Precious Dragon

Third volume in the series. The continuing adventures of Detective Inspector Chan and his demon partner Seneschal Zhu Irzh in Hell, Heaven, Singapore Three on Earth, and a few other assorted dimensions. Complete with dragons and the Emperor of Heaven.


Kage Baker, Nell Gwynne’s Scarlet Spy

This is more of a related stand-alone to Baker's Company series, but I thought I'd include it here anyway. Steampunk adventures of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Gentlemen's Speculative Society, featuring Lady Beatrice. The two novellas collected here are all we shall ever see of Lady Beatrice, as they were written not long before the untimely death of Kage Baker - but at least we have these.

The genre of fantasy is rapidly subdividing these days, and I'm not entirely certain what the distinctions are any more. I am sticking with urban fantasy as something that ha
a definition of urban fantasy as something that involves humans interacting with non-humans (vampires, demons, werewolves, elves, whatever) and the use of magic or psychic powers virtually indistinguishable from magic, in an urban setting that is directly based on real world settings (modern-day Toronto or Chicago or whatever). It may involve crimes or mysteries, or it may involve supernatural romance. Or both. I"m not all that fussy.


Jes Battis, Inhuman Resources

Battis' OSI series has held my interest through three volumes to date, and I have the fourth in my TBR pile. The premise is that there is an investigative force, CORE, complete with Occult Special Investigators, that is charged with the responsibility of dealing with all sorts of non-human and occult communities (vampires, necromancers, sorcerers, and so on) secretly co-existing with "normate" human society, investigating crimes involving members of these communities, and keeping the whole business quiet so those ordinary humans can never know. The stories focus on OSI Tess Corday, a woman of mixed heritage (and by that I mean human and demon) and her investigative partner (and roommate) Derrick Siegel. Together they solve crimes! - with the aid of an interesting collection of supporting characters, of course. But behind the episodic nature of the occult crime procedural is a sweeping arc that has to do with Tess' demon heritage.


Katharine Kerr, Licence to Ensorcell

With her lengthy Deverry Cycle epic fantasy series completed, Kerr has decided to explore the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre, and in my opinion she quite nails it with this first volume in the new Nola O'Grady series. O'Grady is a an operative with a secret agenct whose mandate you can probably figure out right away, and her new case is to find a serial killer targeting werewolves. It's personal - O'Grady's brother was one of the victims. Her partner on the case is a hard-boiled Isreali operative, assigned to work with her because the serial killer has claimed victims in both Israel and the US. I like this new series, and the next volume is in my infamous TBR pile.


J. A. Pitts, Black Blade Blues

This is a first novel from author J. A. Pitts, and there is some roughness to it, but the premise - a lesbian blacksmith who moonlights as a props manager and is part of a medieval reenactment society - was not the sort of thing I could resist. And there are dragons! To continue the refrain, the next volume is in my TBR pile.


Kevin Hearne, Hounded

Another first novel, and a very fine one too. But how could I resist a novel about the last of the Druids, currently living in Arizona under the unlikely name of Atticus O’Sullivan. The rest of the cast of characters includes his Irish wolfhound, a werewolf and a vampire who happen to be his lawyers, several Celtic deities, the spirit of an ancient Hindu sorceress and a coven of witches. And it's funny too - Hearne has a pleasantly dry wit that is well integrated into the style and storytelling. The next volumes is... oh, you know where it is.


Tate Hallaway, Almost to Die For

You, constant reader, already know that I think very highly of Lyda Morehouse's work, and of course you are aware that Tate Hallaway is the name Morehouse uses for her contemporary supernatural urban romance fantasy work (did I cover all the bases there?). This is the first volume in a new YA series about a teenaged girl whose father happens to be the leader of the vampires in her city, and by vampire tradition, that makes her his heir. I liked it, and... you guessed it, the next volume is in my TBR pile.


Tate Hallaway, Honeymoon of the Dead

And, to balance all these new series, this is the last volume in Morehouse/Hallaway's Garnet Lacey series. Garnet and her vampire lover Sebastian von Traum are finally married - but Garnet's past gets in the way of their planned honeymoon in Transylvania. A good ending to an enjoyable series. No more volumes to put in my TBR file. Sniff.

