Set in the same future world as Kirith Kirin
(2000), which won a Lambda Award, Grimsley's latest SF novel intimately explores the conflicts between magic and science, subconscious and conscious action, the past and the future. The planet of the tech-using Hormling of Senal is connected to the land of Irion, home of the magic-believing Erejhen, via the mysterious Twil Gate, a portal of unknown origins in the ocean. Although traders on both sides enjoy brisk commerce through the gate, Hormling leaders look more and more to Irion as a means to provide land and resources for their expanding civilization. Translator Jedda Martele, member of a Senal diplomatic mission to Irion, is caught in the middle when the delegation's true purpose is revealed: they are meant to be in place to parlay for a Hormling invasion force after it races through the gate to occupy strategic Irion ports, but they haven't reckoned with the ability of the so-called "backwards" Erejhen to handle invaders. Grimsley's finely textured societies have a clockwork intricacy that fascinates even as it dispels surprise. Unlike many "literary" authors who fail when they try to write SF, PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award winner Grimsley (Winter Birds
) has the necessary world-building skills to shine brightly here. Agent, Peter Hagen. (May 12)
