Slow Funeral

Read Slow Funeral Storyline:

Many people come to San Francisco seeking the freedom to be different, to live out their fantasies and explore the magic of life. Maude Fuller has come to the Bay Area seeking a different sort of freedom-the freedom to be ordinary.The exotic, bohemian culture of Berkeley seems refreshingly normal to Maude, compared to the dark oaths and satanic feuds of her Virginia home. For Maude is a witch-the only real witch in Berkeley-born into a sorcery-ridden family in a back-woods Appalachian town that sits on the fault line between modern science and ancient magic.All that’s behind Maude now. She’s finally getting it together, surviving on temp jobs and welfare. She’s even starting a new romance, with an engineer-a man who _knows_ that the universe has standardized laws.But if blood is thicker than water, the blood of witches is thickest of all. When Maude is called back to Bracken County by the one voice she can’t deny, she knows that all she’s been doing is running away—running from her family, and from her fears of what she could become. She must drive cross-country in a car held together by spells and STP, back to a Blue Ridge valley where magicked falcons and wizardry are as normal as high school football. Where computers and spell-casting work side by side and local law enforcement’s marijuana-spotting ’copters are powerless against the folk magic that radiates from Maude’s dying grandmother’s bed...and where Maude will discover how the world really works and just how far she will go to survive and protect those that she loves.SLOW FUNERAL is an unforgettable novel of a woman coming to terms with her heritage, in which modern choices and ancient obligations illuminate each other in a tapestry of love and magic.Rebecca Ore’s acclaimed _Alien_ trilogy earned nominations for almost every major award in science fiction and fantasy. She lives in Virginia, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains.Praise for SLOW FUNERAL“In Bracken County, nothing is what it seems. A dying grandmother is not a helpless old woman. A computer is not (only) a technological marvel. Magic is ‘not a tool but a relationship.’ SLOW FUNERAL is a complex, subtle, beautifully written, and very funny exploration of real people in a real place doing things they don’t fully understand. Read it not only for Bracken County’s magic, but for its own.”-Nancy Kress, author of BEGGARS IN SPAIN“SLOW FUNERAL is gritty and clear-eyed, unique and vastly entertaining.”-Michael Swanwick, author of THE IRON DRAGON’S DAUGHTER“The story of a reluctant contemporary witch going home to do battle with relatives, dark forces, and the past. The voice of Rebecca Ore is unique and authentic. A wonderful book...one of the best fantasies I have read in years.”-Pamela Sargent, author of THE SHORE OF WOMEN“Rebecca Ore’s SLOW FUNERAL is an absolutely delightful book. She knows that the most essential truths of Southern life lie in its folklore—and in her vision she memorably conjures the magic of quilts, cockfighting and crazy old grandmothers, and the blessed redemption of a 30.06 shotgun. Read and enjoy.”-Jack Womack, author of ELVISSEY