G. R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
G. R. R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
G. R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Of course I'd heard of Martin's voluminous epic, collectively known as The Song of Ice and Fire, long before last year. And from time to time I'd thought about checking out the first volume, just to see if it was worth all the fuss, But I had previously been gravely disappointed by Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which became quite unreadable - for me, at least - after the first couple of volumes, and to which ASoIaF had been frequently compared.

But then the news came out that a TV series was being made of the epic, and I decided to read the first volume to see if the series might interest me.

Well... the first volume was better than I'd feared, and I did find myself identifying quite strongly with some of the main characters, so despite the unrelieved grimmness and the somewhat disorienting choice of an ever increasing number of POVs, I kept on reading. I've invested enough in this that I will likely continue reading to the end - I really do want to know what happens to Arya and Daenerys - but I can't quite shower it with the praise that so many others have. It seems that when it comes to multi-volume epics with casts of seemingly thousands, in which each volume is pushing 800 pages, I still prefer Michelle West and Kate Elliott over Martin (with honourable mention to Katharine Kerr, whose Deverry series has several volumes that are rather less than 800 pages, but makes up for that by having 15 volumes in the series).

Robert Boyczuk, Horror Story and other Stories

This was a delightful surprise. To begin with, I know the author – I studied C and systems design under his direction in my second foray into the academic world about 25 years ago, and I remember at the time he did mention working on some short stories. So when I wandered across his name in a list of recent speculative fiction publications, I just had to a) see if was the Bob Boyczuk I remembered, and b) read the book. Well, it was and I did.

The stories in this collection inhabit the worlds between fantasy, science fiction and horror. They are well-written, original, sometimes very provocative, often very powerful, and always interesting. And they are available under Creative Commons licence (https://cs.senecac.on.ca/~robert.boyczuk/writing/collected-works.htm) if you can’t find a dead tree version. Read. Spread the word.


Peter S. Beagle, We Never Talk About My Brother
Peter S. Beagle, The Line Between

Beagle is truly one of the masters of the short form in speculative fiction. I savour every new collection of his stories that I read. Beagle tells such quintessentially human stories, with such range and depth, that his work regularly takes my breath away. If you are looking for a more considered examination, you could always look at the articles in this issue of Green Man Review devoted to Beagle and his work (http://www.greenmanreview.com/oneoffs/peterbeagle.html) or you could just go and read anything he’s written.


Lavie Tidhar, HebrewPunk

Fantasy and alternate history that makes use of Jewish tradition, myth and archetypes is rather rare. I may be that I have been missing out on many such examples, but I am hard-pressed to think of many who have made significant use of Jewish culture and tradition in their works. The names that come first to my mind are Peter Beagle, Lisa Goldstein, Ellen Galford, Michael Chabon, Avram Davidson, and of course (though he is claimed by the literary fiction people as one of their own) Isaac Bashevis Singer. – and now, Lavie Tidhar. In this collection of four linked fantasy stories, Tidhar gives us a wealth of characters out of Jewish tradition. I am looking forward to reading more of his work.


Gwyneth Jones, The Buonarotti Quartet

Four stories set in the same universe as Jones’ Aleutian Trilogy, which use the existence of an instantaneous transit technology as the foundation for storytelling. Jones discusses these stories – which I found as thought provoking as I have come to expect Jones’ work to be – in a post on the Aqueduct Press blog: http://aqueductpress.blogspot.com/2009/05/gwyneth-joness-buonarotti-quartet.html

Steve Perry, The Musashi Flex

After re-reading all of the Matador series books published back in the 1980s and 90s, I discovered that Perry had returned to the Matador universe and had written a prequel that harkened back to the origins of the fighting style used by the Matadors in their revolution. I am pleased to report that the first of the prequels was just as good as the original series. I understand from Wiki that two more prequels are in progress, and I’m waiting for them eagerly.


Linda Evans, Far Side of Darkness

This is a well written and rather enjoyable book. There’s a conspiracy involving scientists and the military and a few other assorted people who want the world to be run their way. There’s a co-opted top secret government project involving time travel. And there’s a group of ordinary people caught up in all of this, accidentally sent through time, who eventually manage to come together and start to figure out what is going on and realise they may be the only ones who can stop it.

