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Laela, a curious, courageous young woman, challenges the Treedle culture’s notion of femininity in Aerizon. The society of three distinct clans has developed a unique, sustainable lifestyle governed by a council in an extensive forest canopy, where they rarely rub shoulders with the ground-dwelling Mergon kingdom just beyond the forbidden Feral Forest. Rodriguez writes: “Mergons never strayed from the ground to ascend to the forest heights, and Treedles remained calmly cradled among the interlaced treetops.”
Only traders and guards enter the forbidden forest, but Laela and her friend find the hunting easy along its border. That spurs Laela’s common-sense yet daring dream of making the journey shorter and more accessible, a venture in which a jaguar marks her chest, and later, lands her squarely in a Mergon prison. Sentenced to death by the angry king, Laela awaits her destiny with a sense of composed resignation. Unbeknownst to Laela, her parents already realize from afar that their missing daughter is marked by an old prophecy, destined not only to survive but also to thrive, mend fences, and build bridges so badly needed by the two different cultures.
Detailed worldbuilding, deeply descriptive prose, and the author’s keen eye for personal and societal transformation make this standalone sequel to Laela and the Moonline a tale that will linger in memory long after the reading. In some ways reminiscent of the world Pandora in James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, Rodriguez’s world is also awash in natural beauty but conflicted by the limitations of human emotion, greed, and prejudice. Laela and her newfound love explore tenderness and unity, bigotry and diversity, and the wounds and healing engendered by authenticity and social justice. Laela experiences a classic heroine’s journey, imbuing the role’s hardship with the vision and kindness that ignites universal change.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review