The long-awaited conclusion of the Holy Ground trilogy! [At the moment this is the only part of this trilogy available here.]
Occupation of Earth is now in its 27th year, and relations between humanity and the dictatorial Hefn have never seemed shakier. The aliens mission is to save the planet from its human abusers; and the Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis has made Earth a cleaner, wilder, less crowded place. But the Ban has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the situation explodes into worldwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the eco-spiritual Gaians, who mediate between humans and Hefn, have been destroyed.
While the Gaians regroup and brainstorm frantically in an atmosphere of doubt and danger, one obsessed Hefn and one young woman begin a radical experiment. Pam Pruitt has discovered a growing ability to acquire information by non-rational means. Childhood suffering has empowered her, in a way once understood by hunting and gathering peoples — an understanding lost with that lost lifeway — to communicate with mysterious forces through strong dreaming: to function as a shaman on behalf of her community, the human race.
“…worth the wait…Unlike most works of SF or science-fantasy on this scale, [The Bird Shaman] continues to portray [its] people in very human terms, with major characters who don’t become avatars, demigods, or even heroes with a capital H. . . . Moffett provokes you to think and feel.” –Locus Magazine
PRAISE FOR JUDITH MOFFETT AND THE FIRST TWO VOLUMES OF THE HOLY GROUND TRILOGY
THE RAGGED WORLD (Vol. I):
“Everyone who plays a role in this complicated narrative is a stubbornly self-possessed individual . . . You will be engaged and moved.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“The Ragged World: A Novel of the Hefn on Earth is based on her well-received tales of the gnome-like Hefn. . . Moffett has done a marvelous job integrating them into a book the publisher refers to most accurately as a stunning mosaic. Each story is a tile, part of a larger pattern which, viewed as a whole, reveals the intelligence and the skill of the maker.”
—Locus
“Moffett has yet to write anything I don’t like, and this book works well either as a novel or a series of related stories.”
—Science Fiction Chronicle
“A small, moving, personal novel spliced together from previously published and new material (including the widely admired “Tiny Tango”), about the effect on a few intertwined lives when aliens assume control of our planet.”
—Kirkus Review
“Moffett handles her story and its characters with marvelous warmth and empathy. You, like me, will find her imagination a wondrous place to visit.”
—Analog
TIME, LIKE AN EVER-ROLLING STREAM (Vol. II)
“Moffett’s combination of harsh realism with visionary zeal addresses contemporary issues and personal struggles with compassion and insight.”
—Library Journal
“An exceptional sequel to The Ragged World. . . Fine insights on alien/human understanding permeate a compelling, dramatic and realistic story.”
—Bookwatch (San Francisco)
“Thanks to some adroitly handled introductory matter, the new book stands on is own as a narrative. More to the point, it breaks new ground in the successful integration of science fiction and the mainstream novel.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Pam Pruitt is a real person. Her problems are real ones. Moffett’s picture of the Ohio Valley is so lovingly realized that it leaps off the page, dense, pungent, textured. The Hefn are real, and strange.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction
“Keenly and lovingly observed reality, in place, event, and character, to a degree rarely found in fantasy or SF . . . This is good work.”
—Suzy McKee Charnas