But I cannot recommend it, because the book ends on a cliffhanger, with no resolution at all. It was clearly intended as the first half of a tightly-connected duology, and given that it was originally published in 1996, it seems unlikely that the second half will ever be available. So, as things stand, don’t buy it – you will find yourself with a severe case of reading interruptus. That said, if the sequel is ever published – grab both volumes and go for it.


Eleanor Arnason, Tomb of the Fathers
Eleanor Arnason, Mammoths of the Great Plains

Eleanor Arnason is brilliant. She thinks deeply and honestly about things like gender, class, race, colonialism and imperialism, and how they affect her characters and the stories she wants to tell. And then she folds these important considerations into fascinating tales with interesting and multi-dimensional characters. She writes with wit and grace. Her work is thought-provoking and satisfying. I was going to say something about the two Arnason books I read last year, but then I discovered a review by Kelly Jennings at Strange Horizons that says much of what I would have said abut them, so I will direct you there instead:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2010/08/mammoths_of_the.shtml


Lyda Morehouse, Resurrection Code

For those who know Morehouse’s AngeLINK series – this is a must-read. Mouse and Morningstar. Prequel and sequel. Betrayal and redemption. Cyberpunk and angels. Gender fluidity. Prophecy and portent. Everything that Morehouse does so well. For those who do not know the world of AngeLINK – this is probably not the place to begin, but I urge you to try your hardest to find Morehouse’s four previous AngeLINK novels (sadly out of print) and read them. I’ve never been able to understand why these books, which are full of amazing characters, provocative ideas about mind and soul and sex and technology, and complex and satisfying storytelling – all that science fiction at its best is about – have failed to find a wider market. Perhaps it is the moral (and gender) ambiguity of some of the characters – but Morehouse knows that all beings are complex, and contain multitudes and contradictions. If you haven’t figured out by now, I love Morehouse’s work in this series. She has written other books that are a joy to read – under the name Tate Hallaway – but this series truly is her masterwork. And it really should be in print again.

For those who are interested, here is a link to a review of Resurrection Code by Russ Allbery (where you can also find links to his reviews of the other AngeLINK books). http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/1-935234-09-9.html



Elizabeth Moon, Hunting Party

While I do enjoy some milsf, I tend not to read it as often as I do fantasy, whether high or otherwise. So even though I love Moon’s high fantasy, I had never really made reading her milsf a high priority. However, after finishing the new volumes in the Paladin’s Legacy fantasy series, I found that I wanted more Moon – so I decided to try this, the first volume of volume in her Familias Regnant milsf series. And enjoyed it. The things that I enjoy so much in Moon’s fantasy are there in her sf too – strong female characters, well-paced stories with political intrigue. I intend to read more.


Nick Harkaway, The Gone-Away World

A darkly satirical post-apocalyptic action-adventure comedy which poses serious questions concerning the nature of reality and identity, Harkaway’s first novel is perhaps a bit excessive, but has moments of sheer genius and more than enough energy to pull the reader through the rough spots. To say nothing of the question that is likely in the back of every reader’s mind – what the fuck will he do next? I really can’t easily describe it – just check it out for yourself.

Like many other people these days, I have a deep appreciation and affection for the work of Jane Austen. I've re-read all of the published novels several times, and collect the various versions of the films and TV movies that have been based on her books. I am a little more picky about which of the many "inspired by Austen" novels that have been hitting the market in ever-increasing numbers, but I do read some, when the fancy takes me.


Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This was, as many people seem to agree, a lot of fun, but I fear the idea did not delight me sufficiently to cause me to go and buy all the other versions of classics with interpolated fantasy elements that are (were?) such a fad for a while. Best part of this one? - the martial arts battle between Lady de Burgh and Elizabeth Bennett.


Carrie Bebris, Suspense and Sensibility

Bebris has written a series of mysteries in which Elizabeth and Darcy solve crimes involving both the other characters from Pride and Prejudice and characters related to or featured in the other novels. I rather enjoyed the conceit of this one, in which a member of the fictional Dashwood family from Sense and Sensibility is possessed by his ancestor, the historical Francis Dashwood, notorious founder of The Hellfire club (well, one of them, but certainly the one best known to posterity). Unfortunately, Bebris does not, at least in my opinion, get the "voice" of the Austen characters quite right and this left me a little disappointed. I may or may not investigate the other books in this series.


