Thanks your list of top Patricia McKillup books; it gives me a way of tackling my backlog.

I realized that my mother's note won't make much sense until **after** you've read the book, but we had an interesting conversation, and basically the gist of what we were remarking on is that there are huge problems in the overall scenario that Clarke lays out: the position of the chief villain is unclear (who, in fact he *is* isn't even clear), and his motivations and relations to the mysterious Raven King. That, and the Raven King's actions, themselves, seem inexplicable. Why the overall story happens when it does is unclear. Most individual actions are understandable, but the overall story has holes.

Well, I'll be interested in talking with you about it if you do read it.