Books by the Lake

Entertaining (even though part of it turns out to be a lengthy shaggy-dog story) and moving meditation on what it would take to make the future a better world. The story centers on the lives of main characters Wendy and Ray as they search for this, and the wrong turns they make along the way. The science-fictional device of a virtual-reality world plays a large role here, since one of the paths that Wendy investigates is ideas about ancient matriarchies, and she immerses herself in a simulation of ancient Sumeria and its myths for this reason; the simulation turns out to be a key for her (and for Ray) in an unexpected way.