Steles of the Sky

...I don't think I can praise Steles of the Sky, or the rest of the trilogy for that matter, highly enough. Bear set out to create a work of epic fantasy that would challenge the genre's clichés and treatment of gender related issues and ended up setting a new standard. Bear retains a lot of elements that make the genre attractive to readers while showing us a whole new way of dealing with them. It's one of the most successful attempts to break with the restrictions Tolkien's success imposed on the genre. I once said that if I'd found the perfect book I'd stop reading. Bear comes dangerously close to making me break that promise.

Click on the link below for my full review.