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Speaking Stones
Speaking Stones
Speaking Stones
Ebook422 pages8 hours

Speaking Stones

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Returning to the enigmatic planet first introduced in his compelling Dark Water's Embrace, Stephen Leigh thoughtfully examines issues of prejudice and race relations among the descendants of the world's marroned human survivors and its native inhabitants.

On the faraway planet Mictlan, a tiny human society has had to sruggle with severe and often disturbing complications to adapt to their desolate surroundings. There were physical mutations and birth defects among them, then an uneasy coexistence with the Miccail, an indigenous tri-gendered intelligent species. Most startling of all was the evolution of a third human sex: the Sa, or midmale.

Now the fragile peace that governs the humans and the Miccail is shattered after a young human Sa child is kidnapped, igniting all the half-buried animosities smoldering between the two groups, as savagery and violence break out across the planet. The answer may lie in an imposing carved monolith--the Speaking Stone that contains the secrets of the ancient Miccail religion. Facing annhilation at the hands of its warring civilizations, the planet's only chance for survival hinges on deciphering the stone's cryptic hierloglyphs.Returning to the enigmatic planet first introduced in his compelling Dark Water's Embrace, Stephen Leigh thoughtfully examines issues of prejudice and race relations among the descendants of the world's marroned human survivors and its native inhabitants.

On the faraway planet Mictlan, a tiny human society has had to sruggle with severe and often disturbing complications to adapt to their desolate surroundings. There were physical mutations and birth defects among them, then an uneasy coexistence with the Miccail, an indigenous tri-gendered intelligent species. Most startling of all was the evolution of a third human sex: the Sa, or midmale.

Now the fragile peace that governs the humans and the Miccail is shattered after a young human Sa child is kidnapped, igniting all the half-buried animosities smoldering between the two groups, as savagery and violence break out across the planet. The answer may lie in an imposing carved monolith--the Speaking Stone that contains the secrets of the ancient Miccail religion. Facing annhilation at the hands of its warring civilizations, the planet's only chance for survival hinges on deciphering the stone's cryptic hierloglyphs.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateNov 1, 2011
ISBN9780062030979
Speaking Stones
Author

Stephen Leigh

Stephen Leigh is an award-winning author with nineteen science fiction novels and over forty short stories published. He has been a frequent contributor to the Hugo-nominated shared-world series Wild Cards, edited by George R. R. Martin. He teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University. His works include Immortal Muse, The Crow of Connemara, the Sunpath duology, and the fantasy trilogy Assassin's Dawn.

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    Speaking Stones - Stephen Leigh

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