Asha Of The Air — John Huddles

In a city levitating among the clouds, a translator of ancient languages casts his mind down to the surface of a long uninhabited earth and six thousand years into the past to tell the tale of Asha, a possibly mythical, possibly factual princess, or Raajakumaaree in the language of her era. Asha's life of beauty and privilege, the compensation for marriage to an abusive merchant prince, ultimately sets her on an epic yaatra, a trek of body and mind, to seek self-knowledge. Along the way she must imagine a path beyond the totality of her past mistakes -- before hope itself comes to an end. A novel of fantasy, spiritual exploration, and adventure, Asha Of The Air interweaves European chivalric tradition with the mysticism of South Asia's sacred texts to craft an immersive world where legend and science, history and myth come together in a tale of intense emotionality.Asha's story is that of a young woman trying to conceive a new female archetype for herself, one that transcends the norms of gender and wedlock while still embracing all the rightful powers of femininity. It is strikingly relevant to the way that today we are renegotiating the balance of power between the sexes and learning how to reconcile the urge to dominate with the need to love.