Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper

First sentence:

"'It's all right,' Mouche's mother said. 'Next time we'll have a girl.'"

Description:

"It was many, many years ago that humans came and settled the world of Newholme. In the early days, the first wave of pioneers struggled to make a home on the harsh, alien planet. As others from Earth came, the humans learned to bend Newholme to their will, to set down roots and raise up cities and farms and a grand temple to their goddess. But now strange things are happening. The very ground is shaking with volcanic eruptions, and all of Newholme is in peril.

And so it is that the Great Questioner, official arbiter of the Council of Worlds, decides to pay a visit to the isolated planet to find out what is causing the increasingly violent disturbances. For rumors have long swirled throughout the Council about what really happened to the first settlers from Earth all those years ago -- whispers about a terrible secret that lies buried deep within Newholme's past.

It is on Newholme that the Questioner will meet Mouche, a beautiful youth of uncommon cleverness and spirit. It will fall to Mouche to discover and embrace that which makes him unique among humans. For Newholme's past is not dead, not completely. And the survival of an entire world depends upon Mouche appeasing something dark and terrible that's coiled within . . . and in his total surrender to the mysterious, ecstatic revelry that results when the six moons join." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This was a very interesting look at how a people's beliefs and laws were challenged by some outside observers and by ancient secrets coming to the front. I liked how the Questioner's curiosity led her and others to the truth about Newholme.

Date read: 3/23/2009
Book #: 21
Challenge: 999 Challenge
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0380974797
ISBN-13: 9780380974795
Publisher: Avon Books
Year: 1998
# of Pages: 454
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing Page