The Books of the Black Current Author:Ian Watson From time immemorial, the Black Current has defined Yaleen's world. Separating the eastern bank from the unknown western side, it cuts the river -- and the world -- in half, a black strip running down the river's center, from the towering, unscalable Precipices where it seems to ooze out of solid rock, to the depths of the ocean; huge, mysteriou... more »s. And alive.
For like the goddess some believe it to be, the Black Current is aware. It allows men on the water only once; a second try invites madness and death. Only women are granted the freedom of the river, and Yaleen yearns to experience that freedom. So, in search of adventure, she drinks the black essence of the Current and joins the River Guild, beginning a series of voyages that will take her farther than she had ever imagined. For no one really knows what the Black Current is, and no one has ever crossed it. No one, that is, until Yaleen's brother Capsi discovers a way to get to the western side.
The deadly consequences of that forbidden deed thrust Yalen into the center of a maelstrom of events that could end the world as she knows it. For the long silent Black Current has been watching, planning, growing into consciousness. Now, after patient eons, it is about to act.« less