The women who are its protagonists live in the near future, developing their relationships and their psychic gifts in rural ensconcements deliberately separate from men and patriarchal culture. They reproduce by ovular merging, learn to fly at an early age, enjoy magical relationships with plants and animals, and struggle to live by the non-competitive values and sensibilities that they understand to be unique to their sex. They communicate individually through mindstretch (telepathy), and in groups by far-reaching gatherstretches.
Romance