Michael Thomas Ford, Jane Bites Back

This was delicious. Jane Austen as a vampire, turned by no other than Lord Byron, living in modern times and trying to get a new novel published. I enjoyed Ford's take on an Austen who has survived into modern times and seen her books rise in popularity and critical acclaim, and plan to pick up the sequel.


Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club

Fowler's conceit in this book is fascinating - the novel follows a diverse set of characters in a book club devoted to Jane Austen, their interactions with each other and with the texts they are reading and discussing. Parallels naturally emerge, but the relationships and resonances are subtle. Well worth reading.

Spider Robinson, Night of Power

This is probably the only book of Spider Robinson's that has trouble staying in print. I wonder why? It wouldn't have anything to do with its relatively positive portrayal of an armed insurrection 20 years in the planning by Black (and at least some Hispanic) people to claim New york City as an independent homeland for all people willing to work toward a society without race-based inequity, now would it? I find this a very powerful book because of its overall story and because of its examination of interracial relationships on a personal level as well as a social and political level - and the best part about it is that it does not shy away from the fact that white people, no matter how well-meaning, usually just don't get it - and if they do manage to get a little of it, there's always further to go. This is probably my favourite of Robinson's novels, even more so than the "hippies in Nova Scotia meet a time traveller" novel that hits so close to home.



Robert Heinlein, Friday

Heinlein probably meant the question at the heart of this novel to be about the personhood of clones. But Friday is never not a person to me, so that's never an issue. For me and many other women, it's always been about the way that violent gang rape and its aftereffects are portrayed, and what ultimately happens between Friday and one of the rapists. At one level, I think about the fact that rape is always a possible consequence of being a spy/soldier in enemy hands, and this is true for men as well as women, though not so often acknowledged. Spies are trained to deal with torture - or so the trope goes, anyway - and rape is historically a part of torture. But on the other hand, I don't know how effective that training is in allowing people so trained to put the psychological trauma of torture - whether sexual or not - behind them. So I'm always ambivalent about Friday's seeming ease of recovery. Maybe it's authentic. Maybe it's not. The other half of the problem - her later contacts with one of her torturers/rapists - that's even more difficult to work out. I may never come to a satisfactory assessment of this problem.


Michael Bishop, And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees

This may be one of my favourite titles for a book ever. And the book itself ain't so bad, either. Over a short period of time last year, things kept reminding me of this book, so I figured it was time to read it again.


Charles de Lint, Svaha

One of my favourite de Lint novels - and one of his very few forays into science fiction. I suppose that, in part, I like it for much the same reason I like Robinson's Night of Power - only here, the dispossessed peoples are Aboriginal (the novel is based in a future, cyberpunk Canada, but there is a sense that it is not only the Aboriginal peoples of North America who have withdrawn from the rest of the world to create their own future). I also very much appreciate the blend of science and mysticism. It's been out of print for a while, too, so I'm glad I found a copy to re-read.


Philip Jose Farmer, Time’s Last Gift

This was just pure fun. Farmer takes the now-immortal Tarzan into a future where time travel is possible, and then takes him back to the beginnings of human civilization and sets the Lord of the Apes free to be himself. This of course is all part of a complex series of what is essentially Burroughs fanfic in which there are ultimately three versions of Tarzan running about in Time and some very strange goings-on with secret manipulators carrying out a long human breeding program designed to bring about Tarzan, or someone very like him... and somewhere around here, Farmer goes too far even for me. but this book is fun if you have fond memories of reading Burrough's Tarzan novels in your youth.

Alison Bechdel, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For

I love Bechdel's work, the characters, the situations, the satire, the love. This volume is more of the same wonderful stuff as always.


Sarah Schulman, People in Trouble
Sarah Schulman, The Child
Sarah Schulman, The Mere Future

2011 was the year in which I discovered Sarah Schulman. Her work focuses relentlessly on the lives of lesbians and gay men, and she tackles hard subjects with uncompromising honesty. Her work can be stylistically difficult, and is often controversial, but I have found the three novels I of hers that I have read so far to be both compelling and rewarding.

Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body

Winterson's classic examination of relationship did not draw me in quite as strongly as some of the other books of hers that I have read, but was still in my mind worth reading.


