A companion to Minoan Wings V01 Dragonfly Song we follow a young woman on the eve of her first “bleeding” (mensuration) and what that means to her within her community in Minoan Wings V02 Swallow’s Dance. Several natural disasters mean that our narrators’ carefully ordered and privileged life is shattered. Eventually, these disasters leave her, her mother and their old nursemaid-slave homeless and alone in a strange new land. Realizing how her once higher status is now her greatest enemy, she must learn to put her pride aside, while still trying to keep it, to survive. The tone is modern, while we are in the middle of an ancient world that mixes religious faith, superstitions, and prejudices that reflects today and shows us what the times might have been like.
Still keeping the mixture of prose and poetry, volume two is easier to follow in some ways than it was in volume one. Also, the focus of things has an easier flow to follow and there are not as many pieces to put together, while still not focusing on just one thing. This time there is little build up and we are given the action almost from the start, jumping into the concept of what makes a woman.
There are several extra characters that are interesting, but do not get a lot of “page time.” This makes the cast of characters a bit busy, but nonetheless, they are important to the development of things. The one question I have is if Wendy Orr’s novel is a continuation of book one or just a companion set in a similar era. This is reinforced by book three having a connection to how book two ends, but not having read Minoan Wings V03 Cuckoo’s Flight yet, I am not sure if we are continuing our narrators story, or they are just timeline connected.
