The Book of Being

After hazardous adventures on her own planet and journeys to far-flung stars and states of unconsciousness, the riverwoman Yaleen begins this concluding book in her trilogy by returning to life as a three-year-oldbut with her memories intact. She is now a priestess, intent on warning her world of the evil computer, the Godmind. Efforts to see her manuscript in print parallel her campaign for the hot air balloons she feels will open and change her traditional, static society. At the end of this uneven finale to a weak series, Yaleen rejoins the friends of her first youth, and her love for them calls her back to the things of this world. The most eloquent passages here describe a potter's ties to the particular clays of his locale and a city's symbiosis with its aqueduct system, recalled with the fascination of a child. (November)