The Gaia Websters [Mass Market Paperback]

Kim Antieau (Author), Donato Giancola (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

In her quest to save her post-apocalyptic Arizona community from an epidemic, a woman with supernatural healing powers discovers that the only cure may lie in her shadowy past and the ghosts that prowl her dreams. Original."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this eco-feminist fantasy from Antieau (The Jigsaw Woman, ROC: NAL, 1996), post-apocalyptic society's territories outlaw technology and live in harmony with the Earth. Gloria Stone practices the healing arts with herbs and laying on of hands in Arizona Territory's Coyote Creek. She has no memories beyond ten years ago. Then a mysterious epidemic sweeps through the community, and finding its cause leads Gloria to the truth about her past. Redolent with the sounds and scents of the desert and with a satisfying sense of Gloria's self-discovery; highly recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Cyborgs, robots, and their artificial kin usually get thumbs-down in ecologically oriented science fiction, but Antieau gives that convention a twist. Her second book begins as a relatively conventional, though poetically conceived and well-executed, novel set in a post-ecoholocaust future in which sections of the U.S. have become technology-barren preserves; within them, healers move gracefully among people who happily raise healthful crops and celebrate one another's diversity. But why does the heroine, healer Gloria Stone, remember nothing of her childhood? Why is she haunted by half-remembered computer codes? Who are the other soothsayers she feels compelled to rejoin? Antieau reveals her heroine's surprising real nature: Gloria is a robot programmed to be "reborn" with a different appearance every 50 years or so and to work at healing the catastrophic damage wrought by the very rampant technology that created her. An innovative, gripping, very satisfying tale. Patricia Monaghan

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Roc Trade; First Edition edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451455118
• ISBN-13: 978-0451455116
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,488,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was a wild child, and I spent as much time outdoors as I could. The rest of the time I spent reading and writing'and running around in my imagination. When I was in elementary school, I "discovered" that my friends and I were really from another planet, sent here as Earth girls to observe the local fauna: i.e., humans. We came from a planet where girls and women had all the power, politically and magically. Men and boys didn't do much! So during recess, my friends and I often went on adventures to save the world. I wrote some of these adventures down, but I was a writer even before then. I used to draw pictures and staple them into books before I could read. And my parents bought me a small printing press, so I created my own books, too. And now I'm all grown up and still writing stories. I love my job.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book and highly recommend it!, January 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gaia Websters (Mass Market Paperback)

Kim has written a wonderful, unusual science fiction novel. Not only is there a mystery which nags at you until the end of the book, but she has managed to weave in a powerful sense of earth-centered spirituality, and feminine spirituality, which is rarely found in science fiction. Yet it is never "off-putting" or strident. I highly recommend this book. Mona Clee, Dublin, California

4.0 out of 5 stars Always Coming Home meets When Androids Dream..., April 22, 2010

By 

Richard A. Loftus "reader, doctor, writer" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gaia Websters (Paperback)

This story started out reminding me very much of _Always Coming Home_ by Ursula Leguin: It's the the story of a woman living in post-apocalyptic Arizona, who mysteriously is unable to recall her childhood and serves a village as a healer, mostly by laying on of hands. Later in the novel, a series of flashbacks brings a more Philip K. Dick _Do Androids Dream_ cyberpunk feel to the novel. It sounds like an immiscible cocktail, but it works. As with Kim's work _Church of the Old Mermaids_, I found some of the romantic developments uncompelling, but that only somewhat affected my enjoyment of her work. I'm a deep fan and would recommend this book for anyone who likes traditional cyberpunk (suspend your disbelief for about 7 chapters) or LeGuin in any setting.