Laurie R. King, The Language of Bees

My Sherlock fetish, let me show it to you again. I found this volume of King's Mary Russell/Holmes mysteries to be harder to get into than earlier books in the series, but it did start to pick up at the end. And being essentially the first half of a much longer mystery, and thus incomplete, I suppose that makes some sense. On to God of the Hive!


Margaret Atwood, Good Bones

oh my, was this a fun book to read. A slim volume, full of very short fables and vignettes, all of them overflowing with Atwood's delicious and acerbic wit. There is a great deal of critical social commentary and trenchant feminist analysis buried in these small gems.

I loved Elizabeth Moon's books about Paksenarrion, the sheepfarmer's daughter who ran away from an ordinary predictable life to become first a mercenary and then a paladin. It's been a long time since Moon wrote those, but she has returned to the richly detailed world of Paksenarrion with a new series focused on Kieri Phelan, a key figure in the original books.

Kieri Phelan, homeless orphan who became leader of a mercenary company and later a Duke, was revealed in the first series to be the long-lost half-elven heir to the kingdom of Lyonya. Moon's new series follows King Kieri's efforts to establish himself in his new role, defend his country against dark plots within and invasion without, and restore his lost elven heritage so that he can be a whole person and the kind of king that Lyonya, a kingdom of both humans and elves, desperately needs.

Naturally, in preparation for the new series, I had to re-read all of the earlier books in this world.

Paladin's Legacy
Oath of Fealty
Kings of the North

The Deed of Paksenarrion
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter
Divided Allegiance
Oath of Gold

The Legacy of Gird
Surrender None
Liar’s Oath

The third volume in the Paladin's Legacy series comes out next month, and I am very much looking forward to reading it. Moon cannot write these books quickly enough to please me - but I'm so happy she is writing them that it doesn't matter.

I read three anthologies in 2011, all of them theme-based and all quite enjoyable.


Mercedes Lackey (ed.), Under the Vale and Other Tales of Valdemar

What can I say? Lackey's world of Velgarth, and her stories about Valdemar, and its Heralds and their Companions are irresistible to me. I know, telepathic talking horses. But so what?


John Joseph Adams (ed.), The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Holmes is another literary creation that I find irresistible. so if you give me an anthology of stories about Sherlock Holmes facing adversaries more fantastical than most of those Arthur Conan Doyle created, who am I to say no? A really excellent collection (to be expected, given Adams' track record as an editor).


John Pelan & Benjamin Adams (eds.), The Children of Cthulhu

And yet another irresistible topic - the Cthulhu mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft. These are stories inspired by the mythos, and not necessarily drawing directly on elements of the canon, but there are some excellent horror stories here, with all the distinctive flavour of the Lovecraft originals.

Like many science fiction fans of my generation, the appearance of Star Trek on my television screen in 1966 was a pivotal moment (these days, people call it ST: The Original Series, but for me there is only one Star Trek, which cannot ever be confused with The Next Generation, or Deep Space Nine, or any of the others). I watched it faithfully. I and several of my friends began writing fan fiction, something that had never occurred to any of us before then, but which was something we could no more not do than we could choose not to breathe. Something about Star Trek demanded that we join as co-creators, that we find ways to explore the consequences of what we were watching in the universe where they had happened, that we give those mesmerizing characters more to do, that we put ourselves into the world of Kirk and Spock and Scotty and Uhura and all the others.

So I wrote genfic and Mary Sues, and slash, and all the kinds of fanfic that everyone in fandom knows about today - but were almost completely new in the late 60s.

And something else happened then - other people started writing new stories set in the Star Trek world and getting them published. And I read those just as avidly as I had watched to show itself.

Every once in a while, I still get in the mood to read - or re-read - official star Trek novels, though I'm rather picky - I only read novels set in the original Star Trek setting. The Star Trek novel-reading itch hit me again in early 2011, and these are the books I picked to satisfy it, almost all of them re-reads:


Dave Galanter, Star Trek: Troublesome Minds
Melinda Snodgrass, Star Trek: Tears of the Singers
Barbara Hambly, Star Trek: Ishmael
Margaret Wander Bonanno, Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky
Jean Lorrah, Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders
A.C. Crispin, Star Trek: Time for Yesterday
Diane Duane, Star Trek: Doctor’s Orders

The non-fiction I read in 2011 was a small and somewhat mixed assortment.


