September 20, 2015

My Sister the Moon by Sue Harrison

My Sister the Moon is the second book in the Ivory Carver Trilogy by Sue Harrison.  It picks up several years after the first book and follows the same tribe that was formed with Chagak, although the book doesn't focus on her this time.

This time it focuses on Kiin, who is only named part of the way into the book because she is so despised by her father.  Instead of being left for dead as an infant, the leader of the tribe decided to betroth his son to her and thus force her father to let her live.  Because she was not a son, he did everything in his power to make it rough for her.  Add in a brother who is jealous and Kiin had a rough childhood.  And it didn't stop there, shortly after marrying the leader's son, her brother kidnaps her and sells her, just when she's learned she's pregnant.

Kiin is another strong woman, just like in the previous book.  She has a lot of hardships thrown at her and the world is especially cruel to her, but she perseveres anyway.  And she also has a lot of talent, which helps her try to rise in the world.  Although she is still at the mercy of the men around her for the most part.  Which is discouraging, but relevant to the time period.  Again, the bad guys in this are bad with no redeeming qualities and while you can understand their motives, they still don't seem quite real because they are so bad.

There were so many twists and turns in this book.  Just when you think good is going to prevail something else happens to screw it up.  The theme for this book was very heavily weighted towards power.  Everyone wants power and control and don't really care if it hurts others in the process.  Because of this the book is pretty dark with topics covering rape, incest and lots of violence.  I would strongly suggest not reading it if any of these topics are too hard for you.  But it is very real because of that.  The world is not always a very nice place and this book illustrates that perfectly. 

And because this book ended on a cliff-hanger, I of course have to finish the trilogy and find out what happens.  But I'm looking forward to it!

My Sister the Moon
Copyright 1992
449 pages

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