Another book review: The Spiral Dance

I took a break from Merry Gentry to read something completely different, and the result is a book I cannot recommend highly enough. The Spiral Dance is the first novel by a master of science fiction short stories, R. Garcia y Robertson. (Well, OK, maybe he’s only a master storyteller in my pointy little head, but this is my LJ, so YMMV.) Anyway, this book is set in Elizabethan England and tells the story of Anne Percy, countess of Northumberland, who receives a prophecy telling her she will journey to Durham, and then to Scotland, and to the ends of the earth. And sure enough, that's what Anne does.

Garcia y Robertson clearly knows what he's talking about in terms of English society, and he weaves fantasy and history marvelously while still making the book very accessible to the modern reader. And Anne Percy's character is wonderfully fascinating as she comes to terms with her destiny in life and of the powers she's been given. And there's a roguish Scottish werewolf who is drop-dead sexy in my opinion. And there's some lesbian subtext, too.

So, yes. Very highly recommended. The author mentions that there's a sequel, but I haven't read it yet, and would like to do so immediately.