Tanya Huff: The Future Falls
Mar. 26th, 2018 07:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliogrammaTanya Huff’s The Future Falls is the third book in her more-or-less urban fantasy series about the Gale family, whose women are strangely gifted and powerful and whose men - rare in a family of many sisters, aunties and nieces - are embodiment of the Horned God.
As The Future Falls begins, one of the Gale clan’s senior auntie, Aunt Catherine, has a cautionary vision about a large rock falling, betokening danger for the family. At roughly the same time, an astronomer reports in secret committee the results of his calculations concerning eccentricities in the path of an asteroid scheduled to make a near miss pass of the earth. The math indicates the presence if a much larger asteroid, masked by the first, coming in behind it on a timetable that will make a direct, and catastrophic hit, in 22 months.
Catherine Gale’s visions aren’t always literal, but this time, they’re exact, though of course, no one in the Gale family has any way of knowing that. At least, not until Wild talent Charlie - short for Charlotte - gets involved. While out Walking, following strands of music that draw her here and there, she meets a bouzouki player who she senses carries a deep, sad secret. An engineer by training, he’s quit everything to go touring with his wife, playing gigs and seeing the world. Charlie knows she hasn’t met Gary by chance, but she doesn’t know why.
But then, at home in Calgary, she hears a news report about a homeless man, Doomsday Dan, who’s been insisting that the sky is falling and everyone is going to die. Then Aunt Catherine calls her, with a cryptic message - that the homeless man is right. With her cousin Jack, Wild himself, and half dragon, she tracks down Dan, and discovers that he’s a powerful telepath, driven mad by the endless voices in his head - but when he repeats what he heard about the sky falling, she connects it with her meeting with Gary, and tracks him down.
Now she, and Jack, know what’s coming. The only question is, with all the powers they have between them, and the magic the Gales can summon, do they have enough to save the world?
Huff outdoes herself in this one, and that’s saying something. In the course of unfolding a very complicated plan to save the world, Huff also gives us a serious love story, and answers most of the questions about the Gales that have been simmering in my mind since book one, such as where did the Gales come from, and why are there only two families of Gales, one in Ontario and one in Alberta. It looks as though this is the last of Huff’s Gale Women books, so I’m glad those nagging questions were answered. A good end to a fine story.
As The Future Falls begins, one of the Gale clan’s senior auntie, Aunt Catherine, has a cautionary vision about a large rock falling, betokening danger for the family. At roughly the same time, an astronomer reports in secret committee the results of his calculations concerning eccentricities in the path of an asteroid scheduled to make a near miss pass of the earth. The math indicates the presence if a much larger asteroid, masked by the first, coming in behind it on a timetable that will make a direct, and catastrophic hit, in 22 months.
Catherine Gale’s visions aren’t always literal, but this time, they’re exact, though of course, no one in the Gale family has any way of knowing that. At least, not until Wild talent Charlie - short for Charlotte - gets involved. While out Walking, following strands of music that draw her here and there, she meets a bouzouki player who she senses carries a deep, sad secret. An engineer by training, he’s quit everything to go touring with his wife, playing gigs and seeing the world. Charlie knows she hasn’t met Gary by chance, but she doesn’t know why.
But then, at home in Calgary, she hears a news report about a homeless man, Doomsday Dan, who’s been insisting that the sky is falling and everyone is going to die. Then Aunt Catherine calls her, with a cryptic message - that the homeless man is right. With her cousin Jack, Wild himself, and half dragon, she tracks down Dan, and discovers that he’s a powerful telepath, driven mad by the endless voices in his head - but when he repeats what he heard about the sky falling, she connects it with her meeting with Gary, and tracks him down.
Now she, and Jack, know what’s coming. The only question is, with all the powers they have between them, and the magic the Gales can summon, do they have enough to save the world?
Huff outdoes herself in this one, and that’s saying something. In the course of unfolding a very complicated plan to save the world, Huff also gives us a serious love story, and answers most of the questions about the Gales that have been simmering in my mind since book one, such as where did the Gales come from, and why are there only two families of Gales, one in Ontario and one in Alberta. It looks as though this is the last of Huff’s Gale Women books, so I’m glad those nagging questions were answered. A good end to a fine story.