Flowerdust

Jones's fiction (Divine Endurance; White Queen) is notable for richly textured dystopias teeming with exotically different cultures; this new novel, set in Earth's far future, is no exception. The magical robotic doll Chosen Among the Beautiful loves the ``failed'' (because she is infertile) woman Derveet, who is the last of the hereditary rulers of the Garuda family. Together, doll and woman join forces with two ``studs'' (a prince and a clown who, unlike most men, have not been rendered eunuchs), as well as with a sturdy young woman of the privileged class, to penetrate the dangerous Asian Peninsula, find a cache of the nearly mythical hallucinogen flowerdust (which blooms only once every 100 years) and, in the process, expose the mysterious Rulers' plot to wipe humans off the planet for good. The difficulties the band encounters range from social mores involving male/female relationships in a matriarchal society to peasants' planting rice in stagnant fields of salt water, to the resurgence of ancient, deadly diseases. As in Jones's other work, action and plot take a backseat to politics and plays for power, as the author and her characters revel in the victories of love over apathy. (July)