THE FEAST OF THE TRICKSTER

In a conclusion to Colors in the Dreamweaver's Loom (1989), gods and humans vie for control of the fabric of reality on earth and in an imaginary world. The Trickster has torn Zan the Wanderer's thread from the loom and cast her back into this world, leaving mortal Dreamweaver and gods Weaver and Namegiver fearful that chaos will overwhelm their world. The five who, led by Zan, had begun to bring them peace are now sent across the void to find her—in this world, she's troubled young Alexandra Scarsdale. When the Trickster herself follows, she nearly destroys Alexandra and the five, but the gods call Moot to resolve the nearly fatal imbalance in the two worlds. For love of a mortal, the Trickster chooses mortality; Alexandra becomes a new, independent god. A complex, convoluted but satisfying tale in which neither gods nor humans are ever quite what they seem. Sly events abound: the shapeshifter Ychass, trapped as a horse on a farm, performs some spectacular dressage; the Trickster, a Loki-like character, falls in love with a psychiatrist—like calling to like? For older readers with a yen for fable. Both books are needed to make sense of the whole. (Fiction. 14+)