Product Description

It is San Francisco, 2048. Priestess Maya Greenwood lives in a tight-knit community run on ecological principles, without poverty, hunger, or hatred, where a rich culture honours its diverse mix of races, religions and sexual orientations, and the Four Sacred Things that sustain life -- earth, air, fire and water -- are valued above all. The Fifth is Spirit. In this, Starhawk's first novel, Maya Greenwood suddenly finds her idyllic world threatened by invasion from the militaristic state to the north: a nightmare place where a totalitarian regime polices a corrupt apartheid state. How can her community, which doesn't believe in violence, defend themselves? California is poised to become a battleground between two clashing cultures, and the outcome rests on the wisdom and courage of the community, and particularly in the strength and vision of the extraordinary Priestess Maya. In the tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Starhawk's visionary novel creates a complex fictional reality about love and war, freedom and slavery, and the future of the living planet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354578 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 488 pages

Review
'Slated to be one of the great visionary utopian novels of the century.' Marion Zimmer Bradley 'This is wisdom wrapped in drama.' Tom Hayden, California state senator

About the Author
Starhawk is a noted Wiccan priestess, peace activist, lecturer, and author. She has written many leading works of non-fiction which include The Spiral Dance, Dreaming in the Dark and Truth or Dare, this is her first novel. She travels throughout the world giving lectures and workshops. Her UK talks and lectures are always sold out.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant! Sensitive, thoughtful book.
Instead of the "doom and gloom" stories of science fiction, or the "wonder" type, this book accepts the faults in the human race and the legacy this has created for the Earth, and examines an obtainable way forward, through community and respect for the Earth in her four manifestations. Beautifully written, thought-provoking, amazing book.

A surprise! I surely did not expect such a wonder.
A true beauty. This novel magically weaves the link between fantasy and our "reality". A true beauty. To be honest I didn't expect the novel to be that good. It looked to me to be another new age, crystals and horror scopes type setting. But upon reading I discovered the errors of my judgements. The author displays an understanding of many worlds, from that of arcane magic and shamanism to practical community planning and biology. A gifted writer who succedes in her prowess as a communicator. Thank you.

A vision of our future?
An inspiring and thought provoking book that explores a possible scenario of a post industrial collapse/ peak oil / climate change society. One of the few people who have come up with a positive vision for that future while contrasting it with a horrific extrapolation of the way we operate now. At the beginning I worried that it was going to be too new-agey for me but after the first few pages I was gripped and couldn't put it down. Very enjoyable and definitely recommended.