Kelso, Sylvia (2007) Amberlight. Juno Books, Rockville, MD, USA.

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Abstract

A city. A mystery. An impossible love.

Why would the Head of a great ruling House retrieve a robbed, battered victim left for dead in the streets of the legendary city of Amberlight?

Why would the oracle that guides all House-heads tell her, It matters, if he dies?

What would an outlander stripped of all memory know of cabal and coalition along the River, where Amberlight holds the monopoly of power and wealth?

What threat might he reveal to Amberlight's one, unique possession: the motherlodes of the qherrique; the pearl-rock that gives the River's rulers their most powerful tool?

What could the Head of a great House feel for a nameless stranger, that would make her risk her House and city for his sake?

Is it honor or betrayal that brings war, siege, and the ruin of their every hope?

The answers lie beyond tangles of intrigue and insurrection and brutal warfare, when in the final upheaval they both begin to understand the more-than-human mystery that first brought them together in the streets of Amberlight.

Research Statement

Research Background	Amberlight was written at a point in my PhD when I had to engage the much-debated division between science fiction and its near neighbour, modern fantasy. The novel began as a deliberate attempt to blur their demarcations until it was impossible to classify. On publication it was reviewed as, variously, feminist science fiction, and among others, political fantasy, amply fulfilling my primary goal.
Research Contribution	The novel's main topic was an imagined remodelling of gender politics, another voice in the ongoing fictional debate in published science fiction, which the PhD discussed critically. The novel has been discussed in at least one paper about modern Australian fantasy. It was a year's selection for best feminist SF novel for Aqueduct press authors. It was also short-listed for best fantasy novel in the Aurealis Australian genre fiction awards for 2007.
Research Significance	The novel belongs in a long line of fictional explorations of gender politics in imagined worlds, but it also demonstrates the porosity of the "boundary" between SF and fantasy, another much discussed topic in SF, non-realist and genre fiction criticism.
Item ID:	36935
Item Type:	Book (Creative Work)
ISBN:	978-0-8095-7247-2
Keywords:	fantasy; adventure; australian author; north queensland author; romance
Date Deposited:	26 Feb 2015 05:05
FoR Codes:	19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1999 Other Studies in Creative Arts and Writing > 199999 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9502 Communication > 950203 Languages and Literature @ 100%
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