William H. Patterson, Jr., Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century, The Authorized Biography, Volume I: Learning Curve

This was somewhat interesting but essentially unsatisfying. Patterson does not appear to have the detachment or the analytical bent (at least when discussing this subject) to provide more than a highly detailed but ultimately superficial look at Heinlein as man or as writer, and both his accuracy and his treatment of sources is open to question. A biography must be more than a collection of everything one could find about the subject, set down without comment even when the various sources are contradictory.


Sarah Schulman, Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and its Consequences

Schulman makes an interesting but not completely convincing argument that lack of full acceptance and support of queer people by their families is the basic cause, not only of social intolerance of queer people, but also of all the ills that can be found within the queer community. I think she has a point - that being that if families would fight for the rights of their queer members, both within the family and within the greater society, then much positive change would occur - but I think her argument simplifies the situation somewhat. But still, she poses some very interesting ideas and points out how easily gay men, lesbians other members of the queer community settle for the most modest shows of acceptance from their families of origin, and how much more many parents, siblings and other family members need to go in supporting, encouraging and defending the queer people in their lives just to provide the same kind of support that is automatically given to the straight people in their lives.


Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire

Roy is one of the most eloquent critics of the global imperialist project. These essays are from the periods of the Bush administration in the US and address issues having to do with the Iraq war as well as challenging imperialism and its effects around the world and in her own country.


Lee Maracle, I Am Woman: A Native Perspective on Sociology and Feminism

Maracle's book is part personal narrative, part history of the development of the movements of resistance and change among First Nations peoples, and part sociological analysis of the situation of First Nations peoples, and First Nations women, in their own communities and within north American mainstream society.


Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Writing a Woman’s Life

A fascinating examination of the ways that women's lives are chronicled, and how the ways that biographers and women writing personal narratives structure and organise their work differs from traditional approaches taken toward the writing of the lives of men.


Jennifer K. Stoller, Ink-stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors

Stoller offers the reader an interesting and lively survey of many of the fictional heroines that have become part of popular culture over the past 70-odd years, from Wonder Woman to Buffy and Xena.


Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America

Ehrenreich looks at the history, the current manifestations and the effects of the positive thinking and self-help movements in American culture, and demonstrates how what appeared to be a beneficial response to the restrictive culture of Calvinist thought in the 19th century has become a dangerous mass delusion in the 21st.


Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Woman at the Dawn of the 1960s

Coontz does three things in this book, all of which are quite interesting - perhaps especially to someone like myself who remember when The Feminine Mystique was first published. First, she looks at the book itself. Second, she presents narratives of women who read the book and have described how it affected them. Third, she looks at the social history of women and the the women's movement in the US using the book as a touchstone.


And finally, a book that is not really classifiable, but which I am including here because taken in whole, it is an example of writing about a woman's life, and is hence no more a fiction than are the lives of any of us.

Karen Joy Fowler & Debbie Notkin (eds.), 80! Memories and Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin

To celebrate the occasion of Ursula Le Guin's 80th birthday, editors Fowler and Notkin invited contributions of many kinds from a variety of writers. Here are reminiscences of Le Guin, personal accounts of what her books have meant to various writers, poems and short stories presented in her honour, pieces of critical analysis, a brief biographical sketch by Julie Phillips (who wrote the definitive biography of Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree Jr.) and a few other kinds of things that one might produce in order to celebrate a most extraordinary woman.

In 2010, I read 63 books, 60 fiction and 3 non-fiction; 22 of these were re-reads (%). A total of five of these were anthologies, and so have been excluded from the demographic analysis of authorship.

By gender:
Books written by women: 46.7%
Books written by men: 48.3%
One book was co-written by a man and a woman

By nationality:
American: 78.3%
British: 6.6%
Canadian: 8.3%
Other: 1.6%

Book by writers of colour: 6.6%

Not a particularly characteristic year for me in terms of , probably because such a large proportion of this year's reading consisted of re-reads of science fiction by White American men.


Beat reads of 2010:

Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Zahrah the Windseeker
Jo Walton, Half a Crown
Helen S. Wright, A Matter of Oaths
Sarah Zettel, Fools’ War
John Scalzi, Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony
Molly Hite, Class Porn
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest