Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks

Earth Logic by Laurie J. Marks

Tor Books: 2004

Overview: Earth Logic, the second installment in the Elemental Logic Saga, is devoted to exploring the consequences of allowing a single earth elemental (the G’deon) to harness the power accumulated from the land over centuries. Karis, the G’deon, has to come to terms with possessing the power that she never asked for, and is paralyzed by her understandable concern that she could destroy Shaftal if she were to emerge from obscurity. Since Karis does not permit herself to be a force for change in much of the book, the plot is mostly driven by conflicts between the Sainnites and Shaftali zealots who claim to be followers of the “Lost G’deon,” while inflicting violence against Karis’ wishes. Zanja embarks on a quest to discover how to free Karis to act, and several new characters, including one sexy Sainnite lieutenant commander who gets a ton of page-time! (I wish it were face-time...)

My reaction: While two new characters give us a wonderful new lesbian romance to root for in the nearly-booklong separation of Karis and Zanja, Earth Logic as a whole fell a little short of my (extremely) high expectations for it. Part of that was probably the fact that Fire Logic left me obsessed with Karis and Zanja, and basically just wanting to read about them having a happy life together using their elemental talents for the good of all during the day, and having steamy sex at night (apparently fire and earth talents combine well in bed!) but I also felt some frustration with the major plotline that 

SPOILER ALERTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT 

rendered Zanja an amnesiac and thus incapable of doing just about anything but telling stories to Sainnite soldiers. Of course, that was not altogether boring, and was important in the grand scheme of things, but I wish she’d been able to express emotions/yearn for Karis because in all my years of reading, I’ve never gotten to see a relationship like mine normalized in fiction, and I wanted more, damn it! (I’ll just be on a comfy futon under a fleece blanket with my laptop pretending that my few years of practicing a martial art--aikido--and my girlfriend’s strong shoulders and short stint of blacksmithing in high school make Zanja and Karis’ experience even more similar to ours...)