North Wind

Jones is a novelist of exotically futuristic worlds whose complex political landscapes heavily influence the scope of her plots-as in White Queen, the first winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award, to which this new novel is a highly sophisticated sequel. Here, Jones focuses on the hermaphroditic, seemingly telepathic, Aleutians, aliens who have settled on Earth. The main character is the ``crippled'' Aleutian Goodlooking, aka Bella, a meek librarian who discovers hidden inner strengths after being rescued by the Aleutians' human translator, Sydney Carton, from a mass execution. The story follows the pair's adventures as they escape across lands ravaged by the Gender Wars-ongoing battles that pit Traditionalists (who believe in male superiority) against various Reformers. In time, Bella becomes the focal point in a deadly race to rediscover an instantaneous transmission device. Imbued with creative extrapolations on sex, politics and immortality, this is SF at its ruminative best. (Jan.)