Drinking Sapphire Wine

Thankfully Biting the Sun is now out as a combination of both books, but as a stand-alone book this one is quite good. Where last we left our nameless protagonist she (or he) had been to the desert and came back with a real honest-to-goodness tragedy (dead pet) and a severe disappointment in her (his) attempt to gain adulthood through childbirth. As this book begins the protagonist is a man trying to look like a Byronic figure. She (he) is up to her (his) old tricks but there's something missing. Spending most of her time in the history archives, she challenges her friends to duels and attempts to make life bearable. THe story changes when Danor returns and the two become lovers. Soon she is exiled into the desert and this is where the meat of the story happens as she (now only a she) first fights to stay sane in the loneliness, but then becomes accustomed to the solitude enough to weed and built her own garden. Ultimately the rebellion that the protagonist effects takes the form of growing up and accepting responsibility. In a world ruled by robots, where all danger is over and all responsibility and maturity is gone, the one rebellion that a person can take is to throw off the shackles of permanent parenting. In a reversal of the Garden of Eden story, the city represents childhood and the garden represents maturity.

It's one of the best sci-fi books i've read, dealing with the human problems of who and what you are, and most of all, the meaning of life and it's purpose. It's also a sad story (and of course, coming from Lee, romantic).

This is one of Lee's shortest novels, but perhaps the most original, which is saying a lot. Instead of mythic fantasy, this one's set in the distant future. The exploration of human feelings and development is brilliant. It does remind me of Moorcock's /End of Time/ series, another favorite of mine. This is certainly the most readable of her novels, which sometimes take more mental work to keep up with the elaborate descriptions of her rich worlds. They still exist here, but are conveyed more accessibly.