The Walls of Westernfort [Paperback]

I search and search for really engaging, interesting and WELL WRITTEN lesbian novels especially sci-fi/fantasy. Good ones are extremly hard to come by. This novel does it and does it so well that I found myself easily captivated and drawn into Natasha's world. Jane has created a world that is belivable and well thought out. The characters are well developed and are neither good nor bad but have different sets of beliefs that they live, and sometimes, die by. I found myself beliving that people could and would act a certain way because of what they happened to believe. I won't go to much into the plot others here have already done so and you can read them should you wish to... I won't spoil it for you.

But I was impressed by the world building and complex story telling, enabling to me to really get a 'feel' for Natasha's world. I thought that Natasha's inner struggle was communicated to me with such ease that I felt that I was a participant rather than a spectator. I cared for whom Natasha cared about, I felt her anger at the 'heretics' and her confusion and cried over her heartfelt anguish. In short I loved it and it shall win a place on my book shelf... not an honour I easily bestow.

Read this and do yourself a favour... you won't regret it.

"When in doubt, polish it." is the mindless maxim that Natasha Ionadis has spent the last several years following as a Temple Guard. In Jane Fletcher's Walls of Westernfort, this devout 22 year old woman is offered an opportunity by the Temple hierarchy to be part of a covert mission and she leaps at the chance to offer her life to her goddess, Celaeno. She is to be part of a team of three women who are to infiltrate a group of evil heretics, journey to their stronghold known as Westernfort, and assassinate their leaders.

Natasha's commanding officers believe it will be a suicide mission. Posing as a family interested in joining the heretics, the intelligence agents' journey will challenge the beliefs that Natasha has sworn herself to defend, force her to face her own internal crisis, and define the nature of loyalty and faith. Along the way, she also struggles with her definition of family, and finally, love.

Walls of Westernfort is a recent release from Jane Fletcher and part of her growing Celaeno fantasy series. Celaeno is an all-female society in a pre-industrial, pre-Enlightenment setting ruled by a strict theocracy. The idea of a female-centric, goddess-worshipping world is often symbolic of a utopian culture in lesbian-feminist founded speculative fantasy and science fiction. And a new reader to the Celaeno series might be tempted to adopt this view initially, especially as she travels with the naive and earnest Natasha on her coming-of-age quest.

The Temple authorities who oversee the worship of Celaeno, with its complex undercurrents of science cloaked in religion, will tolerate no deviance from its established policies and will stop at nothing to ensure compliance with temple law. Issues involving the nature of religion, particularly that of a fundamentalist view, and the dangers it can impose in politics is a primary theme of Fletcher's Celaeno world. As a result, Walls of Westernfort, is not only a highly engaging and fast-paced adventure novel, it provides the reader with an interesting framework for examining the same questions of loyalty, faith, family and love that Natasha must face.

It is unnecessary to have read any other Celaeno novels to follow the action and the unfolding culture. While some of the characters in Walls will be familiar to readers of other Celaeno titles, the series is not designed to be strictly chronological.

In Walls, we see the Temple Guard, inside and out. We learn of their strict code of discipline and life, including abstinence from alcohol and sex, and with Natasha we learn of the harsh, cruel methods the Guard employs to deal with heretics in the name of Celaeno. Once Natasha finds the heretics might not be demons, she must struggle with questions regarding her mission and whether it is morally right.

The very act of impersonating a heretic requires Natasha to see these "evil traitors" as ordinary women who are attempting to live peaceful, productive lives, maintain their own beliefs and remain true to their own hearts. This realization is the beginning of Natasha's internal struggles that will bring her to a crisis of faith, and force her to think for herself.

Related to Natasha's self-questioning is her growing attraction to Dani, one of the heretics assigned to guide the "family" to Westernfort. A potter by trade, Dani has suffered a great deal of loss and pain, courtesy of the Guards. And as the attraction and affection between the two women grows, it will become apparent that before Dani can allow herself the hope of loving Natasha, she will have to deal with those scars.

In Walls, Fletcher brings this chapter of Natasha's life to a satisfying conclusion. However, it is clear that many stories of Celaeno remain to be explored. This reader will be looking for other titles set in Celaeno and hopes that Fletcher continues with her storytelling.

With Jane Fletcher's mesmerizing stories, The Walls of Westernfort (winner of the 2005 Golden Crown Literary Awards- Sci-Fi/Fantasy) and Rangers at Roadsend, the first two books in her Celaeno Series, she has converted this reader into a sci fi lover. Each book takes us into a magical world fraught with danger and full of moral dilemmas.

In The Walls of Westernfort young Guard Natasha Ionadis accepts a dangerous undercover mission, knowing that its success may depend upon her dying. Natasha aka Jess and her two "mothers", Cal and Rohanna, must travel as spies to Westernfort to assassinate three leaders, Gina, Kimberly and Lynn, of a rebel heretic movement. Their movement must cease as it is evil and against all that Celaeno stands for. Along the journey to Westernfort and while living there, Natasha gets to know one of these "heretics", her guide Dani, to whom she is attracted. She begins to question everything she has learned and is left with some very difficult choices because someone will die no matter what she decides to do.

The ethical dilemma that Natasha must face is what makes The Walls of Westernfort so captivating. Every teaching she has learned until this journey is now in question. Natasha is discovering that when she gets to think for herself, there is not one right answer. These women are not evil because they do not possess the same beliefs as she does. By struggling with these questions, Natasha is even more confused because now her choices are not clear cut. On the one hand, she may be killing women that she does not believe are evil, and on the other hand she may be risking the lives of her comrades. Fletcher presents Natasha's inner turmoil so convincingly through her thoughts and interactions with the other characters that as a reader, I found it difficult to choose the right answer for Natasha.

This is a thought-provoking intelligent story that stays with the reader long after the last page is read.

Rangers at Roadsend is another absorbing tale of intrigue, murder and romance.

We are drawn into this story by the secrets of Sgt. Chip Coppelli and Private Katryn Nagata. Katryn is transferred to Chip's squadron under mysterious circumstances and together the two must track down rogue criminals. They learn that the crimes are part of a deeper conspiracy that involves the so-called good citizens of Landfall, Chip's former home where there are unpleasant memories for her. To succeed in this mission as Rangers, they must trust each other, but both have too many secrets. In the course of unraveling the conspiracy plot, Chip develops an emotional attachment to Katryn, but knows that as her superior, it must remain as unrequited love.

In Rangers at Roadsend, Fletcher skillfully cultivates a back story in the middle of their journey to expand on the past and secrets of Katryn. As Katryn's history is told through this back story, we discover a hero rather than a dishonest loathsome Ranger. We learn of Katryn's struggles and how valiantly she faced them against all odds and with no believers. When Fletcher seamlessly moves us back to the main plot, Chip becomes her champion, and a romantic subplot flows naturally from this. These two characters are expertly crafted into unlikely heroes that we, as the reader, must root for.

In Rangers at Roadsend Fletcher not only gives us powerful characters, but she surprises us with an unexpected ending to the murder conspiracy plot, pushing the story in one direction only to have that direction reversed more than once. This is one thrill ride the reader will not want to get off.

(While Rangers at Roadsend was published in the United States after The Walls of Westernfort, it is not a sequel. The Celaeno Series is not a chronological series but does share the same characters.)

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