Eugene weekly., December 13, 2012, Page 13, Image 13

occurs at the same time that Earth’s rotation suddenly and
catastrophically begins to slow. This could signify climate
change, adolescence itself or maybe it’s just a great science
fi ction novel. It’s so perfectly written that everything, it
seems, becomes a metaphor for something else — and
somehow Walker achieves this without allowing the story
to be clunky or bogged down in the process.
As Earth gradually and unpredictably slows, daylight
and dark become longer, the environment suffers and,
at least in the U.S., the populace splits between the
mainstream “clock-timers,” who still follow a 24-hour
schedule, and “real-timers,” outcasts who try to live in
sync with Earth’s new rotation. While humans’ views on
“day” and “night” evolve, so does Julia’s perspective on
friendship, her parents’ marriage and what it means to be
an outsider.
Fiction is magic because it so often gives readers a
better understanding of the world without requiring us to
leave our armchairs. It’s rarer, though, that a book feels
destined to teach us much about ourselves. — Shannon
Finnell
k XII: Genesis:
The Origin Of An Epic Tale
By Jason Rowe and Brian Palmer. eBook. $3.99.
Saving the world, but at
what cost? Jason Rowe and EW
freelancer Brian Palmer’s fantasy
novel set nearly 100 years in
the future gives this task to 12
people who go on a quest to
save New Earth from a superior
evil only to stumble upon many
roadblocks along the way. During
this grippingly detailed adventure,
the 12 develop relationships with
each other, power through many hardships and even learn
how to fl y, among other supernatural abilities they uncover.
This fi rst in an eight-part series delves into what stands
in their way of defeating the enemy — much of New
Earth’s population. As they attempt to rid all that haunts
their grim world, a decision must be made by others who
live in it: Trust these 12 who were recruited to bring peace
or continue to see them as part of evil they are in fact trying
to eliminate.
Who are these 12 people? What is this evil presence
they are determined to erase? And why do so many who
should side with them doubt their intent? Rowe and Palmer
answer these questions with scenes full of suspense in an
entangled plot that has twists and turns strewn throughout.
This eBook, all 352 pages of it, was released on Dec.
12, and one-third of its proceeds will be donated to India
Partners, a nonprofi t group that is working to free women
and girls from sex traffi cking in Mumbai. — Nick Poust
k Dawn’s Early Light
By Johnny Sundstrom. Xlibris, $19.99.
It takes a bit of effort at fi rst to get caught up in
Deadwood author (that’s Deadwood, Ore., not the TV
series) Johnny Sundstrom’s expansive novel of the West,
but once you do, the web of landscape and characters is
worth the work. Set in Wyoming, the novel kicks off in
1849 on the Oregon Trail, and leaping about in time and
from family to family, it follows six linked generations
of Wyoming dwellers ranging from cowboys to Native
Americans to a present-day disgraced journalist.
Sundstrom calls the fi rst section of Dawn’s Early Light
“Shotgun” to emulate the purposefully random fashion
with which the book begins. That shotgun pellet effect
and the periodic interruptions by an unseen narrator stunt
the fl ow of what is otherwise a fascinating well-wrought
tale. Dawn’s Early Light is self-published, but the writing
and tale-telling is superior to most such works that don’t
get as much editing as novels do through a conventional
press. Dawn’s Early Light reminds me that it’s a good thing
people can publish on their own these days. This sprawling
story of the West, the land and the people that love it,
and each other, refl ects Sundstrom’s own knowledge of
land, livestock and the environment; it deserves a glance
from a larger press and a read. — Camilla Mortensen
t’s In The Stars
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CARDS K TAROT
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NEW BOOKS
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nonfi ction
k Feeling Light Within, I Walk:
Tales, Adventures and Refl ections
of a Quaker Activist
By Peg Morton. Cedar Row Press, $15.
Eugene Quaker and ac-
tivist Peg Morton’s recently
published memoir, Feeling
Light Within, I Walk: Tales,
Adventures and Refl ections
of a Quaker Activist, is an
inspiring tale of her 80-plus
years on the planet and her
work on our nation’s ongo-
ing struggles with war, big-
otry, class, corporate corrup-
tion and injustice. Morton
has been smack in the middle
of it, from the civil rights era
to the Occupy movement.
This book also documents the history of social activism
in Lane County since she arrived on the scene in 1989.
She has worked with hundreds of people who are deeply
involved in issues of social justice through local nonprofi ts,
churches, other institutions and as individuals. She writes
eloquently about many prominent local activists, some
involved locally, others working in solidarity with the
oppressed peoples of Central America.
EW has covered much of Morton’s activism over the
past two decades, including her time spent in federal prison
for protesting the notorious School of the Americas. She
has written for our opinion pages, and she appeared on
our cover during the WTO protests in Seattle, in a Kurt
Jensen photo showing her covering her nose and mouth
after being exposed to tear gas.
This book is remarkable in that is we get to witness the
evolution of her character. Her political work is shown to
us within the context of her personal struggles: reconciling
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