Author Judith Moffett writes that “The Bird Shaman, the long-awaited conclusion of her Holy Ground Trilogy, about the alien Hefn who have taken possession of Earth in order to save it from human abuse,” has just been published by Bascom Hill Publishing. “The novel’s ecological themes, developed in Utah deserts and Kentucky woods, are interwoven with issues of child abuse, Mormon history, and the mysteries of prehistoric rock art.”
Moffett’s web site has more information on the book, discussions of the series, and the first chapter of the latest volume available.
Volume one, The Ragged World, was published in 1991. It was followed by volume two, Time, Like an Ever-Rolling Stream the following year. Moffett may have been running out of time to publish this book, for it is set in the year 2037, “the 27th year of Hefn occupation. The curtain rolls up on a planet massively destabilized by an abrupt acute breakdown in relations—always shaky—between the dictatorial Hefn and the human population of Earth. The Baby Ban imposed by mass hypnosis to force compliance with ZPG has reduced population numbers, and made Earth a cleaner and wilder place. But it has now lasted so long, and provoked such hatred, that when a spark is struck the two sides explode into wordwide riots on one side and retaliatory mindwipings on the other. Years of effort by the Gaians, who mediate between Hefn and humanity, have been destroyed.”
Moffett won the first Theodore Sturgeon Award for her first published story, “Surviving,” in 1986, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1988.