“We speak of a mother’s love, but we forget her power.” Civilization has come to the alien, sunless planet its inhabitants call Eden.   Just a few generations ago, the planet’s five hundred inhabitants huddled together in the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees, afraid to venture out into the cold darkness around them.   Now, humanity has spread across Eden, and two kingdoms have emerged. Both are sustained by violence and dominated by men – and both claim to be the favored children of Gela, the woman who came to Eden long ago on a boat that could cross the stars, and became the mother of them all. When young Starlight Brooking meets a handsome and powerful man from across Worldpool, she believes he will offer an outlet for her ambition and energy. But she has no inkling that she will become a stand-in for Gela herself, and wear Gela’s fabled ring on her own finger—or that in this role, powerful and powerless all at once, she will try to change the course of Eden’s history. This sequel to Dark Eden (2014) continues the story of a civilization started by astronauts from Earth who were stranded on a distant planet. Generations later, the population has grown and split into several distinct communities. Starlight Brooking lives in Knee Tree Grounds, a place without social strata, where responsibility and power are shared equally. On a trip to the shrine honoring her earthly progenitors, she meets Greenstone Johnson, soon to be ruler of the community of New Earth. Starlight seizes the opportunity to live in a new place and agrees to become his Housewoman, ruling with him as Mother of Eden. Starlight is disturbed by New Earth's rigid hierarchical society, held in place by strict adherence to the Earth-based ideals of their ancestors, supposedly contained in documents wholly controlled by the Teachers. Jealous of the power Starlight now holds and convinced of their intellectual superiority, New Earth's Teachers set out to correct her ideas about equality and bring her beliefs in line with theirs. Instead, the heroine convinces Greenstone that the best way to rule is to shift power downward into the hands of the lower classes. The ensuing struggle for control becomes brutal, leaving Starlight fighting for her life as well as her ideals. The detailed world-building and strong characters beautifully illustrate the usefulness of myths as a tool for keeping power in the hands of a few. VERDICT This sequel will resonate with teens who meet resistance when questioning the status quo.—Carla Riemer, Claremont Middle School, CA Praise for Chris Beckett's Dark Eden:  “Poetic…Beckett renders the terror of the darkness beyond the forests with a riveting deftness that evokes all primordial fears of the unknown…There’s plenty here to intrigue and entrance.” – New York Times Book Review   “A linguistic and imaginative tour de force.”  — The Guardian  (UK) “Captivating and haunting…human plight and alien planet are both superbly evoked.”  — Daily Mail (UK) “A stunning novel and a beautiful evocation of a truly alien world.”   — Sunday Times “Pure astonishment and pleasure, a storytelling ride full of brio and wonder.”  — Locus   “Dazzlingly inventive… superbly well paced and well written… packed with ideas.”   — Reader’s Digest “Brilliantly imaginative…a superb entertainment, a happy combination of speculative and literary fiction. Not to be missed.” – Booklist (starred)   “A fantastic novel…Beckett has created a bizarre world of astounding imaginative vision, grounded by fundamental human conflicts.” – Shelf Awareness   “Riveting…a keenly imagined vision of the interaction between human nature and a truly alien world.” – BookPage   Chris Beckett is a university lecturer living in Cambridge, England. His short stories have appeared in such publications as Interzone and Asimov’s Science Fiction and in numerous “year’s best” anthologies. Glitterfish Brooking The trouble began on the waking I left Mikey with his dad on the Sand for the first time, and went out gathering bark with my uncle Dixon, my brother Johnny, and my sister Starlight. Johnny had just come back over from Nob Head, and as we paddled through the trees, he told us the news he’d heard there. “I’ll tell you a really interesting thing,” he said. Hmmmph hmmmph hmmmph went the tall trees in the water all round us. Everything was the same as it had always been. The sky was black above us. The treelanterns shone. The wavyweed glowed beneath the water. “Yeah, a really strange thing,” Johnny said. “I didn’t know what to make of it. I was speaking to that guy Harry over there--you know, old clawfoot Harry with the missing fingers?--and he said that blokes have been coming over to Mainground lately from right across far side of Worldpool. Not to Nob Head itself, mind you, but further down alpway to places like Veeklehouse and Brown River. And, if you can believe this, he said they bring metal with them. No