Gael Baudino: Gossamer Axe

Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe is one of my favourite books, which is probably why I keep rereading it. It's hard to put into words what draws me to it over and over again, except to say that it hits all the right emotional and thematic buttons for me, with a good hard punch that generally has me crying about a dozen times.

Bare bones synopsis: two sixth century Irish lovers, both student bards, sneak out at night to listen to the elves. They are caught and taken to the land of the far, where nothing ages or changes. One of the lovers, Chairiste, uses a magic elven harp to escape, but cannot free her lover Siubd. The magic of the harp keeps her young as she tries again and again to break her lover free, but fails in the face of elven harper Orfide's superior technique, knowledge and magic. Finally, after 200 years, she discovers heavy metal, realises that this new musical form, with it's raw energy, power and passion is weapon she neds to counter Orfide's advantage, trades in her harp for a double-headed axe, forms an all-woman band, and blasts her way into the Twilight Realm to rescue her beloved.

What grabs me about it:

It's powerfully feminist and woman-centred.
It's a Celtic-themed fantasy (even though it's woefully historically inaccurate).
It's a lesbian love story with a happy ending.
It's one of the first fantasies with an unrepentant queer protagonist.
It's all about women breaking free of the control of men and owning their power - each member of the band is a woman with a misogynist past to overcome.
It's music and magic - and to me these have always gone together.
It takes on the nasty guilt and shame elements of Pauline Christianity that surround women and sexuality, and counters them with a sex-positive goddess spirituality.
It's about undying, totally unconditional love.

Sure, it has flaws, but it also has a cult following and if you are one of those who gets caught up in it, it's a part of you forever. And in recent years, it has become even dearer to me because when I read it, I hear echoes of a good friend, now departed for the Summerland, who loved this book as I do, and who lived parts of it as a woman who loved women, as a master musician, and as a woman who fought to be freely and fully herself. So now as I read it again, I raise a cup and sing for all the women who love women, and fight for their right to be proud and free, and especially for the memory of Julie Songweaver.

Heiresses of Russ 2014

This, the fourth Heiresses of Russ anthology, edited by Melissa Scott and Steve Berman, his like the previous volumes a diverse assortment of science fiction and fantasy short fiction featuring protagonists (and often other characters as well) who are lesbians. The very fact that this has become an annual anthology series is a testament to the growing number of authors - lesbian and otherwise - who choose to write about all the varieties of love, and the readers who either see themselves in these stories, or simply read them because they are interesting stories.

In such a diverse anthology, it is inevitable that some stories will have a greater impact on any given reader. For me, the stand-out stories here are:

Counting Down the Seconds, Lexy Wealleans - in a premise reminiscent of the wonderful indie film Timer, people of this future world wear devices that tell them how long it will be until they meet their true love.

Her Infinite Variety, Sacchi Green - a different take on the death of Cleopatra.

The Coffinmaker's Love, Alberto Yáñez - an interesting and deeply moving variation on the motif of Death and the maiden.

Selected Program Notes from the Retrospect­ive Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer, Kenneth Schneyer - a story of love and healing told in program notes.