Here's a blurb and excerpt from The Boy From Ilysies:
On another world where the only ties to Earth appear to be the books stored and protected in the vast library known as the Libyrinth, a battle once raged between the Singers, who for generations beyond remembering relied on oral storytelling to transmit knowledge, and the Libyrarians who dedicated their lives to preserving the wisdom stored in books.
Now, a Song has healed the bitter rift between the two groups, and the Singers and the Libyrarians are determined to learn how to live together. They have been joined in their enterprise by a third group of expatriates from the female-dominant nation Ilysies -- to the great displeasure of the Ilysian queen.
It's not easy for three groups with such wildly differing values to get along together, but an even more immediate challenge faces the new Community at the Libyrinth. They are quickly running out of food. The survival not only of the ancient edifice, but of a new way of life may depend on Po, a young Ilysian whose upbringing puts him in constant conflict with the egalitarian ideals of his peers. Caught between his desire to be accepted and the Machiavellian tactics of his queen, Po is tricked into a crime that causes him to be cast out. Now he may return only if he completes a dangerous mission, by retrieving a legendary artifact that may be the answer to all of the Libyrinth’s problems...or could turn the world into a barren, lifeless ruin. For Po, learning to think beyond the values he grew up with is not just a step toward liberation -- his life, and the lives of his friends, may depend upon it.
The Boy From Ilysies is an exciting, fast-paced novel about acceptance, growing up, and ultimately trusting oneself.
Excerpt:
"Did you know that a woman's tears come from the ocean, but a man's tears come from the earth?" Kip asked. When Po didn't answer he went on, "So it is only natural that a man's tears should return to the earth."
Po was crying because his cousin Appolonia had knocked him down and taken his cinnamon cracker at lunch.
Po wiped his face and stared at the old man. He'd always been fascinated by Kip's face, the myriad lines intersecting and curving, always following the immaculate structure of his classic Ilysian features. Kip could be a bit haughty about his rank as a stud but he was a kindly old goat and fond of his grandson.
"It's true," said Kip. "Because long ago, long before Queen Belrea united Ilysies, there were no men."
Po gaped at this. There would never be as many males as women, it was true, but none at all? The old man was lying. "Then how did the women get babies?"
"The women made themselves pregnant, the way the ringtails do. Yes, yes it's true." Kip could see that Po was skeptical. "At that time, all the women knew the tale of the lizard and they could all reproduce parthenogencially like the ringtail lizard does. Not just special persons. And the land everywhere was green. Not just here east of the Lian Mountains, not just in a few scattered river valleys, but all over the land, yes, the whole land -- the plain of Ayor, and even Shenash across the Sea. All of it was as green as a lowland barley farm in spring."
"Even up in the hills?"
Kip laughed, and looking back now, Po realized that it was at his naivete, which could not imagine a world beyond his own dusty mountain town. "Yes, even here in the hills. And the reason that the land was green everywhere was that a certain flower grew that was called the Lion's Bloom. The Lion's Bloom put out a pollen that was a powerful fertilizer and everywhere it fell, it made things grow.
"Life was good in those days, and everyone danced and sang all day long. But one day, the blooms forgot that they were plants and fell in love with the women. Indeed, the beauty of a woman living in contented abundance is so powerful that it caused the blooms to grow arms and legs, and they dug themselves out of the ground and turned into men, and when they stood before the women, the beauty which had formed them made them continue to grow, their bodies taking the form that will please women most.
"The women were delighted with their new companions and life continued quite happily for all until the next harvest. With no more blooms, the plants did not grow in the same abundance as before. In fact, they were in danger of dying off entirely.
"When the women saw this they were most dismayed, and this made their men unhappy. Everyone cried. The women's salty tears only made the land more barren. But where the men's tears fell, things began to grow again. One man loved his consort so much that he begged her to sacrifice him, to cut him down like a stalk of grain, and his blood flowed across the land and became the Lian river, where the land is most fertile of all.
"And that is why a man must give his tears and sometimes his life to the soil, so that some of that fertilizing property he still possesses is returned to the earth for the generation of plant life, and that is why other parts of the world that do not practice this are more barren than ours.
"So when you cry, hang your head, so that your tears drip down onto the earth."
